Arun Hendi, Princeton University

About the Presentation

In 2018, newborn black boys and girls could expect to live for 71 and 78 years, respectively. The last time white life expectancy levels were that low was in 1980, meaning that black life expectancy lags that of whites by nearly 4 decades. Despite this alarming and well-established disparity, relatively little is understood about the underlying mechanisms producing the black-white life expectancy gap. This study addresses one particular component of the gap by identifying where precisely the black-white gap comes from. I establish the geographic level of variation producing the black-white gap, pinpoint the specific counties that are contributing most to the national black-white gap, and examine the causes of death responsible for the disparity. I then use an instrumental variable design to identify the causal effect of black-white residential segregation on the black-white life expectancy gap. The preliminary results from this study suggest that longstanding differences in the lived experiences of blacks and whites, produced and reproduced in part by residential segregation, are driving much of the racial gap in longevity, acting primarily through mechanisms associated with health care quality and access, safety and violence, and deleterious health behaviors.

About the Speaker

Arun Hendi is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs with joint affiliations in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Office of Population Research. His research uses demographic methods to study socioeconomic and racial inequalities in life expectancy and health; changing trends in marriage, divorce, and assortative mating; and population dynamics in cities and rural areas. Dr. Hendi’s current projects include an examination of how and why black life expectancy in the United States improved over the last quarter century and an analysis of how population flows between urban, suburban, and rural areas influence health and well-being. He completed the A.M. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His recent projects have been supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute on Aging.

Location ONLINE VIA ZOOM:  Zoom Registration Link.  Upon registration you will receive an automatically generated email with the direct link for the seminar.

COVID-19 Information

MPRC public events for Spring 2022 will be a mix of in person and online via Zoom.  For in person events, all event attendees must follow current protocols