Research Topics

Social Mobility

The American Dream is based on the idea that anyone, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or other factors, can move up the socioeconomic ladder with hard work. A growing body of new research shows the possibility of achieving the American Dream is not the same for everyone.^1,2,3 Upward mobility rates differ greatly geographically. On the whole, upward mobility has declined in America since the 1940s. While these trends have clear economic consequences, they may also foster the divergence of health behaviors and outcomes.

Figure 1. Mechanisms linking economic opportunity to health behaviors and outcomes

Our earlier studies helped establish economic opportunity as a key – but under-recognized – driver of health in America. In our very first study ion this topic, “Economic Opportunity, Health Behavior, and Mortality in the United States” (2016), we used county-level data to assess the association between economic opportunity, health behaviors, and mortality. We credit the team at Opportunity Insights for making data on economic opportunity publicly available. We found that counties in the top 20% in terms of economic opportunity were associated with a 16.7% decrease in all-cause mortality compared to counties in the bottom 20% in terms of economic opportunity. We also found that increases in county-level economic opportunity were associated with decreases in rates of smoking, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.

We further examined the connection between economic opportunity and health in another study, “Economic opportunity, health behaviors, and health outcomes in the USA: a population-based cross-sectional study” (2016). We utilized data from the 2009-2012 United States Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys (BRFSS). We found that for young adults (ages 25 to 35), increases in county-level economic opportunity were associated with greater self-reported overall physical and mental health.

Figure 2. Spatial distribution of self-reported health and economic opportunity

We followed these two studies with a detailed analysis in our “Association of Social Mobility with the Income-Related Mortality Gap in the United States: A Cross-Sectional, County-Level Study” (2020). Using county-level data from the Health Inequality Project database, we found a strong association between county-level social mobility and life expectancy among residents in the lowest income quartile. In addition, we found that increasing social mobility leads to decreases in the longevity gap by 1.4 years for men and 1.1 years for women.

Figure 3. Unadjusted estimates of the association of life expectancy at age 40 years with social mobility by income quartile and sex

Together, these studies established a theoretical and descriptive underpinning for research on the relationship between economic opportunity and health. In our subsequent work, we established cause-and-effect.