Early-life impairments, chronic health conditions, and income mobility

Abstract

Individuals who have congenital conditions or become disabled early in life tend to have poorer educational and occupational outcomes than non-disabled individuals. Disa- bility is known to be a complex entity with multiple causa- tions, involving, inter alia, physiological, social, economic, and cultural factors. It is established that social factors can influence educational and occupational attainment for disabled people, and current disability policy in many countries, particularly in the Global North, stress the impor- tance of equality of opportunity. However, there is a scar- city of research that explores the specific degrees to which advanced welfare states contribute to the equalization of life chances for individuals with early-life impairments and chronic health conditions. In this study, we use a Norwe- gian sample of high-quality register data on individuals with vision loss, hearing loss, physical impairment, type 1 diabe- tes, asthma, and Down syndrome diagnosed early in life and compare their intergenerational income mobility trajecto- ries with a random sample drawn from the country's entire population. We find that individuals' early-life diagnoses are linked to significantly worse income outcomes in adulthood than what is observed among the general population. We conclude that even in one of the most advanced egalitarian welfare states, such as Norway, much remains to be done to equalize life chances for individuals with early-life impair- ments and chronic health conditions.