Pathways between Socioeconomic Status and Health in Korea: Observed and Unobserved Family Effects

Yean-Ju Lee, University of Hawaii
Mee-Kyung Suh, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs

Many studies document strong associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, but the research has been thus far heavily concentrated on European and North American countries (Adler et al. 1999; NRC 2001; Schaie, Blazer, and House 1992). This study expands the current research to examine the case of a developing country in East Asia: Korea. Using rich household data that contain the same information about all family members, this paper explores the observed and unobserved family effects on adult health.