Individual health and the visibility of village economic inequality: Longitudinal evidence from native Amazonians in Bolivia.

ABSTRACT: Mounting evidence suggests that income inequality is associated with worse individual health. But does the visibility of inequality matter? Using data from a horticultural-foraging society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane'), we examined whether village inequality in resources and behaviors with greater cultural visibility is more likely to bear a negative association with health than village inequality in less conspicuous resources. We draw on a nine-year annual panel (2002-2010) from 13 Tsimane' villages for our main analysis, and an additional survey to gauge the cultural visibility of resources. We measured inequality using the Gini coefficient. We tested the robustness of our results using a shorter two-year annual panel (2008-2009) in another 40 Tsimane' villages and an additi

SUBMITTER: Undurraga EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5136506 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature