[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/13460.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Networks and Access to Health Care Among Mexican-Americans

Author

Listed:
  • Carole Roan Gresenz
  • Jeannette Rogowski
  • José J. Escarce
Abstract
This research explores social networks and their relationship to access to health care among adult Mexican-Americans. We use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) linked to data from the 2000 U.S. Census and other data sources. We analyze multiple measures of access to health care. Measures of social networks are constructed at the ZCTA level and include percent of the population that is Hispanic, percent of the population that speaks Spanish, and percent of the population that is foreign-born and Spanish-speaking. Regressions are stratified by insurance status and social network measures are interacted with individual-level measures of acculturation. For insured Mexican-American immigrants, living in an area populated by relatively more Hispanics, more immigrants, or more Spanish-speakers increases access to care. The social network effects are generally stronger for more recent immigrants compared to those who are better established. We find no effects of these characteristics of the local population on access to care for U.S. born Mexican-Americans, suggesting that similarities in race and language may contribute more to the formation of social ties among individuals who are less acculturated to the U.S. Among the uninsured, we find evidence suggesting that social networks defined by ethnicity improve access to care among recent immigrants. A finding particular to the uninsured is the negative influence of percent of the population that is Hispanic and the percent that is Spanish-speaking on access to care among U.S. born Mexican-Americans. The results provide evidence that social networks play an important role in access to health care among Mexican-Americans. The results also suggest the need for further study using additional measures of social networks, analyzing other racial and ethnic groups, and exploring social networks defined by characteristics other than race, language and ethnicity.

Suggested Citation

  • Carole Roan Gresenz & Jeannette Rogowski & José J. Escarce, 2007. "Social Networks and Access to Health Care Among Mexican-Americans," NBER Working Papers 13460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13460
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13460.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Ethnicity, Neighborhoods, and Human-Capital Externalities," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 7, pages 135-160, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Erzo F. P. Luttmer & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2000. "Network Effects and Welfare Cultures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 1019-1055.
    3. Walter S. McManus, 1990. "Labor Market Effects of Language Enclaves: Hispanic Men in the United States," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(2), pages 228-252.
    4. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    5. Aizer, Anna & Currie, Janet, 2004. "Networks or neighborhoods? Correlations in the use of publicly-funded maternity care in California," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2573-2585, December.
    6. Glass, Thomas A. & de Leon, Carlos F. Mendes & Seeman, Teresa E. & Berkman, Lisa F., 1997. "Beyond single indicators of social networks: A LISREL analysis of social ties among the elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1503-1517, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sheabo Dessalegn, S., 2017. "Social capital and maternal health care use in rural Ethiopia," Other publications TiSEM bb0ec225-4ec3-4028-90d6-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Costa, Dora L. & Kahn, Matthew E. & Roudiez, Christopher & Wilson, Sven, 2018. "Persistent social networks: Civil war veterans who fought together co-locate in later life," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 289-299.
    3. Aïda Solé-Auró & Montserrat Guillén & Eileen Crimmins, 2012. "Health care usage among immigrants and native-born elderly populations in eleven European countries: results from SHARE," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(6), pages 741-754, December.
    4. Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2008. "Health, Stress, and Social Networks: Evidence from Union Army Veterans," NBER Working Papers 14053, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Dora Costa & Matthew Kahn, 2010. "Health, wartime stress, and unit cohesion: Evidence from Union Army veterans," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 45-66, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carol Newman & Finn Tarp & Katleen Van Den Broeck, 2014. "Social Capital, Network Effects, and Savings in Rural Vietnam," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 79-99, March.
    2. Sylvain Chareyron & Patrick Domingues & Lucie Fotsa Lieno-Gaillardon, 2021. "Does Social Interaction Matter for Welfare Participation?," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 141, pages 49-70.
    3. Carol Newman & Finn Tarp & Katleen Van Den Broeck, 2011. "Social Capital and Savings Behaviour: Evidence from Vietnam," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp351, IIIS.
    4. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-039 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application," Working papers 2006-13, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2009.
    6. Assar Lindbeck & Mårten Palme & Mats Persson, 2016. "Sickness Absence and Local Benefit Cultures," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(1), pages 49-78, January.
    7. Anna Piil Damm, 2009. "Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 281-314, April.
    8. Mari Rege & Kjetil Telle & Mark Votruba, 2012. "Social Interaction Effects in Disability Pension Participation: Evidence from Plant Downsizing," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1208-1239, December.
    9. Blume,L.E. & Durlauf,S.N., 2005. "Identifying social interactions : a review," Working papers 12, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    10. Deri, Catherine, 2005. "Social networks and health service utilization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1076-1107, November.
    11. Alexis León, 2006. "Does Ethnic Capital Matter? Identifying the Role of Ethnic Peer Effects in the Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnic Differentials," Working Paper 289, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Dec 2006.
    12. Cooper, David J. & Rege, Mari, 2011. "Misery loves company: Social regret and social interaction effects in choices under risk and uncertainty," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 91-110, September.
    13. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. L?ken & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Peer Effects in Program Participation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2049-2074, July.
    14. Oriana Bandiera & Imran Rasul, 2006. "Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 869-902, October.
    15. Ezra Golberstein & Daniel Eisenberg & Marilyn F. Downs, 2016. "Spillover Effects in Health Service Use: Evidence From Mental Health Care Using First‐Year College Housing Assignments," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 40-55, January.
    16. Burns, Justine & Godlonton, Susan & Keswell, Malcolm, 2010. "Social networks, employment and worker discouragement: Evidence from South Africa," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 336-344, April.
    17. Francesco Drago & Roberto Galbiati, 2012. "Indirect Effects of a Policy Altering Criminal Behavior: Evidence from the Italian Prison Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 199-218, April.
    18. Yuyu Chen & Ginger Zhe Jin & Yang Yue, 2024. "Peer Migration in China," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(2), pages 257-313, April.
    19. Lindbeck, Assar & Palme, Mårten & Persson, Mats, 2007. "Social Interaction and Sickness Absence," Working Paper Series 725, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    20. Adelman, Sarah, 2013. "Keep your friends close: The effect of local social networks on child human capital outcomes," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 284-298.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13460. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.