Congratulations to Klara Gurzo!

On March 6, Klara Gurzo successfully defended her PhD thesis “Perspectives on income and health: cohort change, intergenerational social mobility, and the role of personal attributes and childhood friends”.

About Klara’s work

Klara Gurzo’s thesis shows that income-related inequalities in health reflect both intergenerational transmission and processes within a generation. Social and historical contexts, as well as individual characteristics, shape opportunities for income mobility and health throughout the life course.

“Income mobility and health are not just individual achievements or outcomes. They are shaped by the social worlds we grow up in,” says Klara Gurzo.

Study I compared two Swedish birth cohorts, 1922–1926 and 1951–1955, to examine how income-related inequalities in the cohort’s temporal life expectancy between the ages of 50 and 61 changed before and after the establishment of the welfare state. Among men, income-related inequalities increased between the cohorts, mainly because the increase in life expectancy stagnated below approximately the 25th percentile of the income distribution, while the increase was relatively stable above this level. Women born in 1922–1926 had small income differences in life expectancy, but clear differences emerged in the cohort born in 1951–1955, after women’s labor force participation had increased.

Study II examined whether childhood friendships can function as self-acquired social capital. Using sociometric data from sixth grade and classroom fixed effects, friendships with classmates from high-income families were associated with higher adult incomes and upward income mobility. The associations were strongest among children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. These patterns persisted after adjusting for parental resources and individual characteristics. The results suggest that friendships across socioeconomic boundaries matter beyond shared classroom context and observed selection.

Study III assessed mechanisms linking economic circumstances of upbringing to all-cause mortality in adulthood. Parental income showed only a weak association with mortality in adulthood, which decreased significantly after controlling for cognitive ability and social skills in adolescence and later socioeconomic positions in adulthood, particularly education and income. Intergenerational income mobility showed no clear association with mortality in this study.

Study IV examined mental health in people aged 52–66 years, as measured by psychotropic medication use, using so-called diagonal reference models that separate mobility from origin and destination. Intergenerational income mobility was linked to psychotropic medication use among men but not among women. Downward mobility was associated with higher medication use and upward mobility with lower ones. The results were robust after extensive adjustment for confounding factors, and similar patterns were observed in a national sample.