Modeling the Effect of Income Segregation on Communicable Disease Transmission

Income segregation has been on the rise in developing countries, where many communicable diseases are still prevalent. This study investigates how income segregation affects communicable disease transmission through the development of a novel model that includes income segregation and individuals’ health‐seeking behavior. The general model proposed here assumes that health of an individual is affected by (i) the health‐seeking behavior of individuals (e.g., going to the hospital, taking medicine); (ii) the communal health stock; and (iii) exposure to the communal health stock. The communal health stock is comprised of the amenities that make people healthier in a given community (e.g., the number of health‐care facilities). Income segregation is defined here as a combination of income inequality and residential segregation, which exists when some people have higher exposure to the communal health stock than other people. In this model, income segregation exists when poor people disproportionately live in neighborhoods with lower exposure to the communal health stock than rich people. A decrease in income segregation means the income of the poor increases along with their exposure to the communal health stock. The general model applied here predicts that an increase in the poor's income will increase their health by enabling them to afford more health‐seeking behavior and finds that higher exposure to the communal health stock directly increases the health of the poor. Higher exposure to the communal health stock, however, is found to decrease the poor's health‐seeking behavior, which reduces their health. The general model finds, therefore, that a decrease in income segregation will have an ambiguous effect on the health of individuals and the overall community. Probing further, the analysis replaces the general model with a more specific model, which predicts that overall, a decrease in income segregation increases individual health. Furthermore, in the more specific model, it is possible that the poor get stuck in a low‐health equilibrium while the rich stay in a high‐health equilibrium.