Unstable income, rising stress? The effects of income instability on psychological and physiological health

Active Project Grant Awarded Last action

Award ID
R01AG076655
Recipient
Awarding agency
Obligated
$5,336,181

Award facts

Assistance listing
93.866 Aging Research
Completion date 89% complete
Originally
Place of performance
New York, USA

Award details come from USAspending.gov.

Description

Abstract
The poor suffer disproportionally from poor mental and physical health. Many causes for these disparities have been considered, including low income. But, poor families' incomes are not only low, but also often unstable and unpredictable. This instability creates uncertainty about whether they will be able to safeguard their future wellbeing. According to the allostatic load framework, prolonged activation of physiological stress responses will cause "wear and tear" on the body, heightening risks of cardiovascular disease and of age-related metabolic diseases, promoting cognitive decline and dementia, and accelerating cellular aging. This R01 will study the causal effects of income instability on the psychological and physical health of the poor. Our specific aims are to: 1) identify the causal effect of income instability on psychological health (e.g. depression, anxiety), biomarkers of stress (e.g. cortisol), and physical health (e.g. blood pressure), 2) decompose the effects identified in aim 1 into the effects of predictable and unpredictable instability and compare to the impact of increasing the average level of income, and 3) investigate the channels through which effects on health occur, including both economic and behavioral channels and estimate the impact of key moderating factors (e.g. age, gender, baseline mental health). The trial will be conducted in southwestern bangladesh. We will manipulate income instability by varying the number of work hours (and hence earnings) of participants in a cash-for-work program. Participants in the first treatment arm will have a fixed work schedule, with the same hours and earning each period. The hours and earnings of a second treatment arm will vary over time, but the fluctuations will be known in advance. Finally, the number of work hours and earnings of a third treatment arm will fluctuate unpredictably. Each of these arms will be compared to a control group that is surveyed, but not offered additional work. Importantly, we will vary income instability while holding the average level of income constant in order to disentangle the impact of instability from the level-effect. The study will create 1,867 new jobs that would not otherwise be available during the lean season when jobs are scarce. The intervention has been designed so that the job opportunity cannot make them worse off than they would otherwise have been in the absence of research.

Transactions

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Show all 36

Subawards

Subrecipient Amount Awarded
Innovations For Poverty Action A Nonprofit Corp IPA will be responsible for vender selection and management with the guidance of principal investigators. A laboratory will be engaged to manage hair sample… $36,936
Subrecipient not on record The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) will provide Co-I time to aid in the design of the RCT, oversight of the implementation (including travel to Ghana), and… $69,822
University Of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC) will provide Co-I time to aid in 1) the design of the RCT with a particular focus on biomarkers (cortisol) and… $139,909
Innovations For Poverty Action A Nonprofit Corp Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) will take the lead on the implementation of the study in and around Tamale, Ghana. They will be responsible for the… $734,050
University Of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC) will provide Co-I time to aid in 1) the design of the RCT with a particular focus on biomarkers (cortisol) and… $139,909
Innovations For Poverty Action A Nonprofit Corp Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) will take the lead on the implementation of the study in and around Tamale, Ghana. They will be responsible for the… $315,016

Quick answers

Who received award R01AG076655?

R01AG076655 was awarded to Cornell University by National Institute on Aging (National Institutes of Health) on August 15, 2022.

How much is award R01AG076655 worth?

$5,336,181 has been obligated on R01AG076655.

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