Heterogeneity in Long Term Health Outcomes of Migrants within Italy

Abstract

This article examines the long term physical and mental health effects of internal migration focusing on a relatively unique migration experience from Southern and Northeastern regions of Italy to Northwestern regions and to the region around Rome concentrated over a relatively short period from . OLS regression estimates show significant evidence of a migration effect among early-cohort females on physical health. We find no evidence of migration-health effects for the later cohort, nor for males in the early cohort. We use finite mixture models to further explore the possibility of heterogeneous effects and find that there is a significant and substantial improvement in physical and mental health for a fraction of migrant females in the early cohort but not for others. Analysis of the group for which effects are significant suggest that health effects are concentrated among rural females in the early cohort.

Technological Progress and Health Convergence: The Case of Penicillin in Post-War ITALY

“…In 1887, Francesco Crispi's government introduced the country's first sanitary reforms under the Crispi-Pagliani law. 4 However, infectious disease deaths in Italy did not begin to decline until the early twentieth century, which historians link to improvements in municipal hygiene under provisions of the law governing water quality and sanitation in urban areas (Giovannini 1996;Giuntini 1999;Pogliano 1984). During fascist rule , public health initiatives targeted the so-called "triple endemic diseases:" malaria, syphilis, and tuberculosis.…”

Does Population Sorting Through Internal Migration Increase Healthcare Costs and Needs in Peripheral Regions?

“…Such regional disparities can have different explanations. One possible explanation is that some region-specific characteristics determine average health and longevity (Atella et al, 2019;Deryugina & Molitor, 2020Finkelstein et al, 2021;Johnson & Taylor, 2019) or healthcare costs (Cutler et al, 2019;Molitor, 2018). A second possible explanation is that individuals sort themselves into regions according to their health and healthcare needs via internal migration.…”

“…3 Large regional disparities prevail not just for healthcare costs (OECD, 2014;Skinner, 2011), but also for health and mortality (Banks et al, 2021;Chetty et al, 2016;Currie & Schwandt, 2016). A growing literature documents the role of place effects in explaining such disparities (Atella et al, 2019;Deryugina & Molitor, 2020Finkelstein et al, 2021;Johnson & Taylor, 2019). In these studies, population sorting and selective migration is not an object of interest, but a potential source of bias that needs to be controlled for by careful research designs.…”