Politics & Polls #43: Why Are ‘Deaths of Despair’ Plaguing Middle-Aged White Americans?

Summary: President Donald Trump pledged to bring jobs back to America during his campaign, appealing to a strong middle class base that’s been struggling with stagnant wages and few job opportunities. Since the 1990s, death rates among this demographic — specifically middle-aged white Americans without college degrees — have been on the rise thanks to opioid addiction, alcohol abuse and suicide. This same pattern isn’t seen in other parts of the world, reversing decades of progress. Economist Anne Case, whose landmark study with co-author Sir Angus Deaton first detected the rise in mortality rates, joins this episode to discuss why “deaths of despair” are plaguing middle-aged white Americans. Case, who has written extensively on health over the life course, is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She also serves as director of the Research Program in Development Studies. Case and Deaton’s research on midlife mobility and mortality has been cited in hundreds of media outlets around the world. For this work, she received the Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Case also was awarded the Kenneth J. Arrow Prize in Health Economics from the International Health Economics Association or her work on the links between economic status and health status in childhood.