Is SARS a Poor Man’s Disease? The Relationship between Housing Values and Health

This paper investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and the spread of SARS. I focus on the SARS infection rates in 295 large-scale Hong Kong housing complexes. Using pre-SARS property values as indicators of SES, I identify a negative SESSARS link. I also find that density, proximity to the city centers and availability of communal facilities increase the spread of SARS. Building age, flat size, proximity to medical establishments, formation of residents’ association or whether the housing complex is public are not significantly associated with the SARS infection rate. The SES-SARS relationship remains robust after controlling for living conditions. I provide evidence that household income is likely to be an important component of the SES-SARS link. This is an update of the second chapter of my PhD thesis at Princeton University. I thank Alan Krueger for continuous support and guidance, and Tsur Sommerville for providing me his 1993-1999 Hong Kong housing prices data. I have benefited from detailed discussions with Ceci Rouse and Jesse Rothstein, and comments from numerous participants at the Princeton Labor Seminar. Jennifer Chu, Yanshu Guo, Anna Huang, Steph Hsiao and Timothy Koo provided excellent research assistance. The Hong Kong Department of Health have been particularly helpful with my enquiries. Financial support from the Industrial Relations Section and the Mellon Foundation/ Research Program in Development Studies is gratefully acknowledged.