Citation

Myers SLJ, Gorsuch M, Lai Y, Steward D, Vega DV, Motachwa R. Hisp. Econ. Outlook 2017; 2017: 13-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, American Society of Hispanic Economists)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

35849649

PMCID

PMC9281996

Abstract

Accidental drowning is a leading cause of death among young persons. It is the third leading cause of accidental death world-wide, the second leading cause of accidental deaths among persons 1-14 years of age in the United States and the leading cause of accidental deaths among persons 1-14 years of age in China (WHO, 2017). In the United States, there are wide racial and ethnic disparities in drowning rates among persons under 29 years of age (Gilchrist and Parker, 2014). American Indians and African Americans under 29 years old are 1.95 and 1.44 times more likely to be victims of fatal drownings than are whites. In the 10- to 14-year age group, African Americans are an astonishingly 3.7 times more likely to drown than whites. Overall, Hispanics are only slightly more likely to drown than whites (1.04 times). But, in the 20-24 year age group, Hispanics are 1.39 times more likely to drown than are whites.

In a recent paper, Myers, Cuesta, and Lai (2017) reported that increases in the number of lifeguards reduced the drowning rates for blacks but not for whites. Myers, et al. also reported that there was a strong inverse relationship between competitive swimming rates among African Americans and black drowning rates. That paper provided a heuristic labor market model that linked black drowning rates to black participation in competitive swimming through a narrative that argues that competitive swimming is associated with the training and employment of lifeguards and that the supply of minority lifeguards increases when there are more minorities participating in competitive swimming programs. The argument goes further to posit that minority drowning rates are lower when there are more minority lifeguards (Myers and Lai, 2017). The argument is that minority lifeguards serve as role models for young minority swimmers; encourage them to play safely; have better crowd management skills; and are unlikely to discriminate against minority swimmers. Using a variety of model specifications and estimation techniques, the authors find a strong and robust inverse relationship between black drowning rates and black lifeguard supply and black competitive swimming rates.

What, then, is the connection between Hispanic lifeguard rates and their drowning rates? Might there be an explanation for the disproportionate drowning rates among Hispanic young adults in their relative supply of lifeguards? To test this hypothesis, the authors have replicated the model of lifeguard supply and drowning rates among blacks using data on Hispanics...

Language: en