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Abstract
The purpose of this research is to explore whether there is a health disparity between homeowners and renters affected by the indoor air quality of their dwellings. By proxying the presence of mold and smoke as facilitators of poor indoor air quality, I designed a mediation model that previously has not been explored quantitatively. The structural path model in this study shows that there is indeed a disparity in health between urban homeowners and renters by demography, socioeconomic status, and dwelling condition. Built upon the notion of environmental injustice and housing adjustment theory, this study argues that renters whose living conditions generally are worse off than homeowners are also unequal in their health status due to exacerbating effects coming from poor indoor air quality, which is endogenous to the condition of the urban renter. The originality of this study is that it is the first study that empirically tests the mediation effect of poor indoor air quality of homeowners and renters using a structural equation mediation model.