Gender and Regional Differences in Self-Rated Health in Europe

40 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2009

See all articles by Franco Peracchi

Franco Peracchi

University of Rome Tor Vergata - Department of Economics and Finance; Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF)

Claudio Rossetti

Luiss Guido Carli University

Date Written: October 2008

Abstract

This paper shows that gender and regional differences in self-rated health in Europe are partly explained by differences in the prevalence of the various conditions. However, a non-negligible part of these differences is due to other causes, which may include differences in reporting own health. We employ the tool of "anchoring vignettes" to understand whether and how women and men living in different regions differently report levels in a number of health components or domains. We find that vignettes help identifying gender and regional differences in response scales. After controlling for these differences, both gender and regional variation in reported health is substantially reduced, although not entirely eliminated. Our results suggest that differences in response style should be taken into account when using self-assessment of health in socio-economic studies. Failing to do so may lead to misleading conclusions.

Keywords: self-rated health, health domains, anchoring vignettes, reporting bias

JEL Classification: C35, C81, I12, J14

Suggested Citation

Peracchi, Franco and Rossetti, Claudio, Gender and Regional Differences in Self-Rated Health in Europe (October 2008). CEIS Working Paper No. 142, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1434488 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1434488

Franco Peracchi (Contact Author)

University of Rome Tor Vergata - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

Via di Tor Vergata
Rome, Lazio 00133
Italy

Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) ( email )

Via Due Macelli, 73
Rome, 00187
Italy

Claudio Rossetti

Luiss Guido Carli University ( email )

Via O. Tommasini 1
Rome, Roma 00100
Italy

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