Measurement and Explanation of Socioeconomic Inequality in Health with Longitudinal Data

UPF Working Paper No. 711

26 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2004

See all articles by Ángel López Nicolás

Ángel López Nicolás

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Andrew M. Jones

University of York - Department of Economics and Related Studies; Monash University - Centre for Health Economics

Date Written: September 2003

Abstract

This paper presents a method for the measurement of changes in health inequality and income-related health inequality over time in a population. For pure health inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) and income-related health inequality (as measured by the concentration index), we show how measures derived from longitudinal data can be related to cross section Gini and concentration indices that have been typically reported in the literature to date, along with measures of health mobility inspired by the literature on income mobility. We also show how these measures of mobility can be usefully decomposed into the contributions of different covariates. We apply these methods to investigate the degree of income-related mobility in the GHQ measure of psychological well-being in the first nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). This reveals that dynamics increase the absolute value of the concentration index of GHQ on income by 10%.

Keywords: Health inequalities, mobility, Gini and concentration indices, mental health, BHPS

JEL Classification: D63, I12, C21

Suggested Citation

López Nicolás, Ángel and Jones, Andrew M., Measurement and Explanation of Socioeconomic Inequality in Health with Longitudinal Data (September 2003). UPF Working Paper No. 711, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=563208 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.563208

Ángel López Nicolás (Contact Author)

Universitat Pompeu Fabra ( email )

Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27
Barcelona, 08005
Spain
(34-3) 542 27 08 (Phone)
(34-3) 542 17 46 (Fax)

Andrew M. Jones

University of York - Department of Economics and Related Studies ( email )

Heslington
York, YO1 5DD
United Kingdom
+44-1904-43 3766 (Phone)

Monash University - Centre for Health Economics ( email )

Building 75, 15 Innovation Walk
Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3800
Australia

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