Measuring inequality in the joint distribution of socioeconomic status and health

Martyna Kobus and Radosław Kurek

Economics Letters, 2023, vol. 226, issue C

Abstract: We propose new methods to measure socioeconomic inequalities in health when health and socioeconomic status are ordinal indicators. We propose dominance ordering and measures that are sensitive not only to between-group heterogeneity (i.e. increased spread), but also to within-group homogeneity (i.e. increased bipolarity). The latter aspect has been missing from the available measurement toolkit and we close this gap. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe we show that accounting for increased bipolarity increases substantially the level of inequality, however, it does not affect the ranking of countries.

Keywords: Socioeconomic inequalities in health; Ordinal data; Polarization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D6 I1 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:226:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523001180

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111093

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