Why a positive link between age and income-related health inequality?

Martin Nordin and Ulf-G. Gerdtham

No 2010:12, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This study uses Swedish data to analyze why the SES-health gradient increases with ageing. Since different measures of SES and health capture different aspects, we use this information to explore the age increase in health inequality and to discriminate between three types of explanations, namely: i) age increase in the causal SES effect; ii) reversed health effect on SES, and iii) lifecycle variation in the measurement errors in SES and health.

Thus, our analysis points in the direction that the age increase in health inequality is primarily caused by a reversed causality going from health to annual income, and the probable mechanism is health affecting the labour supply of the individual. In addition the study report that the age variation in health inequality seem to have increased over time, and during the 1980th the age variation was rather limited. The evidence in our study is not conclusive, but all evidence documented agrees and supports this conclusion.

Keywords: health inequality; socioeconomic status; income; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 D31 I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2010-09-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2010_012

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