Healthcare investment and income inequality

Ayona Bhattacharjee, Jong Shin, Chetan Subramanian and Shailender Swaminathan

Journal of Health Economics, 2017, vol. 56, issue C, 163-177

Abstract: This paper examines how the relative shares of public and private health expenditures impact income inequality. We study a two period overlapping generation's growth model in which longevity is determined by both private and public health expenditure and human capital is the engine of growth. Increased investment in health, reduces mortality, raises return to education and affects income inequality. In such a framework we show that the cross-section earnings inequality is non-decreasing in the private share of health expenditure.

Keywords: Public and private health; Longevity; Income inequality; Growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I15 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:56:y:2017:i:c:p:163-177

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.08.007

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