Heterogeneous Influence of Socioeconomic Inequality on Population Health: A Cross-national Study

Junfeng Jiang ()
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Junfeng Jiang: Central China Normal University

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2023, vol. 169, issue 3, No 17, 1109-1124

Abstract: Abstract Prior studies have documented the negative impact of socioeconomic inequality on population health, but few studies have discussed the heterogeneous health effects of socioeconomic inequality. This study proposes using a quantile regression model to examine the heterogeneous influence of socioeconomic inequality (educational inequality, income inequality, and unemployment rate) on population health (life expectancy and healthy life expectancy) based on macro panel data from 160 countries. It was found that in both rich and poor countries, elevated income inequality and unemployment rate significantly predicted reduced life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, while the influences of educational inequality on the two health outcomes were not significant. Furthermore, the negative influence of socioeconomic inequality on population health was mainly observed in countries with lower-level population health. Robust results supported the above findings when lagged population health outcomes were used. Therefore, nations with poor population health should pay more attention to socioeconomic inequality, and state regulations should be actively used to promote equality in income, education and employment for health promotion.

Keywords: Socioeconomic inequality; Life expectancy; Healthy life expectancy; Quantile regression; Heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-023-03204-8

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