Avoiding Blinding to Health Status: A New Class of Health Achievement and Inequality Indices

Paul Makdissi () and Myra Yazbeck ()

No 1207E, Working Papers from University of Ottawa, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper argues that health transfers from an individual at a lower rank in the health distribution to a person at a higher rank may decrease the concentration index if the former has a slightly higher income. The concentration index, being mainly focused on the socio-economic dimension of health inequality, can produce such counter-intuitive results that overlook the pure health inequality aversion of the planner. Building on Atkinson (1970), Yitzhaki (1983) and Wagstaff (2002), this paper presents a simple new class of health achievement and health inequality indices that overcomes the above mentioned problem.

Keywords: Health inequality; Health Achievement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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