Inequality of opportunity in health: a decomposition-based approach

Vincenzo Carrieri and M.A. Jones

Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: This paper presents a decomposition-based approach to measure inequality in health that captures Roemer’s distinction between circumstances and effort. Our approach builds on a decomposition of the Gini index with heterogeneous responses and is extended to decompose an inequality of opportunity Gini index inspired by the “fairness gap†principle. An original feature of our empirical analysis is the use of objectively measured biomarker as health outcomes and as proxies for relevant effort variables. Using data from the Health Survey for England from 2003 to 2012, we find that circumstances are the leading determinant of inequality in cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin, fibrinogen and mean arterial pressure. Moreover, we find a strong interaction between circumstances and effort leading to a smaller effect of effort on health for individuals in worse circumstances. Among the effort factors, we find that healthy diet and physical activity play the largest role in shaping objective health.

Keywords: biomarkers; decomposition analysis; health inequalities; inequality of opportunity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C5 D63 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:yor:hectdg:16/05

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