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On Measuring And Explaining Socioeconomic Polarization In Health With An Application To French Data

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  • Bénédicte H. Apouey

Abstract

This paper proposes two original measures of socioeconomic polarization, in order to quantify phenomena that are not always taken into account by social inequality measures. Our approach is inspired by the literature on bivariate inequality (the concentration index) and univariate polarization. Like the concentration index, our social polarization measures can be easily computed thanks to a “convenient” regression and decomposed into their determinants. Moreover changes in polarization can also be decomposed into their causes. The paper also provides an empirical illustration of our methods for the probability of reporting excellent or very good health, using cross‐sectional data on French women. The findings suggest that after 65 years of age, social polarization in this probability decreases whereas social inequality remains stable. Consequently social polarization conveys additional information to that contained in the concentration index.

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  • Bénédicte H. Apouey, 2010. "On Measuring And Explaining Socioeconomic Polarization In Health With An Application To French Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 141-170, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:56:y:2010:i:1:p:141-170
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4991.2009.00367.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Deutsch, Joseph & Fusco, Alessio & Silber, Jacques, 2013. "The BIP Trilogy (bipolarization, inequality and polarization): One saga but three different stories," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 7, pages 1-33.
    2. Bénédicte Apouey, 2019. "Inégalités socioéconomiques et conceptions subjectives du bien vieillir : Résultats d'une enquête quantitative," PSE Working Papers halshs-02093549, HAL.
    3. Marta Pascual & David Cantarero & Paloma Lanza, 2018. "Health polarization and inequalities across Europe: an empirical approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1039-1051, November.
    4. Bénédicte Apouey & Pierre-Yves Geoffard, 2015. "Le gradient et la transmission intergénérationnelle de la santé pendant l'enfance," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 475(1), pages 113-133.
    5. Bénédicte Apouey & Jacques Silber, 2013. "Inequality and Bi-Polarization in Socioeconomic Status and Health: Ordinal Approaches," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 77-109, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Bénédicte H. Apouey & Jacques Silber, 2016. "Performance and Inequality in Health: A Comparison of Child and Maternal Health across Asia," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 24, pages 181-214, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    7. Bénédicte H. Apouey, 2017. "Conditions économiques et définitions subjectives du « bien vieillir »: Résultats d'une enquête quantitative," PSE Working Papers halshs-01475942, HAL.
    8. Apouey, Bénédicte H., 2018. "Preparation for old age in France: The roles of preferences and expectations," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 15-23.
    9. Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel & Robone, Silvana & Dias, Pedro Rosa, 2011. "Inequality and polarisation in health systems' responsiveness: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 616-625, July.
    10. Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2017. "Robust rankings of socioeconomic health inequality using a categorical variable," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(9), pages 1132-1145, September.
    11. Maria Livia ŞTEFĂNESCU, 2015. "Analyzing the health status of the population using ordinal data," Computational Methods in Social Sciences (CMSS), "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 3(1), pages 18-24, June.

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