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Health and income across the life cycle and generations in Europe

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Author Info

  • van Kippersluis, Hans
  • Van Ourti, Tom
  • O'Donnell, Owen
  • van Doorslaer, Eddy

Abstract

An age-cohort decomposition applied to panel data identifies how the mean, overall inequality and income-related inequality of self-assessed health evolve over the life cycle and differ across generations in 11 EU countries. There is a moderate and steady decline in mean health until the age of 70 or so and a steep acceleration in the rate of deterioration thereafter. In southern Europe and Ireland, where development has been most rapid, the average health of generations born in more recent decades is significantly better than that of older generations. This is not observed in the northern European countries. In almost all countries, health is more dispersed among older generations indicating that Europe has experienced a reduction in overall health inequality over time. Although there is no consistent evidence that health inequality increases as a given cohort ages, this is true in the three largest countries--UK, France and Germany. In the former two countries and the Netherlands, at least for males, the income gradient in health peaks around retirement age, as in the US. In most European countries, unlike the US, there is no evidence that income-related health inequality is greater among younger than older generations.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Health Economics.

Volume (Year): 28 (2009)
Issue (Month): 4 (July)
Pages: 818-830

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:28:y:2009:i:4:p:818-830

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560

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Keywords: Health Health inequality Life cycle Cohort;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Hans van Kippersluis & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2009. "Socioeconomic Differences in Health over the Life Cycle in an Egalitarian Country," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-006/3, Tinbergen Institute.
  2. Juergen Jung & Chung Tran, 2010. "Medical Consumption Over the Life Cycle: Facts from a U.S. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey," Discussion Papers 2010-08, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
  3. Titus J. Galama & Arie Kapteyn, 2009. "Grossman's Missing Health Threshold," Working Papers 684, RAND Corporation Publications Department.
  4. Grimm, M., 2010. "Does inequality in health impede growth?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 501, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University (ISS), The Hague.
  5. Hans van Kippersluis & Tom van Ourti & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2008. "Health and Income across the Life Cycle and Generations in Europe," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-009/3, Tinbergen Institute.
  6. Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Martin & Vikström, Johan, 2011. "Socioeconomic Heterogeneity in the Effect of Health Shocks on Earnings: Evidence from Population-Wide Data on Swedish Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 6121, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Petrie , Dennis & Allanson, Paul & Gerdtham, Ulf-G, 2011. "Accounting for the dead in the longitudinal analysis of income-related health inequalities," Working Papers 2011:9, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  8. Guillem López i Casasnovas & Marina Soley Bori, 2012. "The Economic Crisis and it Effects on the Social Determinants of Health," Hacienda Pública Española, IEF, vol. 201(2), pages 113-132, June.

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