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Allowing for heterogeneity in the decomposition of measures of inequality in health

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  • Andrew Jones
  • Ángel López Nicolás

Abstract

This paper shows how recently developed regression-based methods for the decomposition of health inequality can be extended to incorporate heterogeneity in the responses of health to the explanatory variables. We illustrate our method with an application to the GHQ measure of psychological well-being taken from the British Household Panel Survey. The results suggest that there is an important degree of heterogeneity in the association of health to explanatory variables across birth cohorts and genders which, in turn, accounts for a substantial percentage of the inequality in observed health.
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  • Andrew Jones & Ángel López Nicolás, 2006. "Allowing for heterogeneity in the decomposition of measures of inequality in health," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(3), pages 347-365, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:4:y:2006:i:3:p:347-365
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-005-9019-z
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    Cited by:

    1. Vincenzo Carrieri & Andrew M. Jones, 2018. "Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(12), pages 1981-1995, December.
    2. Owen O’Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer & Adam Wagstaff, 2012. "Decomposition of Inequalities in Health and Health Care," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Carrieri, V. & Jones, A.M., 2015. "The Income-Health Relationship “Beyond the Mean†: New Evidence from Biomarkers," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 15/22, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. Martin Siegel & Karl Mosler, 2014. "Semiparametric Modeling Of Age‐Specific Variations In Income Related Health Inequalities," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(7), pages 870-878, July.
    5. Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Lundborg, Petter & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Nystedt, Paul, 2012. "Do Socioeconomic Factors Really Explain Income-Related Inequalities in Health? Applying a Twin Design to Standard Decomposition Analysis," Working Papers 2012:21, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    6. Andrew M. Jones, 2019. "Equity, opportunity and health," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(3), pages 413-421, August.
    7. Richard Layte & Anne Nolan, 2015. "Income-related inequity in the use of GP services by children: a comparison of Ireland and Scotland," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 16(5), pages 489-506, June.
    8. Villar, Jaume García & Raya, Josep Maria, 2015. "Use of a Gini index to examine housing price heterogeneity: A quantile approach," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 59-71.
    9. Martin Siegel & Andreas Mielck & Werner Maier, 2015. "Individual Income, Area Deprivation, and Health: Do Income‐Related Health Inequalities Vary by Small Area Deprivation?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(11), pages 1523-1530, November.
    10. Francesco Renna & Vasilios D. Kosteas & Kuchibhotla Dinkar, 2021. "Inequality in health insurance coverage before and after the Affordable Care Act," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 384-402, February.
    11. Watanabe,Yuichi, 2023. "Longitudinal analysis of income-related inequalities in health care under universal coverage in Korea," IDE Discussion Papers 909, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    12. Suwastika Naidu & Anand Chand, 2014. "Exploring the relationship between freedom from corruption and business governance in the Oceania region," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3489-3509, November.
    13. Van de Poel, Ellen & Van Doorslaer, Eddy & O’Donnell, Owen, 2012. "Measurement of inequity in health care with heterogeneous response of use to need," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 676-689.
    14. Layte, Richard & Nolan, Anne, 2013. "Income-Related Inequity in the Use of GP Services: A Comparison of Ireland and Scotland," Papers WP454, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    15. Esso–Hanam Atake, 2021. "Socio‐economic inequality in maternal health care utilization in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Evidence from Togo," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 288-301, March.
    16. Heckley, Gawain & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Kjellsson, Gustav, 2016. "A general method for decomposing the causes of socioeconomic inequality in health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 89-106.
    17. Vincenzo Carrieri & Andrew M. Jones, 2017. "The Income–Health Relationship ‘Beyond the Mean’: New Evidence from Biomarkers," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 937-956, July.
    18. Walsh, Brendan & Cullinan, John, 2015. "Decomposing socioeconomic inequalities in childhood obesity: Evidence from Ireland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 60-72.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    decomposition analysis; health inequalities; heterogeneity; panel data; D63; I12; C21;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

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