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Understanding the vertical equity judgements underpinning health inequality measures

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  • Allanson, Paul
  • Petrie, Dennis

Abstract

The choice of income-related health inequality measures in comparative studies is often determined by custom and analytical concerns, without much explicit consideration of the vertical equity judgements underlying alternative measures. This note employs an inequality map to illustrate how it these judgements that affect the ranking of populations by health inequality. In particular, it is shown that relative indices of inequality in health attainments and shortfalls embody distinct vertical equity judgments, where each may represent ethically defensible positions in specific contexts. Further research is needed to explore people’s preferences over distributions of income and health.

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File URL: http://repo.sire.ac.uk/handle/10943/309
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Paper provided by Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE) in its series SIRE Discussion Papers with number 2012-06.

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Date of creation: 2012
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Handle: RePEc:edn:sirdps:309

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Keywords: health inequality; vertical equity judgements; inequality equivalence criteria; inequality maps;

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  1. Paul Allanson & Ulf-G Gerdtham & Dennis Petrie, 2008. "Longitudinal analysis of income-related health inequality," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 214, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
  2. Wagstaff, Adam, 2002. "Inequality aversion, health inequalities and health achievement," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 627-641, July.
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  4. Bossert, Walter & Pfingsten, Andreas, 1990. "Intermediate inequality: concepts, indices, and welfare implications," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 117-134, April.
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  6. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2007. "New Unit-Consistent Intermediate Inequality Indices," Working Papers 63, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
  7. Guido Erreygers & Tom Van Ourti, 2010. "Measuring Socioeconomic Inequality in Health, Health Care and Health Financing by Means of Rank-Dependent Indices: A Recipe for Good Practice," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-076/3, Tinbergen Institute.
  8. Kjellsson , Gustav & Gerdtham, Ulf-G, 2011. "Correcting the Concentration Index for Binary Variables," Working Papers 2011:4, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  9. Clarke, Philip M. & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Johannesson, Magnus & Bingefors, Kerstin & Smith, Len, 2002. "On the measurement of relative and absolute income-related health inequality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 1923-1928, December.
  10. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Correcting the Concentration Index," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 504-515, March.
  11. Buhong Zheng, 2007. "Unit-Consistent Decomposable Inequality Measures," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(293), pages 97-111, 02.
  12. Le Grand, Julian, 1987. "Inequalities in health : Some international comparisons," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 182-191.
  13. Culyer, A. J. & Wagstaff, Adam, 1993. "Equity and equality in health and health care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 431-457, December.
  14. Bleichrodt, Han & Rohde, Kirsten I.M. & Van Ourti, Tom, 2012. "An experimental test of the concentration index," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 86-98.
  15. Adam Wagstaff, 2005. "The bounds of the concentration index when the variable of interest is binary, with an application to immunization inequality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 429-432.
  16. Bleichrodt, Han & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2006. "A welfare economics foundation for health inequality measurement," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 945-957, September.
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