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Inequality in Opportunities in Health in France: A first pass

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  • Trannoy, A
  • Tubeuf, S
  • Jusot, F
  • Devaux, M

Abstract

This article analyses the role played by childhood circumstances, especially social and family background in explaining health status among older adults. We also explore the hypothesis of an intergenerational transmission of health inequalities using the French part of SHARE. As the impact of both social background and parents’ health on health status in adulthood represent circumstances independent of individual responsibility, this study allows us to test for the existence in France of inequalities of opportunity in health related to family and social background. Empirically, our study relies both on tests of stochastic dominance at first order and multivariate regressions, supplemented by a counterfactual analysis to evaluate the longlasting impact of childhood conditions on inequality in health. Allocating the best circumstances in both parents’ SES and parents’ health reduces inequality in health by an impressive 57% using the Gini coefficient. The mother’s social status has a direct effect on the health of her offspring. By contrast, the effect on the descendant’s health from the father’s social status is indirect only, going through the descendant’s social status as an adult. There is also a direct effect of each parent’s health on health in adulthood.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York in its series Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers with number 08/24.

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Date of creation: Oct 2008
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Handle: RePEc:yor:hectdg:08/24

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Postal: HEDG/HERC, Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
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Web page: http://www.york.ac.uk/res/herc/research/hedg/
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Keywords: Stochastic dominance - equality of opportunity – inequality in health – intergenerational transmission – older adults – Gini index;

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References

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  1. Arnaud Lefranc & Nicolas Pistolesi & Alain Trannoy, 2006. "Equality of Opportunity: Definitions and Testable Conditions with an Application to Income in France," IDEP Working Papers 0609, Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France, revised 27 Sep 2006.
  2. Michael Grossman, 1972. "The Demand for Health: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gros72-1, October.
  3. Ferreira , Francisco H. G. & Gignoux, Jeremie, 2008. "The measurement of inequality of opportunity : theory and an application to Latin America," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4659, The World Bank.
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  6. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile, 2003. "Socioeconomic Status and Child Health: Why Is the Relationship Stronger for Older Children?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1813-1823, December.
  7. Anne Case & Darren Lubotsky & Christina Paxson, 2001. "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient," NBER Working Papers 8344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Augustin Vicard & Andrew E. Clark, 2007. "Conditions de collecte et santé subjective : une analyse sur données européennes," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 403(1), pages 143-163.
  9. Pedro Rosa Dias & Andrew M. Jones, 2007. "Giving equality of opportunity a fair innings," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 109-112.
  10. François Bourguignon & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Marta Menéndez, 2007. "Inequality Of Opportunity In Brazil," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(4), pages 585-618, December.
  11. Ahlburg, Dennis, 1998. "Intergenerational Transmission of Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 265-70, May.
  12. Arnaud Lefranc & Nicolas Pistolesi & Alain Trannoy, 2008. "Inequality Of Opportunities Vs. Inequality Of Outcomes: Are Western Societies All Alike?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(4), pages 513-546, December.
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  15. James P. Smith, 1999. "Healthy Bodies and Thick Wallets: The Dual Relation between Health and Economic Status," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 145-166, Spring.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Sandy Tubeuf & Florence Jusot, 2011. "Social health inequalities among older Europeans: the contribution of social and family background," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 61-77, February.
  2. Tubeuf, Sandy & Jusot, Florence & Bricard, Damien, 2012. "Mediating role of education and lifestyles in the relationship between early-life conditions and health : evidence from the 1958 British cohort," Open Access publications from Université Paris-Dauphine urn:hdl:123456789/9292, Université Paris-Dauphine.
  3. Emmanuel Duguet & Chr. Le Clainche, 2012. "Chronic Illnesses and Injuries: An Evaluation of their Impact on Occupation and Revenues," Working Papers halshs-00674553, HAL.
  4. Andrew Jones & Nigel Rice & Pedro Rosa Dias, 2012. "Quality of schooling and inequality of opportunity in health," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 369-394, April.
  5. Pilar Garcia-Gomez & Erik Schokkaert & Tom Van Ourti & Teresa Bago d'Uva, 2012. "Inequity in the Face of Death," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-084/3, Tinbergen Institute.
  6. Jean-François Carpantier & Christelle Sapata, 2012. "An ex-post view of inequality of opportunity in France and its regions," Working Papers wpdea1211, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
  7. VAN DE GAER, Dirk & VANDENBOSSCHE, Joost & FIGUEROA, José Luis, 2012. "Children’s health opportunities and project evaluation: Mexico’s Oportunidades program," CORE Discussion Papers 2012015, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  8. FLEURBAEY, Marc & SCHOKKAERT, Erik, 2011. "Equity in health and health care," CORE Discussion Papers 2011026, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  9. RAMOS, Xavier & VAN DE GAER, Dirk, 2012. "Empirical approaches to inequality of opportunity: principles, measures, and evidence," CORE Discussion Papers 2012026, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  10. Pedro Rosa Dias, 2010. "Modelling opportunity in health under partial observability of circumstances," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 252-264.
  11. Ovrum, Arnstein & Rickertsen, Kyrre, 2011. "Inequality in Health Versus Inequality in Lifestyles," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114556, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
  12. Jusot, Florence & Bricard, Damien, . "Intergenerational transmission of health care habits in France," Open Access publications from Université Paris-Dauphine urn:hdl:123456789/10720, Université Paris-Dauphine.
  13. 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.
  14. Nicolas Sirven, 2012. "On the Socio-Economic Determinants of Frailty: Findings from Panel and Retrospective Data from SHARE," Working Papers DT52, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Dec 2012.
  15. Trannoy, Alain & Tubeuf, Sandy & Jusot, Florence, . "Effort or Circumstances : Which one matters in health inequality ?," Open Access publications from Université Paris-Dauphine urn:hdl:123456789/9524, Université Paris-Dauphine.
  16. Ashish Singh, 2011. "Gender based intra-household inequality of opportunity in academic skills among Indian children," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(3), pages 2333-2346.

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