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When More Does Not Necessarily Mean Better: Health‐Related Illfare Comparisons with Non‐Monotone Well‐Being Relationships

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  • Mauricio Apablaza
  • Florent Bresson
  • Gaston Yalonetzky

Abstract

Most welfare studies assume that well‐being is monotonically related to the variables used for the analysis. While this assumption is reasonable for many dimensions of well‐being like income, education, or empowerment, there are some cases where it is definitively not relevant, in particular with respect to health. For instance, health status is often proxied using the Body Mass Index (BMI). Low BMI values can capture undernutrition or the incidence of severe illness, yet a high BMI is neither desirable as it indicates obesity. Usual illfare indices derived from poverty measurement are then not appropriate. This paper proposes illfare indices that are consistent with some situations of non‐monotonic well‐being relationships and examines the partial orderings of different distributions derived from various classes of illfare indices. An illustration is provided for child health as proxied by a weight‐for‐age indicator using DHS data for Bangladesh, Colombia and Egypt during the last few decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Mauricio Apablaza & Florent Bresson & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2016. "When More Does Not Necessarily Mean Better: Health‐Related Illfare Comparisons with Non‐Monotone Well‐Being Relationships," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(S1), pages 145-178, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:62:y:2016:i:s1:p:s145-s178
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12221
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    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad Abu-Zaineh & Ramses H. Abul Naga, 2019. "Bread and Social Justice: Measurement of Social Welfare and Inequalities Using Anthropometrics," AMSE Working Papers 1930, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    2. Mohammad Abu‐Zaineh & Ramses H. Abul Naga, 2023. "Bread and Social Justice: Measurement of Social Welfare and Inequality Using Anthropometrics," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(2), pages 265-288, June.
    3. Namal N. Balasooriya & Jayatilleke S. Bandara & Nicholas Rohde, 2021. "The intergenerational effects of socioeconomic inequality on unhealthy bodyweight," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 729-747, April.
    4. Francesco Andreoli & Vincenzo Prete & Claudio Zoli, 2023. "The measurement of segregation sensitive spatial income deprivation," Working Papers 03/2023, University of Verona, Department of Economics.

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