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Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? Revisiting the extended concentration index

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  • ERREYGERS, Guido
  • CLARKE, Philip
  • VAN OURTI, Tom

Abstract

This paper explores three alternative indices for measuring health inequalities in a way that takes into account attitudes towards inequality. Firstly, we revisit the extended concentration index which has been proposed to generalise the value judgements implicit in the standard concentration index. We then examine two alternative measures which have desirable mirror properties. One of these indices applies symmetric weights which is a property of the standard concentration index. We also examine the bias that arises when all three measures are applied to small samples. We propose a correction for this small sample bias and use Monte Carlo simulations to check whether it works. We empirically compare the different indices for under-five mortality rates in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • ERREYGERS, Guido & CLARKE, Philip & VAN OURTI, Tom, 2010. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? Revisiting the extended concentration index," Working Papers 2010015, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ant:wpaper:2010015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tom Van Ourti & Philip Clarke, 2011. "A Simple Correction to Remove the Bias of the Gini Coefficient due to Grouping," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 982-994, August.
    2. Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jones, Andrew M. & López-Nicolás, Angel & Rice, Nigel, 2006. "Socioeconomic inequalities in health: A comparative longitudinal analysis using the European Community Household Panel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 1246-1261, September.
    3. Lerman, Robert I. & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1989. "Improving the accuracy of estimates of Gini coefficients," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 43-47, September.
    4. Ellen van de Poel & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2007. "Are Urban Children really healthier?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-035/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Van de Poel, Ellen & O'Donnell, Owen & Van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2007. "Are urban children really healthier? Evidence from 47 developing countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1986-2003, November.
    6. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer & Adam Wagstaff & Magnus Lindelow, 2008. "Analyzing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data : A Guide to Techniques and Their Implementation," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6896, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lambert, Peter & Zheng, Buhong, 2011. "On the consistent measurement of attainment and shortfall inequality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 214-219, January.
    2. Zhuo Chen & Kakoli Roy & Carol A. Gotway Crawford, 2012. "Evaluation Of Variance Estimators For The Concentration And Health Achievement Indices: A Monte Carlo Simulation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(11), pages 1375-1381, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality; Extended concentration index; Inequality aversion; Small-sample bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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