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Income-Related Inequality in Life-Years and Quality-Adjusted Life-Years

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  • Gerdtham, Ulf-G.

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Johannesson, Magnus

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

Abstract

We estimate the income-related inequality in Sweden with respect to life-years and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). We use a large data-set from Sweden with over 40,000 individuals followed up for 10-16 years, to estimate the survival and quality-adjusted survival in different income groups. For both life-years and QALYs we discover inequalities in health favouring the higher income groups. For men (women) in the youngest age-group (20-29 years) the number of QALYs is 43.7 (45.7) in the lowest income decile and 47.2 (49.0) in the highest income decile.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Johannesson, Magnus, 1999. "Income-Related Inequality in Life-Years and Quality-Adjusted Life-Years," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 334, Stockholm School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:hastef:0334
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health inequality; income; mortality; QALYs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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