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Health Inequality over the Life-Cycle

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  • Halliday, Timothy J.

    (University of Hawaii at Manoa)

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of health inequality over the life-course. Health is modeled as a latent variable that is determined by three factors: endowments, and permanent and transitory shocks. We employ Simulated Minimum Distance and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the model. We estimate that permanent shocks account for under 10% of the total variation in health for the college educated, but between 35% and 70% of total health variability for people without college degrees. Consistent with this, we find that health inequality moves substantially more slowly over the life-course for the college educated.

Suggested Citation

  • Halliday, Timothy J., 2009. "Health Inequality over the Life-Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 4369, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4369
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    Cited by:

    1. J. Gimenez-Nadal & Jose Molina, 2016. "Health inequality and the uses of time for workers in Europe: policy implications," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Arjen Hussem & Casper Ewijk & Harry Rele & Albert Wong, 2016. "The Ability to Pay for Long-Term Care in the Netherlands: A Life-cycle Perspective," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 209-234, June.
    3. Changjian Pan & Qiuyan Fan & Jing Yang & Dasong Deng, 2019. "Health Inequality Among the Elderly in Rural China and Influencing Factors: Evidence from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-16, October.
    4. Arjen Hussem & Casper Ewijk & Harry Rele & Albert Wong, 2016. "The Ability to Pay for Long-Term Care in the Netherlands: A Life-cycle Perspective," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 209-234, June.
    5. Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, Jose Alberto, 2015. "Health inequality and the use of time for workers in Europe," MPRA Paper 65334, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Halliday, Timothy & Mazumder, Bhashkar & Wong, Ashley, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in self-reported health status in the US," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    7. White, Matthew N., 2023. "Self-reported health status and latent health dynamics," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    dynamic panel data models; variance decomposition; health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • C5 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling

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