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Avoiding Blinding to Health Status: A New Class of Health Achievement and Inequality Indices

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Makdissi

    (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, 55 Laurier E., Ottawa,Ontario)

  • Myra Yazbeck

    (CIRPÉE and Department of Epidemiology Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, CanadaTemplate-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0)

Abstract

This paper argues that health transfers from an individual at a lower rank in the health distribution to a person at a higher rank may decrease the concentration index if the former has a slightly higher income. The concentration index, being mainly focused on the socio-economic dimension of health inequality, can produce such counter-intuitive results that overlook the pure health inequality aversion of the planner. Building on Atkinson (1970), Yitzhaki (1983) and Wagstaff (2002), this paper presents a simple new class of health achievement and health inequality indices that overcomes the above mentioned problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2012. "Avoiding Blinding to Health Status: A New Class of Health Achievement and Inequality Indices," Working Papers 1207E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ott:wpaper:1207e
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    File URL: http://sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/economics/sites/socialsciences.uottawa.ca.economics/files/1207E.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Correcting the Concentration Index: A reply to Wagstaff," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 521-524, March.
    3. Rolf Aaberge, 2009. "Ranking intersecting Lorenz curves," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 33(2), pages 235-259, August.
    4. ERREYGERS, Guido, 2006. "Beyond the Health Concentration Index: An Atkinson alternative for the measurement of the socioeconomic inequality of health," Working Papers 2006029, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    5. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Paci, Pierella, 1989. "Equity in the Finance and Delivery of Health Care: Some Tentative Cross-country Comparisons," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 89-112, Spring.
    6. Berrebi, Z. M. & Silber, Jacques, 1981. "Weighting income ranks and levels : A Multiple-Parameter Generalization For Absolute and Relative Inequality Indices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 391-397.
    7. Paul Makdissi & Stéphane Mussard, 2008. "Analyzing the impact of indirect tax reforms on rank-dependent social welfare functions: a positional dominance approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(3), pages 385-399, April.
    8. Wagstaff, Adam, 2002. "Inequality aversion, health inequalities and health achievement," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 627-641, July.
    9. 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.
    10. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1983. "On an Extension of the Gini Inequality Index," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 24(3), pages 617-628, October.
    11. Fishburn, Peter C. & Willig, Robert D., 1984. "Transfer principles in income redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 323-328, December.
    12. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Correcting the Concentration Index," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 504-515, March.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Maria Livia Stefanescu & Stefan Stefanescu, 2014. "Using the median and the mean of the income to establish the poverty lines," Computational Methods in Social Sciences (CMSS), "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 2(1), pages 21-27, June.
    2. repec:ntu:ntugeo:vol2-iss1-14-021 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health inequality; Health Achievement;

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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