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Do Education and Income Really Explain Inequalities in Health? Applying a Twin Design

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  • U.-G. Gerdtham
  • P. Lundborg
  • C. H. Lyttkens
  • P. Nystedt

Abstract

We apply a twin design to examine the relationship between health and education and income. The estimated associations between health and education and income, controlling for unobserved endowments, at the twin-pair level, are lower than estimates obtained via ordinary least-squares (OLS) on the same sample. Thus, OLS-based effects of education and income are biased, exaggerating the contribution of education and income to health inequality. The main part of health inequality is explained by within-twin-pair fixed effects, incorporating family background and genetic inheritance. It appears that education and income policies have less to offer for reducing health inequality than is usually assumed.

Suggested Citation

  • U.-G. Gerdtham & P. Lundborg & C. H. Lyttkens & P. Nystedt, 2016. "Do Education and Income Really Explain Inequalities in Health? Applying a Twin Design," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(1), pages 25-48, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:118:y:2016:i:1:p:25-48
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/sjoe.12130
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    Cited by:

    1. Roselinde Kessels & Guido Erreygers, 2016. "Structural equation modeling for decomposing rank-dependent indicators of socioeconomic inequality of health: an empirical study," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Lång, Elisabeth & Nystedt, Paul, 2018. "Blowing up money? The earnings penalty of smoking in the 1970s and the 21st century," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 39-52.
    3. Maczulskij, Terhi & Viinikainen, Jutta, 2018. "Is personality related to permanent earnings? Evidence using a twin design," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 116-129.
    4. Petter Lundborg & Carl Hampus Lyttkens & Paul Nystedt, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Mortality: New Evidence From 50,000 Swedish Twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1135-1168, August.
    5. Lång, Elisabeth & Nystedt, Paul, 2016. "Learning For Life? The Effects of Schooling on Earnings and Health- Related Behavior Over the Life Cycle," LiU Working Papers in Economics 4, Linköping University, Division of Economics, Department of Management and Engineering.
    6. Heckley, Gawain & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Kjellsson, Gustav, 2016. "A general method for decomposing the causes of socioeconomic inequality in health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 89-106.
    7. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2019. "Reconsideration of a simple approach to quantile regression for panel data: a comment on the Canay (2011) fixed effects estimator," Working Papers w0249, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    8. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2019. "Reconsideration of a simple approach to quantile regression for panel data: a comment on the Canay (2011) fixed effects estimator," Working Papers w0249, New Economic School (NES).

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