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Avoiding blindness to health status in health achievement and health inequality measurement

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  • Makdissi, Paul
  • Yazbeck, Myra

Abstract

The concentration index, being focused on the socioeconomic dimension of health inequality and overlooking aversion to pure health inequality, can produce ethically contestable rankings of health distributions. A health transfer from a sicker but richer individual to healthier but poorer individual will decrease the concentration index. This paper presents a new class of health inequality indices that avoid this limitation by trading off socioeconomic-related health inequality against pure health inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Makdissi, Paul & Yazbeck, Myra, 2016. "Avoiding blindness to health status in health achievement and health inequality measurement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 39-47.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:171:y:2016:i:c:p:39-47
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.027
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gustav Kjellsson & Dennis Petrie & Tom (T.G.M.) van Ourti, 2018. "Measuring income-related inequalities in risky health prospects," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 18-007/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2017. "Robust rankings of socioeconomic health inequality using a categorical variable," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(9), pages 1132-1145, September.
    4. Xu, Aiting & Qiu, Keyang & Jin, Canyang & Cheng, Caijuan & Zhu, Yuhan, 2022. "Regional innovation ability and its inequality: Measurements and dynamic decomposition," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    5. Stéphane Mussard & Maria Noel Pi Alperin & Véronique Thireau, 2018. "Health inequality indices and exogenous risk factors: an illustration on Luxembourgish workers," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(9), pages 1285-1301, December.
    6. Khaled, Mohamad A. & Makdissi, Paul & Yazbeck, Myra, 2018. "Income-related health transfers principles and orderings of joint distributions of income and health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 315-331.
    7. Tzu-Ying Chen & Yi-Hsin Elsa Hsu & Rachel J. Huang & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2021. "Making socioeconomic health inequality comparisons when health concentration curves intersect," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(4), pages 875-899, November.

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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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