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Beyond the Health Concentration Index: An Atkinson alternative for the measurement of the socioeconomic inequality of health

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  • ERREYGERS, Guido

Abstract

The Health Concentration Index is a frequently used indicator for the measurement of the socioeconomic inequality of health. This note starts from a discussion of some of the weaknesses of this index. It then presents two possible alternative measures. The first is an adaptation of the Concentration Index. The second and more important of the two is constructed by following an Atkinson approach.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ant:wpaper:2006029
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    11. repec:adr:anecst:y:2006:i:83-84:p:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Bleichrodt, Han & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2006. "A welfare economics foundation for health inequality measurement," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 945-957, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. I. Josa & A. Aguado, 2020. "Measuring Unidimensional Inequality: Practical Framework for the Choice of an Appropriate Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 541-570, June.
    2. Makdissi, Paul & Yazbeck, Myra, 2014. "Measuring socioeconomic health inequalities in presence of multiple categorical information," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 84-95.
    3. 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.
    4. Fleurbaey, Marc & Schokkaert, Erik, 2009. "Unfair inequalities in health and health care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 73-90, January.
    5. Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2014. "Robust Wagstaff Orderings of Distributions of Self-Reported Health Status," Discussion Papers Series 533, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    6. Guido Erreygers, 2013. "A Dual Atkinson Measure Of Socioeconomic Inequality Of Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 466-479, April.
    7. 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.
    8. Giovanni Crea & Valentina Beretta, 2020. "Chronic diseases in Italy: Does socioeconomic status carry weight?," DEM Working Papers Series 187, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    9. H. Eme Ichoku & William Fonta & Michael Thiede, 2011. "Socioeconomic gradients in self-rated health: a developing country case study of Enugu State, Nigeria," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 179-202, August.
    10. Sonne-Schmidt, Christoffer & Tarp, Finn & Peter, Lars, 2011. "Ordinal multidimensional inequality: theory and application to the 2x2 case," MPRA Paper 72838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. repec:ntu:ntugeo:vol2-iss1-14-021 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Zhong, Hai, 2009. "A multivariate analysis of the distribution of individual's welfare in China: What is the role of health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1062-1070, December.
    13. Zlatko Nikoloski & Alistair McGuire & Elias Mossialos, 2021. "Evaluation of progress toward universal health coverage in Myanmar: A national and subnational analysis," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-18, October.
    14. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Can a single indicator measure both attainment and shortfall inequality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 885-893, July.
    15. 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.
    16. Qing Li & Alain A. Cohen & Linda P. Fried, 2017. "A novel health metric based on biomarkers," Cahiers de recherche 17-08, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    17. Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Correcting the Concentration Index," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 504-515, March.
    18. 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.
    19. Makdissi, Paul & Sylla, Daouda & Yazbeck, Myra, 2013. "Decomposing health achievement and socioeconomic health inequalities in presence of multiple categorical information," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 964-968.
    20. Olufunke A. Alaba & Charles Hongoro & Aquina Thulare & Akim Tafadzwa Lukwa, 2021. "Leaving No Child Behind: Decomposing Socioeconomic Inequalities in Child Health for India and South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-18, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality; Concentration Index; Atkinson Index;
    All these keywords.

    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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