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Measuring income-related inequalities in health using a parametric dependence function

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  • Quinn C

Abstract

Attention has been given recently to the Concentration Index; specifically, corrected versions have been generated that supersede the original with properties such as transform invariance, reversal invariance and transfer invariance. While previous studies have promoted a transformed or normalised index to overcome these problems, I propose, in this paper, two novel approaches to a direct parametric model for dependence as a measure of inequality in the distributions of health and income. These are the copula and quantile regression using jackknifed samples. As well as accommodating any form of health or income, and being robust to invariance criteria, both methods parameterise the measure of inequality directly, rather than indirectly through functions on one of the marginals. Results from an illustrating example using the Survey of Health, Retirement and Ageing in Europe suggest that such inequality in these countries is not explained well by covariates on age, gender, education and lifestyles.

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  • Quinn C, 2009. "Measuring income-related inequalities in health using a parametric dependence function," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/24, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    • Handle: RePEc:yor:hectdg:09/24
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    12. Adam Wagstaff, 2005. "The bounds of the concentration index when the variable of interest is binary, with an application to immunization inequality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 429-432, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Koen Decancq, 2020. "Measuring cumulative deprivation and affluence based on the diagonal dependence diagram," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 78(2), pages 103-117, August.
    2. , Stone Center & Yonzan, Nishant, 2020. "Assortative Mating and Labor Income Inequality: Evidence from Fifty Years of Coupling in the U.S," SocArXiv 4whvs, Center for Open Science.
    3. Koen Decancq, 2023. "Cumulative deprivation: identification and aggregation," Chapters, in: Udaya R. Wagle (ed.), Research Handbook on Poverty and Inequality, chapter 4, pages 52-67, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Anthony Atkinson, 2011. "On lateral thinking," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(3), pages 319-328, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Inequality; Non-Continuous data; Copulas; Quantile Regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C46 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Specific Distributions
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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