Inequality in Health
(2013) NEKH01 20131Department of Economics
- Abstract
- There is a strong consensus in the academic literature over the historical importance of economic growth for improvements in overall health quality, but stagnating increases in life expectancy in high-income countries seems to point towards a diminishing correlation between economic growth and health. A theory that has gained popularity in recent years is that a decreasing importance of absolute income levels as a determinant for people’s health has been accompanied by an increasing importance of relative income. This thesis sets out to test the relative income hypothesis by analyzing if changes in aggregate income inequality have an effect on individual’s subjective health.
The theoretical assumption is that individuals make social... (More) - There is a strong consensus in the academic literature over the historical importance of economic growth for improvements in overall health quality, but stagnating increases in life expectancy in high-income countries seems to point towards a diminishing correlation between economic growth and health. A theory that has gained popularity in recent years is that a decreasing importance of absolute income levels as a determinant for people’s health has been accompanied by an increasing importance of relative income. This thesis sets out to test the relative income hypothesis by analyzing if changes in aggregate income inequality have an effect on individual’s subjective health.
The theoretical assumption is that individuals make social comparisons between themselves and the national average. Widened income gaps will then increase the level of psychological stress hormones, which have been found to cause various diseases, and thereby decrease the individual’s level of subjective health.
The results from this analysis are unsupportive of the relative income hypothesis, indicating that absolute income is still a more important determinant of people’s health. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3815056
- author
- Hansson, Fredrik LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Testing the relative income hypothesis
- course
- NEKH01 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- income inequality, subjective health, relative income hypothesis
- language
- English
- id
- 3815056
- date added to LUP
- 2013-06-20 11:30:36
- date last changed
- 2013-06-20 11:30:36
@misc{3815056, abstract = {{There is a strong consensus in the academic literature over the historical importance of economic growth for improvements in overall health quality, but stagnating increases in life expectancy in high-income countries seems to point towards a diminishing correlation between economic growth and health. A theory that has gained popularity in recent years is that a decreasing importance of absolute income levels as a determinant for people’s health has been accompanied by an increasing importance of relative income. This thesis sets out to test the relative income hypothesis by analyzing if changes in aggregate income inequality have an effect on individual’s subjective health. The theoretical assumption is that individuals make social comparisons between themselves and the national average. Widened income gaps will then increase the level of psychological stress hormones, which have been found to cause various diseases, and thereby decrease the individual’s level of subjective health. The results from this analysis are unsupportive of the relative income hypothesis, indicating that absolute income is still a more important determinant of people’s health.}}, author = {{Hansson, Fredrik}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Inequality in Health}}, year = {{2013}}, }