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A general method for decomposing the causes of socioeconomic inequality in health

Heckley, Gawain LU orcid ; Gerdtham, Ulf G. LU orcid and Kjellsson, Gustav LU (2016) In Journal of Health Economics 48. p.89-106
Abstract

We introduce a general decomposition method applicable to all forms of bivariate rank dependent indices of socioeconomic inequality in health, including the concentration index. The technique is based on recentered influence function regression and requires only the application of OLS to a transformed variable with similar interpretation. Our method requires few identifying assumptions to yield valid estimates in most common empirical applications, unlike current methods favoured in the literature. Using the Swedish Twin Registry and a within twin pair fixed effects identification strategy, our new method finds no evidence of a causal effect of education on income-related health inequality.

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Concentration index, Decomposition methods, I10, I14, I30, Inequality measurement, Recentered influence function
in
Journal of Health Economics
volume
48
pages
18 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:84973154885
  • pmid:27137844
  • wos:000379093600007
ISSN
0167-6296
DOI
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.03.006
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
95f9b448-0444-447b-8390-4b26e835eb55
date added to LUP
2016-07-08 14:47:32
date last changed
2024-06-15 13:46:18
@article{95f9b448-0444-447b-8390-4b26e835eb55,
  abstract     = {{<p>We introduce a general decomposition method applicable to all forms of bivariate rank dependent indices of socioeconomic inequality in health, including the concentration index. The technique is based on recentered influence function regression and requires only the application of OLS to a transformed variable with similar interpretation. Our method requires few identifying assumptions to yield valid estimates in most common empirical applications, unlike current methods favoured in the literature. Using the Swedish Twin Registry and a within twin pair fixed effects identification strategy, our new method finds no evidence of a causal effect of education on income-related health inequality.</p>}},
  author       = {{Heckley, Gawain and Gerdtham, Ulf G. and Kjellsson, Gustav}},
  issn         = {{0167-6296}},
  keywords     = {{Concentration index; Decomposition methods; I10; I14; I30; Inequality measurement; Recentered influence function}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  pages        = {{89--106}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Health Economics}},
  title        = {{A general method for decomposing the causes of socioeconomic inequality in health}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.03.006}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.03.006}},
  volume       = {{48}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}