On the Measurement of the (Multidimensional) Inequality of Health Distributions
ISBN: 978-1-78190-553-1, eISBN: 978-1-78190-554-8
Publication date: 30 December 2013
Abstract
Health outcomes are often described according to two dimensions: quality of life and quantity of life. We analyze the measurement of inequality of health distributions referring to these two dimensions. Our analysis relies on a novel treatment of the quality-of-life dimension, which might not have a standard mathematical structure. We single out two families of (absolute and relative) multidimensional health inequality indices, inspired by the classical normative approach to income inequality measurement. We also discuss how to extend the analysis to deal with the related problem of health deprivation measurement in this setting.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
We thank Pedro Rosa Dias, as well as conference participants at the PET13 Meeting (Lisbon) and the Conference on Economic Design 2013 (Lund) for helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ECO2011-22919), as well as from the Andalusian Department of Economy, Innovation and Science (SEJ-4154, SEJ-5980) via the “FEDER operational program for Andalusia 2007–2013” is gratefully acknowledged.
Citation
Leth Hougaard, J., Moreno-Ternero, J.D. and Peter Østerdal, L. (2013), "On the Measurement of the (Multidimensional) Inequality of Health Distributions", Health and Inequality (Research on Economic Inequality, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1049-2585(2013)0000021006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited