Andrew Jones (University of York) 

Inequality of opportunity in health: a decomposition approach  

Date: September, 7th At 9,30h

Room: 24.120 (Mercè Rodoreda Building) - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Abstract: This paper presents a decomposition-based approach to measure inequality in health that captures Roemer's distinction between circumstances and effort. Our approach builds on a decomposition of the Gini index with heterogeneous responses and is extended to decompose an inequality of opportunity Gini index inspired by the "fairness gap" principle. An original feature of our empirical analysis is the use of objectively measured biomarker as health outcomes and as proxies for relevant effort variables. Using data from the Health Survey for England from 2003 to 2012, we find that circumstances are the leading determinant of inequality in cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin, fibrinogen and mean arterial pressure. Moreover, we find a strong interaction between circumstances and effort leading to a smaller effect of effort on health for individuals in worse circumstances. Among the effort factors, we find that healthy diet and physical activity play the largest role in shaping objective health.

 

Bio: Andrew Jones, PhD (York), is Professor of Economics at the University of York, UK, where he was Head of the Department of Economics and Related Studies between January 2011 and September 2015. He was responsible for the running of the MSc in Health Economics at York between 1994 and 2011. During that time there were over 500 graduates from more than 70 different countries. He has also supervised 23 PhD students. He is a joint editor of Health Economics. He edited the Elgar Companion to Health Economics, which was published in 2006 with 50 concise chapters that review the state-of-the-art in the field.  A second edition of the Companion was published in 2012. He was elected to the executive board of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) and is co-chair of their Arrow Award committee. He is president-elect of the European Health Economics Association (EuHEA). He is the Research Director of the Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG).