University of Sussex
Browse
1/1
4 files

Inequality of opportunity in health: evidence from a UK cohort study

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 12:44 authored by Pedro Rosa Dias
This paper proposes an empirical implementation of the concept of inequality of opportunity in health and applies this to data from the UK National Child Development Study. Drawing on the distinction between circumstance and effort variables in John Roemer’s work on equality of opportunity, circumstances are proxied by parental socioeconomic status and childhood health; effort is proxied by health-related lifestyles and educational attainment. Stochastic dominance tests are used to detect inequality of opportunity in the conditional distributions of self-assessed health in adulthood. Two alternative approaches are used to measure inequality of opportunity. Econometric models are estimated to illuminate and quantify the triangular relationship between circumstances, effort and health. The results indicate the existence of a considerable and persistent inequality of opportunity in health. Circumstances affect health in adulthood both directly and through effort factors such as educational attainment. This indicates that, while the influence of some unjust circumstances can only be tackled during childhood, the implementation of complementary educational policies may be of paramount importance.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Health Economics

ISSN

1057-9230

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Issue

9

Volume

18

Page range

1057-1074

Department affiliated with

  • Economics Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-11-07

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC