Journal article
Subgroup Decomposability of Income-Related Inequality of Health, with an Application to Australia
G Erreygers, R Kessels, L Chen, P Clarke
Economic Record | WILEY | Published : 2018
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to compare the decomposition properties of rank-dependent and level-dependent indicators of income-related inequality of health. We do so by focusing on the decomposition by population groups. We show that level-dependent indices have more desirable subgroup decomposability properties than rank-dependent indices. This may prove to be an important argument in favour of the use of level-dependent indices. The difference between the subgroup decomposition results of rank-dependent and level-dependent indices is illustrated by means of an empirical study using Australian health and income data. We consider subgroups based on sex, age and employment status.
Grants
Awarded by Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne
Funding Acknowledgements
This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either FaHCSIA or the Melbourne Institute. We thank seminar audiences at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Canterbury and the University of Queensland, participants of the EcoMod 2016 Conference in Lisbon, and a reviewer of this journal for useful remarks and observations. A special word of thanks goes to John P. Haisken-DeNew, who prompted us to think about the decomposability of the level-dependent index. We acknowledge the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) for Roselinde Kessels's postdoctoral fellowship. Philip Clarke is supported by NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (GNT1079621). All errors are our responsibility.