Eliciting the level of health inequality aversion in England

Matthew Robson; Miqdad Asaria; Aki Tsuchiya; Shehzad Ali; Richard Andrew Cookson

Eliciting the level of health inequality aversion in England

Matthew Robson, Miqdad Asaria, Aki Tsuchiya, Shehzad Ali, Richard Andrew Cookson

Research output: Working paper › Discussion paper

Abstract

Policy makers faced with equality-efficiency trade-offs can articulate the nature and extent of their health inequality aversion using social welfare functions. In this study we use data from an online survey of the general public in England (n=246) to elicit health inequality aversion parameters by numerically solving Atkinson and Kolm social welfare functions. We elicit median inequality aversion parameters of 10.95 for Atkinson and 0.15 for Kolm. These values suggest substantial concern for health inequality among the English general public which, at current levels of quality adjusted life expectancy, implies weighting health gains to the poorest fifth of people in society six to seven times as highly as health gains to the richest fifth.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	York, UK
Publisher	Centre for Health Economics, University of York
Pages	1-19
Number of pages	19
Publication status	Published - Jan 2016

Publication series

Name	CHE Research Paper
Publisher	Centre for Health Economics, University of York
No.	125

Keywords

health inequality
inequality aversion
social preferences
survey
welfare function

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CHERP125_eliciting_inequality_preferences_Final published version, 2.12 MB

http://www.york.ac.uk/media/che/documents/papers/researchpapers/CHERP125_eliciting_inequality_preferences_.pdf

Cite this

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title = "Eliciting the level of health inequality aversion in England",

abstract = "Policy makers faced with equality-efficiency trade-offs can articulate the nature and extent of their health inequality aversion using social welfare functions. In this study we use data from an online survey of the general public in England (n=246) to elicit health inequality aversion parameters by numerically solving Atkinson and Kolm social welfare functions. We elicit median inequality aversion parameters of 10.95 for Atkinson and 0.15 for Kolm. These values suggest substantial concern for health inequality among the English general public which, at current levels of quality adjusted life expectancy, implies weighting health gains to the poorest fifth of people in society six to seven times as highly as health gains to the richest fifth. ",

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AU - Asaria, Miqdad

AU - Tsuchiya, Aki

AU - Ali, Shehzad

AU - Cookson, Richard Andrew

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N2 - Policy makers faced with equality-efficiency trade-offs can articulate the nature and extent of their health inequality aversion using social welfare functions. In this study we use data from an online survey of the general public in England (n=246) to elicit health inequality aversion parameters by numerically solving Atkinson and Kolm social welfare functions. We elicit median inequality aversion parameters of 10.95 for Atkinson and 0.15 for Kolm. These values suggest substantial concern for health inequality among the English general public which, at current levels of quality adjusted life expectancy, implies weighting health gains to the poorest fifth of people in society six to seven times as highly as health gains to the richest fifth.

AB - Policy makers faced with equality-efficiency trade-offs can articulate the nature and extent of their health inequality aversion using social welfare functions. In this study we use data from an online survey of the general public in England (n=246) to elicit health inequality aversion parameters by numerically solving Atkinson and Kolm social welfare functions. We elicit median inequality aversion parameters of 10.95 for Atkinson and 0.15 for Kolm. These values suggest substantial concern for health inequality among the English general public which, at current levels of quality adjusted life expectancy, implies weighting health gains to the poorest fifth of people in society six to seven times as highly as health gains to the richest fifth.

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KW - social preferences

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BT - Eliciting the level of health inequality aversion in England

PB - Centre for Health Economics, University of York

CY - York, UK

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