Inequality of Opportunities in Health and the Principle of Natural Reward: Evidence from European Countries

Bricard, Damien; Jusot, Florence; Trannoy, Alain; Tubeuf, Sandy

doi:10.1108/s1049-2585(2013)0000021016

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…These results are consistent with previous studies which focused on elder Spaniards [11, 18, 21]. Once we control for the indirect effects of social circumstances (pathway hypothesis), we prove that there has been a direct impact of early-life conditions on individuals’ health.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Tubeuf and Jusot [11] and Bricard et al [18] show how parents’ social status and initial conditions in childhood influence adults’ health in Spain and some other European countries, although they do not distinguish between direct and indirect effects. They also find that the contribution of family background to social health inequality in Spain is more important than the contribution of individual status.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimating direct effects of parental occupation on Spaniards’ health by birth cohort

2017

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BackgroundSocial health inequalities in adult population are partly due to socioeconomic circumstances in childhood. A better understanding of how those circumstances affect health during adulthood may improve the opportunities for reducing health disparities. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of parental socioeconomic status, which is proxied by occupation, on adult Spaniards’ health by birth cohort. The analysis will allow checking not only the direct impact of parental occupation on their offspring’s health, but also whether inherited inequality has been reduced over time.MethodsWe use data from the Bank of Spain’s Survey of Household Finances on Spanish households from 2002 to 2008. Sequential models were used to estimate the influence of the father’s and mother’s occupation on their offspring’s health, trying to disentangle direct from indirect effects. With a sample of 26,832 persons we consider effects for four different cohorts by birth periods ranging from 1916 to 1981.ResultsThe results show that parental occupation has a significant direct impact on individuals’ health (p < 0.01). The effect of father’s occupation exceeds that of mother’s. For those born before 1936, the probability of reporting a good health status ranges from 0.31 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14–0.48), when fathers were classified as unskilled elementary workers, to 0.98 (95% CI 0.98–0.99) when they were managers or mid-level professionals. For those born during the period 1959–1975, those probabilities are 0.49 (95% CI 0.39–0.59) and 0.97 (95% CI 0.96–0.98), respectively. Therefore, health inequalities linked to parental socioeconomic status have been noticeably reduced, although discrimination against unskilled workers persists over time.ConclusionsGreat progress has been made in the health area during the twentieth century, so that the impact of parental socioeconomic status on individuals’ health has been significantly tempered for those at the bottom of the social scale. However, more efforts focused on the improvement of living conditions for most socioeconomically disadvantaged are needed in order to further reduce social inequalities in health.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating direct effects of parental occupation on Spaniards’ health by birth cohort

2017

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“…It would be far more controversial to put BMI on the circumstance side for older people. Of course, there are genetic roots of obesity among some subjects, but the main determinant is lifestyle (see the discussion in Bricard et al 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(It makes sense to say that inequality of life expectancies does not change when all individuals gain one year of life expectancy.) See Fleurbaey and Schokkaert (2009), Jusot, Tubeuf, and Trannoy (2013), and Bricard et al (2013).…”

Section: The Choice Of An Inequality Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equality of Opportunity: Theory and Measurement

Roemer

Trannoy

2016

Journal of Economic Literature

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218

167

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“…First, I use an objective indicator of health as an outcome instead of self-reported health, which has been widely used in earlier studies on a similar subject (e.g. Bricard et al, 2013). A subjective indicator might be incomparable across heterogeneous groups due to their dierent thresholds or rating scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inequality of Opportunity for Healthy Aging in Europe

Kim

2016

SSRN Journal

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This study quanties the inequality of opportunity (IOp) for healthy aging in Europe. Unlike earlier studies, an objective health indicator, grip strength, is used as an outcome. Using the longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (Wave 1-5), I introduce a general model where explanatory variables portray individual lifetime trajectory. All predictors are disentangled into illegitimate and legitimate components. The Hausman-Taylor (1981) estimator is employed to deal with the presence of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity of time-variant lifestyle. Both upper and lower bounds of IOp are considered by incorporating dierent sets of illegitimate factors under six scenarios. Parallel results based on self-reported health are provided. We nd that IOp in a subjective measure is less sensitive to age, but more to unobserved factors. Finally, the magnitude of IOp is compared between men and women as well as across ten statesDenmark,

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Inequality of Opportunities in Health and the Principle of Natural Reward: Evidence from European Countries

Cited by 25 publications

References 25 publications

Estimating direct effects of parental occupation on Spaniards’ health by birth cohort

Estimating direct effects of parental occupation on Spaniards’ health by birth cohort

Equality of Opportunity: Theory and Measurement

Inequality of Opportunity for Healthy Aging in Europe

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