Economics of Health Inequality

Health differs markedly by education, race, occupation and income. In high-income countries, a 30-year-old male college graduate can expect to live almost eight years longer than a contemporary with only compulsory schooling. The striking magnitude and the persistence of socioeconomic disparities in health is a major public health issue. In the context of population ageing and rising medical expenditures, it is also attracting attention in economics.

This course will arm you with tools to measure health inequality. In addition to gaining competence in the computation of health inequality indices, you will be forced to consider the normative implications of the measures. You will also become familiar with economic models that aim to explain socioeconomic disparities in health, and related evidence.

The course is targeted at economists embarking on research on population health, as well as at researchers from the field of public health wishing to become competent in techniques used by economists to analyze health inequality.

To attain competence in:
normative evaluation of health inequality
measurement of health inequality
computation of health inequality indices
decomposition of health inequality
understanding economic models of health behavior

The course consists of: Lectures, Practical computing sessions, Seminar discussions and Empirical assignments

Lectures introduce concepts, explain measures and models, and review evidence.

Practical computing sessions using Stata® provide hands-on experience with the computation of measures and application of decomposition techniques. Example Stata do files are provided. You are expected to have your own laptop capable of running Stata. If you do not have Stata installed on your laptop, a temporary license will be provided for the duration of the course.

Seminars provide an opportunity to reflect critically on the material covered in lectures.

Students complete two empirical assignments during the week. They present the second of these on the final day."