Socioeconomic inequalities in health: Measurement, computation, and statistical inference

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Abstract

This paper clarifies the relationship between two widely used indices of health inequality and explains why these are superior to others indices used in the literature. It also develops asymptotic estimators for their variances and clarifies the role that demographic standardization plays in the analysis of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Empirical illustrations are presented for Dutch health survey data.

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    This paper derives from the project ‘Equity in the finance and delivery of health care in Europe’, which is funded by the European Community's Biomet Programme (contract BMH1-CT92-608).

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    We are grateful to the EC for financial support. We are also grateful to Han Bliechrodt for his help in the research leading up to this paper and for him. Alok Bhargava and three referees for helpful comments on a previous draft. We alone are responsible for any errors.

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