Inequality aversion and government health expenditure

IF 2.3 3区 经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper explores a behavioural mechanism through which income inequality may be associated with population health. We consider a model with heterogeneous agents in which agents' preferences are characterized by income inequality aversion. Our analysis shows that spending on health-producing goods is inversely related to the agents’ degree of inequality aversion. A Veblenesque mechanism drives this relation: inequality averse poor agents wish to enjoy consumption levels closer to the average consumption levels in the economy but can only do so by reducing their expenditures on health. This leads to adverse outcomes for individuals and adverse political economy implications for health. In the political economy context, agents characterized by high inequality aversion vote for lower levels of government health spending. To specifically test this mechanism, we construct empirical measures of inequality aversion. Then, using these measures for a panel of 147 countries spanning 2008–2019, we find a significant negative impact of inequality aversion on allocations of public spending for healthcare. These results remain robust to different model specifications.

不平等厌恶与政府医疗支出
本文探讨了收入不平等可能与人口健康相关联的行为机制。我们考虑了一个具有异质性代理人的模型,在这个模型中,代理人的偏好具有收入不平等厌恶的特征。我们的分析表明,在健康产品上的支出与代理人的不平等厌恶程度成反比。韦伯伦式的机制推动了这种关系:厌恶不平等的贫困代理人希望享有更接近经济平均消费水平的消费水平,但他们只能通过减少在健康方面的支出来实现这一目标。这会导致对个人不利的结果和对健康不利的政治经济影响。在政治经济学背景下,具有高度不平等厌恶特征的代理人会投票支持降低政府的医疗支出水平。为了具体检验这一机制,我们构建了不平等厌恶的实证测量指标。然后,利用这些指标对 2008-2019 年间 147 个国家的面板数据进行分析,我们发现不平等厌恶对医疗保健公共支出的分配有显著的负面影响。这些结果在不同的模型规格下仍然是稳健的。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.40
自引率
10.00%
发文量
106
期刊介绍: The aim of the European Journal of Political Economy is to disseminate original theoretical and empirical research on economic phenomena within a scope that encompasses collective decision making, political behavior, and the role of institutions. Contributions are invited from the international community of researchers. Manuscripts must be published in English. Starting 2008, the European Journal of Political Economy is indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index published by Thomson Scientific (formerly ISI).
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