The impact of economic fluctuations on health inequalities in Europe: Evidence from 29 countries between 2005 and 2015

There is ongoing debate regarding the impact of economic recessions on health outcomes. Additionally, prior research yields conflicting results on whether economic recessions widen the health disparity between highly educated and less educated individuals. We investigate this issue by examining the impact of the Great Recession and the subsequent double-dip recession on health disparities, using cross-classified multilevel models. We use longitudinal data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) covering 29 countries from 2005 to 2015. Our findings reveal compelling evidence that the Great Recession and the subsequent double-dip recession significantly widened the health disparity between individuals with lower and higher levels of education. Conversely, our results indicate that austerity measures, specifically reductions in health spending, narrowed this health gap between low and high educated.