Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223674 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13232
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
There is a presumption that when an individual's comparison of his income with the incomes of others in his comparison group yields an unfavorable outcome, the individual is dismayed and experiences stress that impinges negatively on his health. In a recent study, Hounkpatin et al. (2016) conduct an inquiry aimed at deciphering which measure of low relative income reflects better the adverse psychosocial effect of low relative income on health. Hounkpatin et al. pit against each other two indices that they characterize as " competing:" the "relative deprivation (Yitzhaki Index)" of individual i, RDi ; and the "income rank position" of individual i, Ri . In this Rejoinder we show that because a measure of rank is embodied in the RDi index and the Ri index can be elicited from the RDi index, these two indices need not be viewed as competing. Furthermore, we formulate a composite measure of relative deprivation, CRDi , which can be used to assess more fully the psychosocial effect of individual i's low relative income on his health.
Subjects: 
the adverse psychosocial effect of low relative income on health
an index of relative deprivation
an index of income rank
decomposition of the index of relative deprivation into ordinal and cardinal components
a composite measure of relative deprivation
JEL: 
I12
I14
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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