Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36226 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4506
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper uses sequential stochastic dominance procedures to compare the joint distribution of health and income across space and time. It is the first application of which we are aware of methods to compare multidimensional distributions of income and health using procedures that are robust to aggregation techniques. The paper's approach is more general than comparisons of health gradients and does not require the estimation of health equivalent incomes. We illustrate the approach by contrasting Canada and the US using comparable data. Canada dominates the US over the lower bi-dimensional welfare distribution of health and income, though not generally in terms of the uni-dimensional distribution of health or income. The paper also finds that welfare for both Canadians and Americans has not unambiguously improved during the last decade over the joint distribution of income and health, in spite of the fact that the uni-dimensional distributions of income have clearly improved during that period.
Subjects: 
Health inequality
self-reported health status
income distribution
stochastic dominances
social welfare
JEL: 
I10
I32
I38
D63
D30
H51
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
603.63 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.