Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36863 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4853
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The purpose of this research is to explain the variation in the utilization of drug therapy for the medical conditions of depression, high cholesterol, and hypertension between Hispanics, non-Hispanic blacks, and non-Hispanics whites using Oaxaca-type decomposition analysis based on logit estimates. We find that almost the entire share of the utilization differences in drug therapy between blacks and whites can be explained by the differences in the coefficients of observable characteristics, while the sources of the utilization difference between the whites and Hispanics are split between the differences in the observable characteristics and the coefficient estimates. This result implies that strategies to improve racial and ethnic disparities need to be tailored to each group by focusing on the specific factors that are attributed to causing the disparity.
Subjects: 
Racial and ethnic disparities
drug therapy
depression
high cholesterol
hypertension
Oaxaca decomposition
JEL: 
I11
I12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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