The Correlation Between Income Inequality and Population Health

2022 ◽  
pp. 94-113
Author(s):  
Betül Inam ◽  
Dilek Murat
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Canonical Correlation ◽  
Correlation Method ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Economic Indicators ◽  
Life Expectancy At Birth ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Output Indicators

Today, despite the increase in global wealth, the income gap between the rich and the poor gradually widens. This gap is significant in both developed and developing nations. Thus, increasing income inequality adversely affects several socio-economic indicators. Previous studies demonstrated that one of the socio-economic indicators that were negatively affected by income inequality is population health. The income inequality experienced by the individuals or throughout life adversely affects several populations' health outputs, especially life expectancy at birth. The present study aimed to test the correlation between income inequality and population health output indicators with canonical correlation method and based on the most current data available for several nations. To determine the correlation between the two datasets, the 2017 data for 29 European countries and Turkey were analyzed. Canonical correlation analysis revealed a significant correlation between the income inequality and population health indicator datasets.

scholarly journals Income Inequality and Population Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Test of Income Inequality-Health Hypothesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 235-254
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Abidemi Odusanya ◽  
◽  
Anthony Enisan Akinlo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Generalized Method Of Moments ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Life Expectancy At Birth ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Poor Population

Existing studies have shown that income inequality remains a core determinant of population health. These findings are in line with the Income Inequality-Health Hypothesis (IIHH). However, this assertion remains unclear for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite the rising trend of income disparity in the region and the vastness of the studies that tested the validity of the IIHH. This inferential study, therefore, examines the effect of income inequality on health for 31 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1995 to 2015 using life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, and under-five mortality rate as indicators of population health, as well as the Gini index as a measurement of income inequality. The study employed the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). We infer that income inequality contributes significantly to poor population health in Sub-Saharan Africa, thereby affirming the validity of the Income Inequality-Health Hypothesis for the region.

THE INTEGRAL INDEX OF PROBLEMS IN THE EVALUATION OF THE HEALTH STATE

2018 ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
A.E. Vlasenko ◽  
N.M. Zhilina ◽  
A.A. Kozhevnikov ◽  
G.I. Chechenin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Economic Indicators ◽  
Health State ◽  
Integral Index ◽  
Municipal District ◽  
Risk Areas

The article presents the algorithm for calculating the integral index of problems in the evaluation of indicators of population health and identifying risk areas. The integral indices for Novokuznetsk municipal district were calculated. The index can be used by specialists of various levels and regions in assessing the level of health, environmental and socio-economic indicators for appropriate decision-making.

The effects of debt restructurings on income inequality in the developing world

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110014
Author(s):  
Glen Biglaiser ◽  
Ronald J. McGauvran
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Impact

Developing countries, saddled with debts, often prefer investors absorb losses through debt restructurings. By not making full repayments, debtor governments could increase social spending, serving poorer constituents, and, in turn, lowering income inequality. Alternatively, debtor governments could reduce taxes and cut government spending, bolstering the assets of the rich at the expense of the poor. Using panel data for 71 developing countries from 1986 to 2016, we assess the effects of debt restructurings on societal income distribution. Specifically, we study the impact of debt restructurings on social spending, tax reform, and income inequality. We find that countries receiving debt restructurings tend to use their newly acquired economic flexibility to reduce taxes and lower social spending, worsening income inequality. The results are also robust to different model specifications. Our study contributes to the globalization and the poor debate, suggesting the economic harm caused to the less well-off following debt restructurings.

scholarly journals Exclusive Goods and Formal-Sector Employment

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 242-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reto Foellmi ◽  
Josef Zweimüller
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Aggregate Demand ◽  
Differentiated Products ◽  
Price Setting ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Nonhomothetic Preferences ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
The Rich

We explore how the underemployment problem of less-developed economies is related to income inequality. Consumers have nonhomothetic preferences over differentiated products of formal-sector goods and thus inequality affects the composition of aggregate demand via the price-setting behavior of firms. We find that high inequality divides the formal sector into mass producers and exclusive producers (which serve only the rich); high inequality generates an equilibrium where many workers are crowded into the informal economy; and an increase in subsistence productivity raises the unskilled workers' wages and boosts employment due to the higher purchasing power of poorer households. (JEL D31, D43, E24, E26, J24)

scholarly journals Income Inequality and Population Health: A Global Gradient?

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 536-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Curran ◽  
Matthew C. Mahutga
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Harmful Effect ◽  
Fixed Effects Models ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Lower Population ◽  
Cross National

Cross-national empirical research about the link between income inequality and population health produces conflicting conclusions. We address these mixed findings by examining the degree to which the income inequality and health relationship varies with economic development. We estimate fixed-effects models with different measures of income inequality and population health. Results suggest that development moderates the association between inequality and two measures of population health. Our findings produce two generalizations. First, we observe a global gradient in the relationship between income inequality and population health. Second, our results are consistent with income inequality as a proximate or conditional cause of lower population health. Income inequality has a 139.7% to 374.3% more harmful effect on health in poorer than richer countries and a significantly harmful effect in 2.1% to 53.3% of countries in our sample and 6.6% to 67.6% of the world’s population but no significantly harmful effect in richer countries.

Income Inequality and Economic Development

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew McKeever
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship

The nature of the relationship between economic development and income inequality has long been the subject of considerable debate. Economic growth has very different effects on poverty, depending on a country’s level of income inequality. In high inequality countries, economic growth that raises the overall level of income disproportionately tends to benefit the rich, whereas policies that encourage economic growth while reducing income inequality will greatly accelerate the achievement of poverty reduction goals. Thus, understanding how income inequality and economic development are linked is important for establishing economic growth policies that reduce poverty. The literature on the economic development–income inequality nexus in industrial society places emphasis on the causes of current social inequality. The central and most cited paper in the literature is S. Kuznets’s “Economic Growth and Income Inequality” (1955), which proposed an inverted U-shaped relationship between development and inequality over the course of industrialization. Some scholars have tried to build upon Kuznets’s theory by focusing on his claim that income inequality is a function of the nature of regulations put on the market. Other studies deal with the importance of studying the relationship between democracy and inequality, the effect of the nature of the government on shaping inequality compared to industrialization, and the implications of globalization for income inequality. This overview of the literature shows that there is little true consensus on the relationship between inequality and development and highlights two major areas for improvement: measurement and data quality.

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