Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide?
Inequalities in health have recently started to receive a good deal of attention in the developing world. But how large are they? An how large are the differences across countries? Recent data from a 42-country study, show large, but varying inequa...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, D.C
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/02/1721477/inequalities-health-developing-countries-swimming-against-tide http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14858 |
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okr-10986-148582021-04-23T14:03:19Z Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? Wagstaff, Adam AID PROGRAMS AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE INCOMES COMPARATIVE STUDIES CONSTANT ELASTICITY CONSTANT PRICES CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONS CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES DEATHS DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS DECREASING FUNCTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT GOALS DIFFERENCES IN INCOME DIMINISHING RETURNS DISEASE CONTROL ECONOMIC GROWTH EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES HEALTH CARE HEALTH COSTS HEALTH INDICATORS HEALTH OUTCOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLDS INCIDENCE ANALYSIS INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS INCOME ELASTICITY INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME LEVEL INCOMES INEQUALITY INFANT MORTALITY INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS LOW INCOMES MALNUTRITION MEDICAL CARE MONEY INCOME MORBIDITY MORTALITY MORTALITY RATES MOTHERS NEGATIVE SIGN NEGATIVE SLOPE NUTRITION PER CAPITA INCOME PER CAPITA INCOMES POLICY MEASURES POLICY RESEARCH POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP POVERTY REDUCTION PRODUCTION FUNCTION PUBLIC SERVICES RADIO REGIONAL DIFFERENCES RURAL POPULATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HEALTH INDICATORS INEQUITY INCOME INEQUALITIES PUBLIC HEALTH FINANCE PUBLIC SPENDING PER CAPITA INCOME TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ECONOMIC GROWTH HEALTH POLICY CROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS DECOMPOSITION METHOD NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS Inequalities in health have recently started to receive a good deal of attention in the developing world. But how large are they? An how large are the differences across countries? Recent data from a 42-country study, show large, but varying inequalities in health across countries. The author explores the reasons for these inter-country differences, and concludes that large inequalities in health, are not apparently associated with large inequalities in income, or with small shares of publicly financed health spending. But they are associated with higher per capita incomes. Evidence from trends in health inequalities - in both the developing, and the industrial world - supports the notion that health inequalities rise with rising per capita incomes. The association between health inequalities, and per capita incomes is probably due in part, to technological change going hand-in-hand with economic growth, coupled with a tendency for the better-off to assimilate new technology ahead of the poor. Since increased health inequalities, associated with rising per capita incomes is a bad thing, and increased average health levels associated with rising incomes are a good thing, the author outlines a way of quantifying the tradeoff between health inequalities, and health levels. He also suggests that successful anti-inequality policies can be devised, but that their success cannot be established simply by looking at "headline" health inequality figures, since these reflect the effects of differences, and changes in other variables, including per capita income. The author identifies four approaches that can shed light on the impacts of anti-inequality policies on health inequalities: cross-country comparative studies, country-based before-and-after studies with controls, benefit-incidence analysis, and decomposition analysis. The results of studies based on these four approaches do not give as many clear-cut answers as one might like on how best to swim against the tide of rising per capita incomes, and their apparent inequality-increasing effects. But they ought at least to help us build our stock of knowledge on the subject. 2013-08-07T18:04:13Z 2013-08-07T18:04:13Z 2002-02 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/02/1721477/inequalities-health-developing-countries-swimming-against-tide http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14858 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No.2795 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, D.C Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
AID PROGRAMS AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE INCOMES COMPARATIVE STUDIES CONSTANT ELASTICITY CONSTANT PRICES CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONS CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES DEATHS DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS DECREASING FUNCTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT GOALS DIFFERENCES IN INCOME DIMINISHING RETURNS DISEASE CONTROL ECONOMIC GROWTH EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES HEALTH CARE HEALTH COSTS HEALTH INDICATORS HEALTH OUTCOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLDS INCIDENCE ANALYSIS INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS INCOME ELASTICITY INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME LEVEL INCOMES INEQUALITY INFANT MORTALITY INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS LOW INCOMES MALNUTRITION MEDICAL CARE MONEY INCOME MORBIDITY MORTALITY MORTALITY RATES MOTHERS NEGATIVE SIGN NEGATIVE SLOPE NUTRITION PER CAPITA INCOME PER CAPITA INCOMES POLICY MEASURES POLICY RESEARCH POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP POVERTY REDUCTION PRODUCTION FUNCTION PUBLIC SERVICES RADIO REGIONAL DIFFERENCES RURAL POPULATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HEALTH INDICATORS INEQUITY INCOME INEQUALITIES PUBLIC HEALTH FINANCE PUBLIC SPENDING PER CAPITA INCOME TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ECONOMIC GROWTH HEALTH POLICY CROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS DECOMPOSITION METHOD NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS |
| spellingShingle |
AID PROGRAMS AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE INCOMES COMPARATIVE STUDIES CONSTANT ELASTICITY CONSTANT PRICES CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONS CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES DEATHS DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS DECREASING FUNCTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT GOALS DIFFERENCES IN INCOME DIMINISHING RETURNS DISEASE CONTROL ECONOMIC GROWTH EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES HEALTH CARE HEALTH COSTS HEALTH INDICATORS HEALTH OUTCOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLDS INCIDENCE ANALYSIS INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS INCOME ELASTICITY INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME LEVEL INCOMES INEQUALITY INFANT MORTALITY INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS LOW INCOMES MALNUTRITION MEDICAL CARE MONEY INCOME MORBIDITY MORTALITY MORTALITY RATES MOTHERS NEGATIVE SIGN NEGATIVE SLOPE NUTRITION PER CAPITA INCOME PER CAPITA INCOMES POLICY MEASURES POLICY RESEARCH POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP POVERTY REDUCTION PRODUCTION FUNCTION PUBLIC SERVICES RADIO REGIONAL DIFFERENCES RURAL POPULATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES HEALTH INDICATORS INEQUITY INCOME INEQUALITIES PUBLIC HEALTH FINANCE PUBLIC SPENDING PER CAPITA INCOME TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ECONOMIC GROWTH HEALTH POLICY CROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS DECOMPOSITION METHOD NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS Wagstaff, Adam Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No.2795 |
| description |
Inequalities in health have recently
started to receive a good deal of attention in the
developing world. But how large are they? An how large are
the differences across countries? Recent data from a
42-country study, show large, but varying inequalities in
health across countries. The author explores the reasons for
these inter-country differences, and concludes that large
inequalities in health, are not apparently associated with
large inequalities in income, or with small shares of
publicly financed health spending. But they are associated
with higher per capita incomes. Evidence from trends in
health inequalities - in both the developing, and the
industrial world - supports the notion that health
inequalities rise with rising per capita incomes. The
association between health inequalities, and per capita
incomes is probably due in part, to technological change
going hand-in-hand with economic growth, coupled with a
tendency for the better-off to assimilate new technology
ahead of the poor. Since increased health inequalities,
associated with rising per capita incomes is a bad thing,
and increased average health levels associated with rising
incomes are a good thing, the author outlines a way of
quantifying the tradeoff between health inequalities, and
health levels. He also suggests that successful
anti-inequality policies can be devised, but that their
success cannot be established simply by looking at
"headline" health inequality figures, since these
reflect the effects of differences, and changes in other
variables, including per capita income. The author
identifies four approaches that can shed light on the
impacts of anti-inequality policies on health inequalities:
cross-country comparative studies, country-based
before-and-after studies with controls, benefit-incidence
analysis, and decomposition analysis. The results of studies
based on these four approaches do not give as many clear-cut
answers as one might like on how best to swim against the
tide of rising per capita incomes, and their apparent
inequality-increasing effects. But they ought at least to
help us build our stock of knowledge on the subject. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Wagstaff, Adam |
| author_facet |
Wagstaff, Adam |
| author_sort |
Wagstaff, Adam |
| title |
Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? |
| title_short |
Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? |
| title_full |
Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? |
| title_fullStr |
Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: Swimming Against the Tide? |
| title_sort |
inequalities in health in developing countries: swimming against the tide? |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, D.C |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/02/1721477/inequalities-health-developing-countries-swimming-against-tide http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14858 |
| _version_ |
1764429682154930176 |