title: Policy implications of the gradient of health and wealth.
abstract: Men in the United States with family incomes in the top 5 percent of the distribution in 1980 had about 25 percent longer to live than did those in the bottom 5 percent. Proportional increases in income are associated with equal proportional decreases in mortality throughout the income distribution. I discuss possible reasons for this gradient and ask whether it calls for the redistribution of income in the interest of public health. I argue that the existence of the gradient strengthens the case for income redistribution in favor of the poor but that targeting health inequalities would not be sound policy.
authors.affiliation: Woodrow Wilson School and Department of Economics, Princeton University, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deaton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015984:Causality; D004522:Educational Status; D015438:Health Behavior; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000145:classification*; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D011203:Poverty; D012923:Social Class; D012946:Social Welfare; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology