title: Eliciting the Level of Health Inequality Aversion in England.
abstract: Health inequality aversion parameters can be used to represent alternative value judgements about policy concern for reducing health inequality versus improving total health. In this study, we use data from an online survey of the general public in England (n = 244) to elicit health inequality aversion parameters for both Atkinson and Kolm social welfare functions. We find median inequality aversion parameters of 10.95 for Atkinson and 0.15 for Kolm. These values suggest substantial concern for health inequality among the English general public which, at current levels of quality adjusted life expectancy, implies weighting health gains to the poorest fifth of people in society six to seven times as highly as health gains to the richest fifth. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, York, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4558-7637
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Robson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK.
authors.forename: Miqdad
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3538-4417
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asaria
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cookson
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, and School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of York, UK.
authors.forename: Shehzad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty; D011639:Public Opinion; D012946:Social Welfare
keywords: health inequality; inequality aversion; social preferences; survey; welfare function