Inequality Aversion in Health: Eliciting Aversion to Univariate Health Inequalities Across Different Health...

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Public Health Policy
• Social Welfare Theory

Background:

• Health inequality aversion parameters are crucial for health-related social welfare functions (HRSWFs) when balancing health maximization and equalization.
• Empirical data on public preferences for inequality aversion can ensure health policies align with societal values.

Purpose of the Study:

• To elicit inequality aversion parameters from a large population sample using different health distributions.
• To inform Atkinson and Kolm-Pollak type HRSWFs.
• To compare elicited parameters across varying inequality distributions.

Main Methods:

• Recruited a representative Norwegian population sample.
• Utilized two sets of benefit trade-off tasks with varying baseline health inequality.
• Employed univariate health distributions for analysis.
• Tested for intra-individual concurrence of parameters across distributions.

Main Results:

• 946 responses were analyzed.
• Median Atkinson inequality aversion parameter was 3.52; Kolm-Pollak parameter was 0.05.
• No convincing concurrence was found between elicited parameters from the two task sets.

Conclusions:

• Respondents generally favor trading some health gains to benefit the worse-off.
• Lack of concurrence suggests individual distributional preferences may not meet assumptions of constant relative or absolute inequality aversion.
• Findings highlight complexities in applying inequality aversion parameters in health policy.