This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. March 2003
  5. Health, Inequality, and Economic Development

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

Health, Inequality, and Economic Development

  • Angus Deaton
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 41, no. 1, March 2003
(pp. 113–158)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

I discuss mechanisms linking health and inequality and review evidence for effects of income inequality on aggregate and individual mortality, over time and over space. I conclude that there is no direct link. Correlations come from factors other than income inequality itself, some of which are linked to broader notions of inequality and inequity that are most likely important for health. Whether income redistribution can improve population health does not depend on the existence of a direct link between income inequality and health and remains an open question.

Citation

Deaton, Angus. 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development ." Journal of Economic Literature, 41 (1): 113–158. DOI: 10.1257/002205103321544710

JEL Classification

  • D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
  • I12 Health Production
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration