Economic crisis and health inequalities: evidence from the European Union

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research

Laia Maynou¹  Marc Saez² 

[1] Center for Research in Health and Economics (CRES), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27, Mercè Rodoreda Building, 08005, Barcelona, Spain;Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS), Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071, Girona, Spain;CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain;Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS), Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071, Girona, Spain;CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain;Center for Research in Health and Economics (CRES), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27, Mercè Rodoreda Building, 08005, Barcelona, Spain;

关键词: Economic crisis;    Health inequalities;    Dynamic panel model;    Random-effects;    σ-convergence;    I14;    I15;    C33;    C11;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-016-0425-6

 received in 2016-02-29, accepted in 2016-08-25,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe recent economic crisis has been a major shock not only to the economic sector, but also to the rest of society. Our main objective in this paper is to show the impact of the economic crisis on convergence, i.e. the reduction or equalising of disparities, among the EU-27 countries in terms of health. The aim is to observe whether the economic crisis (from 2008 onwards) has in fact had an effect on health inequalities within the EU.MethodsWe estimate convergence by specifying a dynamic panel model with random-effects (time, regions and countries). We are particularly interested in σ-convergence. As dependent variables, we use life expectancy, total mortality and (cause-specific) mortality in the regions of the EU-27 countries over the period 1995–2011.ResultsThe results of the analysis show that, in terms of health, there has been a catching-up process among the EU regions. However, we find no reduction, on average, in dispersion levels as the σ-convergence shows. The main finding of this paper has been the sharp increase in disparities in 2010 for all health outcomes (albeit less abrupt for cancer mortality).ConclusionThis increase in disparities in 2010 coincides with the austerity measures implemented in the EU countries. Our main conclusion is that these austerity measures have had an impact on socioeconomic inequalities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016