School of Economics, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.
Health Econ. 2012 Feb;21(2):178-86. doi: 10.1002/hec.1703. Epub 2011 Jan 31.
Although the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health is well documented for developed countries, less evidence has been presented for developing countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse this relationship at the household level for Fiji, a developing country in the South Pacific, using original household survey data. To allow for the endogeneity of SES status in the household health production function, we utilize a simultaneous equation approach where estimates are achieved by full information maximum likelihood. By restricting our sample to one, relatively small island, and including area and district hospital effects, physical geography effects are unpacked from income effects. We measure SES, as permanent income which is constructed using principal components analysis. An alternative specification considers transitory household income. We find that a 1% increase in wealth (our measure of permanent income) would lead to a 15% decrease in the probability of an incapacitating illness occurring intra-household. Although the presence of a strong relationship indicates that relatively small improvements in SES status can significantly improve health at the household level, it is argued that the design of appropriate policy would also require an understanding of the various mechanisms through which the relationship operates.
尽管社会经济地位（SES）与健康之间的关系在发达国家已有充分的记录，但发展中国家的证据却较少。本文旨在利用斐济的原始家庭调查数据，在家庭层面上分析这一关系。为了允许 SES 地位在家庭健康生产函数中具有内生性，我们利用联立方程方法，通过完全信息极大似然法进行估计。通过将样本限制在一个相对较小的岛屿上，并包括地区和地区医院的影响，可以将收入效应与物理地理效应分开。我们使用主成分分析构建了永久收入来衡量 SES。另一种规格考虑了家庭的临时收入。我们发现，财富（我们衡量永久收入的指标）增加 1%，将导致家庭内部出现致残疾病的概率降低 15%。尽管存在强烈的关系表明 SES 状况的相对较小改善可以显著改善家庭层面的健康状况，但有人认为，制定适当的政策还需要了解关系运作的各种机制。
