Health 1 - Why Do Health Disparities Exist Today?

"Better educated individuals are more efficient producers of health than less well-educated individuals"

• Grossman predicts that people who are efficient producers will have a higher H*.
• Improving knowledge processing and decision making.
• Educated individuals are more able to treat chronic illnesses such as HIV - complicated treatment schedules.
• Educated quit smoking earlier
• Schooling helps students be more patient when it comes to payoffs of investments (like health) - Fuchs. 

• Genetic reasons for being inefficient at producing health.
• Depreviation of food in utero and early childhood leads to activaton of 'thrifty' genes that are useful in sparse environment conditions but bad in conditions of abundance.
• More likely to develop diabetes or obesity
• Poorer individuals more likely to be food deprived.
• Natural experiments use environmental shocks such as earthquakes. E.g. Dutch famine in WWII due to Naxi blockade of food.

"Disparities exist because rich people have more resources to devote to health"

NHS is an exception

"Those with high incomes can afford more generous health insurance compared to those of low income"

This persists in countries with universal health insurance.

"Prolonged or repeated stress in unhealthy and can cause an increased rate of ageing"

Study on civial servants found that ones with more stressful jobs also had higher rated of morbidity and mortatlity.

"Health disparities are casues by an unequal distribution of income"

More equal societies are less stressful and therefore healthier

Policy Implications? Aim to reduce inequality.

"Bad health leads to lower productive time and therefore less time to produce income"

Reverse Causality 

Example

Study on siblings in the same household show those with worse health during infancy have high mortality rates, lower educational achievements and lower adult earnings.

"Time preference causes both bad health and a low SES"

Willingness to delay gratification. 

People who are willing to invest in gratification (health, education) have higher discount factors.