How does exposure to COVID-19 influence health and income inequality aversion?

Asaria, Miqdad ORCID: 0000-0002-3538-4417, Costa-Font, Joan ORCID: 0000-0001-7174-7919 and Cowell, Frank ORCID: 0000-0002-3778-2152 (2023) How does exposure to COVID-19 influence health and income inequality aversion? Social Choice and Welfare, 61 (3). 625 - 647. ISSN 0176-1714

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Abstract

We study individual aversion to health and income inequality in three European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy), its determinants and especially, the effects of exposure to three types of COVID-19 specific shocks affecting individuals’ employment status, their income and health. Next, using evidence of representative samples of the population in the UK, we compare levels of health- and income-inequality aversion in the UK between the years 2016 and 2020. We document evidence of a significant increase in inequality aversion in both income and health domains. However, we show that inequality aversion is higher in the income domain than in the health domain. Furthermore, we find that inequality aversion in both domains increases in age and education and decreases in income and risk appetite. However, people directly exposed to major health shocks during the COVID-19 pandemic generally exhibited lower levels of aversion to both income and health inequality. Finally, we show that inequality aversion was significantly higher among those exposed to higher risk of COVID-19 mortality who experienced major health shocks during the pandemic.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://link.springer.com/journal/355
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author(s).
Divisions:	Health Policy Economics
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty > I30 - General I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty > I38 - Government Policy; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2023 14:48
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 03:41
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/118624

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