Costa-i-Font, Joan, Gemmill, Marin and Rubert, Gloria (2011) Biases in the healthcare luxury good hypothesis?: a meta-regression analysis. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 174 (1). pp. 95-107. ISSN 0964-1998
Abstract
Although a growing literature examining the relationship between income and health expenditures suggests that healthcare is a luxury good, this conclusion is debatable owing to heterogeneity of the existing results. The paper tests the luxury good hypothesis (namely that income elasticity exceeds 1) by using meta-regression analysis, taking into consideration publication selection and aggregation bias. The findings suggest that publication bias exists, which is a result that is robust to the meta-regression model employed. Publication selection and aggregation bias also appear to play a role in the generation of estimates. The corrected estimates of income elasticity range from 0.4 to 0.8, which cast serious doubt on the validity of the luxury good hypothesis.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.rss.org.uk/main.asp?page=3003 |
| Additional Information: | © 2010 Royal Statistical Society |
| Library of Congress subject classification: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine |
| Sets: | Departments > Social Policy Departments > European Institute Research centres and groups > LSE Health Collections > Economists Online |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Aug 2010 12:37 |
| URL: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28989/ |
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