A theory of socio-economic disparities in health over the life cycle

Motivated by the observation that medical care explains only a relatively small part of the socioeconomic status (SES)-health gradient, we present a life-cycle model that incorporates several additional behaviours that potentially explain (jointly) a large part of observed disparities. As a result, the model provides not only a conceptual framework for the SES-health gradient but more generally an improved framework for the production of health. We derive novel predictions from the theory by performing comparative dynamic analyses. More generally, our comparative dynamic method can be applied to models of similar form, e.g. human capital, health deficits, firm investment, to name a few.

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