Resumen de Essays on health inequality and inequality of opportunity
Health is a fundamental dimension of welfare that contributes to an individual's functional ability and opportunities, implying that inequalities in health often translate into inequalities in other dimensions of welfare, which are persistent over time. Moreover, it has been shown that early-life circumstances play a crucial role in determining later life outcomes. Thus, given that health inequality begins at birth and some of its determinants are considered unfair, understanding and improving early-life factors, or reducing their impact on later life outcomes, is necessary for reducing health inequality and equalize future opportunities for inclusive development. This thesis is divided into three chapters that contribute and interrelate the literatures on child health and its determinants, health inequality and inequality of opportunity in health.
Chapter 1 is dedicated to the analysis of health inequalities in children under 5 years of age and their determinants in 33 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries in the period 2009-2016, as well as their changes along the age distribution (from 0-1 to up to 4-5 years old). We analyze whether the initial levels of health inequality are corrected with age, characterize the socioeconomic, demographic and geographical determinants of child health, and estimate the inequality explained by these factors. Finally, we determine the contribution of each factor in explaining health inequality along the age distribution.
Chapter 2 is devoted to examining recent changes in child health inequality in 15 SSA countries, using two waves of surveys covering the periods 2008-2013 and 2013-2018, respectively. We then characterize child health inequality explained by a set of features (observed and unobserved) and the contribution of those factors to these within-country changes. Finally, we investigate the existence of a cross-country trade-off between changes in child health inequality and changes in mean child health.
Chapter 3 is dedicated to analyzing health inequality among adults in Spain in 2017, applying the literature on inequality of opportunity. We determine the role played by circumstances, efforts and lifestyles, and demographic variables in explaining adult health inequality. We then disentangle the impact of each of these sets of variables on health.