Socioeconomic Disparities (L4)

Question 1

health disparity

Answer 1

differences in health (incidence, prevalence, mortality and burden of disease) between specific populations

Question 2

Efficient Producer Hypothesis

Answer 2

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

1. lessons in school help students take better care of themselves
2. schooling helps students be more patient when it comes to payoffs of investment
3. better-educated more likely to adhere to treatment regimens

Question 3

Thrifty Phenotype (aka Barker) hypothesis

Answer 3

• genetic reasons for being inefficient at producing health
• deprivation of resources in utero and early childhood leads to activation of thrifty genes that are useful for sparse environmental conditions
• these thrifty genes are good for scarce environments but bad in conditions of abundance
• more likely to develop diabetes, obesity and other disorders later in life
• disparities arise because poorer individuals are more likely to have resource deprivation early in life

Question 4

Direct income hypothesis

Answer 4

disparities exist because rich people have more resources to devote to health (and therefore have an expanded PPF and higher optimal health)

Question 5

Allostatic Load Hypothesis

Answer 5

prolonged or repeated stress is unhealthy and can cause an increased rate of aging. In the Grossman model, aging is represented by rate of depreciation of health capital (gamma). A higher stress load leads to a higher gamma.

Question 6

Income Inequality Hypothesis

Answer 6

Health disparities are caused by an unequal distribution of income.

• related to the allostatic load hypothesis
• more equal societies are less stressful and therefore healthier

Question 7

Access to care hypothesis

Answer 7

Those with high incomes can afford more generous health insurance compared to those of low income
(But health disparities persist in countries with universal health insurance)

Question 8

Productive time hypothesis

Answer 8

SES differences are caused by disparities in health - bad health leads to lower productive time and therefore less time to produce income

Question 9

Fuchs Hypothesis

Answer 9

Bad health does not cause low SES, and low SES does not cause bad health - a third factor, time preferences, causes both.

Question 10

discount factors

Answer 10

people with high discount factors are more willing to delay gratification