What is inequality in health? Are economists' standard tools for measuring income inequality relevant or useful for … measuring it? Does income protect health and does income inequality endanger it? I discuss two different concepts of health …'s health is related to his or her status within a reference group as measured by income relative to the group mean. Income …

birth cohorts observed from 1975 to 1995. We assume that health status is determined by social status, defined as income … relative to the mean income of a reference group. When reference groups are not observed, health is a function of income whose …

of adults from 132 countries. I analyze the data on life satisfaction (happiness) and on health satisfaction and look at … inconsistent relationship with happiness. National income moderates the effects of aging on self-reported health, and the decline … in health satisfaction and rise in disability with age are much stronger in poor countries than in rich countries. In …

Self-reported health status (SRHS) is an imperfect measure of non-fatal health, but allows examination of how health … status varies over the life course. Although women have lower mortality than men, they report worse health status up to age … bottom quartile already report worse health than do men in the top quartile at age 50. In the bottom quartile of income, SRHS …