Using longitudinal data, this paper investigates the penalty for excess weight in the Swedish labor market, distinguishing between the productivity and the discrimination hypotheses. We analyze employment, income, and sickness absence , using the latter as a direct measure of productivity. We...

This study uses the Swedish register of prescribed drugs, merged with the Survey of Living Conditions (the ULF), to analyze the socioeconomic gradient in drug utilization. It finds a significant education gradient (but no income gradient) in individual drug utilization. Whereas the education...

The health care systems in the Nordic countries are facing key challenges. While the possibilities and willingness to expand health care resources are limited, the demand for health care are increasing due to continuous development of new medical technologies, changing demographics, increasing...

The concentration index and decomposition analysis are commonly used in economics to measure and explain socioeconomic inequalities in health. Such analysis builds on the strong assumption that a health production function can be estimated without substantial bias implying that health is caused...

Using longitudinal data over a 17 year period for a Swedish cohort aged 20-68 in 1980/81, this study analyses income-related inequalities in obesity. By use of the concentration index and decomposition techniques we answer the following questions: 1) Does obesity inequality favour or disfavour...

Several studies have found protective effects of low/moderate (hereafter “light”) alcohol consumption compared with “abstinence” on mortality, health and wage. Some of these studies have been criticised because former drinkers have been included among the abstainers, which may overstate...

Body-mass index (BMI), sometimes calculated from objectively measured and sometimes from self-reported weight and height, has become the standard proxy for obesity in social science research. This study deals with the potential problems related to, first, relying on self-reported weight and...

Self-reported data on utilization of health care is a key input into a range of studies. However, the length of the recall period in self-reported health care questions varies between surveys and this variation may affect the results of the studies. While longer recall periods include more...

This paper discusses measurement of socioeconomic inequalities in prevalence of a health condition. As its point of departure, it uses the recent exchange between Guido Erreygers and Adam Wagstaff in this journal, where they discuss merits of their own corrections of the frequently used...

This paper develops an accounting framework to consider the effect of deaths on the longitudinal analysis of income-related health inequalities. Ignoring deaths or using inverse probability weights to re-weight the sample for mortality-related attrition can produce misleading results....