Volume 35, Number 4 (Fall) 2000
Wagstaff, Adam, and Eddy van Doorslaer. 2000. "Measuring and testing for Inequity in the Delivery of Health Care." Journal of Human Resources 35(4):716-733.
This paper compares two indices of horizontal inequity in the delivery of health care, the index proposed by Wagstaff, van Doorslaer, and Paci (1991), and another index derived in this paper. As well as discussing the computational aspects of these two indices, the paper also addresses the issue of statistical inference, comparing two estimators for the standard error of each index. The paper contains an empirical illustration of both sets of methods using data from the 1972 Dutch Health Interview Survey.
Adam Wagstaff is a Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group and health, Nutrition and Population network at the World bank and a professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Sussex. Eddy van Doorslaer is a professor of health policy and management at Erasmus University. This paper derives from the project "Equity in the Finance and Delivery of Health Care in Europe" (the so-called ECuity Project), which is funded by the European Union's Biomed Program (contract # BMH1-CT92-608). The authors are grateful to the EU for financial support. They are also grateful to Hattem va der Burg for research assistance, to René van Vliet for helpful discussions, and to two JHR referees for helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. The authors alone claim responsibility for any errors. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning May 2001 through April 2004 from Adam Wagstaff, School of Social Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BNI 9QN,UK.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X