Paul Makdissi, Myra Yazbeck, School of Economics Discussion Paper No. 542 April 2015, School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Department of Economics, University of Ottawa.

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Abstract

This paper argues that health transfers from an individual at a lower rank in the health distribution to a person at a higher rank may decrease the concentration index if the former has a slightly higher income. The concentration index, being mainly focused on the socioeconomic dimension of health inequality, can produce such counter-intuitive results that overlooks the pure health inequality aversion of the planner. Building on Atkinson (1970), Yitzhaki (1983) and Wagstaff (2002), this paper presents a simple new class of health achievement and health inequality indices that overcomes the above mentioned problem.