Health, Longevity, and Welfare Inequality of Older Americans

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Miller, Ray; Bairoliya, Neha
• 署名单位: Colorado State University System; Colorado State University Fort Collins; University of Southern California
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01103
• 发表日期: 2023-09
• 页码: 1145-1160
• 关键词: quality-of-life; index; income; expectancy; mortality; time; gdp

摘要

We estimate the distribution of well-being among the older U.S. population using an expected utility framework that incorporates differences in consumption, leisure, health, and mortality. We find large disparities in welfare that have increased over time. Incorporating the cost of living with poor health into elderly welfare substantially increases the overall inequality. Disparity measures based on cross-sectional income or consumption underestimate the growth in aggregate welfare inequality. Moreover, health is a better indicator of an individual's relative welfare position than income or consumption.