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Dying from envy: The role of inequality
Author(s) -
Japaridze Irakli,
Sayour Nagham
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.4261
Subject(s) - keeping up with the joneses , inequality , demographic economics , economics , consumption (sociology) , residence , survey data collection , consumer expenditure survey , economic inequality , relative deprivation , health equity , household income , health care , public economics , geography , psychology , economic growth , aggregate expenditure , sociology , growth model , mathematical analysis , social science , social psychology , statistics , mathematics , microeconomics , archaeology
We hypothesize that when interpersonal comparisons, often referred to as “keeping up with the Joneses”, are operational, relative deprivation (income inequality) results in increased likelihood of morbidity among lower income households. Using a simple theoretical model, we show that the larger the income disparities between “the Joneses” and “the followers”, the higher is the followers' expenditure on conspicuous consumption and the lower is their expenditure on health. We empirically test our hypotheses using Canadian data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and the Survey of Household Spending and US data from the National Health Interview Survey. We find that, in peer groups defined by geographic proximity of residence or similar socio‐economic background, larger income disparities are associated with higher spending by the followers on conspicuous consumption, lower health expenditure, worse self‐reported health and younger age at death.