Aversion to health inequality between socioeconomic, ethnic, and geographic groups: Evidence from Australia

Project Details

Health inequities can be reduced through fairer allocation of resources. Increasingly, calls are made for assessing the distributional impact of interventions, e.g., through equity-informative economic evaluations, particularly relevant to optimizing immunization programs to reach equity-deserving populations. Traditional economic evaluations have always considered average costs and average benefits. When the equity factor is introduced, policy-makers face a trade-off between maximizing health gains or increasing equity in health.

This study uses a benefit trade-off exercise within a general population survey to elicit health inequality aversion parameters for the Australian public. The results provide one of the building blocks for conducting distributional cost-effectiveness analysis (DCEA) in Australia and an indication of the level of health the public is willing to trade-off to reduce inequalities in health. This can help to ensure that policies and funding decisions align with societal preferences for addressing health disparities.

Project Duration

2020–2024

Researchers

• Ms Marie-Anne Boujaoude (Project Lead)
• A/Prof Natalie Carvalho
• Prof Kim Dalziel
• Prof Nancy Devlin
• Prof Richard Cookson

Funding

2020 Emerging Research Leader Award, awarded to Natalie Carvalho

Research Outcomes

Boujaoude, MA., Dalziel, K.,  Cookson, R., Devlin, N., Carvalho, N. (2024). Aversion  to  health  inequality  between  income,  ethnic,  and geographic  groups:  Evidence  from  Australia. Melbourne Health Economics Working Paper Series No.2. https://doi.org/10.26188/26525914.v1