Lecture 7

Income, inequality and health 2

better

The more affluent a population is, the _______ its health

That at a certain threshold, more income has less impacts on health

Diminishing marginal returns have been demonstrated consistently at both the individual and societal levels. What does this means?

Neo-materialist perspective

Which theoretical perspective focuses on populations’ willingness to pay taxes for public services?

resistant

Countries with higher income inequality tend to be more tax ________

time

• 5, 7

• legacy

Inequality at the national level has a very large detrimental effect on individual mortality risk but this effect only manifests itself over _______

• There is a ___ years time lapse for inequality to have effects, and the peak is at ___ years

• It creates a ______ of unhealthiness

1. Consistency → replication of findings

2. Temporality → cause precedes the effect

3. Strength of association → the relationship is not explained by other factors

4. Dose response relationship → increased exposure = increased outcomes

5. Cessation of exposure → if exposure changes, outcome changes also

6. Consideration of alternative explanations → no confounding variables

7. Biological plausibility → fits with existing biological knowledge

8. Coherence → supported by other scientific knowledge

The 8 criteria to prove causality used by Wilkinson and Pickett:

1. Consistency

2. Temporality

3. Strength of association

4. Dose response relationship Cessation of exposure

5. Consideration of alternative explanations

6. Biological plausibility

7. Coherence

The Gini coefficient

What’s the most commonly used measure of income inequality?

• Score of 0 = income is perfectly evenly distributed among the population

• Score of 1 = one person has all the income in the population

Gini coefficients:

• Score of 0 = ?

• Score of 1 = ?

0.35, 0.47

Canada’s Gini coefficient is ____ and USA’s is ___

Toronto

Which Canadian city is the most unequal?

income

Available ______ shapes a person’s opportunities, sense of his or her capabilities, living conditions, diet, health-relevant behaviour, and much else

• savings

• government

• services

→ taxes

Available income is determined by:

• Personal ______

• Transfers from ______

• Public ______

→ Means that the amount of disposable income a person or household has depends on ______ and transfers.

1. Proportional → flat tax, same % of everyone’s income

2. Progressive → take a bigger proportion of a higher income than of a lower income, tax brackets

What are the 2 types of income taxes?

flatter, increases

Anglophone countries tend to have ______ tax rates vs. Scandanavian countries have steeper _______ between tax brackets

progressive

• wealthier

• poorer

• inequality

In Canada and the United States, income taxes are ______ and the tax systems actually give cash to low-income individuals

→ BUT since the 1980s:

• Gradual cuts in taxes on ______ citizens

• Reductions in programs benefitting mostly _____ people

• Rise in income ______

The view that a government should not be involved in matters associated with individuals or households unless there is no other party (e.g. NGOs) willing or capable of addressing the need

What is the residualism perspective?

• resort

• limited

Residualism implies that:

• Government intervention in support of individuals and families should only occur as a last ______

• Government intervention should be as ______ as possible

neo-liberalism

The drive to make the government’s footprint smaller is also referred to as _________