Inequality aversion, health inequalities and health achievement

This paper addresses two issues. The first is how health inequalities can be measured in such a way as to take into account policymakers' attitudes towards inequality. The Gini coefficient and the related concentration index embody one particular set of value judgements. By generalising these indices, alternative sets of value judgements can be reflected. The other issue addressed is how information on health inequality can be used together with information on the mean of the relevant distribution to obtain an overall measure of health "achievement". (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.