收入、收入不均与健康:城乡差异和职业地位的影响

本文使用来自中国9个省的微观面板数据,检验了居民自评健康与家庭人均收入和社区内收入不均之间的相关关系。考虑到中国城乡分割的二元经济社会特征,本文将农村样本和城镇样本分开处理;考虑到中国的社会分层结构,计量方程中引入了代表职业地位的变量及其与收入和收入不均的交互项。在实证结果的基础上,本文讨论了收入、收入不均与健康关系的作用机制。主要结论是:收入与健康的关系、收入不均与健康的关系都存在城乡差异和职业差异,这说明在收入、收入不均与健康的关系中,社会经济地位的影响十分重要。要解决健康不平等问题,关键在于加强对社会经济地位较低者,主要是农村居民和生活在城镇的农民的医疗保障,同时要设法改善农村的基础设施和社会资本,并逐步取消各种造成城乡分割的制度。

Income,Income Inequality and Health:The Impacts of Rural-urban Gap and Occupational Status

Using micro panel data from 9 provinces of China,this paper examines the relation between household per capita income,community-level income inequality and individual self-rated health status.Given the dual structure of China,rural and urban samples are regressed separately.Dummies representing occupational status and their interactions with income and income inequality are introduced into the econometric equation.On the basis of empirical results,this paper discusses the mechanism through which income and income inequality are linked with health.The main conclusion is that there are rural-urban and occupational disparities in the relation between income,income inequality and health,which implies the important role socioeconomic status plays in the income-income inequality-health nexus.Therefore,the key to solve the problem of health inequality is to provide better health care for groups with lower socioeconomic status,to improve infrastructure and social capital in rural area,and to get rid of the barriers between villages and cities.