Measuring global health inequalities

background

Inequality is increasingly regarded as a major challenge across the world. There are many dimensions of inequality, but health inequalities, where less advantaged individuals face impaired quality of life or early death, are surely among the most troubling.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE, RESEARCH METHODS AND TRAINING

This project will focus on ways to measure either health inequalities, such as socio-economic or ethnic inequalities, or health poverty, where indicators of health fall below some threshold. Though the project could possibly have a within country only focus, it is more likely to involve examining international variations in health inequalities, and how these vary over time. There will be scope for both applying existing approaches to health inequality measurement (e.g. the concentration index), as well as developing innovative methods for measuring health inequalities or health poverty.

Depending on the student’s interests and background, there will be considerable scope for both methodological (e.g. developing new measures) and applied empirical research. A variety of potential data sources are available, including international surveys such as the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe).

FIELD WORK, SECONDMENTS, INDUSTRY PLACEMENTS AND TRAINING

Training will be agreed with the project supervisors, depending on how the details of the proposal evolve. It may include, for example, attending relevant lecture courses in other departments within the University.

Prospective student

This project will require a candidate with excellent analytic skills and a real interest in inequality. A strong background in mathematics and/or statistics/econometrics would be a major advantage.