An Analysis of Policy Effect on Equality of Opportunity for Health.

摘要

This dissertation includes three essays on the topic of equality of opportunity for health. Building on previous literature, I discuss empirical strategies to evaluate policy effect on equality of opportunity.;In the first essay, I discuss the theoretical framework of equal opportunity. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young 1979 (NLSY79), I estimate the level of inequality of opportunity for health in the Unite States. Using a supplement survey of NLSY79, I further study the channels through which inequality of opportunity arises. My evidence suggests that inequality of opportunity for health exists for children and young adults as well. This offers support for the hypothesis that the origins of health inequality would have risen from disparities in early life experiences.;In the second essay, I use an index based on Roemer [1998] to study the effect of education policies on health inequality in two exercises. First, I use the British Household Panel Survey to estimate the effect of compulsory schooling reform on health inequality. Second, I use NLSY79 to study the effect of the court-ordered education financing reforms in the United States. My results indicate that the British reform does not have any significant effect on equality of opportunity for health. The U.S. reform, however, appears to be equality enhancing under our framework. In the third essay, I discuss the optimal level of cigarette tax under the equal opportunity framework. Using cigarette taxation as policy instrument, I compute the level of health inequity under different tax rates. I estimate an empirical model in which return to smoking is allowed to vary across individuals. Policy simulations are performed to estimate the optimal cigarette taxation to equalize opportunity for health.