International Comparisons in Health Economics:Evidence from Aging Studies

We provide an overview of the growing literature that uses micro-level data from multiplecountries to investigate health outcomes, and their link to socioeconomic factors, at olderages. Since the data are at a comparatively young stage, much of the analysis is at an earlystage and limited to a handful of countries, with analysis for the US and England being themost common. What is immediately apparent as we get better measures is that healthdifferences between countries amongst those at older ages are real and large. Countries areranked differently according to whether one considers life-expectancy, prevalence orincidence of one condition or another. And the magnitude of international disparities may varyaccording to whether measures utilize doctor diagnosed conditions or biomarker-basedindicators of disease and poor health. But one key finding emerges – the US ranks poorly onall indicators with the exception of self-reported subjective health status....