Income inequality and self-rated health in Stockholm, Sweden: A test of the ‘income inequality hypothesis’ on two levels of aggregation

The number of studies analysing income inequality and health are voluminous. However, when empirically testing the income inequality hypothesis, the level of aggregation could be crucial for whether we find an association or not and for the mechanisms we believe are active. This study hence investigates: 1) the two-year lagged effect by income inequality on health at two levels of aggregation; municipalities and neighbourhoods in Sweden; 2) whether spending on social goods accounts for the association between income inequality and health; 3) the effect by income inequality among the affluent and the disadvantaged in municipalities and neighbourhoods, respectively.