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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/43798
Re-visiting the health care luxury good hypothesis: Aggregation, precision, and publication biases?
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[cat] Mentre que una creixent literatura que ha examinat la relació entre la renda i la despesa sanitària suggereix que els serveis sanitaris són un be de luxe (elasticitat renda superior a la unitat), aquesta conclusió es contínuament debatuda atesa l'heterogeneïtat dels resultats. Aquest article testa la hipòtesis dels serveis sanitaris com bens de luxe fent server anàlisi de meta- regressió, particularment analitzant l'existència de biaixos de selecció de publicació, precisió així com biaixos d'agregació. Els resultats apunten l'existència d'un biaix de publicació, robust independentment dels controls analitzats. Els biaixos de precisió i agregació semblen tenir un paper en la generació de les estimacions de l'elasticitat renda. Els nostres resultat suggereixen que l'elasticitat renda dels serveis sanitaris un cop corregir pels biaixos esmentat varien entre 0.26 i 0.84, però no podem rebutjar que la elasticitat renda es igual a la unitat en algunes estimacions de l'elasticitat corregides.
[eng] While a growing literature examining the relationship between income and health expenditures suggests that health care is a luxury good, this conclusion is contentiously debated due to heterogeneity of the existing results. This paper tests the luxury good hypothesis using meta-regression analysis, taking into consideration publication selection, precision, and aggregation bias. The findings suggest that publication bias exists, a result that is robust irrespectively of the tests employed. Precision and aggregation bias also appear to play a role in the generation of estimates. The corrected income elasticity estimates range from 0.26 to 0.84, although we cannot reject the luxury good hypothesis for some of the performed corrections.
[eng] While a growing literature examining the relationship between income and health expenditures suggests that health care is a luxury good, this conclusion is contentiously debated due to heterogeneity of the existing results. This paper tests the luxury good hypothesis using meta-regression analysis, taking into consideration publication selection, precision, and aggregation bias. The findings suggest that publication bias exists, a result that is robust irrespectively of the tests employed. Precision and aggregation bias also appear to play a role in the generation of estimates. The corrected income elasticity estimates range from 0.26 to 0.84, although we cannot reject the luxury good hypothesis for some of the performed corrections.
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COSTA I FONT, Joan, GEMMILL, Marin and RUBERT, Glòria. Re-visiting the health care luxury good hypothesis: Aggregation, precision, and publication biases?. Documents de treball (Facultat d'Economia i Empresa. Espai de Recerca en Economia). 2008. Vol. E08/197. ISSN 1136-8365. [consulted: 14 of June of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/43798