Egalitarianism and altruism in health: some evidence of their relationship

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• 作者：Ignacio Abásolo (3)
  Aki Tsuchiya (4)
  
• 关键词：Egalitarianism ; Altruism ; Socioeconomic health inequalities ; Blood donation
• 刊名：International Journal for Equity in Health
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：December 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：13
• 期：1
• 全文大小：234 KB
• 作者单位：Ignacio Abásolo (3)
  Aki Tsuchiya (4)
  
  3. Departamento de Economía de las Instituciones, Estadística Económica y Econometría, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de La Laguna, Campus de Guajara, Tenerife, Spain
  4. Department of Economics and School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, 30 Regent Street, Sheffield, S1 4DA, UK
  
• ISSN：1475-9276

文摘

Background Egalitarianism and altruism are two ways in which people may have attitudes that go beyond the narrowly defined selfish preferences. The theoretical constructs of egalitarianism and altruism are different from each other, yet there may be connections between the two. This paper explores the empirical relationship between egalitarianism and altruism, in the context of health. Methods We define altruism as individual behaviour that aims to benefit another individual in need; and egalitarianism as a characteristic of a social welfare function, or a meta-level preference. Furthermore, we specify a model that explains the propensity of an individual to be egalitarian in terms of altruism and other background characteristics. Individuals who prefer a hypothetical policy that reduces socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes over another that does not are regarded ‘egalitarian-in the health domain. On the other hand, ‘altruism-in the health context is captured by whether or not the same respondents are (or have been) regular blood donors, provided they are medically able to donate. Probit models are specified to estimate the relationship between egalitarianism and altruism, thus defined. A representative sample of the Spanish population was interviewed for the purpose (n--17 valid cases). Results Overall, 75% of respondents are found to be egalitarians, whilst 35% are found to be altruists. We find that, once controlled for background characteristics, there is a statistically significant empirical relationship between egalitarianism and altruism in the health context. On average, the probability of an altruist individual supporting egalitarianism is 10% higher than for a non-altruist person. Regarding the other control variables, those living in high per capita income regions have a lower propensity and those who are politically left wing have a higher propensity to be an egalitarian. We do not find evidence of a relationship between egalitarianism and age, socioeconomic status or religious practices. Conclusion Altruist individuals have a higher probability to be egalitarians than would be expected from their observed background characteristics.