Revisiting the Effect of Income on Health in Europe: Evidence from the 8th Round of the European Social Survey.

This study provides new evidence about the effects of income on population health. To do so, our first research question controls for the absolute income hypothesis: Has the recent deterioration of individual income had as a result a lower health status in population across European countries? We assume, as the bulk of the associated studies have found, that the lower the income of an individual, the lower his/her health status. Our second research objective is to examine the validity of the relative income hypothesis. To shed light on this issue, we test two different questions: What is the relationship between an individual's health status and a country's wealth and how self-rated health is associated with the degree of income inequality in a society? We expect that the population in wealthier countries report higher health status and individuals who live in countries with higher income inequalities report lower health status. By employing a multilevel binomial model and treating data from the latest European Social Survey Round 8 (2016/2017) from 23 countries in Europe, we have found strong evidence in favor of the above-mentioned hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]