Income-related inequality in life-years and quality-adjusted life-years

We estimate the income-related inequality in Sweden with respect to life-ye ars and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). We use a large data set from S weden with over 40,000 individuals followed up for 10-16 years, to estimate the survival and quality-adjusted survival in different income groups. For both life-years and QALYs, we discover inequalities in health favouring th e higher income groups. For men (women) in the youngest age-group (20-29 ye ars), the number of QALYs is 43.7 (45.7) in the lowest income decile and 47 .2 (49.0) in the highest income decile. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: D30; I10; I12.