SWORDC Seminar Series | Grant Gibson

Abstract: Exploiting a unique survey/administrative dataset of hospital discharge data, we explore a commonly used variable in the health-equity literature for potential response biases (Self-Assessed Unmet Need). We find that along many dimensions upon which social-science researchers might map inequality, there exists non-trivial bias in the response to the survey instrument. The results of this work suggest that the cross-sectional studies employing this measure of inequality be interpreted very cautiously.