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Fighting Inequalities in Health and Income: One Important Road to Welfare and Social Development

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Social Policy and Economic Development in the Nordic Countries

Part of the book series: Social Policy in a Development Context ((SPDC))

Abstract

The micro-level relationship between poverty and economic resources in general, on the one hand, and health, on the other, has a long history. A famous example from the past is Friedrich Engels The Condition of the Working Class in England (Engels 1969/1845). Today, there is still a clear relationship between economic resources and health, even in the Nordic welfare states (Rahkonen et al. 2000; Fritzell, Nermo and Lundberg 2004). In addition, it has been claimed that public health is better in countries and communities characterized by a more egalitarian distribution of income and wealth (Wilkinson 1992, 1996), although this claim has been debated (Kawachi and Kennedy 1999; Lynchet al. 2000; Marmot and Wilkinson 2001; Mackenbach 2002).

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Authors
  1. Johan Fritzell
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  2. Olle Lundberg
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Danish National Institute for Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Olli Kangas (Research Professor) (Research Professor)

  2. Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, Sweden

    Joakim Palme (Director of the Institute for Futures Studies and Professor (Adjunct) (Director of the Institute for Futures Studies and Professor (Adjunct)

Copyright information

© 2005 United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

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Fritzell, J., Lundberg, O. (2005). Fighting Inequalities in Health and Income: One Important Road to Welfare and Social Development. In: Kangas, O., Palme, J. (eds) Social Policy and Economic Development in the Nordic Countries. Social Policy in a Development Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523500_7

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