ECuity III is the third phase of the ECuity project and builds upon the findings from the previous projects.

ECuity III focuses on causal relationships to help policy making. These relationships can be found by following the elderly in the European Community Household Panel as they lose health, move out of work and start enjoying a widely varying level of social protection, offered by the different pension and transfer schemes. Special attention will be given to the transmission of inequalities in health to old age, and the inequitable treatment elderly by the health care systems, which in some member states may be due to changes in insurance coverage related to taking up pension. Country teams will supply the often complex institutional background and complementary country level research.
 

Objectives

1. To estimate the causal effect of income on health around the age of retirement, distinguishing between the impacts of transitory and permanent poverty and deprivation on health.

2. To analyse the dynamics of individual health, with an emphasis on the degree of persistence of ill-health over the life cycle.

3. To estimate the reverse effect of health on income through reduced earnings, early retirement and the varying pension schemes.

4. To estimate the causal effect of income on the use of health care services, distinguishing between the causal and associated effects, using longitudinal data.

5. To estimate the impact of policy interventions and pension schemes on the degree of income-related inequalities in health and in access to health services in all European Union countries.