Health inequality aversion, e-learning interventions, and personality tests: an experimental study
Date
2019-05-19
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Abstract
This paper looks into health inequality aversion and aims to determine whether personality
factors, personal characteristics, and e-learning interventions may influence an individual’s level of such aversion. To perform this research, we conducted a classroom experiment attended by 99 students from the University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman who have taken at least three units of economic course as of the first semester of A.Y. 2018-2019. The participants were asked to choose between two hypothetical health programs that affect the life expectancy of two contrasting groups. We utilized e-learning interventions in order to test whether there is strong evidence to suggest that those interventions can correct or help mitigate inequality aversion. The data collection mode and experimental framework
is adapted from Cookson et. al.’s [2018] study in the University of York, UK. Using ordered probit regression and non-parametric tests of significance, we were able to show that participants are generally inequality averse, but the e-learning interventions used in the experiment were able to influence the respondents’ views on health justice, thus, influencing the level of their inequality aversion. Further, the results also show that the personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness have substantial effects on one’s perception of health justice.
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Keywords
Inequality aversion, health inequality, e-learning, personality, experimental economics