Health economics
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The impact of administrative decentralisation on equity in health and health care is an important unresolved issue in the health policy debate. Predictions from the limited theoretical literature and the relevant empirical research are both insufficient to draw any firm conclusions. ⋯ Using data from the 2001 Canadian Community Health Survey, we apply a decomposition method of the Concentration Index to explore whether income-related inequalities in health and inequities in the use of health care are more likely to be due to gaps between rich and poor Canadian provinces rather than to differences between rich and poor individuals within them. The results show that within area variation is the most important source of income-related health inequality, while income-related inequities in health care use are mostly driven by differences between provinces.