Variabili socioeconomiche e salute: interpretazioni alternative e misure di politica economica

[Machine translation] The present work intends first to provide an overview of the literature concerning the connections between socioeconomic variables and health in industrialized countries and, subsequently, to analyze the implications in terms of health policies that the different interpretative approaches entail. In particular, three different schools of thought are identified: the first is based on the theory of absolute income, according to which socioeconomic variables have a positive influence on health indices; the second expresses the opinion of economists in the strict sense who indicate the initial stock of health as a causal variable in a model where income and family wealth are dependent variables; the third approach, in contrast to the theory of absolute income, is called relative income theory as it indicates, not so much in per capita income, as in the distribution of income within companies, the main cause of changes in health indices. Of course, different interpretations correspond to differences, even of significant magnitude, in the health policy measures to be adopted to improve the health indices of populations. The work ends with some observations regarding the opportunity to develop the health policies indicated by the different schools of thought.