Social inequalities in health behaviors: is the grass greener elsewhere?

Summary This thesis addresses social inequalities in health behaviors such as health-related lifestyles (specifically, obesity and alcohol consumption) and health service utilization, in several OECD countries. This work is based on a micro-econometric approach and uses a large number of national databases. The objectives of this thesis are to: (1) compare social inequalities in health behaviors across countries with different characteristics, (2) shed light on the understanding of social disparities in health behaviors, and finally (3) examine how self-reporting may affect the measurement of health behaviors, and thus affect the measurement of inequalities.