Social hierarchy exists in almost all social species and affects everything from resource allocation to the development of intelligence. Previous studies showed that status within a social hierarchy influences the perceived fairness of income allocation. However, the effect of one's social status on economic decisions is far from clear, as are the neural processes underlying these decisions. In...

This study addresses questions concerning psychosocial processes of relative comparison in the production of socio-economic inequalities in health. Specifically, the importance for health of perceptions of status, different 'reference groups' and 'reference points' in such comparisons is problematized and investigated empirically. Using data from a cross-sectional telephone survey of the Canadi...

It is well-established that for a considerable period the United Kingdom has spent proportionally less of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health-related services than almost any other comparable country. Average European spending on health (as a % of GDP) in the period 1980 to 2013 has been 19% higher than the United Kingdom, indicating that comparable countries give far greater fiscal prio...