https://macropaperwarehouse.com/authors/nicholas-w.-papageorge/Nicholas W. PapageorgeHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usThu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/medical-innovation-and-health-disparities/Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/medical-innovation-and-health-disparities/<p>This paper asks why medical innovation can widen health disparities even when it unambiguously improves health for everyone who takes it. The authors argue that the standard access-versus-preferences dichotomy is a false one: disadvantaged patients can rationally forgo effective medications because treatment side effects interfere with work, and the income cost of not working is particularly severe for low-education workers who hold physically demanding, inflexible jobs. Health-maximizing and welfare-maximizing behavior are therefore not the same thing, and the gap between the two is systematically larger for lower-education individuals.</p>