Health inequalities in the Netherlands:

This thesis examines socio-economic factors that play a role in explaining ethnic-related health inequalities in the Netherlands. Hypotheses are tested using two different approaches. Estimations are done using the ordered logistic regression. The results indicate that the socio-economic factors education and income play a role in explaining ethnic-related health inequalities in the Netherlands, whereas occupation, behavioral factors and environmental factors play little to no role in explaining these inequalities. Ethnic minorities not only tend to have lower levels of self-assessed health, but they also tend to have lower levels of education and income. Although there seems to be an association between the factors and self-assessed health the results cannot be interpreted as causal and further research is necessary in order to determine the causality of the relationships. Further research is also required in order to determine the size of the effects that education and income have on explaining ethnic-related health inequalities in the Netherlands. Possible interventions or policies aiming at reducing ethnic-related health inequalities should target reducing disparities in the causes of these health inequalities and equalizing the distribution of the determinants of health. Interventions may include the government being an intermediary between employee seeking businesses and the unemployed, reducing labor taxes and subsidizing education. Such interventions must be thoroughly thought and further research on the outcome of these interventions by the government is necessary before policies are formed and implemented.