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Uncertainty, the Demand for Health Care, and Precautionary Saving

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  • Nocetti Diego

    (Clarkson University)

  • Smith William T

    (University of Memphis)

Abstract

We analyze the demand for medical care and precautionary saving in a framework with uncertainty surrounding the incidence of illness and the effectiveness of medical treatments and a representation of preferences that disentangles ordinal preferences, risk preferences, and intertemporal smoothing preferences. We consider a "pure consumption" model with exogenous health capital and a model where young consumers invest in preventive care to increase their future health stock. In both cases, we establish conditions for the different sources for uncertainty to induce precautionary saving and we evaluate how uncertainty affects the demand of curative and preventive care. We also show that given the self-insurance function of preventive care, consumers' welfare may increase with the degree of uncertainty surrounding health care effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Nocetti Diego & Smith William T, 2010. "Uncertainty, the Demand for Health Care, and Precautionary Saving," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-31, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:10:y:2010:i:1:n:75
    DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2626
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    Cited by:

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    2. Christophe Courbage & Richard Peter & Béatrice Rey, 2022. "Incentive and welfare effects of correlated returns," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 5-34, March.
    3. Pablo Garcia Sanchez & Luca Marchiori & Olivier Pierrard, 2023. "Long-term care expenditures and investment decisions under uncertainty," BCL working papers 171, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    4. Luciana Echazu & Diego Nocetti, 2013. "Priority Setting In Health Care: Disentangling Risk Aversion From Inequality Aversion," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(6), pages 730-740, June.
    5. Manuela Deidda, 2014. "Precautionary saving under liquidity constraints: evidence from Italy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 329-360, February.
    6. Patryk Babiarz & Cliff Robb, 2014. "Financial Literacy and Emergency Saving," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 40-50, March.

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