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The utility of health and wealth

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  • Levy, Moshe
  • Nir, Adi Rizansky

Abstract

Tradeoffs between health and wealth are among the most important decisions individuals make, and are central to social and economic policy. Yet, only a few studies have investigated the utility of health and wealth empirically. This paper investigates this utility function both theoretically and empirically. We conduct detailed personal interviews with 180 cancer patients, and also obtain questionnaires from 132 diabetes patients. We find strong support for the utility function U(h, w)=h·log(w), where h denotes health and w denotes wealth.

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  • Levy, Moshe & Nir, Adi Rizansky, 2012. "The utility of health and wealth," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 379-392.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:31:y:2012:i:2:p:379-392
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.02.003
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    2. W. Kip Viscusi, 2019. "Utility functions for mild and severe health risks," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 143-166, June.
    3. Moshe Levy & Adi Rizansky, 2014. "Market failure in the pharmaceutical industry and how it can be overcome: the CureShare mechanism," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(2), pages 143-156, March.
    4. Kerry Hickson, 2014. "The GDP Value of Twentieth-Century Health Improvements in Developed Economies: Initial Estimates for England," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 385-399, June.
    5. Yves Arrighi & David Crainich & Véronique Flambard & Sophie Massin, 2022. "Personalized information and willingness to pay for non-financial risk prevention: An experiment," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 57-82, August.
    6. Kools, Lieke & Knoef, Marike, 2019. "Health and consumption preferences; estimating the health state dependence of utility using equivalence scales," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 46-62.
    7. Arthur E. Attema & Marieke Krol & Job Exel & Werner B. F. Brouwer, 2018. "New findings from the time trade-off for income approach to elicit willingness to pay for a quality adjusted life year," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(2), pages 277-291, March.
    8. Felipa, de Mello-Sampayo, 2014. "The Timing and Probability of Switching to Second-line Regimen - An application to Second-Line Antiretroviral Therapy in India," MPRA Paper 60997, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Dorte Gyrd‐Hansen, 2017. "A Stated Preference Approach to Assess whether Health Status Impacts on Marginal Utility of Consumption," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1224-1233, October.
    10. Moshe Levy & Adi Rizansky Nir, 2014. "The Pricing of Breakthrough Drugs: Theory and Policy Implications," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-12, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Utility; Health; Wealth; Logarithmic preference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

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