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Preferences for equity in health behind a veil of ignorance

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  • Fredrik Andersson
  • Carl Hampus Lyttkens

Abstract

Individual attitudes to distributions of life years between two groups in a society are explored by means of an experiment. Subjects are asked to place themselves behind a veil of ignorance which is specified in terms of risk (known probabilities) for some subjects and in terms of uncertainty (unknown probabilities) for some subjects. The latter is argued to be the appropriate interpretation of Rawls’ notion. It is found that subjects exhibit convex preferences over life years for the two groups, and that preferences do not differ between the risk and the uncertainty specifications. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Fredrik Andersson & Carl Hampus Lyttkens, 1999. "Preferences for equity in health behind a veil of ignorance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(5), pages 369-378, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:8:y:1999:i:5:p:369-378
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1050(199908)8:5<369::AID-HEC456>3.0.CO;2-Q
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    References listed on IDEAS

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