IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sus/susewp/0719.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Attitudes Towards Public Health Spending: The Case of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Dolton

    (Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
    National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London, UK
    IZA, Bonn, Germany
    CESifo, Munich, Germany)

  • Mehmet Kutluay

    (Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
    Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

  • Richard S.J. Tol

    (Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
    CESifo, Munich, Germany
    Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
    Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Abstract

The funding of the NHS in the UK is in perennial crisis. In times of austerity it is difficult to advocate extra health spending from tax revenue. Our central questions are: how much extra do people think should be spent on the NHS; how much extra tax might they be willing to pay; or to what extent would they like to see public money redistributed away from other public services towards the NHS? We answer these questions using a large survey of the UK general public. On average the answers to these questions are $279, $176 and $33 per person, per year, respectively. We examine people's appetite for other measures to increase spending on patients and find that their spending preferences are somewhat related to their own health but strongly related to their age, gender, religious beliefs, political sentiments, and views on the structure of the NHS.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Dolton & Mehmet Kutluay & Richard S.J. Tol, 2019. "Attitudes Towards Public Health Spending: The Case of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom," Working Paper Series 0719, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:sus:susewp:0719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=wps-07-2019.pdf&site=24
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Donaldson, Cam, 1990. "Willingness to pay for publicly-provided goods : A Possible Measure of Benefit?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 103-118, June.
    2. repec:cup:judgdm:v:6:y:2011:i:8:p:771-781 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Danyliv, Andriy & Groot, Wim & Gryga, Irena & Pavlova, Milena, 2014. "Willingness and ability to pay for physician services in six Central and Eastern European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 72-82.
    4. Tambor, Marzena & Pavlova, Milena & Rechel, Bernd & Golinowska, Stanisława & Sowada, Christoph & Groot, Wim, 2014. "Willingness to pay for publicly financed health care services in Central and Eastern Europe: Evidence from six countries based on a contingent valuation method," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 193-201.
    5. Richard Cookson, 2003. "Willingness to pay methods in health care: a sceptical view," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(11), pages 891-894, November.
    6. Guth, Werner & Schmittberger, Rolf & Schwarze, Bernd, 1982. "An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 367-388, December.
    7. Richard S.J. Tol & Peter Dolton, 2016. "A survey of the UK population on public policy," Working Paper Series 08416, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    8. Habibov, Nazim & Cheung, Alex & Auchynnikava, Alena, 2017. "Does social trust increase willingness to pay taxes to improve public healthcare? Cross-sectional cross-country instrumental variable analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 25-34.
    9. John E. Anderson, 2017. "Trust in Government and Willingness to Pay Taxes in Transition Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(1), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    11. Murphy, Ryan O. & Ackermann, Kurt A. & Handgraaf, Michel J. J., 2011. "Measuring Social Value Orientation," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(8), pages 771-781, December.
    12. Richard S.J. Tol & Peter Dolton, 2016. "A survey of the UK population on public policy," Working Paper Series 8416, Department of Economics, University of Sussex.
    13. Nazim Habibov & Alex Cheung, 2018. "The contextual‐level effects of social trust on health in transitional countries: Instrumental variable analysis of 26 countries," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 225-234, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Dolton & Richard S.J. Tol, 2019. "Correlates of Social Value Orientation: Evidence from a Large Sample of the UK Population," Working Paper Series 0119, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Monica Novackova & Richard S.J. Tol, 2018. "Climate Change Awareness and Willingness to Pay for its Mitigation: Evidence from the UK," Working Paper Series 0318, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Parco, James E. & Murphy, Ryan O., 2013. "Resistance to truthful revelation in bargaining: Persistent bid shading and the play of dominated strategies," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 154-170.
    4. Hippel, Svenja & Hillenbrand, Adrian, 2018. "Strategic Inattention in Product Search," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181510, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Chorus, Caspar G., 2015. "Models of moral decision making: Literature review and research agenda for discrete choice analysis," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 69-85.
    6. van Winden, Frans, 2023. "The informational affective tie mechanism: on the role of uncertainty, context, and attention in caring," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    7. Changsok Yoo & Yelim Kim & Jee Hoon Sohn, 2021. "Evaluating the Social Cost of Conflict between New Media and Society: The Case of Gaming Disorder in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-13, July.
    8. Antonio M. Espin & Francisco Reyes-Pereira & Luis F. Ciria, 2017. "Organizations should know their people: A behavioral economics approach," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 1(S), pages 41-48, November.
    9. Murnighan, J. Keith & Wang, Long, 2016. "The social world as an experimental game," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 80-94.
    10. Jürgen Fleiß, 2015. "Merit norms in the ultimatum game: an experimental study of the effect of merit on individual behavior and aggregate outcomes," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 23(2), pages 389-406, June.
    11. Dr Clevo I. Wilson, 1999. "Pesticide Avoidance: Results From a Sri Lankan Study with Health and Environmental Policy Implications," Discussion Papers Series 264, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    12. Mwoya Byaro & Abel Kinyondo, 2020. "Citizens' Trust in Government and Their Greater Willingness to Pay Taxes in Tanzania: A Case Study of Mtwara, Lindi, and Dar es Salaam Regions," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 73-83, March.
    13. Peter Dolton, 2017. "Is NHS funding in Crisis?," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) General Election Briefings, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, issue 5, May.
    14. Eric French & Elaine Kelly & Richard Cookson & Carol Propper & Miqdad Asaria & Rosalind Raine, 2016. "Socio‐Economic Inequalities in Health Care in England," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 371-403, September.
    15. Anura Amarasinghe & Gerard D'Souza & Cheryl Brown & Tatiana Borisova, 2006. "A Spatial Analysis of Obesity in West Virginia," Working Papers Working Paper 2006-13, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    16. Martin Fischer & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Mortality: Evidence from Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, August.
    17. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1721, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    18. Zakaria Babutsidze & Nobuyuki Hanaki & Adam Zylbersztejn, 2019. "Digital Communication and Swift Trust," Post-Print halshs-02409314, HAL.
    19. Xuming He & Heng Xi & Xianbo Li, 2024. "Multi-Dimensional Decomposition, Measurement, and Governance Mechanism of Relative Poverty in Chinese Households under the Goal of Common Prosperity: Empirical Analysis Based on CFPS2020 Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-24, June.
    20. Singh, Tejendra Pratap, 2024. "Pharmacy Access and Health-seeking Behavior: Evidence from a Nationwide Policy," OSF Preprints pjvgd_v1, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    NHS spending; public provision of private good; other regarding preferences; time; risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sus:susewp:0719. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: University of Sussex Business School Communications Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecsusuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.