The Economics of Risky Health Behaviors11We thank the editors of this Handbook, Pedro Pita Barros, Tom McGuire, and Mark Pauly, for their feedback and helpful guidance. We also thank the other authors in this volume for their valuable feedback and comments at the Authors’ Conference, and we are grateful to Abigail Friedman for transcribing the comments at that conference.
2011; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/b978-0-444-53592-4.00003-7
ISSN1875-5720
AutoresJohn Cawley, Christopher J. Ruhm,
Tópico(s)Global Health Care Issues
ResumoRisky health behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex, and poor diets and sedentary lifestyles (leading to obesity) are a major source of preventable deaths. This chapter overviews the theoretical frameworks for, and empirical evidence on, the economics of risky health behaviors. It describes traditional economic approaches emphasizing utility maximization that, under certain assumptions, result in Pareto-optimal outcomes and a limited role for policy interventions. It also details non-traditional models (e.g. involving hyperbolic time discounting or bounded rationality) that even without market imperfections can result in suboptimal outcomes for which government intervention has greater potential to increase social welfare. The chapter summarizes the literature on the consequences of risky health behaviors for economic outcomes such as medical care costs, educational attainment, employment, wages, and crime. It also reviews the research on policies and strategies with the potential to modify risky health behaviors, such as taxes or subsidies, cash incentives, restrictions on purchase and use, providing information, and restricting advertising. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research.
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