Individual Decisions for Health (Routledge International Studies in Health Economics, 1)

Although economics is a relative newcomer to research into the determinants of good health, its significance should not be under-estimated. This book poses the important question of whether economic theory can be developed to explain why people engage in activities that are obviously a danger to their long-term health. In looking first at the individual's own decisions that affect his or her health, and then at the impact of other agent's decisions for the individual's health, the authors provide an exhaustive account of the important issues to be faced to ensure the best future for public health care. Contributors include such experts as Peter Zweifel, Donald S. Kenkel and Mark Pauly. Of great interest to advanced students of health economics, this book will also be extremely useful to students, academics and professionals involved in the sphere of public health. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of figures......Page 8 List of tables......Page 9 List of contributors......Page 11 Preface......Page 15 Acknowledgements......Page 16 Introduction......Page 18 The individual's own decisions for his or her health......Page 26 Investments in prevention: health economics and healthy people......Page 28 An exploratory study on the demand for health, lifetime income, and imperfect financial markets......Page 46 Health, genuine uncertainty, and information......Page 58 Rationality, nicotine dependence, and adjustment costs......Page 87 The demand for health and health investments in Sweden 1980/81, 1988/89, and 1996/97......Page 110 The determinants of health in Sweden......Page 130 Estimation of intangible benefits and costs of cancer screening with stated rank data......Page 145 Other agents' decisions for an individual's health......Page 162 Expected utility theory and medical decision making......Page 164 Quality incentives under a capitation regime: the role of patient expectations......Page 175 The importance of micro-data for revealing income-motivated behaviour among GPs......Page 199 The production and regulation of insurance: limiting opportunism in proprietary and non-proprietary organizations......Page 211 Patching up the physician patient relationship: insurers versus governments as complementary agents......Page 224 Recruiting health care rationers: individual versus collective choice......Page 251 Index......Page 269 Over twenty-five years ago, health economics research had begun laying the foundation for now-familiar arguments about the importance of prevention in the health economy.