Empirical Testing of Grossman’s the Demand for Health Model: The Case of Russia

Olga N. Volkova and Aleksandra N. Volkova

Journal of Applied Economic Research, 2024, vol. 23, issue 1, 33-58

Abstract: Healthcare services constitute one of the most important markets as they are used by all people regardless of age, wealth, and worldview. In order to effectively manage both private and public healthcare systems and to expand the scope of services provided in a timely manner, it is necessary to understand the nature of the demand for health, depending on the development of society and individuals. This paper is devoted to the empirical testing of one of the most influential models of health economics – Michael Grossman’s model of health demand – by means of econometrical modelling. We used data from RLMS HSE (Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE) for 2019 and 2020. The paper tested the hypotheses that educational level positively affects the demand for health, that women invest in their health more responsibly than men, that the “age”- “demand for health” link has non-linear character, and the rate of health amortization is not constant during the life of an individual. We concluded that health demonstrates the features of both consumption and investment good. It was also found that income affects the demand for health just within the consumption interpretation of this construct, not within the investment one. The study showed that people with a low income tend to consume medical services more actively by spending more time in hospitals. It can be assumed that demand for medical services will increase during the economic crisis, job cuts, inflation, and a drop in real incomes of the population. The results of the study may help to predict the demand and consumption of medical services and to facilitate decision-making in Russia's healthcare system in the future.

Keywords: Grossman’s model; demand for health; health economics; Russia; healthcare system; RLMS HSE. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journalaer.ru//fileadmin/user_upload/site_ ... _Volkova_Volkova.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aiy:jnjaer:v:23:y:2024:i:1:p:33-58

DOI: 10.15826/vestnik.2024.23.1.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Applied Economic Research is currently edited by Igor Mayburov

More articles in Journal of Applied Economic Research from Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Natalia Starodubets ().