Increasing marginal utility of small increases in life-expectancy?: Results from a population survey

Maria Knoph Kvamme, Dorte Gyrd-Hansen (), Jan Abel Olsen and Ivar Sønbø Kristiansen

Journal of Health Economics, 2010, vol. 29, issue 4, 541-548

Abstract: The standard practice in cost-effectiveness analyses of health care is to assign a linear value to increasing lifetime gains. The aim of the current study was to examine the possible existence of non-linear utility for short life extensions. A representative sample of the Norwegian population, aged 40-59 years (n = 2402), was asked to imagine that they had a limited remaining lifetime (1 year or 10 years) and were offered a treatment that would increase lifetime by a specified amount of time from 1 week to 1 year. In all scenarios, the price per week of life extension was held constant. The proportion of respondents that accepted the treatment increased with increasing extensions, indicating a convex utility function. The result suggests increasing marginal utility for life extensions up to 1 year.

Keywords: Cost-effectiveness-methodology; Linear; models; Willingness; to; pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:29:y:2010:i:4:p:541-548

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