Anticipation of deteriorating health and information avoidance

Johannes Schünemann, Holger Strulik and Timo Trimborn

Journal of Health Economics, 2023, vol. 89, issue C

Abstract: We integrate anticipatory utility and endogenous beliefs about future negative health shocks into a life-cycle model of physiological aging. Individuals care about their future utility derived from their health status and form endogenous beliefs about the probability of a negative health shock. We calibrate the model with data from gerontology and use the model to predict medical testing decisions of individuals. We find that anticipation in combination with endogenous beliefs provides a quantitatively strong motive to avoid medical testing for Huntington’s disease, which explains the low testing rates found empirically. We also study the case of breast and ovarian cancer and provide an explanation for why testing rates depend on the individual’s income when treatment is available.

Keywords: Health; Anticipation; Longevity; Health behavior; Beliefs; Information avoidance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D91 I12 J17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629623000322
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Anticipation of Deteriorating Health and Information Avoidance (2020)
Working Paper: Anticipation of deteriorating health and information avoidance (2019)
Working Paper: Anticipation of Deteriorating Health and Information Avoidance (2019)
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:eee:jhecon:v:89:y:2023:i:c:s0167629623000322

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102755

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire

More articles in Journal of Health Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().