Estimating Public Preferences on Population Health Ethics

Rory Allanson and Matthew Robson
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Rory Allanson: University of Strathclyde
Matthew Robson: Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute

No 24-067/V, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: We develop a social choice experiment to estimate public preferences on population ethics. Our experiment poses three within-subject treatments in which participants allocate scarce resources to determine the health-related quality-of-life, and existence, of two population groups. Within a flexible social welfare function, we estimate participant-level preferences for inequality aversion, average vs total welfare maximisation, and minimum `critical level' thresholds. By combining random behavioural and random utility models we also explicitly model `noise' in decision making. Using a sample of British adults (n=115, obs.=5,060), we find that 98.7% of respondents are inequality averse, prioritising the worst-off at the expense of efficiently maximising overall health. The modal group of participants (39.2%) maximise total welfare and have a critical level threshold of zero, however there is extensive heterogeneity in participants' population preferences. We then demonstrate how these preferences can aid policymaking, where difficult trade-offs emerge between equity and efficiency, average and total welfare, and population size.

Keywords: Experiment; Health; Social Welfare; Inequality; Population Ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D63 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-11-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-dem, nep-exp and nep-upt
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