Approaches to Estimating the Health State Dependence of the Utility Function

Amy Finkelstein, Erzo Luttmer and Matthew Notowidigdo

Working Paper Series from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

Abstract: If the marginal utility of consumption depends on health status, this will affect the economic analysis of a number of central problems in public finance, including the optimal structure of health insurance and optimal life cycle savings. In this paper, we describe the promises and challenges of various approaches to estimating the effect of health on the marginal utility of consumption. Our basic conclusion is that while none of these approaches is a panacea, many offer the potential to shed important insights on the nature of health state dependence.

JEL-codes: D12 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-upt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (111)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Approaches to Estimating the Health State Dependence of the Utility Function (2009)
Working Paper: Approaches to Estimating the Health State Dependence of the Utility Function (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp09-002

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