Valuing Pain using the Subjective Well-being Method

Thorhildur Ólafsdóttir, Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir and Edward Norton

No 23649, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Chronic pain clearly lowers utility, but it is empirically challenging to estimate the monetary compensation needed to offset this utility reduction. We use the subjective well-being method to estimate the value of pain relief among individuals age 50 and older. We use a sample of 64,205 observations from 4 waves (2008-2014) of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative individual-level survey data, permitting us to control for individual heterogeneity. Our models, which allow for nonlinear effects in income, show the value of avoiding pain ranging between 56 to 145 USD per day. These results are lower than previously reported, suggesting that the value of pain relief varies by income levels. Thus, previous estimates of the value of pain relief assuming constant monetary compensation for pain across income levels are heavily affected by the highest income level. Furthermore, we find that the value of pain relief increases with pain severity.

JEL-codes: I10 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-hea
Note: EH
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Published as Thorhildur Ólafsdóttir & Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir & Edward C. Norton, 2019. "Valuing Pain using the Subjective Well-being Method," Economics & Human Biology, .

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Journal Article: Valuing pain using the subjective well-being method (2020)
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