Altruism, fertility, and the value of children
Subtitle: health policy evaluation and intergenerational welfare
By: Javier A. Birchenall, Rodrigo R. Soares.
Contributors: Birchenall, Javier A.; Soares, Rodrigo R.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 12836; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 12836.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "This paper accounts for the value of children and future generations in the evaluation of health policies.  This is achieved through the incorporation of altruism and fertility in "value of life" type of framework.  We are able to express adults' willingness to pay for changes in child mortality and also to incorporate the welfare of future generations in the evaluation of current policies.  Our model clarifies a series of puzzles from the literature on the "value of life" and on intergenerational welfare comparisons.  We show that, by incorporating altruism and fertility into the analysis, the estimated welfare gain from recent reductions in mortality in the U.S.  easily doubles"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 3/22/2007.

Includes bibliographical references.

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