The economics of risky health behaviors
By: John Cawley, Christopher Ruhm
Contributors: Ruhm, Christopher J.; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 17081; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17081.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this.  You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.  Risky health behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex, and poor diets and sedentary lifestyles (leading to obesity) are a major source of preventable deaths.  This chapter overviews the theoretical frameworks for, and empirical evidence on, the economics of risky health behaviors.  It describes traditional economic approaches emphasizing utility maximization that, under certain assumptions, result in Pareto-optimal outcomes and a limited role for policy interventions.  It also details nontraditional models (e.g.  involving hyperbolic time discounting or bounded rationality) that even without market imperfections can result in suboptimal outcomes for which government intervention has greater potential to increase social welfare.  The chapter summarizes the literature on the consequences of risky health behaviors for economic outcomes such as medical care costs, educational attainment, employment, wages, and crime.  It also reviews the research on policies and strategies with the potential to modify risky health behaviors, such as taxes or subsidies, cash incentives, restrictions on purchase and use, providing information and restricting advertising.  The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 8/30/2011.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available in print.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.