title: The willingness to pay for health changes, the human-capital approach and the external costs.
abstract: In this paper, the relationship between willingness to pay for health changes, the human-capital approach, and the costs that should be included in a cost-benefit analysis of a health care programme are analysed. The costs that should be included are defined as the change in consumption minus the change in production of the individual that receives a health care programme. The size of these external costs differs depending on the institutional arrangements in society. It is shown that the net production version of the human-capital approach is an estimation of the external costs. The human-capital approach can thus be given a theoretical foundation in cost-benefit analysis if it is used to estimate the external costs.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johannesson
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017048:Health Care Costs; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D018803:Models, Economic; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D017149:Private Sector / Q000191:economics; D017150:Public Sector / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D026712:Value of Life