title: A theory of health investment under competing mortality risks.
abstract: In this paper, we present a theory of health investment when there are multiple causes of death. We analyze the optimal investment rules and the comparative statics. In particular, we examine the conditions under which a cause-specific intervention has a spillover effect. By spillover effect, we mean a price reduction in one cause-specific health investment would increase all other investments. We also study the strength of the spillover effect, which is measured in terms of cross price elasticities. We find that, while a cause-specific intervention might not be wasteful, the spillover effect would not be large either.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Wylie Hall 301, Indiana University, Bloomington, 47405, USA. changf@indiana.edu
authors.forename: Fwu-Ranq
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology