title: Health-related externalities: evidence from a choice experiment.
abstract: Health-related external benefits are of potentially large importance for public policy. This paper investigates health-related external benefits using a stated-preference discrete-choice experiment framed in a health care context and including choice scenarios defined by six attributes related to a recipient and the recipient's condition: communicability, severity, medical necessity, relationship to respondent, location, and amount of contribution requested. Subjects also completed a set of own-treatment scenarios and a values-orientation instrument. We find evidence of substantial health-related external benefits that vary as expected with the scenario attributes and subjects' value orientations. The results are consistent with a number of hypotheses offered by the general theoretical analysis of health-related externalities and the analysis of externalities specific to health care.
authors: Department of Economics and Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Kenneth Taylor Hall, Rm 430, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4, Canada. hurley@mcmaster.ca
authors: Jeremiah
authors: J
authors: Hurley
authors: Emmanouil
authors: E
authors: Mentzakis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000533:Altruism; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012945:Social Values; D055815:Young Adult