Working Paper: NBER ID: w11100
Authors: David Cutler; Edward Glaeser
Abstract: We explore economic model of health behaviors. While the standard economic model of health as an investment is generally supported empirically, the ability of this model to explain heterogeneity across individuals is extremely limited. Most prominently, the correlation of different health behaviors across people is virtually zero, suggest that standard factors such as variation in discount rates or the value of life are not the drivers of behavior. We focus instead on two other factors: genetics; and behavioral-specific situational factors. The first factor is empirically important, and we suspect the second is as well.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| genetics (J10) | health behaviors (I12) |
| situational factors (D91) | health behaviors (I12) |
| individual characteristics (Z13) | health behaviors (I12) |
| standard economic model (E13) | low correlation of health behaviors (I12) |