Rheinberger, Christoph M., Herrera Araujo, Daniel Andres and Hammitt, James K. (2016) The value of disease prevention vs treatment. Journal of Health Economics, 50. pp. 247-255.

Preview

Text Download (871kB) | Preview

Abstract

We present an integrated valuation model for diseases that are life-threatening. The model extends the standard one-period value-per-statistical-life model to three health prospects: healthy, ill, and dead. We derive willingness-to-pay values for prevention efforts that reduce a disease's incidence rate as well as for treatments that lower the corresponding health deterioration and mortality rates. We find that the demand value of prevention always exceeds that of treatment. People often overweight small risks and underweight large ones. We use the rank dependent utility framework to explore how the demand for prevention and treatment alters when people evaluate probabilities in a non-linear manner. For incidence and mortality rates associated with common types of cancers, the inverse-S shaped probability weighting found in experimental studies leads to a significant increase in the demand values of both treatment and prevention.

Available Versions of this Item

• The Value of Cancer Prevention vs Treatment. (deposited 21 Mar 2016 15:38)
  • The value of disease prevention vs treatment. (deposited 24 Jan 2017 10:34) [Currently Displayed]