WHAT GOOD IS WEALTH WITHOUT HEALTH? THE EFFECT OF HEALTH ON THE MARGINAL UTILITY OF CONSUMPTION
WHAT GOOD IS WEALTH WITHOUT HEALTH? THE EFFECT OF HEALTH ON THE MARGINAL UTILITY OF CONSUMPTION
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1542-4774.2012.01101.x
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
3.6
通讯作者：
Notowidigdo, Matthew J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Finkelstein, Amy;Luttmer, Erzo F. P.;Notowidigdo, Matthew J.
我们估计消费的边际效用如何随健康而变化。要做到这一点，我们开发了一个简单的模型，其中健康对消费边际效用的影响可以从永久收入，健康和效用代理的数据进行估计。我们使用健康与退休研究的老年人和近老年人的面板数据来估计模型，并使用主观幸福感的指标来代理效用。在广泛的替代规格和假设，我们发现，消费的边际效用下降的健康恶化，我们能够明确拒绝没有国家依赖的空。我们的点估计表明，慢性疾病数量增加一个标准差，与个人没有慢性疾病时的边际效用相比，消费的边际效用下降10%-25%。我们提出了一些简单的，说明性的校准结果表明，我们估计的幅度的状态依赖性可以有重大影响的重要经济问题，如最佳水平的健康保险福利和生命周期储蓄的最佳水平。
We estimate how the marginal utility of consumption varies with health. To do so, we develop a simple model in which the impact of health on the marginal utility of consumption can be estimated from data on permanent income, health, and utility proxies. We estimate the model using the Health and Retirement Study's panel data on the elderly and near-elderly, and proxy for utility with measures of subjective well-being. Across a wide range of alternative specifications and assumptions, we find that the marginal utility of consumption declines as health deteriorates, and we are able to clearly reject the null of no state dependence. Our point estimates indicate that a one-standard-deviation increase in the number of chronic diseases is associated with a 10%-25% decline in the marginal utility of consumption relative to this marginal utility when the individual has no chronic diseases. We present some simple, illustrative calibration results that suggest that state dependence of the magnitude we estimate can have a substantial effect on important economic problems such as the optimal level of health insurance benefits and the optimal level of life-cycle savings.