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Willingness to pay for reductions in health risks when probabilities are distorted

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  • Han Bleichrodt
  • Louis Eeckhoudt

Abstract

We study the willingness to pay for reductions in health risks when people do not evaluate probabilities linearly, as is commonly assumed in elicitations of willingness to pay, but weight probabilities, as is commonly observed in empirical studies of decision under risk. We show that for the levels of baseline risk typically considered, probability weighting strongly affects willingness to pay estimates and may lead to unstable monetary valuations of health. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Han Bleichrodt & Louis Eeckhoudt, 2006. "Willingness to pay for reductions in health risks when probabilities are distorted," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(2), pages 211-214, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:15:y:2006:i:2:p:211-214
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1073
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    3. Mehmet Kutluay & Roy Brouwer & Richard S. J. Tol, 2017. "Preference updating in public health risk valuation," Working Paper Series 1517, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
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    5. Rheinberger, Christoph M. & Herrera-Araujo, Daniel & Hammitt, James K., 2016. "The value of disease prevention vs treatment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 247-255.
    6. Henrik Andersson & Nicolas Treich, 2011. "The Value of a Statistical Life," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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    10. Hammitt, James K. & Herrera-Araujo, Daniel & Rheinberger, Christoph, 2016. "The Value of Cancer Prevention vs Treatment," TSE Working Papers 16-628, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    11. Treich, Nicolas, 2010. "The value of a statistical life under ambiguity aversion," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 15-26, January.
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    13. Meg Perry-Duxbury & Job Exel & Werner Brouwer, 2019. "How to value safety in economic evaluations in health care? A review of applications in different sectors," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(7), pages 1041-1061, September.
    14. James K. Hammitt, 2013. "Positive versus Normative Justifications for Benefit-Cost Analysis: Implications for Interpretation and Policy," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(2), pages 199-218, July.
    15. Jiakun Zheng, 2021. "Willingness to pay for reductions in health risks under anticipated regret," Post-Print hal-04227414, HAL.
    16. Gabriela Zeller & Matthias Scherer, 2023. "Risk mitigation services in cyber insurance: optimal contract design and price structure," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 48(2), pages 502-547, April.
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    19. Dorte Gyrd‐Hansen & Peder Andreas Halvorsen & Ivar Sønbø Kristiansen, 2008. "Willingness‐to‐pay for a statistical life in the times of a pandemic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 55-66, January.
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