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Time preferences for health gains: An empirical investigation

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  • Jan Abel Olsen

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to elicit the implied discount rates to be used in economic evaluations of health care programmes. The paper presents results from two Norwegian surveys in which a random sample of the population and a sample of health planners were asked to prioritise between alternative health care programmes, and make trade‐offs between future health gains and more immediate gains. The questionnaire had four hypothetical choice situations; two for life saving and two for health improvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Abel Olsen, 1993. "Time preferences for health gains: An empirical investigation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 2(3), pages 257-265, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:2:y:1993:i:3:p:257-265
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4730020309
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Victor R. Fuchs, 1982. "Economic Aspects of Health," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fuch82-1, May.
    2. Viscusi, W. Kip & Moore, Michael J., 1989. "Rates of time preference and valuations of the duration of life," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 297-317, April.
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    4. Victor R. Fuchs, 1982. "Time Preference and Health: An Exploratory Study," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Aspects of Health, pages 93-120, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Horowitz, John K & Carson, Richard T, 1990. "Discounting Statistical Lives," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 403-413, December.
    6. Cropper, Maureen L & Aydede, Sema K & Portney, Paul R, 1992. "Rates of Time Preference for Saving Lives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 469-472, May.
    7. Loewenstein, George, 1987. "Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(387), pages 666-684, September.
    8. Moore, Michael J. & Viscusi, W. Kip, 1990. "Discounting environmental health risks: New evidence and policy implications," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 51-62, March.
    9. Olsen, Jan Abel, 1993. "On what basis should health be discounted?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 39-53, April.
    10. Fuchs, Victor R. (ed.), 1982. "Economic Aspects of Health," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226267852, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carl Lyttkens, 2003. "Time to disable DALYs?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 4(3), pages 195-202, September.
    2. Arthur E. Attema & Werner B. F. Brouwer & Karl Claxton, 2018. "Discounting in Economic Evaluations," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 36(7), pages 745-758, July.
    3. Erik Nord, 2011. "Discounting future health benefits: the poverty of consistency arguments," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 16-26, January.
    4. John A. Cairns, 1994. "Valuing future benefits," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 3(4), pages 221-229, July.
    5. John Cairns & Marjon Van Der Pol, 1999. "Do People Value Their Own Future Health Differently from Others' Future Health?," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 19(4), pages 466-472, October.
    6. S. Höjgård & U. Enemark & C. H. Lyttkens & A. Lindgren & T. Troëng & H. Weibull, 2002. "Discounting and clinical decision making: Physicians, patients, the general public, and the management of asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysms," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(4), pages 355-370, June.
    7. Dorte Gyrd‐Hansen & Jes Søgaard, 1998. "Discounting life‐years: whither time preference?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(2), pages 121-127, March.
    8. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2016. "Population Growth And Preference Change In A Generalized Solow Growth Model With Gender Time Distributions," Oradea Journal of Business and Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 7-30, September.
    9. Francis Asenso‐Boadi & Tim J. Peters & Joanna Coast, 2008. "Exploring differences in empirical time preference rates for health: an application of meta‐regression," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(2), pages 235-248, February.
    10. Magnus Johannesson & Per‐Olov Johansson, 1996. "The discounting of lives saved in future generations—some empirical results," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(4), pages 329-332, July.
    11. K. Stavem & I. S. Kristiansen & J. A. Olsen, 2002. "Association of time preference for health with age and disease severity," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 3(2), pages 120-124, June.
    12. Ana Bobinac & Werner Brouwer & Job van Exel, 2011. "Discounting future health gains: an empirical enquiry into the influence of growing life expectancy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 111-119, January.
    13. John A. Cairns & Marjon M. Van Der Pol, 1997. "Saving future lives. A comparison of three discounting models," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(4), pages 341-350, July.
    14. Alireza Mahboub-Ahari & Abolghasem Pourreza & Ali Akbari Sari & Trevor A Sheldon & Maryam Moeeni, 2019. "Private and social time preference for health outcomes: A general population survey in Iran," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, February.
    15. Angelina Lazaro & Ramon Barberan & Encarnacion Rubio, 2002. "The economic evaluation of health programmes: why discount health consequences more than monetary consequences?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 339-350.

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