IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sgh/kaewps/2016011.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimating the membership function of the fuzzy willingness-to-pay/accept for health via Bayesian modelling

Author

Listed:
  • Michal Jakubczyk

Abstract

Determining how to trade off individual criteria is often not obvious, especially when attributes of very different nature are juxtaposed, e.g. health and money. The difficulty stems both from the lack of adequate market experience and strong ethical component when valuing some goods, resulting in inherently imprecise preferences. Fuzzy sets can be used to model willingness-to-pay/accept (WTP/WTA), so as to quantify this imprecision and support the decision making process. The preferences need then to be estimated based on available data. In the paper I show how to estimate the membership function of fuzzy WTP/WTA, when decision makers’ preferences are collected via survey with Likert-based questions. I apply the proposed methodology to an exemplary data set on WTP/WTA for health. The mathematical model contains two elements: the parametric representation of the membership function and the mathematical model how it is translated into Likert options. The model parameters are estimated in a Bayesian approach using Markov-chain Monte Carlo. The results suggest a slight WTPWTA disparity and WTA being more fuzzy as WTP. The model is fragile to single respondents with lexicographic preferences, i.e. not willing to accept any trade-offs between health and money.

Suggested Citation

  • Michal Jakubczyk, 2016. "Estimating the membership function of the fuzzy willingness-to-pay/accept for health via Bayesian modelling," KAE Working Papers 2016-011, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2016011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://kolegia.sgh.waw.pl/pl/KAE/Documents/WorkingPapersKAE/WPKAE_2016_011.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bellavance, Franois & Dionne, Georges & Lebeau, Martin, 2009. "The value of a statistical life: A meta-analysis with a mixed effects regression model," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 444-464, March.
    2. Hultkrantz, Lars & Svensson, Mikael, 2012. "The value of a statistical life in Sweden: A review of the empirical literature," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 302-310.
    3. Viscusi, W Kip & Aldy, Joseph E, 2003. "The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates throughout the World," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-76, August.
    4. repec:reg:rpubli:282 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Dubourg, W R & Jones-Lee, M W & Loomes, Graham, 1994. "Imprecise Preferences and the WTP-WTA Disparity," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 115-133, October.
    6. Bleichrodt, Han & Wakker, Peter & Johannesson, Magnus, 1997. "Characterizing QALYs by Risk Neutrality," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 107-114, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michal Jakubczyk, 2016. "Choosing from multiple alternatives in cost-effectiveness analysis with fuzzy willingness-to-pay/accept and uncertainty," KAE Working Papers 2016-006, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    2. Jaithri Ananthapavan & Marj Moodie & Andrew J. Milat & Rob Carter, 2021. "Systematic Review to Update ‘Value of a Statistical Life’ Estimates for Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Natina Yaduma & Mika Kortelainen & Ada Wossink, 2013. "Estimating Mortality and Economic Costs of Particulate Air Pollution in Developing Countries: The Case of Nigeria," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(3), pages 361-387, March.
    4. Ryen, Linda & Svensson, Mikael, 2014. "The Willingness to Pay for a QALY: a Review of the Empirical Literature," Karlstad University Working Papers in Economics 12, Karlstad University, Department of Economics.
    5. Kevin Haninger & James K. Hammitt, 2011. "Diminishing Willingness to Pay per Quality‐Adjusted Life Year: Valuing Acute Foodborne Illness," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(9), pages 1363-1380, September.
    6. Green, Colin P. & Heywood, John S. & Navarro, María, 2016. "Traffic accidents and the London congestion charge," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 11-22.
    7. Bugge, Christoffer & Sæther, Erik Magnus & Brustugun, Odd Terje & Kristiansen, Ivar Sønbø, 2021. "Societal cost of cancer in Norway –Results of taking a broader cost perspective," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(8), pages 1100-1107.
    8. Benkhalifa, Abdelaziz, 2010. "The value of mortality risk reductions in the Tunisian building and manufacturing industries," MPRA Paper 63617, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Doucouliagos, Chris & Stanley, T.D. & Giles, Margaret, 2012. "Are estimates of the value of a statistical life exaggerated?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 197-206.
    10. Jon Nelson & Peter Kennedy, 2009. "The Use (and Abuse) of Meta-Analysis in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Assessment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(3), pages 345-377, March.
    11. Lavin, Felipe Vasquez & Bratti, Luna & Orrego, Sergio & Barrientos, Manuel, 2020. "Assessing the Use of Pseudo-panels to Estimate the Value of Statistical Life in Developing Countries," EfD Discussion Paper 20-20, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    12. Hammitt, James K. & Robinson, Lisa A., 2011. "The Income Elasticity of the Value per Statistical Life: Transferring Estimates between High and Low Income Populations," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-29, January.
    13. Andersson, Henrik & Hole, Arne Risa & Svensson, Mikael, 2016. "Valuation of small and multiple health risks: A critical analysis of SP data applied to food and water safety," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 41-53.
    14. Broughel, James & Viscusi, Kip, 2017. "Death by Regulation: How Regulations Can Increase Mortality Risk," Working Papers 06864, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    15. Marcela Parada-Contzen & Felipe Vásquez-Lavín, 2019. "An analysis of economic incentives to encourage organ donation: evidence from Chile," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-18, December.
    16. Linda Ryen & Mikael Svensson, 2015. "The Willingness to Pay for a Quality Adjusted Life Year: A Review of the Empirical Literature," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(10), pages 1289-1301, October.
    17. Henrik Andersson & James K. Hammitt & Kristian Sundström, 2015. "Willingness to Pay and QALYs: What Can We Learn about Valuing Foodborne Risk?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 727-752, September.
    18. Wheeler, William & Dockins, Chris, 2013. "Meta-Analysis and Publication Bias in the Hedonic Wage Literature," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150725, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Dionne, Georges & Lebeau, Martin, 2010. "Le calcul de la valeur statistique d’une vie humaine," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 86(4), pages 487-530, décembre.
    20. Martin Weitzman, 2007. "Structural Uncertainty and the Value of Statistical Life in the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change," NBER Working Papers 13490, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    willingness-to-pay/accept; fuzzy set; membership function; preference elicitation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J17 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Value of Life; Foregone Income
    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2016011. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dariusz Nojszewski (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/kawawpl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.