Risky health behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex, and poor diets and sedentary lifestyles (leading to obesity) are a major source of preventable deaths. This chapter overviews the theoretical frameworks for, and empirical evidence on, the economics of risky...

This paper examines the effect of job stress on two key health risk-behaviors: smoking and alcohol consumption, using data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey. Findings in the extant literature are inconclusive and are mainly based on standard models which can model differential...

Preferences and attitudes to illicit drug policy held by individuals are likely to be an important influence in the development of illicit drug policy. Among the key factors impacting on an individual's preferences over substance use policy are their beliefs about the costs and benefits of drug...

Spatial inequality in global economic development has left Africa with the least progress in improving living standards among developing regions of the world. Moreover, there are strong neighborhood effects within Africa. This paper revisits the explanation of unequal growth across countries in...

This paper studies three interrelated health care decisions: insurance, utilization, and expenditures. The model treats insurance as an endogenous variable with respect to both utilization and expenditures, addresses potential selection issues, and takes into account that the decisions to use...

We investigate the impact of the implementation of Diabetes Management Programs with financial incentives in the Italian Region Emilia-Romagna between 2003 and 2005. We focus on avoidable hospitalisations for diabetic patients for whom GPs receive additional payments exceeding capitation. We...