The thesis consists of a summary and four papers, concerned with food consumption, behavior associated with overconsumption of food and analysis of the economic policy reforms designed to improve health. <p> Paper [I] estimates a hedonic price model on breakfast cereal, crisp bread and potato...</p>

We study how the optimal public provision of health care depends on whether or not individuals have an option to seek publicly financed treatment in other regions. We find that, relative to the first-best solution, the government has an incentive to over-provide health care to low-income...

The market share for parallel imports when pharmacies can negotiate discounts with parallel traders and sellers of locally sourced products is analyzed both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical model shows that, with discount negotiations, pharmacies will sell locally sourced products...

This thesis consists of a summary and four papers. The first two concerns health care and sickness absence, and the last two pharmaceutical costs and prices. <p> Paper [I] presents an economic federation model which resembles the situation in, for example, Sweden. In the model the state governments...</p>

In the county of Västerbotten, Sweden, there are two health centres which (contrary to all other health centres in the region) have a strict responsibility over their pharmaceutical budget. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the prices and quantities of pharmaceuticals prescribed by...

The thesis consists of an introductory part and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] theoretically analyzes how the level and uncertainty of future prospects affect incentives to abstain from sexual risk taking in the presence of HIV. The results suggest that, for individuals with limited...

This paper empirically assesses links between expectations of future health and income on sexual risk taking on a sample of young adults in Cape Town, South Africa. An important contribution of the paper lies in combining a wide range of variables measuring risky sexual behavior such that the...

In spite of increased awareness of HIV/AIDS and the lack of retroviral drugs, unprotected casual sex is still widespread in many HIV infected countries. In this paper, a two-period model for sexual decisions under uncertainty is developed. The results suggest that uncertainty of future health...

With food, consumers often face a trade-off between taste and nutrition. A priori, it is not obvious which would be more important to the average consumer, so it is an empirical question how consumers value food characteristics that simultaneously affect taste and nutritional value. In this...

The association between socioeconomic variables and mortality for 41 000 adults Vietnamese followed from January 1999 to March 2008 are estimated using Cox's proportionally hazard models. Also, we use decomposition techniques to investigate the relative importance of socioeconomic factors for...