The purpose of this paper is to conduct a theoretical and empirical analysis of the nexus between long-term care insurance (LTCI), formal care, informal (family) care, and bequests. In our empirical analysis, we use micro data from the Japan Household Panel Survey on Consumer Preferences and...

In this paper, we conduct a theoretical analysis of why individuals provide care and attention to their elderly parents using a two-period overlapping generations model with endogenous saving and a "contest success function" and test this model using micro data from a Japanese household survey,...

This paper examines the role of peer effects in smoking behavior using data of middle and high school students in the United States. I present a random utility model that explicitly incorporates complementarity between individual and peer smokings. A Markov process model of smoking interactions...

This article examines the choice of health care in Japan by patients suffering from the common cold. Original data were obtained from a survey conducted by the authors. Empirical results show that the price elasticity of demand for medical services is between 0.23 and 0.36. This estimated price...

This paper examines the optimal content regulation of DTCA by comparing two forms of DTCA-product-specific and category-specific-and identifies a key tradeoff which underlies this policy debate. Our analysis suggests that the optimal form of DTCA depends crucially on the cost effectiveness of...

This paper analyzes the optimal content regulation of direct-to-consumer advertisement (DTCA) in a pharmaceutical market, with particular focus on the distinction between product and enlightenment advertisement. Firms are allowed to freely promote their own specific products under product DTCA,...

This article examines the choice of health care in Japan for patients suffering from the common cold.

This paper examines the choice of health care for minor aliments in Japan for patients suffering from thirteen different minor aliments. Original data were obtained from a survey conducted by the authors. For the common cold, shoulder/neck pain, backache, constipation/diarrea, asthenopia,...

This article examines by means of Conjoint Analysis (Ca) the health care choice in Japanese people suffering from the common cold. CA is a stated preference technique that uses a survey and involves the hypothetical scenarios.

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on...