There is no consensus among health economists about the specification of individual preferences that best fits observed behaviors. One crucial point of disagreement concerns the sign of the interaction between health and wealth in individual utility functions. We propose here a simple, static,...

There is no consensus among health economists about the specification of individual preferences that best fits observed behaviors. One crucial point of disagreement concerns the sign of the interaction between health and wealth in individual utility functions. We propose here a simple, static,...

Empirical evidence suggests the existence of a positive relationship between fear of sickness (FS) - as measured by the level of future utility lost when sickness occurs - and the level of effort to prevent the occurrence of sickness. By looking theoretically at this issue, we develop new...

Decisions under risk are often multidimensional, where the preferences of the decision maker depend on several attributes. For example, an individual might be concerned about both her level of wealth and the condition of her health. Many times the signs of successive cross derivatives of a...

Decisions under risk are often multidimensional, where the preferences of the decision maker depend on several attributes. For example, an individual might be concerned about both her level of wealth and the condition of her health. Many times the signs of successive cross-derivatives of a...

The concept of prudence is nowadays almost as well accepted as that of risk aversion. We show that the concept of temperance deserves a similar status since it rests on the same basic ideas as the other two ones. The analysis also specifies the link which exists in the expected utility model...