Annual Review of Economics · 2011 · 413 citations · 77 references
Social SciencesHealth BehaviorHealth PolicyHealth EconomicsPopulation HealthPublic Health PolicyBehavioral Health EconomicsDisease BurdenDisease ControlHealth Behavior PolicyPovertySocioeconomic Determinants Of HealthChild Health EconomicsDisease Burden AnalysisEconomic Burden Of IllnessHealth Behavior DemandHealth Incentives PolicyHealth Information-seeking BehaviorInfectious Disease EconomicsPresent Bias Mitigation
Low‑income countries face a severe disease burden, with over 15 million deaths annually from largely preventable illnesses such as malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhea, and AIDS, most of them children. This article reviews microeconomic studies of health‑seeking behavior in low‑income countries. It examines factors such as information, peer influence, liquidity constraints, and present bias, and discusses policy implications for mandates, subsidies, and incentives.
The disease burden in low-income countries is extremely high. Malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhea, AIDS, and other diseases are estimated to kill more than 15 million people each year, most of them children. Yet the great majority of these diseases can be prevented or treated. This article reviews microeconomic studies of health-seeking behavior in low-income countries. Factors examined include information, peers, liquidity constraints, and nonrational preferences, such as present bias. I then discuss the implications for policy, including the scope for mandates, subsidies, and incentives.
77
Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting
David Laibson · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 1997 · 6.2K citations · Full text
Household catastrophic health expenditure: a multicountry analysis
Ke Xu, David Evans, Kei Kawabata et al. · The Lancet · 2003 · 2.3K citations