Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers
Creation-Date: 2024-07-10
Number: 24-045/V
Author-Name: Matthew Robson
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Author-Name: Owen O’Donnell
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Author-Name: Tom Van Ourti
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Title: Responsibility-Sensitive Welfare Weights for Health
Abstract: We estimate responsibility-sensitive welfare weights for health that facilitate inequality- and inequity-sensitive policy evaluation. In a UK general population sample, 569 on- line experiment participants distribute constrained resources to determine the health of hypothetical individuals distinguished by randomly generated resource productivity as well as sex, income and smoking (41,460 observations). We elicit beliefs about responsibility for income and smoking, and use their associations with the allocations to estimate responsibility-sensitive weights that reflect inequality aversion and health prioritisation by the non-health characteristics. There is slight, moderate and substantial prioritisation of females, the poor and non-smokers, respectively. Inequality aversion lowers weights on females and non-smokers, who are health-advantaged, and raises the weight on the poor, who are health-disadvantaged. As beliefs about responsibility for income and smoking strengthen, weights on the poor decrease and weights on non-smokers significantly increase.
Classification-JEL: C90, D30, D63, I14, I38
Keywords: Experiment, Social Preferences, Inequality Aversion, Equity
File-URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/24045.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 1.194.862 bytes
Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20240045