What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?

This paper uses several waves of the General Social Survey (GSS) including data for up to about 32,000 individuals to estimate the effect of a variety of health conditions on happiness. We show that healthy people are in general happier than individuals with poor health, controlling for a number of...

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Main Authors:	de Mello, Luiz, Tiongson, Erwin R.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	National Government Expenditures and Health H510 Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5595

id	okr-10986-5595
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-55952021-04-23T14:02:23Z What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health? de Mello, Luiz Tiongson, Erwin R. National Government Expenditures and Health H510 Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180 This paper uses several waves of the General Social Survey (GSS) including data for up to about 32,000 individuals to estimate the effect of a variety of health conditions on happiness. We show that healthy people are in general happier than individuals with poor health, controlling for a number of personal and household characteristics. On the basis of the regression results, we computed the monetary value of good health, suggesting that relatively large sums of money would be required to compensate individuals for the loss in happiness associated with poor health. Finally, we show that people become unhappy when the health status of their loved ones deteriorates. In particular, the compensating value associated with a spouse's poor health can be very large, thus pointing to some altruism in the relationship between health status and happiness. 2012-03-30T07:33:35Z 2012-03-30T07:33:35Z 2009 Journal Article Kyklos 00235962 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5595 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	National Government Expenditures and Health H510 Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180
spellingShingle	National Government Expenditures and Health H510 Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180 de Mello, Luiz Tiongson, Erwin R. What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	This paper uses several waves of the General Social Survey (GSS) including data for up to about 32,000 individuals to estimate the effect of a variety of health conditions on happiness. We show that healthy people are in general happier than individuals with poor health, controlling for a number of personal and household characteristics. On the basis of the regression results, we computed the monetary value of good health, suggesting that relatively large sums of money would be required to compensate individuals for the loss in happiness associated with poor health. Finally, we show that people become unhappy when the health status of their loved ones deteriorates. In particular, the compensating value associated with a spouse's poor health can be very large, thus pointing to some altruism in the relationship between health status and happiness.
format	Journal Article
author	de Mello, Luiz Tiongson, Erwin R.
author_facet	de Mello, Luiz Tiongson, Erwin R.
author_sort	de Mello, Luiz
title	What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?
title_short	What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?
title_full	What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?
title_fullStr	What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?
title_full_unstemmed	What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?
title_sort	what is the value of (my and my family's) good health?
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5595
_version_	1764395608431394816

What Is the Value of (My and My Family's) Good Health?

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