Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/76126 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 0901
Publisher: 
University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute, Zurich
Abstract: 
Health economists have studied the determinants of the expected value of health status as a function of medical and nonmedical inputs, often finding small marginal effects of the former. This paper argues that both types of input have an additional benefit, viz. a reduced variability of health status. Using OECD health data for 24 countries between 1960 and 2004, medical and nonmedical inputs are found to reduce the variability of life expectancy. While the evidence supports the flat-of-the-curve medicine hypothesis with respect to the expected value of life expectancy and its variability, healthcare expenditure is comparatively effective in reducing variability.
Subjects: 
production of health
control over health status
Gini coefficient
JEL: 
I10
I12
J10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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