Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/245888 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Quaderni - Working Paper DSE No. 1146
Publisher: 
Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche (DSE), Bologna
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the role of biased health perceptions as driving forces of risky health behavior. We define absolute and relative health perception biases, illustrate their measurement in surveys and provide evidence on their relevance. Next, we decompose the theoretical effect into its extensive and intensive margin: When the extensive margin dominates, people (wrongly) believe they are healthy enough to "afford" unhealthy behavior. Finally, using three population surveys, we provide robust empirical evidence that respondents who overestimate their health are less likely to exercise and sleep enough, but more likely to eat unhealthily and drink alcohol daily.
Subjects: 
health bias
health perceptions
subjective beliefs
overconfidence
underconfidence
overoptimism
risky behavior
smoking
obesity
exercising
SF12
SAH
BASE-II
JEL: 
C93
D03
D83
I12
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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