Essays on Consumer Preferences in Health

Abstract

This dissertation quantifies consumer preferences in the domain of health, examines the mechanisms underlying these preferences, and develops tools for policymakers and practitioners to incorporate these insights into health policy decision-making. Chapter 1 provides evidence that people's ability to process complicated numerical information influences their willingness to pay for small changes in the risk of dying, potentially biasing economic evaluations of public policies that reduce health risks. To address this challenge, this chapter develops a statistical approach that practitioners can use to correct for bias, improving estimates of the value of public policies. Next, Chapter 2 (co-authored with Angelique Acquatella and Amitabh Chandra) examines whether people's preferences for resource redistribution depend not only on beneficiaries' financial status but also on their health status. It finds that many people base their distributional preferences on both health status and income, and it develops conceptual methods to aggregate these preferences, which can guide the future evaluation of social policies that affect individuals with health conditions. Finally, Chapter 3 documents diverse public views on whether health insurance plans should charge higher prices to specific consumer groups that may have higher resource utilization, highlighting the important role of people's beliefs about personal responsibility for health. Documenting this heterogeneity helps policymakers to create policies that people will perceive as fairer and will be more likely to support. Together, these chapters demonstrate the importance of understanding public perceptions of value and equity in designing and evaluating health policies.