What Explains Differences in Smoking, Drinking, and Other Health Related Behaviors

DSpace/Manakin Repository

Title:	What Explains Differences in Smoking, Drinking, and Other Health Related Behaviors
Author:	Glaeser, Edward; Cutler, David Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors.
Citation:	Cutler, David, and Edward Glaeser. 2005. What explains differences in smoking, drinking, and other health related behaviors. American Economic Review 95, no 2: 238-242.
Full Text & Related Files:	cutler_smokingdrinking.pdf (273.9Kb; PDF)
Abstract:	We explore economic model of health behaviors. While the standard economic model of health as an investment is generally supported empirically, the ability of this model to explain heterogeneity across individuals is extremely limited. Most prominently, the correlation of different health behaviors across people is virtually zero, suggest that standard factors such as variation in discount rates or the value of life are not the drivers of behavior. We focus instead on two other factors: genetics; and behavioral-specific situational factors. The first factor is empirically important, and we suspect the second is as well.
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/000282805774670464
Terms of Use:	This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA
Citable link to this page:	http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:2664274
Downloads of this work: