Demand for Health


Health Economics

  • The maximum amount of health chosen as a function of various independent variables such as the rate of return to investment in health, expected wages from work, the price of health care (not to mention many other variables not often considered by economists such as early parenting, developmental cultural influences, social norms, family circumstances). 'Health' itself can be treated either as a stoc k, which can be invested in and is subject to depreciation, or as a flow, when it is usually treated as a construct such as quality-adjusted life-years. The demand for health services is a derived demand that depends in part on the underlying demand for health. It is a vulgarism to muddle the demand for health with the demand for health services. It is also vulgar to suppose that the only determinants of health are economic or pecuniary. Empirical studies include many exploring unhealthy behaviour.