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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Grossman's Missing Health Threshold, Titus Galama, Arie Kapteyn Jun 2011

Grossman's Missing Health Threshold, Titus Galama, Arie Kapteyn

Titus Galama

We present a generalized solution to Grossman’s model of health capital (1972), relaxing the widely used assumption that individuals can adjust their health stock instantaneously to an “optimal” level without adjustment costs. The Grossman model then predicts the existence of a health threshold above which individuals do not demand medical care. Our generalized solution addresses a significant criticism: the model’s prediction that health and medical care are positively related is consistently rejected by the data. We suggest structural- and reduced-form equations to test our generalized solution and contrast the predictions of the model with the empirical literature.


A Theory Of Socioeconomic Disparities In Health, Titus Galama May 2011

A Theory Of Socioeconomic Disparities In Health, Titus Galama

Titus Galama

Detailed understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the substantial socioeconomic disparities in health is necessary to design policies effective in reducing those disparities. This requires a unifying theory of socioeconomic status and health, which is currently absent. This thesis in economics aims to develop, in several steps, a theoretical framework of disparities in health by socioeconomic status over the life cycle, using economic principles and founded in health capital theory. The first part of this thesis addresses several serious technical issues with life-cycle models of health, medical care, and socioeconomic status. The second part presents the theoretical framework.


Inequalities In Mortality In The Us And Denmark: More Alike Than Different. A Commentary On Hoffman., Titus Galama, Mauricio Avendano Dec 2010

Inequalities In Mortality In The Us And Denmark: More Alike Than Different. A Commentary On Hoffman., Titus Galama, Mauricio Avendano

Titus Galama

No abstract provided.


A Contribution To Health Capital Theory, Titus Galama Dec 2010

A Contribution To Health Capital Theory, Titus Galama

Titus Galama

I present a theory of the demand for health, health investment and longevity, building on the human capital framework for health and addressing limitations of existing models. I predict a negative correlation between health investment and health, that the health of wealthy and educated individuals declines more slowly and that they live longer, that current health status is a function of the initial level of health and the histories of prior health investments made, that health investment rapidly increases near the end of life and that length of life is finite as a result of limited life-time resources (the budget …