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Health, Wealth, and Fairness
Author(s) -
FLEURBAEY MARC
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of public economic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.809
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-9779
pISSN - 1097-3923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9779.2005.00203.x
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , minimax , economics , disposition , simple (philosophy) , microeconomics , social determinants of health , public economics , actuarial science , psychology , social psychology , health care , sociology , economic growth , social science , philosophy , epistemology
How much health should we have and how should it be distributed? This paper studies how to define social objectives for the allocation of health and income in a setting where individuals may differ in their preferences about health and consumption, earning ability, and health disposition. It is shown, on the basis of three simple ethical principles, that a reasonable social objective is to apply the maximin criterion to “full‐health equivalent” incomes. An application to the choice of the optimal health policy illustrates how this social objective may be used.