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Intergenerational Transmission of Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases
Author(s) -
GOULÃO CATARINA,
PÉREZBARAHONA AGUSTÍN
Publication year - 2014
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/jpet.12069
Subject(s) - subsidy , transmission (telecommunications) , obesity , mechanism (biology) , dimension (graph theory) , environmental health , social determinants of health , public economics , economics , development economics , medicine , economic growth , health care , computer science , telecommunications , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , pure mathematics , market economy
We introduce a theoretical framework that contributes to the understanding of noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs) epidemics: even if NCDs are noninfectious diseases, they may spread due to the social transmission of unhealthy activities such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and smoking. In particular, we study the intergenerational dimension of this mechanism. We find that, due to the social transmission of NCDs, agents choose lower health conditions and higher unhealthy activities than what is socially optimal. Taxes on unhealthy activities, that may subsidize health investments, can be used to restore the social optimum. Finally, our model is consistent with the existence of regional asymmetries regarding the prevalence of obesity and NCDs.