Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(4):371-385 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.542

Economic Interpretation of Human Behaviour in Terms of Health Promotion

Zdeněk Chytil1, Arnošt Klesla2, Tomáš Kosička3
1 University of Economics, in Prague, Czech Republic (chytil@vse.cz).
2 University of Economics, in Prague, Czech Republic (arnost@klesla.com).
3 University of Finance and Administration, Prague, Czech Republic (23111@mail.vsfs.cz).

The economic approach to health promotion describes human behaviour towards preservation of individual health by methods of the economic analysis. We have developed mathematical model based on the Grossman's theory of Demand for Health (1972) showing two basic approaches. The investors prevent diseases by adopting healthy lifestyle and therefore minimize costs of healthcare. The consumers, however, depend on the healthcare system and cause further increase of its expenditures. It is also demonstrated that the latter approach leads to the increase of expenditures on maintaining the level of public health. Also the strong incidence of chronic and almost incurable non-communicable diseases excludes passive consumerism care for their own health from the rational choice. These effects vary in developing and developed countries and further burden healthcare systems for instance in the new EU Member States.

Keywords: rationality, health promotion behaviour, demand for health, healthy life style, health illusion
JEL classification: I15, I18, I19

Published: January 1, 2015  Show citation

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Chytil, Z., Klesla, A., & Kosička, T. (2015). Economic Interpretation of Human Behaviour in Terms of Health Promotion. Prague Economic Papers, 24(4), 371-385. doi: 10.18267/j.pep.542
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