%0 Report
        %A Antonini, Marcello
%A Costa-Font, Joan
        %T Healthy Self-Interest? Health Dependent Preferences for Fairer Health Care
        %D 2025
        %8 2025 Nov
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18255
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18255
        %X Health status can alter individuals’ social preferences, and specifically individuals' preferences regarding fairness in the access to and financing of health care.  We draw on a dataset of 73,452 individuals across 22 countries and a novel instrumental variable strategy that exploits variation in health status resulting from cross-country exposure to the national childhood Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination schedules. We document causal evidence consistent with the unhealthy self-interest hypothesis, which indicates that better health increases preferences for a fairer health care system. We estimate that a one-unit increase in self-reported health increases support for fair health care access by 11% and the willingness to support fair financing by 8%. Our findings suggest that improving population health, they may give rise to stronger support for interventions to improve equitable health system access and financing.
        %K willingness to pay
%K social preferences
%K instrumental variables
%K BCG vaccine
%K preferences for healthcare financing fairness
%K health status