TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Antonini, Marcello
AU  - Costa-Font, Joan
        TI  - Healthy Self-Interest? Health Dependent Preferences for Fairer Health Care
        PY  - 2025/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18255
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18255
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - willingness to pay
KW  - social preferences
KW  - instrumental variables
KW  - BCG vaccine
KW  - preferences for healthcare financing fairness
KW  - health status
        ER  -