Introducing a 'Different Lives' Approach to the Valuation of Health and Well-Being

Adler, Matthew D.; Dolan, Paul

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1112636

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Introducing a 'Different Lives' Approach to the Valuation of Health and Well-Being

U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 08-05

18 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2008

See all articles by Matthew D. Adler

Paul Dolan

Imperial College London

Date Written: March 19, 2008

Abstract

We introduce a new "different lives" survey format, which asks respondents to rank hypothetical lives described in terms of longevity, health, happiness, income, and other elements of the quality of life. In this short paper, we show that the format is of policy relevance whether a mental state, preference satisfaction or extra-welfarist account of well-being is adopted and discuss some of the advantages the format has over standard formats, such as contingent valuation surveys and QALY-type methods. An exploratory survey indicates that the format is feasible and that health and happiness might be more important than income and life expectancy.

Keywords: QALYs, preferences, well-being, utility, welfarism, extra-welfarism

JEL Classification: D60, I10

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Adler, Matthew D. and Dolan, Paul, Introducing a 'Different Lives' Approach to the Valuation of Health and Well-Being (March 19, 2008). U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 08-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1112636 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1112636