Willingness to pay for what?: A note on alternative definitions of health care program benefits for contingent valuation studies

G R Currie; C Donaldson; B J O'Brien; G L Stoddart; G W Torrance; M F Drummond

doi:10.1177/0272989X02238301

Willingness to pay for what? A note on alternative definitions of health care program benefits for contingent valuation studies

G R Currie, C Donaldson, B J O'Brien, G L Stoddart, G W Torrance, M F Drummond

Centre for Health Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The authors examine a number of ways in which willingness to pay (WTP) can be defined for measurement and use in a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of a collectively funded health care program. They show how ambiguous specification of the program consequences that respondents should consider in their WTP responses can lead to problems of double counting or zero counting in a subsequent CBA. An example is whether the value of lost time from work because of poor health should be included by a CBA analyst (e.g., valued at the wage rate) as a separate cost item or whether this has already been monetized and included in respondents' WTP data. The authors highlight how differences in assumed or actual institutional structures are often ignored in measures of WTP and the consequences of this for the interpretation of WTP data.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	493-497
Number of pages	5
Journal	Medical Decision Making
Volume	22
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X02238301
Publication status	Published - 2002

Keywords

cost-benefit analysis
contingent valuation
willingness to pay
TO-PAY

Access to Document

10.1177/0272989X02238301

Cite this

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title = "Willingness to pay for what?: A note on alternative definitions of health care program benefits for contingent valuation studies",

abstract = "The authors examine a number of ways in which willingness to pay (WTP) can be defined for measurement and use in a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of a collectively funded health care program. They show how ambiguous specification of the program consequences that respondents should consider in their WTP responses can lead to problems of double counting or zero counting in a subsequent CBA. An example is whether the value of lost time from work because of poor health should be included by a CBA analyst (e.g., valued at the wage rate) as a separate cost item or whether this has already been monetized and included in respondents' WTP data. The authors highlight how differences in assumed or actual institutional structures are often ignored in measures of WTP and the consequences of this for the interpretation of WTP data.",

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T2 - A note on alternative definitions of health care program benefits for contingent valuation studies

AU - Currie, G R

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AU - O'Brien, B J

AU - Stoddart, G L

AU - Torrance, G W

AU - Drummond, M F

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N2 - The authors examine a number of ways in which willingness to pay (WTP) can be defined for measurement and use in a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of a collectively funded health care program. They show how ambiguous specification of the program consequences that respondents should consider in their WTP responses can lead to problems of double counting or zero counting in a subsequent CBA. An example is whether the value of lost time from work because of poor health should be included by a CBA analyst (e.g., valued at the wage rate) as a separate cost item or whether this has already been monetized and included in respondents' WTP data. The authors highlight how differences in assumed or actual institutional structures are often ignored in measures of WTP and the consequences of this for the interpretation of WTP data.

AB - The authors examine a number of ways in which willingness to pay (WTP) can be defined for measurement and use in a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of a collectively funded health care program. They show how ambiguous specification of the program consequences that respondents should consider in their WTP responses can lead to problems of double counting or zero counting in a subsequent CBA. An example is whether the value of lost time from work because of poor health should be included by a CBA analyst (e.g., valued at the wage rate) as a separate cost item or whether this has already been monetized and included in respondents' WTP data. The authors highlight how differences in assumed or actual institutional structures are often ignored in measures of WTP and the consequences of this for the interpretation of WTP data.

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