Folland Sherman
Department of Economics, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309, USA.
Health Econ Policy Law. 2008 Oct;3(Pt 4):333-48. doi: 10.1017/S1744133108004532.
This paper presents an economic model to connect with the substantial empirical literature on social capital and health that exists largely outside of economics. Representative papers from that literature are reviewed and these show that disagreements exist on the nature and definition of social capital. The paper presents a new line of reasoning to support the view of social capital as a network of interpersonal bonds to include the bonds of family and close friends, not just the community at large. It then adapts and extends the work of Becker and Murphy on social economics to explain the demand for health goods as well as health bads in the presence of increased social capital. It further develops choice under risk to explain the demand for goods that entail a risk of death, such as cigarettes, illegal drugs, or excessive drinking. Empirical examples, including new statistical analyses are presented to illustrate the derivations.
本文提出了一种经济模型，以与大量存在于经济学之外的关于社会资本与健康的实证文献相联系。对该文献中的代表性论文进行了综述，这些论文表明，在社会资本的性质和定义上存在分歧。本文提出了一种新的推理思路，以支持将社会资本视为一种人际联系网络的观点，这种人际联系网络不仅包括整个社区，还包括家庭和亲密朋友的联系。然后，本文对贝克尔和墨菲在社会经济学方面的工作进行了调整和扩展，以解释在社会资本增加的情况下对健康商品以及有害健康物品的需求。本文进一步发展了风险下的选择理论，以解释对诸如香烟、非法毒品或过度饮酒等有死亡风险的商品的需求。文中给出了包括新的统计分析在内的实证例子来说明这些推导。
