Dipartimento di Studi su Politica, Diritto e Società, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Eur J Health Econ. 2010 Aug;11(4):355-65. doi: 10.1007/s10198-009-0183-0. Epub 2009 Oct 2.
This paper investigates the relationship between saving and health spending in a two-period overlapping generations economy. Individuals work in the first period of life and live in retirement in old age. Health spending is an activity that increases quality of life and longevity. Empirical evidence shows that both health spending and saving behave as luxury goods but their behaviour differs markedly according to the level of per capita GDP. The share of saving on GDP has a concave shape with respect to per capita GDP, whereas the share of health spending on GDP increases more than proportionally with respect to per capita GDP. The ratio of saving to spending is nonlinear with respect to income, i.e. first increasing and then decreasing. This ratio, in the proposed model, is equal to the ratio between the elasticity of the utility function with respect to saving and the elasticity of the utility function with respect to health.
本文研究了两代人重叠经济中储蓄与医疗支出之间的关系。个人在生命的第一阶段工作，并在老年时退休。医疗支出是一种提高生活质量和延长寿命的活动。实证证据表明，健康支出和储蓄都表现为奢侈品，但它们的行为根据人均 GDP 的水平而有显著差异。储蓄占 GDP 的份额与人均 GDP 呈凹形关系，而健康支出占 GDP 的份额与人均 GDP 呈不成比例的增长。储蓄与支出的比例与收入呈非线性关系，即先增加后减少。在提出的模型中，这个比例等于效用函数对储蓄的弹性与效用函数对健康的弹性之比。
