Work

Moral preferences over health-wealth trade-offs

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Using a choice experiment we analyze moral preferences over fatalities and jobs losses due to the pandemic in Italy, the UK and the US. We find that the participants’ utility function is mostly driven by health outcomes, and that respondents’ stable traits (such as political orientation or risk aversion) influence attitudes more than their personal experiences with the consequences of the pandemic. A structural estimation also displays, surprisingly, aversion to diversification among these two bads. Moreover, policy responses look misaligned with estimated preferences. Italy adopted more stringent containment measures, while Italian respondents display a relatively weaker pro-health attitude.

Source: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107033

Authors: Antonio Filippin, Marco Mantovani

Institutions: University of Milan, IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, University of Milano-Bicocca

Language: English

Topic: Economic and Environmental Valuation

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,180