TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cutler,David
AU  - Glaeser,Edward
TI  - What Explains Differences in Smoking, Drinking and Other Health-Related Behaviors
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11100
PY  - 2005
Y2  - February 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11100
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11100.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David M. Cutler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/496-5216
Fax: 617/496-8951
E-Mail: dcutler@harvard.edu

Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu
AB  - We explore economic model of health behaviors. While the standard economic model of health as an investment is generally supported empirically, the ability of this model to explain heterogeneity across individuals is extremely limited. Most prominently, the correlation of different health behaviors across people is virtually zero, suggest that standard factors such as variation in discount rates or the value of life are not the drivers of behavior. We focus instead on two other factors: genetics; and behavioral-specific situational factors. The first factor is empirically important, and we suspect the second is as well.
ER  -