A Healthy Lifestyle: the Product of Opportunities and Preferences an Explorative Study

In this explorative study we examine factors explaining individual choice of lifestyle. The empirical analysis of smoking, exercising and diet show that the mechanisms determining people’s lifestyle are complex. We argue that the economic models on the demand for health is a meaningful framework for analysing this issue, but that it needs some refinements. A suggestion for further analytical work is therefore to reformulate the model to incorporate own past behaviour (habits), the society individuals belongs to (traditions and norms), as well as a more immediate effect on utility of lifestyle. JEL Classification: C35; I12; I18 Keyword: Health demand models, lifestyle, ordered probit analysis. * I am grateful to John Cairns, Anne Line Bretteville-Jensen and participants, especially Pia Johansson, at the 22 Nordic Health Economists’ Study Group Meeting in Odense August 24.25. 2001, for constructive criticism and suggestions of a previous version of the paper. Financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and The National Council of Nutrition and Physical Activity are acknowledged. ** e-mail: [email protected] © 2001 HERO and the author – Reproduction is permitted when the source is reffered to. Health Economics Research programme at the University of Oslo Financial support from The Research Council of Norway is acknowledged. ISSN 1501-9071, ISBN 82-7756-074-5