Research Catalog

Private choices and public health : the AIDS epidemic in an economic perspective / Tomas J. Philipson and Richard A. Posner.

Title
Private choices and public health : the AIDS epidemic in an economic perspective / Tomas J. Philipson and Richard A. Posner.
Author
Philipson, Tomas J.

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TextUse in library RA644.A25 P484 1993Off-site

Details

Additional Authors
Posner, Richard A.
Description
x, 264 p. : ill.; 25 cm.
Summary
  • Although Private Choices and Public Health is accessible to the interested general reader, it will also capture the attention of economists - especially those involved in health issues - epidemiologists, public health officials, and specialists in sexual behavior and drug addiction.
  • Like other dangerous but pleasurable activities, such as downhill skiing and mountain climbing, engaging in unprotected sex implicitly involves the weighing of costs and benefits. Recognizing that the transmission of the AIDS virus is a consequence of personal choices - often rational and informed - to engage in risky conduct, the authors employ the tools of economic analysis to reassess the orthodox approach to AIDS by public health specialists.
  • Neither liberal nor conservative, yet on the whole skeptical about governmental involvement in the epidemic, this book is certain to be controversial, but its injection of hard-headed economic thinking into the AIDS debate is long overdue.
  • Standard predictions of the spread of AIDS, the authors argue, are questionable because they ignore rational behavioral responses to the risk of infection. For the same reason, customary recommended public health measures, such as extensive testing for the AIDS virus, not only may be ineffective in controlling the spread of the disease but may actually cause it to spread more rapidly.
  • The authors examine regulatory measures and proposals such as mandatory testing, criminal punishments, and immigration controls, as well as the subsidization of AIDS education and medical research, the social and fiscal costs of AIDS, the political economy of the government's response, and the interrelation of AIDS and fertility risk.
Subjects
ISBN
0674707389
LCCN
93017417
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries