Individuals and Externalities in Economic Epidemiology: A Tension and Synthesis

ABSTRACT

Both standard economic and public choice approaches to epidemiology ignore the role individuals play in disease prevention. Whereas the standard economic approach recognizes that people respond to changing prevalence rates, the standard public choice approach suggests they succumb to free-riding and collective-action problems. But the literature on collective action and the private provision of public goods suggests people can resolve collection-action problems in response to changing prevalence rates, especially when doing so lowers transaction costs. The insights of that literature suggest that decisions related to migration, housing, and community-and related markets that influence those decisions-influence mosquito control and, potentially, malaria prevalence rates.