Family Behavior: Implications for Health Benefits Transfer from Adults to Children

An approach to transfer adult health benefit estimates to children is developed from a consensus model of family behavior in which parents employ protective goods to reduce a health risk that they and their children face. The model is estimated using national survey data on parents’ perceptions of skin cancer risks and their actual use of sun protection products in order to test the equilibrium condition that the parent’s marginal rate of substitution between equal percentage reductions in her child’s and her own risk equates to unity. Empirical results are consistent with this prediction. This finding suggests that the consensus model provides a useful basis to transfer adult health benefit estimates to children.