Reference-dependent preferences for maternity wards: an exploration of two reference points

Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine
Einat Neuman

Abstract

It is now well established that a person's valuation of the benefit from an outcome of a decision is determined by the intrinsic "consumption utility" of the outcome itself and also by the relation of the outcome to some reference point. The most notable expression of such reference-dependent preferences is loss aversion. What precisely this reference point is, however, is less clear. This paper claims and provides empirical evidence for the existence of more than one reference point. Using a discrete choice experiment in the Israeli public health-care sector, within a sample of 219 women who had given birth, it is shown that respondents refer to two reference points: (i) a constant scenario that is used in the experiment; and (ii) also the actual state of the quantitative attributes of the service (number of beds in room of hospitalization; and travel time from residence to hospital). In line with the loss aversion theory, it is also shown that losses (vis-à-vis the constant scenario and vis-à-vis the actual state) accumulate and have reinforced effects, while gains do not.

References

Jun 6, 1998·Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing·P L de MeloA Giannella-Neto
Jul 21, 2006·Medical Decision Making : an International Journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making·Sylvie M C van OschAnne M Stiggelbout
Apr 29, 2008·Journal of Hospital Medicine : an Official Publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine·Iris O YungGurpreet Dhaliwal

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Citations

Jan 31, 2018·The European Journal of Health Economics : HEPAC : Health Economics in Prevention and Care·Matthew QuaifePeter Vickerman

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