What Determines the Individual Decision to Take Preventive Actions?

This paper aims to empirically understand individual decisions to take health related preventive actions. The model includes not only economic factors, but also social and medical characteristics. We find a positive impact of income and schooling in the probability of doing prevention. We also conclude that women do more prevention than men, and that smokers do less prevention than non smokers. This information is relevant for the decision maker, as identifying critical factors about prevention allows for a better programming and resource allocation for specific policies. There is no evidence to sustain the theoretical prediction of ex-ante moral hazard