Journal of Economic Literature · 2023 · Amitabh Chandra、Courtney Coile、Corina Mommaerts
中文摘要
阿尔茨海默病（AD）影响着65岁及以上人群中的十分之一，是美国治疗成本最高的疾病。我们阐述了AD所引出的核心经济学问题。尽管这些问题与老龄经济学和健康经济学有所重叠，但“阿尔茨海默病经济学”的决定性特征，是强调认知受损患者作出的选择及其对健康和财务福祉的影响，并关注患者与照护者之间的动态契约虽有助益却难以执行的情形。鉴于AD造成的社会成本极其高昂，而目前对其病因仍缺乏了解，关注AD预防、治疗和照护方面的创新也至关重要；这引出了资源最优配置以及私人激励与社会激励相协调的问题。经济学家在增进我们对AD相关问题的理解方面拥有广阔的贡献空间，这些问题包括药物研发、高效照护服务提供、动态契约、长期照护风险、财务决策以及AD公共项目的设计；这表明经济学的诸多领域都存在内容丰富的研究议程。
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects one in ten people aged 65 or older and is the most expensive disease in the United States. We describe the central economic questions raised by AD. Although there is overlap with the economics of aging and health, the defining feature of the "economics of Alzheimer's disease" is an emphasis on choice by cognitively impaired patients that affects health and financial well-being, and situations in which dynamic contracts between patients and caregivers are useful but difficult to enforce. A focus on innovation in AD prevention, treatment, and care is also critical given the enormous social cost of AD and present lack of understanding of its causes, which raises questions of optimal resource allocation and alignment of private and social incentives. The enormous scope for economists to contribute to our understanding of AD-related issues including drug development, efficient care delivery, dynamic contracting, long-term care risk, financial decision-making, and the design of public programs for AD suggests a rich research program for many areas of economics.