Altruistic preferences in time tradeoff

Whether respondents incorporate altruistic preferences in time tradeoff (TTO) exercises remains understudied. We present an extended quality-adjusted life-year model incorporating altruism. We derive that altruism may affect TTO values in 2 directions. First, longevity altruists? may wish to prolong life for the sake of their loved ones (to avoid being missed). Second, quality-of-life altruists? may have a preference to avoid bad health states resulting in being a burden to loved ones. The existence and influence of these preferences in a TTO were empirically confirmed in a sample of 1690 respondents from the general public. We classified respondents as longevity altruists? or quality-of-life altruists? based on their reasoning behind inclusion of loved ones in their TTO responses. In line with expectations, longevity altruists traded fewer years than quality-of-life altruists. Nonaltruists gave intermediate values.

• View at Publisher
• View at Scopus