Michael Kuhn visited ASA, IIASA

Abstract

We show how the shadow price on the state variable N(a,t) that is reflecting the size of the population group aged a at time t can be interpreted as the "value" of this population. The value typically constitutes a direct value of a member of the group (a,t) in terms of the objective function, a reproductive component, reflecting the value of the remaining flow of offspring, and a component representing the "value of interaction" with differently-aged members of the same population (a',t) and/or different populations. We illustrate the concept by drawing on examples from health economics, demography, and resource management.

Michael Kuhn is (co-)leader of the research group on population economics at the Wittgenstein Centre (IIAS,VID/OEAW,WU) and Vienna Institute of Demography. Having received a doctorate in economics from the University of Rostock, Germany, in 2001 he has since held positions at the Centre of Health Economics, University of York, UK (1999-2004; lectureship) and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research / University of Rostock, Germany (2005-2008; junior professorship). His research interests lie in the area of health and population economics. He has published, inter alia, in the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Economics Letters, Demographic Research and Theoretical Population Biology. Currently, he holds a 3-year Austrian Science Fund stand-alone grant on “Medical Progress, Health Expenditure and Population Ageing” (03/2014-03/2017). He is associate editor of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing and co-organising the annual (since 2006) ‘European Workshops on Labour, Health and Education under Demographic Change’.