ECO 5550 More Health Capital

Supply -- (Cost of Capital)

Since health is a capital good, it is necessary to understand the cost of capital as well as the capital good demand process. A health clinic, for example, purchases thousands of dollars of X-ray equipment. The return to the X-ray equipment is in the future earnings that ownership of the equipment can provide. Suppose that an X-ray machine costs $50,000, and that its price does not change over time. Suppose that the annual income attributable to the use of the X-ray machine is $10,000. Is this a good investment? Consider the alternative: Instead of purchasing the Xray machine the clinic could have put the $50,000 in a savings account, at 5 percent interest, yielding:

Cost of Capital
50,000 * 1.05 = 52,500, at the end of Year 1. 52,500 * 1.05 = 55,125, at the end of Year 2. 55,125 * 1.05 = 57,881, at the end of Year 3. 57,881 * 1.05 = 60,775, at the end of Year 4. 60,775 * 1.05 = 63,814, at the end of Year 5.

For the investment in an X-ray machine to be desirable by these criteria, it should provide at least $13,810 in incremental revenue over the five years.

Cost of Capital
The problem is more complicated, however, because most capital goods depreciate over time. Suppose that the clinic knows that the X-ray machine will wear out (or depreciate), so that after five years, it will be worth only half its original value. The clinic must earn enough not only to cover the opportunity cost from the bank, but also to maintain the value of the machine. For the investment to be worthwhile, then, it must not only earn the competitive 5 percent return each year, but it must also provide enough return to cover depreciation of the machine.

Cost of capital
This suggests that the cost of holding this capital good for any one year, as well as over time, will equal the opportunity cost of the capital (interest foregone) plus the depreciation (deterioration of value). Had the price of the asset changed, leading to capital losses or gains, this feature too would have to be considered. How do we consider this? <A> If there is an expected capital gain, we expect a lower cost of holding the capital.

The Demand for Health Capital

Conventional economic analysis provides a powerful conceptual apparatus by which to analyze the demand for a capital good. The cost of capital, in terms of foregone resources (for health capital, both time and money) is a supply concept. The other needed tool is the concept of the marginal efficiency of investment, the MEI, a demand concept which relates the return to investment to the amount of resources invested.

Marginal Efficiency of Investment (MEI) and Rate of Return

Rate of Return (%)
The MEI can be described in terms of the X-ray machine example. A clinic which does considerable business may wish to own more than one such X-ray machine. How many? The clinic management may logically consider them in sequence.

Size of I (in $)

Marginal Efficiency of Investment (MEI) and Rate of Return

The first X-ray machine purchased (if they were to buy only one) would yield a return. Suppose that return each year was $10,000. We can also calculate the rate of return, which would be $10,000/$50,000 or 20% per year. They would buy this Xray machine if the return covered opportunity of capital and depreciation.

Rate of Return (%)

Size of I (in $)

Marginal Efficiency of Investment (MEI) and Rate of Return

Rate of Return (%)
In terms of rates, management would choose to own the first X-ray machine as long as the rate of return, 20%, was greater than the interest rate (the opportunity cost of capital) plus the depreciation rate.

Cost of capital = interest rate + depreciation rate

Size of I (in $)

Marginal Efficiency of Investment

If they considered owning two X-ray machines, they would discover that the rate of return to the second X-ray machine was probably less than the first. To understand this, consider that a clinic buying only one X-ray machine would assign it to the highest priority uses, those with the highest rate of return. If they were to add a second X-ray machine, then logically it could only be assigned to lesser priority uses (and might be idle on occasion). Thus it would have a lower rate of return than the first. The clinic would then purchase the second X-ray machine as well, only if its rate of return was still higher than interest plus depreciation.

Marginal Efficiency of Investment (MEI) and Rate of Return

So, we get:

Rate of Return (%)

Cost of capital = interest rate + depreciation rate

YES! YES! NO!

Size of I (in $)

Decreasing MEI
Let the marginal efficiency of investment curve, MEI, describe the pattern of rates of return, declining as the amount of investment (measured on the horizontal axis) increases. The cost of capital, that is, the interest rate plus the depreciation rate, is shown as the horizontal line labeled (r + ).
Cost of capital = interest rate (r) + depreciation rate ( )

Rate of Return (%)

Size of I (in $)

Optimum amount of capital

The optimum amount of capital demanded is thus Ko, which represents the amount of capital at which the marginal efficiency of investment just equals the cost of capital. Like the mgl efficiency of investment curve in this example, the MEI curve for investments in health would also be downward sloping.
MEI Curve

Rate of Return (%)

Cost of capital = interest rate (r) + depreciation rate ( )

I* Size of I (in $)

Diminishing Marginal Returns

This occurs because the production function for healthy days (Figure 5.3) exhibits diminishing marginal returns. 365

Healthy Days

Total Product

Health Inputs

Equilibria
Rate of Return (%)
The cost of capital for health would similarly reflect the interest rate plus the rate of depreciation in health. A person's health, like any capital good, will also depreciate over time. Thus the optimal demand for health is likewise given at the intersection of the MEI curve and the cost of capital curve, (r + ).
MEI Curve Increased depreciation rate

Cost of capital = interest rate (r) + depreciation rate ( )

I**

I*

Size of I (in $)

Equilibria
Increased Education!
MEI Curve

MEI Curve w/ increased Education

Increased Age! Why?

Rate of Return (%)

Increased depreciation rate

Cost of capital = interest rate (r) + depreciation rate ( )

MEI Curve w/ increased Age

I**

I*

Size of I (in $)

Pure Investment and Pure Consumption Models

Do we invest in health because it makes us feel good, or do we invest in health because it makes us more productive? If all we care about is the money we can earn, then all we care about is bread. We have vertical indifference curves. We want only the amount that will allow us to earn as much as we can.

Health

PPP

Bread

Pure Investment and Pure Consumption Models

If all we also care about health, we get more conventional indifference curves. Less bread -- more health PPP

Health

Bread