When Parents Inoculate Their Children from Communicable Diseases Prior to Sending

question 35

Essay

When parents inoculate their children from communicable diseases prior to sending them off to school they not only provide their own children a benefit but also bestow a benefit on every other student at the school. There are now fewer students who can pass on these types of diseases. However, parents are not likely to take into account the fact that their actions create this external benefit. Therefore, economists argue that the market on its own may not provide for the optimal level of inoculations. What methods might work to get parents to take into account the external benefit when deciding whether to inoculate their children?

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Definitions:

Random Variable

A variable whose values are determined by the numerical results of a random event.

Independent

Not influenced or controlled by others; in statistics, variables that are not affected by other variables in the model.

Weekly

Pertaining to something that occurs, is done, calculated, or issued every week.

Standard Deviation

A measure of the amount of variation or dispersion in a set of values, indicating how much the values differ from the mean of the set.