The demand for dental care: a study of consumption and household production

Within the context of a Becker-type consumer's choice model, this paper reports an empirical study of the demand for dental care for approximately 1,000 households. The unique feature of the study is that waiting time and travel time as well as price and other traditional economic variables are entered into the regression analysis. Generally, the results confirm our expectations derived from theory, but elasticities with respect to all of the above-mentioned determinants of demand were small. In addition, some of the subtle predictions of the theory could not be confirmed.