ON THE APPLICATION OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION THEORY TO HEALTH AND NUTRITION
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This paper reviews the application of household production theory to health and nutrition and
their determinants in the economics literature. We examine 17 recent studies applying this
approach and analyse how they model utility functions, elementary goods, and production
processes. Notwithstanding the valuable insights provided by these economic analyses into
the phenomenon of obesity and health behaviour, the framework’s basic idea, the separation
of utility generation and production technology, is not pursued consistently. The majority of
the studies reviewed focus solely on health production, thereby neglecting important
production processes for other elementary commodities and their related inputs and
technologies. We advocate a broader application of the household production principle and
discuss how such a view can guide theoretical and empirical analysis and may provide
inspiration for data collection and policy design.