Abstract
Health, or its absence, is a function of five groups of attributes (1) individual behaviours (2) physical environment (3) social environment (4) personal health service, and (5) genetics. A large array of diverse tools can be employed to manipulate these variables with the intention of improving health. In this papers a venerable subclass of incentives: economics inducements is examined. Through an array of economic mechanisms- taxes, insurance premium differentials, income supplements and so on, policy makers, employers, and others have striven to alter behaviours and environmental conditions perceived to be deleterious to health.