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on Health Economics |
| By: | Tatiana Blinova |
| Abstract: | Rural Mortality from External Causes in Russian Regions Tatiana Blinova ? Doctor of Economics, Professor, Deputy Director on Science of the Institute of Agrarian Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Svetlana Bylina ? Scientific Researcher. Institute of Agrarian Problems of the RAS Victor Rusanovskiy ? Doctor of Economics, Professor, Saratov State Socio-Economic University Abstract. The paper addresses the factors that affect the reduction of rural mortality from external causes in the regions of RF of different types and contains an estimation of the degree of their impact. We made a quantitative analysis and built models of the factors and determinants of the existing interregional differences in the pattern of rural mortality from external causes of death (road traffic accidents of all kinds, accidental alcohol poisoning, murder and suicide). The paper presents the results of the study of the dynamics and pattern of external causes of rural mortality with the use of Rosstat's data for Russian regions (2000-2012), and describes the nosological, gender and regional profile of rural mortality from external causes. We also identified the social problem, which is a steadily high rate of mortality from external causes in a certain group of regions. We found that the impact of federal social policies on the reduction of rural mortality from external causes is asymmetric in the regions of different types. On the basis of our cluster analysis we developed taxonomy of Russian regions according to the pattern of external causes of rural mortality, formed seven groups of Russian regions and characterized them. The hypotheses were statistically tested by making a correlation, regression and factor analyses. We estimated the regression models that had been constructed for Russia in general and for two types of regions (with the highest and the lowest mortality from external causes) separately and included economic, social and behavioral explanatory variables, which made it possible to identify the determinants of rural mortality from external causes and describe their spatial combinations. The results of the analysis and modeling of spatial differences in the pattern of external causes of rural mortality can be used when developing regional programs for reducing mortality from external causes of death. This study is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project # 12-06-00012). JEL Classification: R1, J1, I1 Keywords: Russian regions, rural population, mortality, external causes, taxonomy, regression analysis, regional data, determinants, social policy |
| Keywords: | Russian regions; rural population; mortality; external causes; taxonomy; regression analysis; regional data; determinants; social policy R1; J1; I1 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p732&r=hea |
| By: | Maryam Naghsh Nejad; Amanda Ross |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the effect of suburbanization on obesity rates. Our study is an improvement over the existing literature because we will use county level data for our analysis, enabling us to look at the effect of moving from the central city to the suburbs. Previous research has only had health data at the MSA level, and therefore could not look at the effect of highways on obesity rates within an MSA, particularly the suburbs versus the central city. To estimate the relationship between obesity and highways, we will use county-level data on obesity rates from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We merge the obesity information with data on the proposed highway program of 1950 used previously by Baum-Snow (2007). Our results suggest that additional miles of a highway system increase obesity rates in urban areas. |
| Keywords: | suburbanization; obesity. |
| JEL: | R23 R20 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p1183&r=hea |
| By: | Guertzgen, Nicole; Hank, Karsten |
| Abstract: | Exploiting unique German administrative data, we estimate the association between an expansion in maternity leave duration from two to six months in 1979 and mothers' post-birth long-term sickness absence over a period of three decades after childbirth. Using a regression discontinuity design, we first show that the leave extension caused mothers to significantly delay their return to work within the first year after childbirth. We then compare the number and length of spells of long-term sickness absence of returned mothers who gave birth before and after the change in leave legislation. Our findings suggest that among those returned, mothers subject to the leave extension exhibit a higher incidence of long-term sickness absence as compared to control mothers. This also holds true after controlling for observable differences in pre-birth illness histories. At the same time, there are no pronounced effects on mothers' medium-run labor market attachment following the short-run delay in return to work, which might rationalize a negative causal health effect. Breaking down the results by mothers' pre-birth health status suggests that the higher incidence of long-term sickness absence among the treated may be explained by the fact that the reform has facilitated re-entry of a negative health selection into the labor market. |
| Keywords: | maternity leave policies,health,administrative data,regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | J10 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14109&r=hea |
| By: | Bennett, D.;; Naqvi, S.A.A.;; Schmidt, W-P.; |
| Abstract: | To be effective, informational interventions must be convincing. Messages related to infectious disease prevention invoke the germ theory of disease, which may conflict with disease models from traditional medicine. A novel program in rural Pakistan attempts to make hygiene messages more convincing by using microscopes to demonstrate that microbes exist. In a randomized evaluation, we find that the microscope demonstrationstrengthens the impact of hygiene instruction on learning, hygiene, and health. The microscope demonstration weakens traditional medical beliefs, suggesting that traditional and modern beliefs are substitutes. Likewise, the intervention is more effective for nonbelievers in traditional medicine, which is consistent with Bayesian learning and suggests that traditional beliefs contribute to the burden of infectious disease. |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:14/25&r=hea |
| By: | Kronenberg, C.;; van Kippersluis, H.;; Rohde, K.I.M.; |
| Abstract: | There is a persistent association between health and portfolio choice, but hardly anything is known about the underlying sources of heterogeneity: what makes healthier individuals hold more risky assets? This paper uses rich Dutch longitudinal data to take into account and explain unobserved heterogeneity in the association between health and portfolio choice. We show that the association largely reflects unobserved heterogeneity, which is driven partly by behavioural variables. Yet even when adding an extensive set of behavioural variables including risk aversion, stock aversion, loss aversion, time preferences, and mental accounting, the association betweenhealth and portfolio choice does not completely vanish. |
| Keywords: | health; portfolio choice; panel data; elderly; |
| JEL: | C23 D14 G11 I19 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:14/27&r=hea |
| By: | Elek, P.;; Varadi, B.;; Varga, M.; |
| Abstract: | Between 2008 and 2012 new outpatient service locations were established in Hungarian micro-regions, which had lacked outpatient capacities before. We exploit this quasiexperiment to estimate the effect of geographical accessibility on outpatient case numbers using both semi-aggregate and individual-level panel data from administrative sources. Based on propensity score matching methods, fixed-effect linear models and fixed-effect Poisson regression techniques, we find a substantial, 24-28 per cent increase of case numbers as a result of the establishments. Our causal estimates imply that a one-minute reduction of travel time to the nearest outpatient care provider increases case numbers e.g. by 0.8 per cent in internal medicine and 2.8 per cent in rheumatology. We also find that the size of the new outpatient capacities has a separate positive effect on case numbers, possibly caused by supplier-induced demand. By combining a fixed effect logit model and a fixed effect truncated Poisson model, we decompose the effects into increases in the probability of ever visiting a doctor on the one hand and an increase of the frequency of visits on the other. We find that new visits were the main source of the increase in internal care, surgery and gynaecology, whereas both margins wereimportant in rheumatology. Finally, as a methodological note, we examine the robustness of the fixed effect truncated Poisson estimator to some forms of misspecification by simulation methods. |
| Keywords: | fixed-effect Poisson regression; fixed-effect truncated Poisson regression;health econometrics; number of doctor visits; propensity score matching; small area variation; |
| JEL: | I11 I18 C23 C25 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:14/17&r=hea |
| By: | Lanhee Chen |
| Abstract: | This testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means before the United States House of Representatives examines the effect of the Affordable Care Act's 30-Hour Rule on employer-based health insurance coverage in the workforce. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hoo:wpaper:14105&r=hea |
| By: | Xesfingi, Sofia; Vozikis, Athanasios |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the ability of an individual in searching, analyzing and processing information from the Internet in order to address or solve health related issues, the so-called eHealth literacy and the factors that shape it. Understanding what influences eHealth in a country is particularly relevant for health markets as it provides guidelines for health marketers to develop targeted and tailored communication materials for relevant consumer segments, and further could suggest appropriate strategies for training the health illiterate part of the population. Using a unique sample based on survey data of 1064 individuals in Greece for the year 2013, we find that among demographic factors, age and education strongly affect the eHealth literacy and physical exercise among the life-style variables. Finally, other types of technology literacies such as computer skills and information obtained from the Internet further enhance the eHealth performance of an individual and have the greatest impact among all factors. |
| Keywords: | eHealth literacy, demographic factors, life-style factors, technology literacy, Internet |
| JEL: | C25 C83 I12 |
| Date: | 2014–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60187&r=hea |
| By: | Masayoshi Hayashi (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo); Akiko Oyama (International Operations Division, Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company) |
| Abstract: | Despite frequent discussions on regional variations in health care expenditure (HCE), few studies account for the sources of such regional disparities. This study bridges this gap in the literature by taking the following two steps. First, we explore the determinants of regional HCE in Japan, covering a data period that expands the scope of previous studies (i.e., the 2000s). Second, we decompose the variations in regional HCE into contributions explained by the HCE determinants examined in the first step, utilizing a regression-based decomposition method. In the regression analysis, we find that the effect of the number of hospital beds on per capita HCE is larger than that of the other determinants, except the proportion of the elderly population. In particular, a 1% increase in the number of hospital beds induces a .22−.43% increase in HCE, in line with Roemer’s Law. The decomposition analysis also finds the salient effect of the number of hospital beds. In particular, this variable accounts for a large proportion of inequality (between 37.6% and 83.9%). This finding also corroborates Roemer’s Law. Our results strongly suggest that the national policy in Japan of reducing hospital beds regionally has been an effective instrument for containing rapidly increasing HCE. |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2014cf948&r=hea |
| By: | Ted Pinchbeck |
| Abstract: | In publicly funded health care systems policy-makers face a dilemma: placing low acuity emergency care services outside hospitals may widen access to care and divert patients from making costly hospital visits, but may also attract new patients that have little need for medical care. Using detailed information contained in hospital records, I evaluate the impacts of one type of low acuity service - Walk in Centres (WiCs) in the English National Health Service (NHS) - relying on timing differences in the deployment of a single wave of services and restricting attention to places where new facilities opened to mitigate endogeneity concerns. Results indicate that WiCs have significantly reduced attendances at hospital Emergency Departments in places close by, but suggest that only between 10-20% of patients seen at hospital-based WiCs and between 5-10% patients seen at other WiCs were diverted from the more costly high acuity facilities at hospitals. |
| Keywords: | Emergency care, primary care, Walk in Centres |
| JEL: | R53 I11 C23 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0167&r=hea |
| By: | Boone, J. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Contracts between health insurers and providers are private; i.e. not public. By modelling this explicitly, we find the following. Insurers with bigger provider networks,pay higher fee-for-service rates to providers. This makes it more likely that a patient is treated and hence health care costs increase with provider network size. Although providers are homogeneous, the welfare maximizing provider network can consist of two or more providers. Increasing transparency of provider prices increases welfare only if consumers can process the prices of all treatments involved in an insurance contract. If not, it tends to reduce welfare. |
| Keywords: | private contracts; two-part tariffs; fee-for-service; capitation; any willing provider laws; price transparency |
| JEL: | I3 I1 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:fd151c17-76db-4ca7-aa6b-a8e2819ecd5e&r=hea |
| By: | Boone, J. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a tractable model of health insurance with both moral hazard and adverse selection. We show that government sponsored universal basic insurance should cover treatments with the biggest adverse selection problems. Treatments not covered by basic insurance can be covered on the private supplementary insurance market. Surprisingly, the cost effectiveness of a treatment does not affect its priority to be covered by basic insurance. |
| Keywords: | universal basic health insurance; voluntary supplementary insurance; public vs private insurance; adverse selection; moral hazard; cost effectiveness |
| JEL: | I13 D82 H51 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:8ad45428-2ab4-406f-bbd3-3763d3f6aab4&r=hea |
| By: | Kramer, A.E. (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:60d339aa-ed1b-42a0-b9ad-265fcd458af6&r=hea |
| By: | Yang, Y. (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | The primary motivation of this dissertation is to provide insights into the future developments of mortality and population health, and the associated effects on public finance in the United States. The U.S. has experienced increases in life expectancy and the accompanying population ageing over the past century. Saving sufficiently for retirement, being able to face higher pension expenses, efficiently allocating healthcare resources are significant challenges for individuals, public and private pension funds, insurance companies, and the government. The complexity of changes in public finance associated with ageing is not only caused by people's longer lifetimes, but also by the future development of people's health. Therefore, the first essay in this dissertation models the future developments of population health and quantifies the degree of uncertainty in the future developments. The second essay further investigates the association between the developments of life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, taking into account dependence between developments of mortality and health. The third essay estimates the effects on (healthy) life expectancy of a policy that links the retirement age to life expectancy by considering the dependence between male and female mortality and health. The last essay studies another important issue of public finance, the growth of healthcare expenditure. The essay investigates the dynamic relationship between the growth of healthcare cost and a relatively large set of its determinants, with special attention to the effect of people's health on the growing healthcare cost. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:c0acd15f-e715-46b1-b146-42cdbdd814f1&r=hea |
| By: | Schaumans, C.B.C. (Tilburg University, TILEC) |
| Abstract: | Background: General Practitioners have limited means to compete. As quality is hard to observe by patients, GPs have incentives to signal quality by using instruments patients perceive as quality. Objectives: We investigate whether GPs exhibit different prescribing behavior (volume and value of prescriptions) when confronted with more competition. As there is no monetary benefit in doing so, this type of (perceived) quality competition originates from GPs satisfying patients’ expectations. Method: We look at market level data on per capita and per contact number of items prescribed by GPs and the value of prescriptions for the Belgian market of General Practitioners. We test to which extent different types of variables explain the observed variation. We consider patient characteristics, GP characteristics, number and type of GP contacts and the level of competition. The level of competition is measured by GP density, after controlling for the number of GPs and a HHI. Results: We find that a higher number of GPs per capita results in a higher number of units prescribed by GPs, both per capita and per contact. We argue that this is consistent with quality competition in the GP market. Our findings reject alternative explanations of GP scarcity, availability effect in GP care consumption and GP dispersing prescription in time due to competition. |
| Keywords: | Competition; General Practitioners; Prescription; Drugs; Quality |
| JEL: | D22 I10 I11 L11 L15 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutil:c8445d1f-66f8-4238-835e-d3b342438147&r=hea |
| By: | Bissonnette, Luc (Laval University); Hurd, Michael D. (RAND); Michaud, Pierre-Carl (University of Québec at Montréal) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we compare individual survival curves constructed from objective (actual mortality) and elicited subjective information (probability of survival to a given target age). We develop a methodology to estimate jointly subjective and objective individual-survival curves accounting for rounding on subjective reports of perceived mortality risk. We make use of the long follow-up period in the Health and Retirement Study and the high quality of mortality data to estimate individual survival curves which feature both observed and unobserved heterogeneity. This allows us to compare objective and subjective estimates of remaining life expectancy for various groups, evaluate subjective expectations of joint survival and widowhood by household, and compare objective and subjective mortality with standard life-cycle models of consumption. |
| Keywords: | subjective probabilities, old age mortality, joint survival of couples |
| JEL: | C81 D84 I10 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8658&r=hea |
| By: | Christelis, Dimitris (University of Naples Federico II); Georgarakos, Dimitris (Goethe University Frankfurt); Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study, we study the causal effect of increased health insurance coverage through Medicare and the associated reduction in health-related background risk on financial risk-taking. Given the onset of Medicare at age 65, we identify our effect of interest using a regression discontinuity approach. We find that getting Medicare coverage induces stockholding for those with at least some college education, but not for their less-educated counterparts. Hence, our results indicate that a reduction in background risk induces financial risk-taking in individuals for whom informational and pecuniary stock market participation costs are relatively low. |
| Keywords: | health insurance, Medicare, stockholding, regression discontinuity, household finance |
| JEL: | D14 I13 G11 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8635&r=hea |
| By: | Lee, Wang-Sheng (Deakin University) |
| Abstract: | The most widely used measure of adiposity is to express weight adjusted for height using the body mass index (BMI). However, its limitations such as its inability to distinguish muscle weight from fat weight are well known, leading public health authorities in the UK and US to recommend measuring waist circumference as a complementary diagnostic tool for obesity. Recent attention placed on the syndrome referred to as 'normal weight obesity' – individuals with normal BMI but high body fat content – emphasizes the need for a more comprehensive diagnostic tool for obesity. Based on the NHANES III data, we utilize a semi-parametric spline approach to depict graphically the relationship between BMI, waist circumference and percent body fat. In this note, we propose that percent body fat charts that incorporate information from three anthropometric dimensions supersede the one-size-fits-all obesity diagnostic approach based on power-type indices such as the BMI. |
| Keywords: | BMI, waist circumference, body fat, semi-parametric, P-spline |
| JEL: | I10 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8637&r=hea |
| By: | Schultz-Nielsen, Marie Louise (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit); Tekin, Erdal (American University); Greve, Jane (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether nutritional disruptions experienced during the stage of fetal development impair an individual's labor market productivity later in life. We consider intrauterine exposure to the month of Ramadan as a natural experiment that might cause shocks to the inflow of nutrients essential for fetal development. Specifically, we use administrative data from Denmark to investigate the impact of exposure to Ramadan in utero on labor market outcomes of adult Muslim males, including employment status, annual salary, hourly wage rate, and hours of work. Our findings indicate that potential exposure to nutritional disruptions during a critical stage of fetal development has scarring effects on the fetus expressed as poor labor market outcomes later in life. Specifically, exposure to Ramadan in the 7th month of gestation results in a lower likelihood of employment, a lower salary, and reduced labor supply, but not necessarily a lower wage rate. We also document suggestive evidence that these results may partially be driven by increased disability and to a lesser extent by poor educational attainment among those who were exposed to Ramadan during this particular period in utero. |
| Keywords: | Ramadan, fetal origins, Intrauterine, Denmark, nutrition, wage, labor, Muslim |
| JEL: | I1 I12 J1 J13 J22 J24 J3 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8673&r=hea |
| By: | Alice Sanwald; Thomas Schober |
| Abstract: | We analyze mortality and follow-up costs of heart attack patients using administrative data from Austria from 2002-2011. As treatment intensity in a hospital largely depends on whether it has a catheterization laboratory, we focus on the effects of patients' initial admission to these specialized hospitals. To account for the nonrandom selection of patients into hospitals, we exploit individuals' place of residence as a source of exogenous variation in an instrumental variable framework. We find that the initial admission to specialized hospitals increases patients' survival chances substantially. The effect on 3-year mortality is -9.5 percentage points. A separation of the sample into subgroups shows the strongest effects in relative terms for patients below the age of 65. We do not find significant effects on longterm inpatient costs and find only marginal increases in outpatient costs. |
| Keywords: | Acute myocardial infarction, mortality, costs, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | I11 I12 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2014_13&r=hea |
| By: | Boone, Jan |
| Abstract: | In a model where patients face budget constraints that make some treatments unaffordable, we ask which treatments should be covered by universal basic insurance and which by private voluntary insurance. We argue that both cost effectiveness and prevalence are important if the government wants to maximize the health gain that it gets from its health budget. In particular, basic insurance should cover treatments that are used by people who at the margin buy treatments that are highly cost effective. This is not the same as covering treatments that are themselves highly cost effective |
| Keywords: | access to care; cost effectiveness; public vs private insurance; universal basic health insurance; voluntary supplementary insurance |
| JEL: | D82 H51 I13 I14 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10233&r=hea |
| By: | Hathi, Payal; Haque, Sabrina; Pant, Lovey; Coffey, Diane; Spears, Dean |
| Abstract: | A long literature in demography debates the importance of place for health. This paper assesses whether the importance of dense settlement for child mortality and child height is moderated by exposure to local sanitation behavior. Is open defecation, without a toilet or latrine, worse for infant mortality and child height where population density is greater? Is poor sanitation an important mechanism by which population density in?uences health outcomes? The paper uses newly assembled data sets to present two complementary analyses, which represent di?erent points in a trade-o? between external and internal validity. The first analysis concentrates on external validity by studying infant mortality and child height in a large, international child-level data set of 172 Demographic and Health Surveys, matched to census population density data for 1,800 subnational regions. The second analysis concentrates on internal validity by studying child height in Bangladeshi districts, with a new data set constructed with Geographic Information System techniques, and controls for ?xed e?ects at a high level of geographic resolution. The paper ?nds a statistically robust and quantitatively comparable interaction between sanitation and population density with both approaches: open defecation externalities are more important for child health outcomes where people live more closely together. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Demographics,Health Systems Development&Reform,Early Child and Children's Health |
| Date: | 2014–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7124&r=hea |
| By: | Irshad, Humayun; Hassan, Ibn; Iqbal, Jawad; Aghdam, Atae Rezaei; Kamalpour, Mostafa |
| Abstract: | Developing countries, particularly in their rural areas lack in health care facilities. In Pakistan, 65% of population lives in rural areas. The patients from these areas are unable to interact with the health specialists for their particular diseases. The complications faced by women during pregnancy are among the major issues in the health sector of rural areas. Due to lack of gynecologists in rural areas problems like mortalities occur. Despite having an infrastructure of Lady Health Workers (LHWs) for pregnant women in rural areas of Pakistan, practitioners face the problem of collecting information about the patient. This lack of information and communication has resulted in most unfortunate situation among pregnant women of villages. This article therefore proposes an application for LHWs and gynecologists using Personal Data Assistant (PDA) for real time communication and health care. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:221806&r=hea |
| By: | MORENO-TERNERO, Juan (Universidad de Olavide, Spain; Université catholique de Louvain, CORE, Belgium); OSTERDAL, Lars P. (University of Southern Denmark); , |
| Abstract: | Standard models for the evaluation of population health, such as the so-called models of aggregate Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), or aggregate Healthy Years Equivalent (HYEs), are usually criticized on equity grounds. We provide in this paper normative justifications for alternative equity-sensitive models, such as the so-called models of multiplicative QALYs, multiplicative HYEs, and generalizations of the two. Our axiomatic approach assumes social preferences over distributions of individual health states experienced in a given period of time. It conveys informational simplicity, as it does not require information about individual preferences on health. |
| Keywords: | population health, equity, HYEs, QALYs, axioms |
| JEL: | D63 I10 |
| Date: | 2014–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2014031&r=hea |
| By: | Neil Cummins (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | I analyze the age at death of 121,524 European nobles from 800 to 1800. Longevity began increasing long before 1800 and the Industrial Revolution, with marked increases around 1400 and again around 1650. Declines in violence contributed to some of this increase, but the majority must reflect other changes in individual behavior. The areas of North-West Europe which later witnessed the Industrial Revolution achieved greater longevity than the rest of Europe even by 1000 AD. The data suggest that the `Rise of the West' originates before the Black Death. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0064&r=hea |
| By: | Brekke, Kjell Arne (Department of Economics); Kverndokk, Snorre (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper is an extension of Brekke and Kverndokk (2014), which showed that a limited income transfers from a rich to a poor, both with equal health, will increase the concentration index. In this paper we will demonstrate that such health contingent income transfers are implicit in linear models commonly used in the health economic literature, except if the direction of causality is only in the direction of income to health. However, health contingent transfers may also appear with causality from income to health. We show this in a simplified version of a model in Brekke et al. (2011). The prevalence of health contingent transfers in simple models, indicate that such transfers may be as relevant as the non-contingent ones. Together with our previous results this indicates that we may expect the measured health inequality to be higher the more egalitarian a country is. |
| Keywords: | socioeconomic inequality; health inequality; welfare states; health transfers; income transfers; concentration index |
| JEL: | D31 I12 |
| Date: | 2014–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oslohe:2014_005&r=hea |
| By: | Angelov, Nikolay (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Eliason, Marcus (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we estimate the effects of three targeted labour market programmes (LMPs) on the labour market outcomes of occupationally disabled job seekers. Using propensity score matching, we estimate the average treatment effect on the treated of wage subsi-dies, sheltered public employment, and employment at Samhall, a Swedish state-owned company whose aim is to provide employment for persons with disabilites. The control group consists of individuals who are eligible for the targeted LMPs, but have not (yet) received treatment. Using a rich panel data set, containing demographics as well as health and sickness absence measures, we are able to estimate short- to medium-term effects. Our results show large positive effects of all LMPs on labour income, disposable income and employment, and the effects are relatively persistent. However, consistant with the previous empirical literature, we find considerable locking-in effects, measured by a de-crease in un-subsidized employment. Furthermore, the yearly amounts of disability insur-ance paid decrease as a result of program participation, and the decrease becomes more pronounced with time since treatment start. Finally, the effects on disability insurance prevalence are heterogenous, both with respect to the different LMPs and gender. |
| Keywords: | Occupational disability; wage subsidies; locking-in effects; treatment effects |
| JEL: | C21 J14 J23 |
| Date: | 2014–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2014_027&r=hea |