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on Health Economics |
| By: | Rossella Calvi (Boston College); Federico G. Mantovanelli (The Analysis Group) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term effect of access to health care on individuals' health status by investigating the relationship between the proximity to a Protestant medical mission in colonial India and current health outcomes. We use individuals' anthropometric indicators to measure health status and geocoding tools to calculate the distance between the location of individuals today and Protestant health facilities founded in the nineteenth century. We exploit variation in activities of missionary societies and use an instrumental variable approach to show that proximity to a Protestant medical mission has a causal effect on individuals' health status. We find that a 50 percent reduction in the distance from a historical medical facility increases current individuals' body mass index by 0.4. We investigate some potential transmission channels and we find that the long-run effect of access to health care is not driven by persistence of infrastructure, but by improvements in individuals' health potential and changes in hygiene and health habits. |
| Keywords: | India, health, body mass index, historical persistence, Protestant missions. |
| JEL: | I15 N35 O12 O15 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:883&r=hea |
| By: | Alois Stutzer; Armando N. Meier |
| Abstract: | Is obesity the consequence of an optimally chosen lifestyle or do people consume too much relative to their long-term preferences? The latter perspective accepts that people might face self-control problems when exposed to the immediate gratification from food. We exploit unique survey data for Switzerland in multinomial logit and ordered probit regressions to study i) the covariates of obesity including indicators of self-control, and ii) the consequences of obesity on the subjective well-being of people with limited willpower. Our main finding is that obesity decreases the well-being of individuals who report having limited self-control, but not otherwise. |
| Keywords: | obesity; revealed preference; self-control problem; subjective well-being |
| JEL: | D12 D91 I12 I31 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2015-14&r=hea |
| By: | Christian Hakulinen; Mirka Hintsanen; Marcus R. Munafò; Marianna Virtanen; Mika Kivimäki; G. David Batty; Markus Jokela |
| Abstract: | Aims: To investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between personality and smoking, and test whether sociodemographic factors modify these associations.Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal individual-participant meta-analysis. Setting: Nine cohort studies from Australia, Germany, UK and US. Participants: A total of 79,757 men and women (mean age = 51 years). Measurements: Personality traits of the Five-Factor Model (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience) were used as exposures. Outcomes were current smoking status (current smoker, ex-smoker, and never smoker), smoking initiation, smoking relapse, and smoking cessation. Associations between personality and smoking were modeled using logistic and multinomial logistic regression, and study-specific findings were combined using random-effect meta-analysis. Findings: Current smoking was associated with higher extraversion (odds ratio per 1 standard deviation increase in the score: 1.16; 95% confidence interval: 1.08-1.24), higher neuroticism (1.19; 1.13-1.26), and lower conscientiousness (0.88; 0.83-0.94). Among nonsmokers, smoking initiation during the follow-up period was prospectively predicted by higher extraversion (1.22; 1.04-1.43) and lower conscientiousness (0.80; 0.68-0.93), whereas higher neuroticism (1.16; 1.04-1.30) predicted smoking relapse among ex-smokers. Among smokers, smoking cessation was negatively associated with neuroticism (0.91; 0.87-0.96). Sociodemographic variables did not appear to modify the associations between personality and smoking. Conclusions: Adult smokers have higher extraversion, higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness personality scores than non-smokers. Initiation into smoking is positively associated with higher extraversion and lower conscientiousness, while relapse to smoking among ex-smokers is association with higher neuroticism. |
| Keywords: | Cohort studies, five-factor mode, individual-participant meta-analysis, personality,smoking |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp783&r=hea |
| By: | Snorre Kverndokk (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Jared C. Carbone (Colorado School of Mines) |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies show that years of schooling are positively correlated with good health, and that education is better correlated with health than with variables like occupation and income. This can be explained in different ways as the implication may go from education to health, from health to education, and there may be variables that influence health and education in the same direction. The effect of different policy instruments to reduce the social gradient in health will depend on the strength of these causalities. In this paper we formalize a model that simultaneously determines an individual’s demand for knowledge and health based on the mentioned causal effects. We study the impacts on both health and education of different policy instruments such as subsidies on medical care, subsidizing schooling, income tax reduction, lump sum transfers and improving health at young age. Our results indicate that income transfers such as distributional policies may be the best instrument to improve welfare, while subsidies to medical care is the best instrument for longevity. However, subsidies to medical care or education would require large imperfections in the markets for health and education to be more welfare improving than distributional policies. Finally, our simulations suggest that underlying factors that impact both health and education is the main explanation for the correlation shown empirically. |
| Keywords: | Demand for health, Demand for education, Human capital, Numerical modeling, Causality |
| JEL: | C61 D91 I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:duh:wpaper:1506&r=hea |
| By: | João Medeiros; Christoph Schwierz |
| Abstract: | Health care spending has been rising faster than national income throughout the EU for decades and is projected to continue doing so as a result of population ageing. However, this paper estimates that there is substantial scope to improve the efficiency of Europe's health care systems and that this could halt the rise in health care expenditure as a proportion of GDP over the long term. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 C51 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:ecopap:0549&r=hea |
| By: | Benjamin Zimmer (Computer Science Department - Linnaeus University); Julie Stal-Le Cardinal (LGI - Laboratoire Génie Industriel - EA 2606 - Ecole Centrale Paris, Ecole Centrale Paris - Ecole Centrale Paris); Bernard Yannou (LGI - Laboratoire Génie Industriel - EA 2606 - Ecole Centrale Paris); Gilles Le Cardinal (UTC - Université de Technologie de Compiègne [Compiègne]); François Piette (Faculté de Médecine - Université Pierre et Marie Curie); Vincent Boly (ERPI - Equipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs - Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (INPL) - Ecole Nationale Supérieure en Génie des Systèmes Industriels) |
| Abstract: | For more than 10 years, the French State and administrative regions have pursued economic development policies that stimulate all forms of innovation and encourage strategic market alliances of the economic stakeholders of a region. These “cluster” policies aim to create ecosystems that are conducive to innovation and promote the emergence of collaborative organizations. Among these innovation clusters, we are concerned with those in the health care field pertaining to aging and autonomy. Business models and action plans for these collaborative organizations are neither easy to define nor easy to stabilize and reinforce, because of the diversity of stakeholders with multiple expectations involved. This paper presents an application of the FAcT-Mirror method in the Sol’iage innovation cluster during its development stage. We demonstrate that the FAcT-Mirror method is particularly efficient and effective during the process of transformation from the emerging stage (stage of intention) to the development stage (stage of action) for a health care cluster to collectively produce common tools (definitions, strategy, working groups, and action plans). |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01152287&r=hea |
| By: | Caroline Ruiller (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1); Beatrice I.J.M. Van Der Heijden (Radboud university of Nijmegen) |
| Abstract: | In spite of the differences in Human Resource Management (HRM) practices between the non-profit health care sector and business life, the majority of health care sector research appears to be based on the HRM (for Human Resources Management) blueprint for business life staff policy and practice. This study is aimed to better understand the impact of workplace social support in the context of French hospitals. Concrete, the first objective of this article comprises a thorough conceptualization and operationalization of workplace social support (i.e. both professional and personal social support). Data were collected in a French hospital among a sample of 62 respondents (for the qualitative part of our study), and among a sample of 171 health care professionals (nurses and nurse aids) (for the quantitative part of our study). Our outcomes indicate that, especially, personal support given by one’s supervisor is strongly and positively related to nurses’ and nurse aides’ affective commitment. After a discussion about the outcomes, followed by some recommendations for future research, the article concludes with some practical implications for management in hospitals. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01183182&r=hea |
| By: | Hippolyte D'Albis (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS); Loesse Jacques Esso (ENSEA - Ecole nationale supérieure de statistique et d'économie appliquée - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Héctor Pifarré I Arolas (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - Toulouse School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The epidemiological transition has provided the theoretical background for the expectation of convergence in mortality patterns. We formally test and reject the convergence hypothesis for a sample of industrialized countries in the period from 1960 to 2008. After a period of convergence in the decade of 1960 there followed a sustained process of divergence with a pronounced increase at the end of the 1980's, explained by trends within former Socialist countries (Eastern countries). While Eastern countries experienced abrupt divergence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, differences within Western countries remained broadly constant for the whole period. Western countries transitioned from a strong correlation between life expectancy and variance in 1960 to no association between both moments in 2008 while Eastern countries experienced the opposite evolution. Taken together, our results suggest that convergence can be better understood when accounting for shared structural similarities amongst groups of countries rather than through global convergence. |
| Date: | 2014–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseose:hal-01061000&r=hea |
| By: | Bénédicte H. Apouey (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Andrew E. Clark (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor - IZA) |
| Abstract: | We use British panel data to determine the exogenous impact of income on a number of individual health outcomes: general health status, mental health, physical health problems, and health behaviours (drinking and smoking). Lottery winnings allow us to make causal statements regarding the effect of income on health, as the amount won by winners is largely exogenous. Positive income shocks have no significant effect on self-assessed overall health, but a significant positive effect on mental health. This result seems paradoxical on two levels. First, there is a well-known gradient in health status in cross-section data, and, second, general health should partly reflect mental health, so that we may expect both variables to move in the same direction. We propose a solution to the first apparent paradox by underlining the endogeneity of income. For the second, we show that lottery winnings are also associated with more smoking and social drinking. General health will reflect both mental health and the effect of these behaviours, and so may not improve following a positive income shock. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseose:halshs-00566789&r=hea |
| By: | Pierre Pestieau (CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR, CORE - Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain] - UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Grégory Ponthière (ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Due to the ageing process, the provision of long-term care (LTC) to the dependent elderly has become a major challenge of our epoch. But at the same time, our societies are characterized, since the 1970s, by a significant postponement of births. This paper aims at examining the impact of those demographic trends on the optimal family policy. We develop a four-period OLG model where individuals, who receive children's informal LTC at the old age, must choose, when being young, how to allocate births along their lifecycle. It is shown that early children provide more LTC to their elderly parents than late children, because of the lower opportunity cost of providing LTC when being retired. In comparison with the social optimum, individuals have, at the laissez-faire, too few children early in their life, and too many later on in their life. The decentralization of the first-best optimum requires thus to subsidize early births. We study also the design of the optimal subsidy on early births in a second-best setting. Its level depends on efficiency and equity issues, as well as on its incidence on the long-run population composition and on LTC provision. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01131236&r=hea |
| By: | Maria Govorun (University of Western Ontario - University of Western Ontario); Guy Latouche (ULB - Université Libre de Bruxelles [Bruxelles] - ULB - Université Libre de Bruxelles); Stéphane Loisel (SAF - Laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) |
| Abstract: | In the present paper we develop recursive algorithms to evaluate the distribution of the net present value (abbreviated as "NPV") of a health care contract. The duration of the program is a random variable representing the lifetime of an individual. We suggest a discrete time phase-type approach to model individual health care costs. In this approach, annual health care costs depend naturally on the health state of the individual. We also derive the distribution of the NPV assuming that annual health care costs are iid random variables. We demonstrate analytically that, under special parametrisation, the model with iid costs gives a similar expectation of the NPV to the one of the model with health dependent costs. We propose techniques to evaluate the impact of health related events and demonstrate it on numerical examples. |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01084274&r=hea |
| By: | Elise Huillery (ECON - Département d'économie - Sciences Po); Juliette Seban (ECON - Département d'économie - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | Financial incentives for service providers are becoming a common strategy to improve service delivery. However, this strategy will only work if demand for the service responds as expected. Using a eld experiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we show that introducing a performance-based financing mechanism in the health sector has counterproductive effects because demand is non-standard: despite reduced prices and eased access, demand for health decreased, child health deteriorated, workers' revenue dropped. Ironically, expected perverse effects of incentives on worker behavior were not realized: incentives led to more effort from health workers on rewarded activities without deterring effort on non-rewarded activities, nor inducing significant score manipulation or free-riding. We also find a decline in worker motivation following the removal of the incentives, below what it would have been in the absence of exposure to the incentives. Management tools used in for-pro t sectors are thus inappropriate in non-pro t sectors such as health where user and worker rationalities are specific. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01164460&r=hea |
| By: | Arnaud Chéron (GAINS - Groupe d'Analyse des Itinéraires et des Niveaux Salariaux - UM - Université du Maine, TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS); Pierre-Jean Messe (CEE - Centre d'études de l'emploi - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche - Ministère du Travail, de l'Emploi et de la Santé, TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS, GAINS - Groupe d'Analyse des Itinéraires et des Niveaux Salariaux - UM - Université du Maine); Jerome Ronchetti (TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS, GAINS - Groupe d'Analyse des Itinéraires et des Niveaux Salariaux - UM - Université du Maine) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops an equilibrium search model that allows rms to invest in worker's health. Heterogeneous health endowment of the employee is not observed by the employer, and rms also dier regarding their productivities. We emphasize that wage and health expenditure policies of the employer are tightly related, and show how those policies relate to rms' type. A noticeable implication is that there is an ambiguous relationship between wage earnings and health expenditures supported by firms. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01100345&r=hea |
| By: | Paolo Melindi-Ghidi (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM) - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université); Willem Sas (Center for Economic Studies - CES - KU Leuven - CES - KU Leuven) |
| Abstract: | Better health not only boosts longevity in itself, it also postpones the initial onset of disability and chronic inrmity to a later age. In this paper we examine the potential eects of such compression of morbidity' on pensions, and introduce a health-dependent dimension to the standard pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension scheme. Studying the long-term implications of such a system in a simple overlapping generations framework, we nd that an increase in public health investment can augment capital accumulation in the long run. Because of this, the combination of health investment with a partially health-dependent PAYG scheme may in fact outperform a purely PAYG system in terms of lifetime welfare. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01171701&r=hea |
| By: | Fatiha Bennia (Laboratoire de Santé Publique - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université); Nicolas Gravel (AMSE - Aix-Marseille School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) - Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM) - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université); Brice Magdalou (LAMETA - Laboratoire Montpelliérain d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - CNRS - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - UM1 - Université Montpellier 1 - Centre international de hautes études agronomiques méditerranéennes [CIHEAM]); Patrick Moyes (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - CNRS - Université Montesquieu - Bordeaux 4) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares distributions of Body Mass Index (BMI) among men and women in France, the US and the UK on the basis of a new normative criterion. Comparing distributions of BMI from a normative standpoint is conceptually challenging because of the ordinal nature of the variable. Our normative criterion is well-suited to handle this issue. It coincides with the possibility of moving from the dominated distribution to the dominating one by a finite sequence of Hammond transfers and/or elementary efficiency gains. An additional difficulty with BMI is that it is not monotonically increasing (or decreasing) with health or well-being. We therefore perform our analysis by considering all health-consistent rankings of BMI values. Our empirical results are striking. For a large class of these rankings of BMI values, it is shown that the distribution of BMI in France has worsened on the period 2008-2010 for both men and women according to first order dominance. It is also shown that for most welfare rankings of BMI values, the distribution of BMI is worse in every period in the female population than in the male one in all three countries. |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01174989&r=hea |
| By: | Joshua Congdon-Hohman (Department of Economics and Accounting, College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the longitudinal aspect of the Health and Retirement Study to explore the characteristics associated with reversals in retirement (referred to here as "unretirement"). Through the use of survival time analysis, this paper shows that health insurance status and its source are signicant predictors of unretirement decisions. The relationship is important as the potential impacts of the Affordable Care Act are considered. By comparing the role of health insurance provision to the impact of financial "shocks", the analysis finds that insurance is equally important as other financial explanations for retirement reversals. The analysis also shows that health insurance source plays a particularly important role for those who were previously open to the idea of working in retirement while they were still working. |
| Keywords: | Retirement, Unretirement, Retirement reversals, Health insurance |
| JEL: | J26 J22 H55 J32 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:1501&r=hea |
| By: | Tamura, Masaoki; Imaizumi, Akira; Muramatsu, Takahiko; Shimba, Nobuhisa |
| Abstract: | This article presents a cost benefit analysis of AminoIndex Cancer Screening (AICS) in Japan. AICS is a new cancer diagnosis method based on profiles of amino acids. The cost benefit analysis is performed on each type of cancer, each sex, and each age class. The results indicate that AICS is cost-beneficial mainly for 50-75 years old for screening of several types of cancer including stomach, lung, and colorectal cancer. AICS is also cost-beneficial for younger female for screening of uterine-ovarian cancer. |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:iirwps:15-14&r=hea |
| By: | Fabienne Abadie (European Commission – JRC - IPTS); Cristiano Codagnone (European Commission – JRC - IPTS) |
| Abstract: | This report is an introduction to the various cases of integrated care and independent living developed in SIMPHS3. It addresses the methodology applied for the field work, and provides further details on the fieldwork activity, together with a brief description of the typologies of health and social care actors interviewed. It also gives an overview of the number of Member States and regions covered in the study, how the cases have been analysed and the actors interviewed. It also presents an overview of the report structure used in all the cases so as to allow comparability. The structured questionnaire and the semi-structured interview key questions used in the field work are presented in the Annex. |
| Keywords: | SIMPHS, eHealth, Remote Monitoring, ageing, integrated care, independent living, case studies, facilitators, governance, impact, drivers, barriers, integration, organisation |
| JEL: | I11 I18 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc96204&r=hea |
| By: | Conti, Gabriella (University College London); Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Pinto, Rodrigo (University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the long-term impacts on health and healthy behaviors of two of the oldest and most widely cited U.S. early childhood interventions evaluated by the method of randomization with long-term follow-up: the Perry Preschool Project (PPP) and the Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC). There are pronounced gender effects strongly favoring boys, although there are also effects for girls. Dynamic mediation analyses show a significant role played by improved childhood traits, above and beyond the effects of experimentally enhanced adult socioeconomic status. These results show the potential of early life interventions for promoting health. |
| Keywords: | health, early childhood intervention, social experiment, randomized trial, Abecedarian Project, Perry Preschool Project |
| JEL: | C12 C93 I12 I13 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9247&r=hea |
| By: | Mathematica Policy Research; Public Health Institute |
| Abstract: | With the recent proliferation of health text messaging applications in the United States, emphasis should be placed on addressing gaps in knowledge about the effectiveness and acceptance of health text messaging programs. |
| Keywords: | Health Text Messages, Consumer Health, Knowledge, Behaviors, Environmental Scan |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:4dbdfc0c86c641b3a89230ebf40f7af7&r=hea |
| By: | Taryn Dinkelman |
| Abstract: | Drought is Africa’s most prevalent natural disaster and is becoming an increasingly common source of income shocks around the world. This paper presents new evidence from Africa that droughts are an important component of long run variation in health human capital. I use Census data to estimate the effects of early childhood exposure to drought on later-life disabilities among South Africans confined to homelands during apartheid. By exploiting almost forty years of quasi-random variation in local droughts experienced by different cohorts in different districts, I find that drought exposure in infancy raises later-life disability rates by 3.5 to 5.2%, with effects concentrated in physical and mental disabilities, and largest for males. An exploration of spatial heterogeneity in drought effects suggests that limits to mobility imposed on homelands may have contributed to these negative effects. My findings are relevant for low-income settings where households have limited access to formal and informal coping mechanisms and face high costs of avoiding droughts through migration. |
| JEL: | I15 N37 O13 O15 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21440&r=hea |
| By: | Calub, Renz Adrian |
| Abstract: | Physicians are expected to provide the best health care to their patients; however, it cannot be discounted that their practice is driven primarily by incentives. In this paper, we construct a physician utility maximization model that links physician quality to compensation schemes. Results show that relative to fixed payment, fee-for-service and mixed payment yield higher quality. Multinomial treatment effects regression of vignette scores on payment schemes also support this hypothesis, indicating that physicians are still below the best level of quality and that incentives to improve are still present. |
| Keywords: | Physician, quality of healthcare, incentives, compensation schemes |
| JEL: | I11 J44 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66038&r=hea |
| By: | Huang, Xianguo (Asian Development Bank Institute); Yoshino, Naoyuki (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of tax-financed universal health coverage schemes on macroeconomic aspects of labor supply, asset holding, inequality, and welfare, while taking into account features common to developing economies, such as informal employment and tax avoidance, by constructing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents. Agents have different education levels, employment statuses, and idiosyncratic shocks. Given three tax financing options, calibration results suggest that the financing options matter for outcomes both at the aggregate and disaggregate levels. Universal health coverage, financed by labor income tax revenue, could reduce inequality due to its large redistributive role. Social welfare cannot be improved when labor decisions are endogenous and distortions are higher than the redistributive gains for all tax financing options. In the absence of labor supply choice, mild welfare gains are found. |
| Keywords: | universal health coverage; DSGE model; idiosyncratic shocks; social welfare |
| JEL: | E24 E26 E62 H23 H51 J11 |
| Date: | 2015–08–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0533&r=hea |