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on Health Economics |
| By: | Osea Giuntella; Silvia Saccardo; Sally Sadoff |
| Abstract: | There is growing evidence on the importance of sleep for productivity, but little is known about the impact of interventions targeting sleep. In a field experiment among U.S. university students, we show that incentives for sleep increase both sleep and academic performance. Motivated by theories of cue-based habit formation, our primary intervention couples personalized bedtime reminders with morning feedback and immediate rewards for sleeping at least seven hours on weeknights. The intervention increases the share of nights with at least seven hours of sleep by 26 percent and average weeknight sleep by an estimated 19 minutes during a four-week treatment period, with persistent effects of about eight minutes per night during a one to five-week post-treatment period. Comparisons to secondary treatments show that immediate incentives have larger impacts on sleep than delayed incentives or reminders and feedback alone during the treatment period, but do not have statistically distinguishable impacts on longer-term sleep habits in the post-treatment period. We estimate that immediate incentives improve average semester course performance by 0.075--0.088 grade points, a 0.10--0.11 standard deviation increase. Our results demonstrate that incentives to sleep can be a cost-effective tool for improving educational outcomes. |
| JEL: | C93 I1 I20 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32550&r= |
| By: | David G. Blanchflower; Alex Bryson; Anthony Lepinteur; Alan Piper |
| Abstract: | Prior to around 2011, there was a pronounced curvilinear relationship between age and wellbeing: poor mental health was hump-shaped with respect to age, whilst subjective well-being was U-shaped. We examine data from a European panel for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden called, Come-Here, for 2020-2023, plus data from International Social Survey Program (ISSP) surveys for 2011 and 2021 and some country-specific data. Mental ill-health now declines in a roughly monotonic fashion with age, whilst subjective well-being rises with age. We also show that young people with poorer mental health spend more time daily in front of a screen on the internet or their smartphone, and that within-person increases in poor mental health are correlated with spending more time in front of a screen. This evidence appears important because it is among the first pieces of research to use panel data on individuals to track the relationship between screen time and changes in mental health, and because the results caution against simply using the presence of the internet in the household, or low usage indicators (such as having used the internet in the last week) to capture the role played by screen time in the growth of mental ill-health. |
| JEL: | I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32500&r= |
| By: | Arash Nekoei; Jósef Sigurdsson; Dominik Wehr |
| Abstract: | We study the economic consequences of stress-related occupational illnesses (burnout) using Swedish administrative data. Using a mover design, we find that high-burnout firms and stressful occupations universally raise burnout risk yet disproportionately impact low-stress-tolerance workers. Workers who burn out endure permanent earnings losses regardless of gender—while women are three times more susceptible. Repercussions of burnout extend to the worker’s family, reducing spousal income and children’s educational achievements. Through sick leaves, earnings scars, and spillovers, burnout reduced the national labor income by 2.3% in 2019. We demonstrate how estimated costs, combined with a prediction model incorporating workers’ self-reported stress, can improve the design of prevention programs. |
| Keywords: | amenities, mental health, employment, misallocation, fiscal cost |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J28 I18 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11128&r= |
| By: | Daniel Avdic (Deakin University); Johannes S. Kunz (Monash University); Susan J. Méndez (University of Melbourne); Maria Wisniewska (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | We study how the diffusion of telemedicine technology impacted the quality and rates of antibiotic prescriptions using Australian survey data from primary care physicians linked to administrative records on their service provision. We classify physicians based on their relative use of telemedicine consultations in response to the introduction of government-subsidised telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic and relate their rates of antibiotic prescriptions to indicators of prescribing quality before and after lockdown periods in a difference-in-differences design. Our results suggest that more frequent users of telemedicine prescribe relatively fewer antibiotics while keeping prescribing quality largely unchanged. We interpret these findings as evidence that telemedicine can enhance efficiency of service provision in primary care settings. |
| Keywords: | telemedicine, primary care, quality of care, antibiotics, difference-in- differences |
| JEL: | H41 I11 I13 O33 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mhe:chemon:2024-09&r= |
| By: | Vedant Vohra; Jacob Goldin |
| Abstract: | The effect of a treatment may depend on the intensity with which it is administered. We study identification of ordered treatment effects with a binary instrument, focusing on the effect of moving from the treatment’s minimum to maximum intensity. With arbitrary heterogeneity across units, standard IV assumptions (Angrist and Imbens, 1995) do not constrain this parameter, even among compliers. We consider a range of additional assumptions and show how they can deliver sharp, informative bounds. We illustrate our approach with two applications, involving the effect of (1) health insurance on emergency department usage, and (2) attendance in an after-school program on student learning. |
| JEL: | C26 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32425&r= |
| By: | Coleman Drake; Dylan Nagy; Matthew D. Eisenberg; David Slusky |
| Abstract: | Evidence on cannabis legalization’s effects on mental health remains scarce, despite both rapid increases in cannabis use and an ongoing mental health crisis in the United States. We use granular geographic data to estimate medical cannabis dispensary availability’s effects on self-reported mental health in New York state from 2011 through 2021 using a two-stage difference-in-differences approach to minimize bias introduced from the staggered opening of dispensaries. Our findings rule out that medical cannabis availability had negative effects on mental health for the adult population overall. We also find that medical cannabis availability reduced past-month self-reported poor mental health days by nearly 10%—3.37 percentage points—among adults 65 and above. These results suggest medical cannabis access has positive health impacts for older populations, likely through pain relief. |
| JEL: | H75 I12 I18 I31 K32 K42 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32514&r= |
| By: | Henry Saffer; Selen Ozdogan; Michael Grossman; Daniel L. Dench; Dhaval M. Dave |
| Abstract: | The vast majority of youth e-cigarette users consume flavored e-cigarettes, raising concerns from public health advocates that flavors may drive youth initiation into and continued use of e-cigarettes. Flavors drew further notice from the public health community following the sudden outbreak of lung injury among vapers in 2019, prompting several states to enact sweeping bans on flavored e-cigarettes. In this study, we examine the effects of these comprehensive bans on e-cigarette use and potential spillovers into other tobacco use by youth, young adults, and adults. We utilize both standard difference-in-differences (DID) and synthetic DID methods, in conjunction with four national data sets. We find evidence that young adults decrease their use of the banned flavored e-cigarettes as well as their overall e-cigarette use, by about two percentage points, while increasing cigarette use. For youth, there is some suggestive evidence of increasing cigarette use, though these results are contaminated by pre-trend differences between treatment and control units. The bans have no effect on e-cigarette and smoking participation among older adults (ages 25+). Our findings suggest that statewide comprehensive flavor bans may have generated an unintended consequence by encouraging substitution towards traditional smoking in some populations. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32534&r= |
| By: | Chad D. Cotti; Charles J. Courtemanche; Yang Liang; Johanna Catherine Maclean; Erik T. Nesson; Joseph J. Sabia |
| Abstract: | Advocates for sales restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes argue that flavors appeal to young people and lead them down a path to nicotine addiction. This study is among the first to examine the effect of state and local restrictions on the sale of flavored electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products on youth and young adult tobacco use. Using data from the State and National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, we find that the adoption of an ENDS flavor restriction reduces frequent and everyday youth ENDS use by 1.2 to 2.5 percentage points. Auxiliary analyses of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System show similar effects on ENDS use for young adults ages 18-20. However, we also detect evidence of an unintended effect of ENDS flavor restrictions that is especially clear among 18-20-year-olds: inducing substitution to combustible cigarette smoking. Finally, there is no evidence that ENDS flavor restrictions affect ENDS use among adults aged 21 and older or non-tobacco-related health behaviors such as binge drinking and illicit drug use. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32535&r= |
| By: | Kathryn R. Johnson; Claudia Persico |
| Abstract: | Between 2000 and 2008, access to high-speed, broadband internet grew significantly in the United States, but there is debate on whether access to high-speed internet improves or harms wellbeing. We find that a ten percent increase in the proportion of county residents with access to broadband internet leads to a 1.01 percent reduction in the number of suicides in a county, as well as improvements in self-reported mental and physical health. We further find that this reduction in suicide deaths is likely due to economic improvements in counties that have access to broadband internet. Counties with increased access to broadband internet see reductions in poverty rate and unemployment rate. In addition, zip codes that gain access to broadband internet see increases in the numbers of employees and establishments. In addition, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive effects are concentrated in the working age population, those between 25 and 64 years old. This pattern is precisely what is predicted by the literature linking economic conditions to suicide risk. |
| JEL: | I10 I12 I15 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32517&r= |
| By: | Chad D. Cotti; Philip DeCicca; Erik T. Nesson |
| Abstract: | We use data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco Use and Health (PATH), a longitudinal data set including self-reported and biomarker measures of tobacco use, to examine the effects of state-level tobacco 21 (T21) laws on smoking and vaping. T21 laws reduce self-reported cigarette smoking among 18-to-20 year olds, concentrated in males. Initial non-users who “age-out” of treatment are less likely to subsequently initiate self-reported smoking or vaping. Treated smokers are less likely to buy their own cigarettes and more likely to buy cigarettes in a different state. Biomarker results are mixed, and we find some evidence of a reduction in nicotine exposure but less evidence for a reduction in exposure to tobacco. Finally, we test for non-classical measurement error. T21 laws reduce the probability that clinically identified likely cigarette smokers self-report as smokers, which may increase the apparent effect of T21 laws on cigarette smoking as measured by self-reports. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 K32 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32520&r= |
| By: | Singh, Tejendra Pratap; Yusuff, Olanrewaju |
| Abstract: | We examine the health effects of the free maternal and child health program (FMCHP) in Nigeria. We leverage variation across states and over time in exposure to the policy in a difference-in-differences (DID) framework. We find that exposure to policy leads to a decline in under-five mortality and children weigh more at birth. We also show that children born after the policy is rolled out are more likely to be delivered at a health facility with assistance from health personnel. Our results are robust to a host of empirical checks and are more pronounced for relatively disadvantaged subpopulations. Having access to healthcare facilities moderates improvement in health outcomes. We highlight increased child immunization, better child nutrition, increased post-natal health checks, improved trust in healthcare providers, and women empowerment as the most likely mechanisms that drive improved health outcomes. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that FMCHP may have averted 405, 425 deaths for children under the age of five. Our findings suggest that in areas with low healthcare use improving access to institutional healthcare during pregnancy can lead to better maternal and child health outcomes. |
| Date: | 2024–05–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:y6wzt&r= |
| By: | Ariadna García-Prado (Universidad Pública de Navarra); Paula González (Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz (Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | A growing literature shows that confinement policies used by governments to slow COVID-19 transmission have negative impacts on mental health, but the differential effects of individual policies on mental health remain poorly understood. We used data from the COVID-19 questionnaire of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which focuses on populations aged 50 and older, and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker for 28 countries to estimate the effects of eight different confinement policies on three outcomes of mental health: insomnia, anxiety and depression. We applied robust machine learning methods to estimate the effects of interest. Our results indicate that closure of schools and public transportation, restrictions on domestic and international travel, and gathering restrictions did not worsen the mental health of older populations in Europe. In contrast, stay at home policies and workplace closures aggravated the three health outcomes analyzed. Based on these findings, we close with a discussion of which policies should be implemented, intensified, or relaxed to control the spread of the virus without compromising the mental health of older populations. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, mental health, confinement policies, older populations, Europe, robust machine learning methods. |
| JEL: | I18 I31 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:24.03&r= |
| By: | Grant Goehring; W. Walker Hanlon |
| Abstract: | Public health interventions often involve a trade-off between improving health and protecting individual rights. We study this trade-off in a high-stakes setting: prostitution regulations aimed at reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Victorian Britain. These regulations, known as the Contagious Disease Acts (CDAs), introduced a system of registration of sex workers, compulsory medical inspections, and the involuntary confinement of infected workers, in a legal market for sex. The first part of our analysis shows that the CDAs led to substantial public health improvements. However, despite their effectiveness, the CDAs were ultimately repealed. The second part of our study examines the causes of this repeal. We show that repeal was driven by concerns about the violation of the basic rights of sex workers and unequal treatment relative to men who purchased sex. These findings emphasize that the success of a public health intervention depends not only on its effectiveness as a sanitary measure but also on how the costs of the regulation are distributed. |
| JEL: | I15 J16 N33 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32505&r= |
| By: | Giulio Fella; Martin B. Holm; Thomas Michael Pugh |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data for Norway to estimate an incomplete-market life cycle model of retired singles and couples with a bequest motive, health-dependent utility, and uncertain longevity and health. We allow the parameters of the bequest utility to differ between households with and without offspring. Our estimates imply a very strong utility of residual wealth (bequest motive), in line with the estimates by Lockwood (2018). The bequest motive accounts for approximately three-quarters of aggregate wealth at age 85. More surprisingly, we estimate similar utility of residual wealth for households with and without offspring. that the utility of residual wealth represents forces beyond an altruistic bequest motive. |
| Keywords: | Economic models; Fiscal policy; Housing; Labour markets |
| JEL: | D11 D12 D14 E21 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocawp:24-21&r= |
| By: | Khadija Bchi (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada); Paul Makdissi (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada); Myra Yazbeck (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a decomposition approach for health concentration curves. Decomposing changes in health concentration curves gives additional insight compared to decomposing a single index such as the health concentration index. First, the results would be valid for a comprehensive set of indices. Second, and more importantly, it allows for identifying heterogeneous effects along socioeconomic ranks. We use inverse propensity weighting for the overall decomposition. We use multiple recentered influence function regressions on a grid of points to identify the impact of specific covariates. We weight these regressions by the inverse propensity score of the observations to correct for errors due to departure from linearity. The paper also derives the expressions of the recentered influence functions of the relative and absolute health concentration curves since the literature does not offer the expression of these recentered influence functions. We offer an empirical illustration using information on cigarette consumption from the National Health Interview Survey of 2000 and 2020. |
| Keywords: | Counterfactual, inverse probability weighting, recentered influence function, health concentration curves |
| JEL: | I10 D63 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ott:wpaper:2403e&r= |
| By: | Elena Capatina (Australian National University, Acton Canberra, Australia); Gary Hansen (UCLA, Department of Economics, Los Angeles, USA); Minchung Hsu (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the impact of long term care (LTC) risk on single and married households and studies the roles played by informal care (IC), consumption sharing within households, and Medicaid in insuring this risk. We develop a life-cycle model where individuals face survival and health risk, including the possibility of becoming highly disabled and needing LTC. Households are heterogeneous in various important dimensions including education, productivity, and the age difference between spouses. Health evolves stochastically. Agents make consumption-savings decisions in a framework featuring an LTC statedependent utility function. We find that household expenditures increase significantly when LTC becomes necessary, but married individuals are well insured against LTC risk due to IC. However, they still hold considerable assets due to the concern for the spouse who might become a widow/widower and can expect much higher LTC costs. IC significantly reduces precautionary savings for middle and high income groups, but interestingly, it encourages asset accumulation among low income groups because it reduces the probability of meanstested Medicaid LTC. |
| Keywords: | Long Term Care, Household Risk, Precautionary Savings, Medicaid, Informal Care |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:23-14&r= |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan; Jimenez-Martin, Sergi; Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina |
| Abstract: | We study whether caregiving and intergenerational transfer decisions are sensitive to changes in economic incentives following the inception of a new unconditional and universal system of allowances and supports, after the introduction of the 2006 Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent Persons Act (SAAD in Spanish), and the ensuing effects of its austerity cuts after 2012. We find that whilst the introduction of a caregiving allowance (of a maximum value of €530 in 2011) increased the supply of informal caregiving by 20-22 percentual points (pp), the inception of a companion system of publicly subsidised homecare supports did not modify the supply of care. Consistent with an exchange motive for intergenerational transfers, we estimate an average 17 pp (8.2-8.7pp) increase (decrease) in downstream (upstream) transfers among those receiving caregiving allowances. Our estimates resulting from the reduction in the allowances and supports after the austerity cuts in 2012 are consistent with our main estimates, and suggest stronguer effects among lower-income families. |
| Keywords: | caregiving; intergenerational transfers; unconditional transfer; long-term care; family transfers; exchange motivation; allowances; Spain; Exchange motives |
| JEL: | G22 I18 D14 |
| Date: | 2022–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:115185&r= |
| By: | Rachel Avram; Eric J. Koepcke; Alaa Moussawi; Melissa Nu\~nez |
| Abstract: | Cure Violence is a community violence intervention program that aims to reduce gun violence by mediating conflicts, "treating" high-risk individuals, and changing community norms. Using NYC shootings data from 2006-2023, we assess the efficacy of Cure Violence using both difference-in-differences and event study models. We find that, on average, Cure Violence is associated with a 14% reduction in shootings relative to the counterfactual. This association persists in the years after treatment, neither increasing nor decreasing much over time. We exploit variation in the geography and timing of Cure implementation to argue against alternative explanations. Additionally, we find suggestive evidence of spillover effects into nearby precincts, as well as increasing returns to opening new Cure programs. Interpreted causally, our results imply that around 1, 300 shootings were avoided between 2012-2023 due to Cure -- generating a net social surplus of $2.45 billion and achieving a benefit-cost ratio of 6.5:1. |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2406.02459&r= |
| By: | Roshen Fernando; Warwick McKibbin |
| Abstract: | Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health threat that led to 1.27 million deaths in 2019. Given the widespread use of antimicrobials in healthcare, agriculture, and industrial applications and a range of factors affecting AMR, including demographic trends and physical climate risks, an economy-wide approach is essential to understand and assess the economic consequences of AMR. We model the global economic impacts of AMR under six alternative scenarios. These scenarios are designed to incorporate assumptions about changes in AMR-related disease incidence, the impact of a central scenario about future demographic change on AMR over time, and explore the sensitivity of assumptions about the effects of AMR on agriculture productivity. We also examine the additional impacts of changing climate risks on the evolution of AMR (focusing on one climate scenario), the consequences of changes in country risk premia due to the differential im-pacts of the evolution of AMR on countries, and the global economic impacts of changes in government expenditure in response to AMR. Our results find a significant global economic burden of worsening AMR due to demographic change and climate change risks, as well as significant eco-nomic benefits of taking action to address AMR. We emphasize that a “one-health†approach to managing AMR will have substantial economic benefits over the coming decades. |
| Keywords: | antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic resistance, infectious diseases, macroeconomic modelling |
| JEL: | C51 C53 C54 C55 C63 C68 E37 F01 F41 Q51 Q54 I10 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2024-41&r= |
| By: | Lars Van Cutsem; Marleen Willekens; Koenraad Debackere |
| Abstract: | This study conducts the first quasi-experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of regulatory advice to stimulate novel medicine development. Medicine development is subject to pharmaceutical standards for safety, efficacy and quality, ultimately serving public safety interests. Novel medicine development, however, often requires non-standard trial designs, surrogate (pre-)clinical endpoints, and specific post-authorisation risk management plans. Stringency in pharmaceutical standards subsequently disincentivizes particularly novel medicine development due to elevated difficulties and costs to demonstrate adherence to safety/efficacy standards. We use data on medicines authorised in the EU, and show that the use of regulatory advice services, intended to aid generating robust evidence of medicine safety and efficacy, increases the propensity to develop and successfully bring to market novel medicines. Notably, we show that regulatory advice services are particularly relevant for inexperienced firms. |
| Keywords: | G074819N#54967485 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:742967&r= |
| By: | Amelia Blamey; Ilan Noy |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of interpersonal and institutional trust on COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. We ask whether interpersonal and institutional trust predict COVID-19 vaccination delay and refusal. We use an unprecedently rich and representative dataset of over 22, 000 New Zealand respondents, sourced from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 General Social Survey. Respondents reported their trust in seven domains: Parliament, police, health, education, courts, media, and the general public. Their survey responses are linked to respondents’ later records of COVID-19 vaccinations and their socio-demographic characteristics, as collected in the 2018 census. We find that all measured trust domains exhibit a significant and negative correlation with vaccine hesitancy. As trust increases, vaccination hesitancy decreases and so does the time it takes people to vaccinate. The correlation is strongest for trust in police and interpersonal trust, and weakest for trust in media. By understanding how trust informs vaccination decision-making, we can better prepare for future pandemics and improve public health vaccination campaigns more generally. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19, vaccination, trust, general social survey, GSS |
| JEL: | I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11134&r= |
| By: | Ana Espinosa Gonzalez; Elina Suzuki |
| Abstract: | Even as countries have long emerged from the dramatic restrictions imposed on populations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, an important subset of people infected with COVID-19 continue to struggle with symptoms, in some cases debilitating, that persist for weeks or even months after their initial infection. The analysis in this paper looks at the burden of long COVID across OECD countries. It examines its implications for the health of individuals and how long COVID may impact productivity and the labour force, as well as what countries are doing to address the condition. It further identifies priorities for improving care for people living with long COVID. |
| JEL: | I0 I1 I3 |
| Date: | 2024–06–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaad:167-en&r= |
| By: | Santiago Calvo Ramos; Joana Elisa Maldonado; Anneleen Vandeplas; Istvan Vanyolos |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a review of estimates of the prevalence of long COVID in the EU, and a tentative assessment of its economic impact, in particular on labour supply. This tentative approach yields an estimated prevalence of long COVID cases of around 1.7% of the EU population in 2021 and 2.9% in 2022, resulting in a negative impact on labour supply of 0.2-0.3% in 2021 and 0.3-0.5% in 2022. In person-equivalents, this means long COVID would have reduced labour supply by 364, 000–663, 000 in 2021 and by 621, 000-1, 112, 000 in 2022, combining the effect of lower productivity, higher sick leaves, lower hours, and increased unemployment or inactivity. The lower bound of this range is close to a recent estimate put forward for the US (Abraham & Rendell, 2023). These figures imply that long COVID could have caused an output loss of 0.1–0.2% in 2021 and 0.2–0.3% in 2022. Available labour market data suggest a mixed picture when it comes to the impact of long COVID. Overall, the possible role of long COVID in the rising trend in sick leave, disability and activity-limiting health factors, warrants careful monitoring going forward, due to its potential impact on labour supply and labour productivity, and on public finances through increased social benefits, pensions, health care and long-term care expenditure. |
| Keywords: | long COVID, economic impact, labour supply, EU output loss |
| JEL: | E23 E24 I18 J01 J21 J22 O5 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:ecobri:077&r= |
| By: | Emmanouil Pikoulis; Ioannis Vardakastanis; Evika Karamagioli; Evangelia Kallimani; Eleni-Panagiota Stoupa |
| Abstract: | This research paper responds to the urgent need for comprehensive national data on the impact of natural disasters and the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities (PWDs) in Greece. Conducted with 1, 006 participants, including PWDs and caregivers, the study employs an online survey to glean insights into their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and perceptions of inclusion in disaster preparedness and management. Filling a significant gap in national data, this marks the first survey undertaken in the aftermath of the pandemic and recent natural disasters in Greece, focusing on disability-inclusive approaches. The study’s results reveal a moderate level of implementation of disaster preparedness measures, but a strong desire for training education and inclusive strategies, indicating a significant opportunity to enhance community readiness. Feedback and recommendations from a focus group of 20 participants, including Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) professionals and PWDs, further enrich the study. The findings aspire to contribute information to update Greek national policies, emphasizing inclusivity as a fundamental aspect of emergency preparedness, particularly amid a polycrisis. The paper addresses the COVID-19 as a health disaster. |
| Keywords: | Disasters, COVID-19 pandemic, People with Disabilities (PWDs), Disaster Risk Management (DRM), Disability inclusive, Greek national policies |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:197&r= |
| By: | Sofia Trommlerová; Libertad González |
| Abstract: | We study changes in abortions in Spain around the first COVID-19 lockdown. We find a large drop of 24% in the number of abortions during and shortly after the strict lockdown in spring 2020. We explore to which extent the fall was driven by fewer (unintended) pregnancies due to social isolation versus harder access to abortion services. We show that the drop was not more pronounced in areas located further away from abortion clinics, nor in locations with more COVID-19 hospitalizations. The fall in abortions was 45% larger among non-cohabiting women (relative to cohabiting women experiencing a 16% decline). We also document a 29% drop in the abortion ratio (abortions over all pregnancies) driven exclusively by non-cohabiting women. Overall, our results suggest that the main driver of the drop in abortions in Spain was a reduction in unintended pregnancies among single women during the lockdown, due to reduced social interactions. |
| Keywords: | abortion, COVID-19, lockdown, Social interactions, abortion services, fertility |
| JEL: | J13 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1448&r= |