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on Health Economics |
| By: | John Eric Humphries; Christopher Neilson; Xiaoyang Ye; Seth D. Zimmerman |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) raises parents' earnings and how much these earnings effects matter for evaluating the economic returns to UPK programs. Using a randomized lottery design, we estimate the effects of enrolling in a full-day UPK program in New Haven, Connecticut on parents' labor market outcomes as well as educational expenditures and children's academic performance. During children's pre-kindergarten years, UPK enrollment increases weekly childcare coverage by 11 hours. Enrollment has limited impacts on children's academic outcomes between kindergarten and 8th grade, likely due to a combination of rapid effect fadeout and substitution away from other programs of similar quality but with shorter days. In contrast, parents work more hours, and their earnings increase by 21.7%. Parents' earnings gains persist for at least six years after the end of pre-kindergarten. Excluding impacts on children, each dollar of net government expenditure yields $5.51 in after-tax benefits for families, almost entirely from parents' earnings gains. This return is large compared to other labor market policies. Conversely, excluding earnings gains for parents, each dollar of net government expenditure yields only $0.46 to $1.32 in benefits, lower than many other education and children's health interventions. We conclude that the economic returns to investing in UPK are high, largely because of full-day UPK's effectiveness as an active labor market policy. |
| JEL: | H43 I20 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33038 |
| By: | Carola Stapper (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | Disruptions of labor market trajectories have lasting effects on later economic success. One type of disruption that is understudied is displacement due to forced labor conscription, despite it still being a frequent event nowadays. I study the consequences of exposure to forced labor conscription for individuals' long-term labor market outcomes. I exploit that cohorts of Dutch civilians faced a differential probability of temporary labor coercion in Nazi Germany during WWII in a Regression Discontinuity Design. Using Dutch census data from 1971, I find that conscripted individuals have lower education, income, and likelihood of employment. Studying heterogeneous effects, I find that facing harsher conditions in Germany is associated with lower labor force participation and worse health. My findings suggest that the negative impact on labor force participation is mitigated when individuals are forced to work in similar sectors to those in the Netherlands, enhancing their ability to reintegrate into the workforce. |
| Keywords: | Labor economic history, labor market careers, coercive labor market, forced labor, health, skills |
| JEL: | N34 N44 J24 J47 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:338 |
| By: | Nguyen, Ha Trong; Zubrick, Stephen R.; Mitrou, Francis |
| Abstract: | This study explores the allocation of time, particularly to sleep, among children and adolescents in response to daily daylight variation. Utilising a dataset of over 50, 000 time-use diaries from two Australian cohorts spanning 16 years and employing an individual fixed effects estimator, we uncover a substantial causal impact of daily daylight duration on sleep patterns. Our findings reveal that days with longer daylight hours are associated with a decrease in total sleep duration, primarily driven by a later sleep onset time. Additionally, longer daylight hours correspond to reduced time spent on personal care and media activities, with increased dedication to school and physical activities. Furthermore, we identify socio-demographic factors moderating these effects, such as older age and weekend days exerting a stronger influence on sleep duration, while females and children of unemployed mothers exhibit a subtle impact. These insights contribute to our understanding of how environmental factors shape daily routines and offer implications for designing schedules that promote positive developmental outcomes in young individuals. |
| Keywords: | Sleep; Time Allocation; Circadian Rhythms; Solar Cycles; Children |
| JEL: | I00 I12 J24 Q56 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:122226 |
| By: | Heller, Lorena; Nogales, Ricardo |
| Abstract: | Over 30 percent of female workers are self-employed across Latin America, relying on this mode of work for subsistence. Self-employment in the region is regularly marked by the absence of health insurance and lack of pension benefits. Despite the aspirations of many women to gain access to these benefits, they are persistently overrepresented among the socially unprotected part of the workforce. To address this issue and explore potential solutions, we conducted a laboratory experiment in Bolivia to assess the efficacy of nudges to influence the behavior of self-employed women. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six groups, each receiving either an informative message highlighting the benefits of contributing to a long-term pension system, a message emphasizing the advantages of health insurance, or a nudge aimed at reducing the effort and costs associated with enrolling in a savings or retirement plan. Our findings indicate that informative messages alone were effective in increasing voluntary contributions to experimental pension and health insurance schemes. Reductions in time and effort required for enrollment did not lead to a significant increase of voluntary contributions. Moreover, we found that the effectiveness of these interventions varied depending on the type of worker, with high-effort workers being the most responsive. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment;Pension system;Health Insurance;Laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J20 J70 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13754 |
| By: | Capitán, Tabaré (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Thunstrom, Linda; van 't Veld, Klaas; Nordström, Jonas; Shogren, Jason F. |
| Abstract: | Calorie labeling is a popular policy to address the obesity epidemic, but it has had little empirical success. Under the premise that willful avoidance of information plays a role in this result, we propose a novel approach—pre-nudges—to make consumers more receptive to calorie information. Unlike nudges, which are used to directly influence a choice, pre-nudges are used to directly influence how consumers react to the nudge itself (the calorie label). In line with predictions from our theoretical analysis, we test two pre-nudges in the context of menu labeling: one aims to increase self-efficacy, and the other one highlights the long-term health risks of overeating. In a large-scale laboratory experiment, we find that both pre-nudges reduce calorie information avoidance. Overall, our paper suggests a possible role for pre-nudges in addressing the obesity epidemic—one of the largest public health issues globally—and illustrates the potential usefulness of pre-nudges more generally |
| Date: | 2024–10–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vy6af |
| By: | Yang, Jinyang; Chen, Xi |
| Abstract: | We examine the multi-generational association of a nationwide social pension program in China, the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS). NRPS was rolled out on full scale in 2012, and rural enrollees over the age of 60 are eligible to receive an average of 102 CNY non-contributory monthly pension. We leverage age eligibility and variations in pension receipt to identify the intergenerational associations between NRPS and health among grandchildren. We find NRPS substantially increases child weight without impacting height. Overall, the child BMI z score increases by 0.87, which is largely driven by grandfathers' pension receipt raising rates of overweight and obesity among grandsons. Among the potential mechanisms, our findings are more plausibly explained by a mixture of income increase, knowledge bias of co-residing grandparents on childcare, and son preference. Potential biases from differential reporting of primary caregivers and epigenetic transmissions unlikely drive our findings. |
| Keywords: | Social pension, Child health, Inter-generational relationship, Intra-household allocation, Migration, Living arrangement, China |
| JEL: | H23 H31 H55 I38 J22 O15 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1503 |
| By: | Lester Lusher (Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh); Tim Ruberg (Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim) |
| Abstract: | We utilize region-day variation in actual vs. forecasted wet bulb globe temperatures (i.e. forecasting errors) to investigate the effects of the first comprehensive heathealth warning system in Japan. We find that heat alerts led to an increase in heat stroke counts of 17%. An analysis of mechanisms utilizing several datasets suggests the effect is due to increased reporting, as opposed to potential “adverse†behaviors or substitution in health diagnoses. We further find that four times as many heat strokes are detected in low-income neighborhoods compared to high-income neighborhoods, highlighting severe environmental inequalities in health reporting behavior. |
| Keywords: | heat stroke, climate change, warning effectiveness, avoidance behavior |
| JEL: | D90 I12 I18 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024–09–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2024-020 |
| By: | Mouhamed Samba; Ibrahima Thiam; Elisabeth Paul |
| Abstract: | Despite efforts to enhance public investment in Senegal’s health sector, the equitable distribution of benefits between socioeconomic groups remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, our study examines the progressive (or regressive) nature of public health expenditure. Utilizing data from the latest survey on household living conditions (2018–2019) in conjunction with administrative data on health expenditure from the same period (provided by the Ministry of Health of Senegal), we performed a benefit incidence analysis. This entailed segmenting the population by poverty quintiles and subsequently estimating how each group utilized and benefitted from public health expenditure, according to level of care and geographical location. Additionally, we performed a marginal benefit analysis to discern the impact of an increase in public health expenditure on various socioeconomic groups. Our findings unveil a pro-rich distribution of benefits at both primary healthcare and hospital levels, observable both at national and regional levels. Moreover, disparities in the distribution of resource allocation between Senegal's 14 administrative regions were observed. Ultimately, our results indicate that under prevailing conditions, increasing public health expenditure would not yield a pro-poor distribution of benefits. Therefore, our research underscores the imperative of better targeting populations for greater equity between regions and social groups. |
| Keywords: | Benefit incidence analysis; Senegal |
| Date: | 2024–10–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/378404 |
| By: | Mélanie Gittard (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Irène Hu (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | In the midst of Africa's mining boom, communities downstream from industrial mines face increased exposure to toxic waste. Yet, the effects of induced water pollution on the local population's health have not been quantified at the continental scale of Africa, due to data limitation and non-random exposure. This paper investigates this question using a new quasi-experimental design and a novel dataset detailing the location and opening dates of all known industrial mines, obtained through intensive manual data collection. We combine geo-coded information on 2, 016 industrial mines with health outcomes from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 1986 to 2018 in 26 African countries. Through a staggered difference-in-difference strategy, we compare villages downstream and upstream of mines before and after their opening and find a 25% increase in 24-month mortality rates downstream. The effect is mainly observed among children who were no longer breastfed, confirming that water pollution drives the results. Our analysis rules out other mechanisms like fertility changes, access to facilities, in-migration, conflicts and income effects. The impact intensifies during mine operation and high international mineral prices, is higher in densely mined regions, and fades out with distance. From a public policy perspective, this paper underscores the significant local costs of mine openings on the environment and the health of the surrounding populations. |
| Keywords: | Health, Water Pollution, Natural Resource, Environmental Degradation, Africa, Industrial Mining |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:halshs-04685390 |
| By: | Arlette Simo Fotso (INED - Institut national d'études démographiques, CEPED - Centre Population et Développement - INED - Institut national d'études démographiques - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UPD5 - Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5); Géraldine Duthé (INED - Institut national d'études démographiques); Grace Kathryn |
| Abstract: | People with disabilities face unique risks in response to both rapid- and slow-onset climate-related events because they may require different types of early warning information to accommodate their needs when responding to climate-related hazards. However, the needs of disabled populations are often not considered alongside climate hazards and mitigation planning. In this project, we take a significant step towards documenting and mapping the risks that people with disabilities face in the context of climate change. We use an innovative dataset—the Senegal RGPH, conducted in 2013, which measures disability using the recommended questionnaire of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. We combine this data with satellite and gridded datasets that provide key climate measures related to temperature and rainfall, as well as land cover, population density, and infrastructure. This approach allows us to identify areas where climate hazard hotspots intersect with disabled populations, taking into account exposure and additional vulnerability factors. |
| Date: | 2024–05–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04699163 |
| By: | Chiara Costi; Andrew Clark; Conchita D'Ambrosio; Anthony Lepinteur; Giorgia Menta |
| Abstract: | We here exploit an exogenous shift in working conditions for public-sector workers in Italy to establish the causal effect of a return-to-office (RTO) mandate on worker health and well-being. In nine waves of quarterly panel data we first find a significant fall in teleworking for those affected by the RTO mandate, who also spend more time outdoors, work fewer hours, and interact less with relatives and friends. The net effect of these lifestyle changes on a battery of health and well-being measures following the return to office work is insignificant. The place of work post-pandemic has neither positive nor negative health implications. |
| Keywords: | Return to office; Working from home; Health; Well-being |
| JEL: | I18 I31 J88 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2024-07 |
| By: | Cong T. Gian; Sumedha Gupta; Kosali I. Simon; Ryan Sullivan; Coady Wing |
| Abstract: | When mortality risks of a job increase, economic theory predicts that wages will rise to compensate workers. COVID-19 became a new source of mortality risk from close contact with other workers and customers. Real wages have risen during the COVID-19 era, but research to date has been sparse on how much of this increase reflects compensating wage differentials for COVID-19 risk on the job. We use 2020- 2021 death certificate data which for the first time includes the decedent’s occupation and industry, together with other occupational and industry mortality for previous years from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and wage data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine whether compensating wage differentials for COVID-19 occupational risks are in line with prior estimates of Values of Statistical Life (VSL). First, we find that there are substantial differences in the compensating differentials associated with COVID-19 vs other sources of job-related mortality risk. Full time workers’ pay is higher by $24 per week in jobs with a 1 in 1, 000 higher risk of COVID-19 mortality, but their pay is $320 higher in jobs with 1 in 1, 000 higher risk of non-COVID-19 workplace mortality. The non-COVID-19 mortality wage premiums imply that workers trade off money and mortality risk using a VSL of about $18 million, which is near the upper range of the most cited VSL estimates in the literature. In contrast, the COVID-19 wage premium implies that workers make decisions using a VSL of the range $1.24 - $1.54 million, much lower than standard VSL measures. The results are consistent with workers substantially underestimating or undervaluing the risk of COVID-19 mortality. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33031 |
| By: | Lucie Letrouit (AME-SPLOTT - Systèmes Productifs, Logistique, Organisation des Transports et Travail - Université Gustave Eiffel); Martin Koning (AME-SPLOTT - Systèmes Productifs, Logistique, Organisation des Transports et Travail - Université Gustave Eiffel) |
| Abstract: | Building on the exogenous shock linked with the first COVID-19 lockdown in France (March-May 2020), we propose an original approach relying on econometric modelling to estimate the impacts of road freight transport on the concentration of NO2, NOx and PM10 in Paris. We argue that this shock led to a significant change in the composition of road traffic, with an increase in the relative share of freight vehicles with respect to passenger cars, due to the combined exodus of numerous inhabitants, the prohibition of non-mandatory trips and the promotion of home-deliveries. As light-duty vehicles and trucks pollute more than passenger cars, we hypothesize that it led to a rise in the average emissions of pollutants per kilometer traveled in Paris. We confirm this assumption by applying a simple econometric analysis to a rich dataset containing hourly pollutant concentrations and hourly traffic flows recorded in various locations of the French capital city. Relying on the econometric results and on additional back-of-the-envelope computations, we propose tentative estimates of the health impacts of road freight transport. As compared to a counterfactual in which freight traffic in Paris would have declined in the same proportion as cars during the sanitary crisis, hence resulting in a larger decrease in pollutants concentrations, we conclude that around 6 lives have been lost. Crossing this estimate with the official value of statistical life in France, our central scenario approximates at 0.114 euro/vkm the excess external cost of the local pollution emitted by freight vehicles as compared to cars. |
| Keywords: | Road freight traffic, Air pollution, COVID-19 lockdown, Health, External cost |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04695669 |
| By: | Jake Anders (UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities); Erica Holt-White (The Sutton Trust) |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption it has caused had substantial short-term effects on young people. These effects have been found to be highly unequal, exacerbating existing inequalities in society, including those associated with socio-economic status, gender and ethnicity. But, just as importantly, it is believed that they continue to cast a long shadow over some young people's lives. In this paper we use data from the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities study (COSMO) --- a representative cohort study of over 13, 000 young people in England aged 14-15 at pandemic onset whose education and post-16 transitions were acutely affected by the pandemic's disruption through their remaining education and subsequent transitions --- to highlight ongoing inequalities in young people's subjective wellbeing and mental health in the wake of the pandemic. We document the substantial differences in subjective wellbeing --- especially highlighting differences by gender --- after adjusting for other demographic characteristics, self-reported levels of social support, and experience of adverse life events. We estimate how wellbeing differs by young people's own perceptions of the ongoing impact of the pandemic: those who indicate an ongoing negative impact in their lives have substantially lower subjective wellbeing scores. Finally, we find a link between adverse life experiences during the pandemic and lower post-pandemic wellbeing, but do not find evidence that this is mediated by demographic characteristics or social support. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; young people; subjective wellbeing; inequalities; adverse life events; social support |
| JEL: | I14 I24 I31 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:24-05 |
| By: | Robert Breunig; Wei Cheng; Laura Montenovo; Kyoung Hoon Lee; Bruce A. Weinberg; Yinjunjie Zhang |
| Abstract: | The authors study employment outcomes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in eight countries with different case levels and policy responses: the United States, Australia, France, Denmark, Italy, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden. While the share of people not at work increased in all countries, safety net policies seem to influence whether people remained employed (but absent from work) versus unemployed or left the labor force. The authors find large employment decreases among middle-educated and young workers, increasing disparities in countries with the largest labor market declines. A variety of evidence suggests that labor demand was likely a larger driver of employment declines than labor supply and that stringent social distancing policies were sufficient to reduce employment even in the absence of high cases. Lastly, job characteristics - the importance of face-to-face interactions and the ability to work remotely - were closely related to labor market outcomes, with these relationships being stronger in countries with more cases. |
| JEL: | I1 J10 J23 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33029 |