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on Health Economics |
| By: | Pichler, Stefan; Ziebarth, Nicolas R. |
| Abstract: | This article reviews the current debate about sick pay mandates and medical leave in the United States. The United States is one of three industrialized countries that do not guarantee access to paid sick leave for all employees. We first provide a categorization of the different paid leave concepts such as sick leave, medical leave, or temporary disability insurance, both in a domestic and an international context. Then we use data from the National Compensation Survey to sketch employee coverage rates by type of job. We also document changes since 2010, focusing on paid sick leave. Although gaps in access have decreased over the past decade, we still find large inequalities in access to paid sick leave: While overall coverage increased to 78% in 2023 from 64% in 2015, about half of all part-time employees, employees in the bottom quarter of the wage distribution, and employees in the accommodation and food industry still have no access to paid sick leave benefits. In the last part, we discuss implications of the lack of access to paid sick and medical leave benefits. Moreover, building on international research findings and experiences, we discuss what a possible integration, coordination, and expansion of the co-existing programs could look like. |
| Keywords: | sick pay mandates, sick leave, medical leave, paid leave, inequality, employer mandates, fringe benefits, moral hazard, unintended consequences, labor costs, National Compensation Survey (NCS) |
| JEL: | I12 I13 I18 J22 J28 J32 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:289611&r=hea |
| By: | Gørtz, Mette (University of Copenhagen); Jensen, Vibeke Myrup (Aarhus University); Sander, Sarah (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Many parents return to work, placing their child in nonparental care before the age of one. Using variations in daycare vacancy rates, we estimate the causal effects of enrollment age in universal daycare on child development. In general, we find no evidence that earlier enrollment harms early child development, except for a temporary health shock. Children who enter later initially have fewer primary care visits, but the effects fade in preschool. Conversely, the results suggest some positive effects of early enrollment. Children who enter daycare later are more likely to demonstrate inadequate language skills by age five, particularly among boys. |
| Keywords: | daycare, child development, health, cognitive skills |
| JEL: | I00 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16881&r=hea |
| By: | Grund, Christian (RWTH Aachen University); Nießen, Anna (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | Presenteeism behavior, i.e. working despite illness, is a common phenomenon wordwide and can have severe consequences for employees and firms alike. In this study, we investigate the relation between the use of company performance appraisals and employees' presenteeism behavior. We use linked-employer-employee data (the German Linked Personnel Panel) and apply pooled Poisson as well as linear fixed effects estimations. We show that the use of performance appraisals is associated with significant lower annual presenteeism days in the amount of one-half to one full day. In addition, the presence of a works council strengthens the negative relationship between performance appraisals and presenteeism. The results are driven by performance appraisals that are linked to performance-related pay, in particular. Our study contributes to the understanding of context specific behavioral consequences of HRM practices such as performance appraisals. |
| Keywords: | presenteeism, sickness, performance appraisals, performance pay, works councils, German Linked Personnel Panel |
| JEL: | M5 I12 J22 J53 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16883&r=hea |
| By: | Raymond Kluender; Neale Mahoney; Francis Wong; Wesley Yin |
| Abstract: | Two in five Americans have medical debt, nearly half of whom owe at least $2, 500. Concerned by this burden, governments and private donors have undertaken large, high-profile efforts to relieve medical debt. We partnered with RIP Medical Debt to conduct two randomized experiments that relieved medical debt with a face value of $169 million for 83, 401 people between 2018 and 2020. We track outcomes using credit reports, collections account data, and a multimodal survey. There are three sets of results. First, we find no impact of debt relief on credit access, utilization, and financial distress on average. Second, we estimate that debt relief causes a moderate but statistically significant reduction in payment of existing medical bills. Third, we find no effect of medical debt relief on mental health on average, with detrimental effects for some groups in pre-registered heterogeneity analysis. |
| JEL: | G51 I1 I18 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32315&r=hea |
| By: | Naghsh Nejad, Maryam (University of Technology, Sydney); Van Gool, Kees (University of Sydney) |
| Abstract: | The Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) in Australia was designed to provide financial assistance to patients with high out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for medical treatment. The EMSN works on a calendar year basis. Once a patient incurs a specified amount of OOP costs, the EMSN provides additional financial benefits for the remainder of the calendar year. Its design is similar to many types of insurance products that have large deductibles and are applied on a calendar year basis. This study examines if the annual quarter within which a patient is diagnosed with cancer has an impact on the OOP costs incurred for treatment. We use administrative linked data from the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study. Our results indicate that the timing of cancer diagnosis has a significant impact on OOP costs. Specifically, patients diagnosed in the fourth quarter of the calendar year experience significantly higher OOP costs compared to those diagnosed in the first quarter of the year. This pattern persists after controlling for different types of cancer and different stages of cancer and robustness checks. These findings have important implications for the design of the EMSN, as well as other insurance products. |
| Keywords: | out of pocket costs, cancer, public health insurance |
| JEL: | I13 I14 I11 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16879&r=hea |
| By: | Aline Bütikofer; Deirdre Coy; Orla Doyle; Rita Ginja |
| Abstract: | Pregnancy loss is often a traumatic event which may impact both parents and subsequent children. Using Norwegian registry data, we exploit the random nature of single, early miscarriages to examine the impact of pregnancy loss on parental investment and family outcomes. We find that pregnancy loss improves maternal health investments in the subsequent pregnancy regarding supplement use, smoking, preventative healthcare, and physician choice. While a miscarriage negatively affects labor market attachment, it has limited effects on children born after the loss. This suggests that investment in the next pregnancy may offset the negative consequences of stress associated with pregnancy loss. |
| Keywords: | miscarriage, parental investment, healthcare use, household labor supply |
| JEL: | I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11003&r=hea |
| By: | Dhaval M. Dave; Yang Liang; Johanna Catherine Maclean; Caterina Muratori; Joseph J. Sabia |
| Abstract: | Public health advocates warn that the rapid growth of legal markets for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) may generate a “gateway” to marijuana and harder drug consumption, particularly among teenagers. This study is the first to explore the effects of ENDS taxes on substance use. We find that a one-dollar increase in ENDS taxes (2019$) is associated with a 1-to-2 percentage point decline in teen marijuana use and a 0.8 percentage point reduction in adult marijuana use. This result is consistent with e-cigarettes and marijuana being economic complements. We find no evidence that ENDS taxes affect drug treatment admissions or consumption of illicit drugs other than marijuana such as cocaine, methamphetamine, or opioids over this sample period. |
| JEL: | H2 I12 I18 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32302&r=hea |
| By: | Kniesner, Thomas J. (Claremont Graduate University); Viscusi, W. Kip (Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | The considerable literature on the value of a statistical life (VSL) documents the wage-mortality risk tradeoffs for the working population. Regulatory analyses often must monetize risks to populations at the tails of the age distribution. Because of the longer life expectancy for children, there have been proposals to add a premium to their VSL, which would generate an inconsistency with revealed preference estimates of the VSL trajectory over the life cycle. The shorter life expectancy among older people has led to various arbitrary senior discounts for seniors' life expectancy. Application of the value of a statistical life year (VSLY) can address valuation of small changes in life expectancy. Examples of inappropriate age adjustments that we discuss include practices by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency. |
| Keywords: | circular A-4, Value of a Statistical Life, age, children, elderly, Value of a Statistical Life Year, VSL, VSLY |
| JEL: | J17 J28 I18 H40 K32 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16867&r=hea |
| By: | Raghunandan, Aneesh; Ruchti, Thomas |
| Abstract: | The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is decentralized, wherein field offices coordinated at the state level undertake inspections. We study whether this structure can lead to interstate frictions in sharing information and how this impacts firms’ compliance with workplace safety laws. We find that firms caught violating in one state subsequently violate less in that state but violate more in other states. Despite this pattern, and in keeping with information frictions, violations in one state do not trigger proactive OSHA inspections in other states. Moreover, firms face lower monetary penalties when subsequent violations occur across state lines, likely due to the lack of documentation necessary to assess severe penalties. Finally, firms are more likely to shift violating behavior into states with greater information frictions. Our findings suggest that internal information within regulators impacts the likelihood and location of corporate misconduct. |
| Keywords: | internal information; information frictions; OSHA; workplace safety; decentralization; Wiley deal |
| JEL: | D82 D83 J81 J83 M41 |
| Date: | 2024–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:122404&r=hea |
| By: | Wei Lyu; George Wehby; Robert Kaestner |
| Abstract: | During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government issued stimulus checks and expanded the child tax credit. These pandemic payments varied by marital status and the number of children in the household and were substantial with some families receiving several thousand dollars. We exploit this plausibly exogenous variation in income to obtain estimates of the effect income on infant health. We measure the total amount of pandemic payments received during pregnancy, or the year before birth, and examine how this additional income affects birthweight, the incidence of low birth weight, gestational age and fetal growth. Data are from birth certificates and analyses are conducted separately by maternal marital status and education (less than high school or high school) to isolate only the variation in pandemic payments due to differences in the number of children (parity). Estimates indicate that these pandemic cash payments had no statistically significant, or clinically or economically meaningful effects on infant health. Overall, the findings suggest that income transfers during pregnancy will have little effect on socioeconomic disparities in infant health. |
| JEL: | H51 I14 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32310&r=hea |
| By: | David L. Dickinson (Appalachian State University - UNC - University of North Carolina System, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics); David Masclet (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIRANO - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal) |
| Abstract: | Insufficient sleep is costly to organizations (e.g., direct health costs, cognitive errors, accident risk, and lower labor productivity). In this current study, we examine another more hidden cost associated with insufficient sleep- unethical behaviors. Using a hybrid field/lab experimental approach, participants were randomly assigned to a week of sleep -restriction or well-rested sleep levels in their at-home (naturalistic) environment prior to decision making. We found that sleep restricted participants cheated significantly more in two honesty tasks, while anti-social choices were, surprisingly, not affected. Because sleep restriction promotes reduced deliberation, these results contribute to our understanding of the cognitive underpinnings of decision making. Importantly, these findings have practical implications to managers who want to reduce dishonesty in the workplace. For example, our results suggest that workplace health promotion programs focused on good sleep hygiene would additionally benefit the company in terms of indirectly promoting ethical conduct in the workplace.and COPY; 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
| Keywords: | Ethical choice, Dishonesty, Antisocial behavior, Sleep |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04223180&r=hea |
| By: | Michaela Paffenholz |
| Abstract: | I provide evidence on the causal effects of a student’s relative socioeconomic status during high school on their mental health and human capital development. Leveraging data from representative US high schools, I utilize between-cohort differences in the distributions of socioeconomic status within schools in a linear fixed effects model to identify a causal rank effect. I find that a higher rank during high school improves a student’s depression scores, cognitive ability, self-esteem and popularity. The rank effects are persistent with long-lasting consequences for adult depression and college attainment. Additional analyses emphasize the role of inequality in exacerbating these rank effects. |
| Keywords: | mental health, rank, higher educaon |
| JEL: | I14 I23 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_526&r=hea |
| By: | Minghao Qiu; Jessica Li; Carlos F. Gould; Renzhi Jing; Makoto Kelp; Marissa Childs; Mathew Kiang; Sam Heft-Neal; Noah Diffenbaugh; Marshall Burke |
| Abstract: | Wildfire activity has increased in the US and is projected to accelerate under future climate change. However, our understanding of the impacts of climate change on wildfire smoke and health remains highly uncertain. We quantify the past and future mortality burden in the US due to wildfire smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5). We construct an ensemble of statistical and machine learning models that link variation in climate to wildfire smoke PM2.5, and empirically estimate smoke PM2.5-mortality relationships using georeferenced data on all recorded deaths in the US from 2006 to 2019. We project that climate-driven increases in future smoke PM2.5 could result in 27, 800 excess deaths per year by 2050 under a high warming scenario, a 76% increase relative to estimated 2011-2020 averages. Cumulative excess deaths from wildfire smoke PM2.5 could exceed 700, 000 between 2025-2055. When monetized, climate-induced smoke deaths result in annual damages of $244 billion by mid-century, comparable to the estimated sum of all other damages in the US in prior analyses. Our research suggests that the health cost of climate-driven wildfire smoke could be among the most important and costly consequences of a warming climate in the US. |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32307&r=hea |
| By: | Anne Corcos (CURAPP-ESS UMR 7319, CNRS and Université de Picardie Jules Verne); François Pannequin (CEPS, ENS Paris-Saclay and University of Paris-Saclay); Claude Montmarquette (Cirano and Université de Montréal) |
| Abstract: | Although it avoids the negative externalities associated with the damages caused by uninsured individuals, compulsory insurance raises the issue of insurance crowding out prevention. Interestingly, Pannequin and Corcos ((2020)) show that on a theoretical level, although compulsory insurance and self-insurance (prevention investments dedicated to loss reduction) are substitutes for risk averters, they are complementary for risk lovers. The present contribution aims to test, in the Lab, these surprising results using a model-based experimental design. Our experimental results support the theoretical predictions: compulsory insurance and self-insurance are complementary for risk lovers and substitutes for risk averters. This contribution fully supports public policies that aim to implement mandatory insurance. Far from deterring prevention activities and providing that its level is high enough, mandatory insurance increases prevention levels. |
| Keywords: | compulsory insurance, self-insurance, experiment, risk-attitudes, substitutability, complementarity |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eve:wpaper:23-01&r=hea |
| By: | Thomas, Kelsey L.; Dobis, Elizabeth A.; McGranahan, David A. |
| Abstract: | The 2019 age-adjusted natural-cause mortality (NCM) rate for the prime working-age population (aged 25–54) was 43 percent higher in rural (nonmetropolitan) areas than in urban (metropolitan) areas. This is a shift from 25 years ago when NCM rates in urban and rural areas were similar for this age group. As a first step to understanding the increasing gap between rural and urban NCM rates, this report examines natural (disease-related) deaths for prime working-age adults in rural and urban areas between 1999 and 2019 using data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiology Research (WONDER). Prime working age NCM rates are examined for the population as a whole, as well as by sex, race and ethnicity, region, and State. Overall, both an increase in the rural, prime working-age NCM rates and a decrease in the corresponding urban rates are contributing to the growing mortality gap. |
| Keywords: | Health Economics and Policy, Labor and Human Capital, Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersib:341639&r=hea |
| By: | Jonas Esser; Mateus Maia; Andrew C. Parnell; Judith Bosmans; Hanneke van Dongen; Thomas Klausch; Keefe Murphy |
| Abstract: | In recent years, theoretical results and simulation evidence have shown Bayesian additive regression trees to be a highly-effective method for nonparametric regression. Motivated by cost-effectiveness analyses in health economics, where interest lies in jointly modelling the costs of healthcare treatments and the associated health-related quality of life experienced by a patient, we propose a multivariate extension of BART applicable in regression and classification analyses with several correlated outcome variables. Our framework overcomes some key limitations of existing multivariate BART models by allowing each individual response to be associated with different ensembles of trees, while still handling dependencies between the outcomes. In the case of continuous outcomes, our model is essentially a nonparametric version of seemingly unrelated regression. Likewise, our proposal for binary outcomes is a nonparametric generalisation of the multivariate probit model. We give suggestions for easily interpretable prior distributions, which allow specification of both informative and uninformative priors. We provide detailed discussions of MCMC sampling methods to conduct posterior inference. Our methods are implemented in the R package `suBART'. We showcase their performance through extensive simulations and an application to an empirical case study from health economics. By also accommodating propensity scores in a manner befitting a causal analysis, we find substantial evidence for a novel trauma care intervention's cost-effectiveness. |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2404.02228&r=hea |
| By: | Kristian S. Hansen; Juan D. Moreno-Ternero; Lars P. {\O}sterdal |
| Abstract: | We develop a unified framework for the measurement and valuation of health and productivity. Within this framework, we characterize evaluation functions allowing for compromises between the classical quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and its polar productivity-adjusted life years (PALYs). Our framework and characterization results provide a new normative basis for the economic evaluation of health care interventions, as well as occupational health and safety policies, aimed to impact both health and productivity of individuals. |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2404.04121&r=hea |
| By: | Joke Borzé; Brecht Cardoen; Laurens Cherchye; Bram De Rock; Filip Roodhooft |
| Abstract: | Guided by the Value-Based Healthcare framework, the healthcare landscape is evolving towards prioritizing patent value over mere service volume. Attaining better patient value, defined as the balance between patient-relevant health outcomes and the associated treatment costs, requires decision-making that integrates the interests of both patients and health providers. Currently, navigating this balance remains complex due to the multidimensionality of the value concept, which underscores the need for novel value measurement techniques. In response, this study introduces a four-step roadmap leveraging Data Envelopment Analysis and Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to translate the value equation into unified, individual value scores. Unlike traditional healthcare evaluation methods, our approach directly connects the multiple health outcomes to granular costing information without the need for monetary values or subjective weighting. Through the case of psoriasis, we demonstrate our approach is feasible and can be adapted to the complexities across diverse medical domains. Additionally, we illustrate the potential of the value scores to pinpoint inefficiencies on an individual level, analyse patterns of health improvements through cluster analysis, and assess the impact of contextual variables on value creation. Our findings underscore the importance of holistic value assessment by revealing new insights compared to the common practice of evaluating costs and outcomes independently. Accordingly, our research proposes a first standard for true value-based evaluation of healthcare. Having established a metric for value, our approach enables the benchmarking of patients, treatments, and hospitals according to patient value, ultimately contributing to the effective delivery of value-based healthcare. |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/373283&r=hea |
| By: | Ana C. Gómez Ugarte Valerio (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Ugofilippo Basellini (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Carlo G. Camarda (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Fanny Janssen; Emilio Zagheni (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Commonly used measures of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality, such as the slope and the relative index of inequality, are based on summary measures of the group-specific age-at-death distributions (e.g. life expectancy). While this approach is informative, it ignores valuable information contained in the group-specific distributions. We apply and evaluate a novel measure of socio-economic inequality in mortality. Leveraging a metric of statistical distance, our Population Total Variation (PTV) measure is sensitive not only to changes in the means or variances, but also to broader mortality changes that affect distributional shapes. The PTV also allow the levels and trends of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality to be decomposed into mortality changes versus changes in the composition of the population. We use mortality data by socioeconomic groups to assess mortality inequalities with both established measures and our proposed PTV. Our findings suggest that levels and trends in mortality inequalities computed with the PTV differ compared to other conventional summary-based measures. The method we propose can be applied to any context where mortality rates are available by socio-economic groups. We conclude that measuring distributional similarities in mortality enhances our understanding of between groups inequalities in mortality. |
| Keywords: | Denmark, England, Sweden, inequality, mortality |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-007&r=hea |
| By: | Maxime Rigaud (UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes); Jurgen Buekers (VITO - Flemish Institute for Technological Research); Jos Bessems (VITO - Flemish Institute for Technological Research); Xavier Basagaña (ISGlobal - Instituto de Salud Global - Institute For Global Health [Barcelona], University Pompeu Fabra, CIBERESP - Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública = Consortium for Biomedical Research of Epidemiology and Public Health); Sandrine Mathy (GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes); Mark Nieuwenhuijsen (ISGlobal - Instituto de Salud Global - Institute For Global Health [Barcelona], University Pompeu Fabra, CIBERESP - Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública = Consortium for Biomedical Research of Epidemiology and Public Health); Rémy Slama (UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes) |
| Abstract: | Once an external factor has been deemed likely to influence human health and a dose response function is available, an assessment of its health impact or that of policies aimed at influencing this and possibly other factors in a specific population can be obtained through a quantitative risk assessment, or health impact assessment (HIA) study. The health impact is usually expressed as a number of disease cases or disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) attributable to or expected from the exposure or policy. We review the methodology of quantitative risk assessment studies based on human data. The main steps of such studies include definition of counterfactual scenarios related to the exposure or policy, exposure(s) assessment, quantification of risks (usually relying on literature-based dose response functions), possibly economic assessment, followed by uncertainty analyses. We discuss issues and make recommendations relative to the accuracy and geographic scale at which factors are assessed, which can strongly influence the study results. If several factors are considered simultaneously, then correlation, mutual influences and possibly synergy between them should be taken into account. Gaps or issues in the methodology of quantitative risk assessment studies include 1) proposing a formal approach to the quantitative handling of the level of evidence regarding each exposure-health pair (essential to consider emerging factors); 2) contrasting risk assessment based on human dose–response functions with that relying on toxicological data; 3) clarification of terminology of health impact assessment and human-based risk assessment studies, which are actually very similar, and 4) other technical issues related to the simultaneous consideration of several factors, in particular when they are causally linked. |
| Keywords: | Dose-response, Environment, Hazard, Health impact, Policy, Risk |
| Date: | 2024–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04523440&r=hea |
| By: | Yu, Chen |
| Abstract: | As the global population ages, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies holds significant promise in addressing the multifaceted challenges and opportunities presented by aging societies. This article explores the potential impact of AI in healthcare, the economy, social integration, and ethical considerations within the context of an aging population. By examining the role of AI in extending quality of life, promoting independence, and fostering inclusive policies, this study elucidates the ways in which AI can serve as a boon to aging societies. Through international collaboration and innovation, AI has the potential to revolutionize the landscape of aging, offering tailored solutions that enhance the well-being and social inclusion of older adults worldwide. |
| Date: | 2024–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:thesis:a8suh&r=hea |
| By: | Carolina Biliotti; Massimo Riccaboni; Luca Verginer |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of new research opportunities on the long-standing under-representation of women in medical and academic leadership by assessing the impact of the emergence of COVID-19 as a new research topic in the life sciences on women's authorship. After collecting publication data from 2019 and 2020 on biomedical publications, where the position of first and last author is most important for future career development, we use the major Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms to identify the main research area of each publication and measure the relation of each paper to COVID-19. Using a Difference-in-Difference approach, we find that although the general female authorship trend is upwards, papers in areas related to COVID-19 are less likely to have a woman as first or last author compared to research areas not related to COVID-19. Conversely, new publication opportunities in the COVID-19 research field increase the proportion of women in middle, less-relevant, author positions. Stay-at-home mandates, journal importance, and access to new funds do not fully explain the drop in women's outcomes. The decline in female first authorship is related to the increase of teams in which both lead authors have no prior experience in the COVID-related research field. In addition, pre-existing publishing teams show reduced bias in female key authorship with respect to new teams specifically formed for COVID-related research. This suggests that opportunistic teams, transitioning into research areas with emerging interests, possess greater flexibility in choosing the primary and final authors, potentially reducing uncertainties associated with engaging in productions divergent from their past scientific experiences by excluding women scientists from key authorship positions. |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2404.04707&r=hea |
| By: | Bratti, Massimiliano; Brunetti, Irene; Corvasce, Alessandro; Maida, Agata; Ricci, Andrea |
| Abstract: | This study leverages detailed administrative data on firms' job flows and variation across Local Labor Markets (LLMs) in the spread of COVID-19 to investigate shifts in labor demand prompted by the pandemic. To this end, we exploit the large spatial variation in the intensity of the pandemic observed in Italy. Namely, we investigate the effect of COVID-19 intensity on the composition of new hires in terms of jobs suitable for "working from home" (WFH), which emerged as a new standard during the pandemic. Our results reveal a significant increase in teleworkable-job hires in LLMs that were more severely hit by the pandemic, primarily driven by permanent contracts. An event study analysis uncovers substantial heterogeneity over time. Indeed, the effect was short-term and lasted only for two semesters after the pandemic's outbreak. Although this shift was transitory, by involving permanent hires, it had persistent effects on the structure of the workforce. An effect-heterogeneity analysis shows that effects were greater on the demand for female and younger workers and hires of larger firms, of service firms, and of those located in Northern Italy. |
| Keywords: | working from home, telework, labor demand, COVID-19, Italy |
| JEL: | D22 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1415&r=hea |
| By: | Aiva Jasilioniene (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Domantas Jasilionis (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Dmitri A. Jdanov (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | At the turn of 2021-2022, monthly birth rates declined in many higher-income countries. We explore how COVID-19 vaccination was associated with this decline. Using an interrupted time series design, we evaluate the impact of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of COVID-19 vaccination on seasonally-adjusted monthly total fertility rates in 22 high-income countries. Our findings show that the start of the pandemic had an immediate effect on fertility in most countries, although the size and direction of level changes considerably varied. The impact of COVID-19 vaccination was less all-embracing. A negative association between the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and fertility nine months later was found for ten out of 22 studied countries. For several countries, the decline was preceded by fertility increase that took place after the onset of the pandemic. Only four out of 22 countries had post-vaccination fertility declines that resulted in fertility being on a lower level than what the pre-pandemic trend predicted. Additional controlling for youth unemployment, stringency index, and vaccination coverage changed the associations only little. The COVID-19 vaccination campaign contributed to the variation in the short-term fertility trends. Fertility appeared to have responded in short run to vaccination, however, the resulting decline returned fertility closer to the pre-pandemic trend in most cases, and only in few countries, fertility dropped below the pre-pandemic trend. |
| Keywords: | Canada, Europe, Israel, Japan, Korea, South, USA, fertility, fertility decline, vaccination |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-006&r=hea |
| By: | Hubert Kempf (Université Paris-Saclay, ENS Paris-Saclay); stéphane Rossignol (Université Paris 8) |
| Abstract: | We study optimal lockdown decisions taken by a policymaker facing a pandemic modelled according to the standard SIR deterministic model. The policymaker trades off the economic costs and the mortality record of the pandemic which depend on the severity and duration of the lockdown. We contrast the shortsightedness versus the farsightedness of the policymaker. Policy-related peaks and rebounds are characterized and explain why a zero-Covid policy is self-defeating. When the ICU constraint is present and the policymaker is shortsighed, there is a large intermediate range of 'values of life' for which the optimal lockdown consists in exactly saturating this constraint. A farsighted policy is not too severe so as to avoid a rebound. The shortest duration consistent with a given health goal is not the less costly. In contrast with the case of shortsightness, a farsighted policy taking into account the ICU constraint sets successive lockdowns of decreasing severity. We address the impact of vaccination on the optimal choice of a lockdown. |
| Keywords: | Pandemic; lockdown policy; Covid-19 |
| JEL: | D61 H51 I18 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eve:wpaper:23-06&r=hea |
| By: | Wolfgang Frimmel; Gerald J. Pruckner |
| Abstract: | The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on social and economic life and in particular. for human health care. In this paper, we document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying policies on individual health care utilization. We use detailed administrative health registry data for Upper Austria for the years 2019 to 2021 and estimate the change in outpatient and inpatient health care utilization after the pandemic outbreak in March 2020 in a dynamic differences-in-difference setting. We document significant collateral damage to the health care system. While the number of outpatient visits and expenditures stabilized a few months after the outbreak, inpatient care decreased significantly and continued to decline during the subsequent quarantine periods. Chronically ill patients stocked up on necessary medications at the onset of the pandemic and the number of drug prescriptions steadily increased as the pandemic progressed. Spending on inpatient care and new diagnosis for cardiovascular disease and cancer dropped significantly below 2019 levels during the lockdown periods and many orthopedic, cataract, and vein procedures were either postponed or not performed. Finally, we find clear evidence of deteriorating mental health over the course of the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19 pandemic, health care utilization, collateral damage, differencesin-difference |
| JEL: | I11 I12 H51 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2024-03&r=hea |