nep-hea New Economics Papers
on Health Economics
Issue of 2026–08–24
24 papers chosen by
Nicolas R. Ziebarth, Universität Mannheim and ZEW


  1. Life After Divorce: Effects of Joint Custody on Parents and Children By Stella Canessa; Gordon Dahl; Anna Hasselqvist; Costas Meghir; Susan Niknami; Mårten Palme; Helmut Rainer; Olof Rosenqvist; Pengpeng Xiao
  2. Sleeping Investment: A Life-Cycle Hypothesis By Chung, Andy; Zhang, Junsen
  3. Midlife Health and Later Life Economic Inequality By Russo, N.;; McGee, R.;; De Nardi, M.;; Borella, M.;; Abram, R.;
  4. Health Inequality and Economic Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender By Russo, Nicolò; McGee, Rory; De Nardi, Mariacristina; Borella, Margherita; Abram, Ross
  5. How Do We Age? A Decomposition of Gompertz Law By Hansen, Casper Worm; Strulik, Holger
  6. Healthy Life Expectancy for Individuals By Astrid Krenz; Holger Strulik
  7. Masculinity Around the World By Ralph De Haas; Victoria Baranov; Ieda Matavelli; Pauline Grosjean
  8. Mixed Payment and Mixed Objectives: Insights from the Ownership Structure in Swedish Primary Care By Hellbom Almström, Axel; Ellegård, Lina Maria; Enache, Andreea; Strömberg, Klara
  9. Heat, Mortality, and Life-Cycle Welfare By Jannik Reinbold; Thomas Steger
  10. Birth Timing and Spacing: Implications for Parental Leave Dynamics and Child Penalties By Adams, Abigail; Jensen, Mathias Fjællegaard; Petrongolo, Barbara
  11. Re-Evaluating the Effects of SNAP on Reducing Food Insecurity: The Roles of Econometric Methods and Heterogeneity By Kunwar, Samir; Smith, Travis
  12. Beyond the Price: How Non-Pecuniary Boomerang Effects Undermine Corrective Food Taxes By Wang, Jingbin; Hu, Wuyang
  13. Standing Tall at Sixteen: The Labor Market Value of Relative Height in Adolescence By Tiziano Arduini; Daniela Iorio; Francesca Marazzi
  14. Drug-related harm reduction and local communities: Evidence from Dutch drug consumption rooms By Franco, Sofia; Koster, Hans
  15. Family Health Spillovers: A Multidimensional Regression Discontinuity Design By Fabrice Kampfen; Owen O'Donnell; Xuezheng Qin
  16. When the Air Doesn't Move the Data: The Thermal Inversion Instrument in Developing Countries By Hiroyuki Yamada
  17. The Short-run Effects of Monthly WIC Distributions By Carpenter, Craig; Cotti, Chad
  18. High temperatures and workplace injuries By Picchio, Matteo; van Ours, Jan C.
  19. A First Look at A Future Label: Consumer Valuation Under the FDA's Proposed FOP Nutrition Label By Duan, Dinglin; Gao, Zhifeng
  20. AI adoption by human experts: Evidence from primary care physicians By Shan Huang; Renke Schmacker; Hannes Ullrich
  21. A systematic review of economic evidence of artificial intelligence in healthcare By Van Kessel, Robin
  22. Heat and Healthcare Utilization in the Tropics: Evidence from India By Dureja, Abhishek; Jain, Tarun
  23. Measuring Trends in Work From Home: Evidence from Six U.S. Datasets By Bick, Alexander; Blandin, Adam; Caplan, Aidan; Caplan, Tristan
  24. Killing on the Basis of Sex: Do Gender Violence Alerts Actually Reduce Feminicides in Mexico? By Juan Carlos Angulo; Alejandra Villegas; Ana Catala

  1. By: Stella Canessa; Gordon Dahl; Anna Hasselqvist; Costas Meghir; Susan Niknami; Mårten Palme; Helmut Rainer; Olof Rosenqvist; Pengpeng Xiao
    Abstract: Divorce reshapes family life, yet little is known about one of its most consequential features: the allocation of child custody. We study the impact of joint versus sole custody on both parents and children using rich administrative data from Sweden linked to over 25 years of newly-collected court custody rulings. To address selection concerns, we exploit random assignment of custody disputes to judges who differ sharply in their propensity to grant joint custody. For fathers, joint custody substantially raises earnings and improves mental health, consistent with sustained paternal involvement enhancing labor market attachment and psychological well-being. In contrast, there are no measurable labor market or mental health effects for mothers. Turning to children, joint custody increases standardized test scores and school quality without affecting mental health outcomes. Joint custody increases fathers' chances of remarriage, keeps separated parents in closer geographic proximity, and has no effect on intimate partner violence allegations against either partner. These findings inform longstanding debates over the role of child custody in shaping post-divorce family life.
    Keywords: Child custody, divorce
    JEL: J12 J13
    Date: 2026–07
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26198
  2. By: Chung, Andy; Zhang, Junsen
    Abstract: This paper develops and tests a life-cycle hypothesis of sleep investment. Motivated by evidence from psychology, aging, and sleep research that the consequences of insufficient sleep become increasingly severe with age, we argue that individuals facing stronger productivity incentives should increasingly preserve sleep as they age. We formalize this idea in a simple life-cycle framework in which sleep is a productive activity that competes with work and leisure for time. We test the framework using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). We focus on adolescent physical attractiveness and college education as two characteristics associated with occupational sorting and long-run productivity incentives. While both characteristics exhibit little association with sleep duration in early adulthood, their relationships with sleep become increasingly positive over the life cycle. Attractive individuals and college graduates experience substantially less negative declines in sleep duration with age and increasingly sleep longer relative to their counterparts in later adulthood. Additional analyses show that these patterns are strongest among workers and are not readily explained by mental health, sleep difficulties, social participation, or reverse causality through sleep affecting later attractiveness. More broadly, the findings suggest that differences in long-run productivity incentives contribute to divergent sleep trajectories over adulthood and support a life-cycle perspective on sleep investment.
    Keywords: sleep, life cycle, health investment, physical attractiveness, college education
    JEL: I12 J22 J24
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1802
  3. By: Russo, N.;; McGee, R.;; De Nardi, M.;; Borella, M.;; Abram, R.;
    Abstract: Health shapes a broad set of later-life outcomes that are central to macroeconomics and public policy, including disability receipt, retirement, long -term care use, and survival. Yet we know little about how much differences in midlife health contribute to disparities in these outcomes later in life by race, ethnicity, and gender. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we construct a measure of health based on frailty and document large disparities at midlife. Black men and women have frailty levels at age 55 comparable to those of White men and women who are 13 and 20 years older, respectively, while the corresponding gaps for Hispanic men and women are 8 and 12 years. We then estimate a dynamic system linking health at age 55 to subsequent outcomes. Equalizing the distribution of health at age 55 across groups substantially reduces disparities in time spent in poor health, disability benefit receipt, and nursing home residence. Importantly, midlife health can account for later -life disparities more than education, health insurance coverage, and marital status jointly.
    Date: 2026–08
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:26/18
  4. By: Russo, Nicolò; McGee, Rory; De Nardi, Mariacristina; Borella, Margherita; Abram, Ross
    Abstract: We measure health inequality during middle and old age by race, ethnicity, and gender and evaluate the extent to which it can explain inequalities in other key economic outcomes using the Health and Retirement Study data set. Our main measure of health is frailty, which is the fraction of one's possible health deficits and is related to biological age. We find staggering health inequality: At age 55, Black men and women have the frailty, or biological age, of White men and women 13 and 20 years older, respectively, while Hispanic men and women exhibit frailty akin to White men and women 5 and 6 years older. The health deficits composing frailty reveal that most health deficits are more likely for Black and Hispanic people than for White people, with the notable exception of those requiring a diagnosis. Imputing medical diagnoses to Black and Hispanic people uncovers even larger health gaps, especially for Black men. Health inequality also emerges as a powerful determinant of economic inequality. If Black individuals at age 55 had the health of their White peers, the life expectancy gap between these two groups would halve, and the gap in disability duration would decrease by 40-70%. Other outcomes are similarly affected by health at age 55, indicating that targeted health interventions for minority groups before middle age could substantially reduce economic disparities in the quantity and quality of life.
    Keywords: Health; Race; Inequality
    JEL: D11 I14 H31
    Date: 2024–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19529
  5. By: Hansen, Casper Worm; Strulik, Holger
    Abstract: A strong regularity of human life is Gompertz's law, which predicts a near-perfect exponential increase in mortality with age. In this paper, we take into account that chronological age is not a cause of death and decompose Gompertz's law into two equally strong laws: (i) an exponential increase in health deficits as measured by the frailty index, and (ii) a power law association between the frailty index and the mortality rate. We show how the increase in the frailty index can be derived from the feature of self-productivity of health deficits. We explore the robustness of the Gompertz decomposition across countries, gender, and over time and show how information about mortality rates can be used to infer the state of health of an age-structured population. Finally, we use this method to infer the biological ages of past populations, such as Australian men in 1940 and Swedish men in 1770.
    JEL: O10 O50 J10
    Date: 2024–08
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19353
  6. By: Astrid Krenz; Holger Strulik
    Abstract: Healthy life expectancy is traditionally measured as a population statistic that assigns the same expected healthy remaining lifetime to all individuals of the same age. We develop healthy life expectancy as an individual concept by combining projected health trajectories with survival probabilities conditional on an individual's observed frailty. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, we show that the logarithm of the frailty index increases approximately linearly with age after controlling for permanent individual heterogeneity, implying an exponential law of deficit accumulation. Together with a sex-specific Gompertz mortality model, this regularity provides a simple framework for computing individual healthy life expectancy. The resulting measure reveals substantial heterogeneity in healthy remaining lifetime among individuals of the same age. Although sex, education, geography, and race and ethnicity are associated with systematic differences, most variation occurs within rather than between these groups.
    Keywords: healthy life expectancy, health data, frailty index, health inequality
    JEL: I10 I12 J10 J11
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12867
  7. By: Ralph De Haas; Victoria Baranov; Ieda Matavelli; Pauline Grosjean
    Abstract: We examine how masculinity norms—the social expectations about how men should behave—predict economic, health, and political outcomes. We field the Global Masculinity Survey, covering 125, 000 individuals across 70 countries, to measure adherence to core masculinity norms. Economically, men who adhere more strongly to these norms supply more labor, earn more, and sort into traditionally masculine occupations. However, they take greater health risks and report poorer mental health. Politically, they express stronger support for strongman authoritarianism and military rule. Adherence to masculinity norms is stronger among men exposed to war or economic recession during their impressionable years.
    Keywords: masculinity, gender norms, gender gaps, labor supply, health, political preferences
    JEL: D91 I12 J16 J24 Z13
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12906
  8. By: Hellbom Almström, Axel; Ellegård, Lina Maria; Enache, Andreea; Strömberg, Klara
    Abstract: The literature on ownership in healthcare lacks evidence from the primary care sector, where the traditional small-scale business model is increasingly complemented by larger practices owned by corporations or the government. We explore the role of ownership in primary care in relation to a core theme in health economics -- the balance between fee-for-service and capitation remuneration. We study heterogeneous responses to a Swedish policy reform reducing the fee for GP visits and increasing the capitation share in a mixed payment system. In this study context, publicly owned practices, for-profit practices owned by physicians, and practices belonging to chains owned by non-physician investors contract on the same terms. Our difference-in-difference estimates reveal heterogeneity consistent with the notion that profit motives are stronger in externally owned practices: While the number of GP visits generally fell after the reform, the reduction was more marked for practices belonging to chains. The reduction did not benefit remaining patients, as indicated by patient experience measures. The strengthened incentive to expand the list of registered patients did not have heterogeneous effects. Our results suggest that the design of financial incentives ought to consider that the provider objectives depends on the ownership structure.
    JEL: D23 D86 G32 H75 I11 I18 J33 J38
    Date: 2024–08
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19375
  9. By: Jannik Reinbold; Thomas Steger
    Abstract: Higher atmospheric carbon concentrations increase extreme heat on both the extensive and intensive margins. We develop a stochastic life-cycle model in which daily heat shocks raise mortality risk, agents adapt to protect themselves, and health investment slows biological aging. We calibrate it to U.S. data and study the incidence of a major damage channel — heat-induced mortality — showing how exogenous differences in wage income generate unequal welfare losses across the income distribution. Comparing life-cycle outcomes under daily heat-shock distributions associated with SSP5-8.5 to an SSP1-2.6 benchmark, the average agent loses about 0.10 years of life expectancy, and the loss is regressive: 0.31 years for the poorest income decile against 0.05 years for the richest. Welfare losses are substantial and likewise regressive: 0.90% in CEV on average, ranging from 1.23% for the poorest decile to 0.60% for the richest, and conditional on survival to age 50, from 6.48% to 1.32%. Poor agents lose mainly through reduced survival, richer agents through consumption forgone to adaptation. Absent adaptation, both losses are far larger and almost flat in income, so adaptation accounts for essentially the entire income gradient. Climate denial raises welfare losses most among high-income agents.
    Keywords: daily heat shocks, mortality, adaptation, biological aging, life-cycle model, welfare, Incidence, climate denial
    JEL: I14 Q54 D63 D15 J17
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12885
  10. By: Adams, Abigail; Jensen, Mathias Fjællegaard; Petrongolo, Barbara
    Abstract: We use rich population-level administrative data from Denmark to develop new facts about the relationship between the timing and spacing of births and labor market outcomes. We show that there is substantial heterogeneity in the age at first birth across maternal skill levels. The spacing of pregnancies is also tighter on average for highly skilled mothers, resulting in them experiencing higher levels of fertility and time on parental leave in the years immediately after first birth. We estimate event studies by skill level and find that much of the child penalties in earnings and participation in the 5 years following first birth can be explained by incapacitation effects from parental leave around subsequent births, especially for the highly educated.
    JEL: J13 J16 J31
    Date: 2024–08
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19324
  11. By: Kunwar, Samir; Smith, Travis
    Abstract: This paper examines how different econometric models, each with distinct functional form assumptions, influence estimates of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) effect on food insecurity. To address potential endogeneity in SNAP participation, we employ a range of instrumental variables methods, including two-stage least squares, control function approaches, and (recursive) bivariate probit models, analyzing SNAP’s impact under various linear and nonlinear specifications in both the first-stage reduced form and second-stage structural equations. Using data from the 1996-2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), our findings reveal that the magnitude and direction of SNAP’s effect on food insecurity vary across model specifications, with estimates ranging from null effects to reductions of approximately 27 percentage points. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that SNAP’s effectiveness is more pronounced among certain subpopulations.
    Keywords: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404555
  12. By: Wang, Jingbin; Hu, Wuyang
    Abstract: Non-pecuniary effects of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes can alter consumer behavior beyond the price mechanism, thereby affecting the overall effectiveness of the tax. Recognizing and strategically leveraging these effects is essential for enhancing policy performance. The strong linkage between tax salience and non-pecuniary effects provides a promising lever for addressing this challenge. In a controlled experimental setting, we varied tax salience across five levels and applied a difference-in-differences framework to identify non-pecuniary effects and compare their magnitudes across treatment arms. Results show that non-pecuniary effects are present under most salience conditions and significantly reduce SSB demand. However, the strength of this effect follows an inverse U-shaped pattern as salience increases—initially intensifying, then diminishing. Further analysis suggests that the turning point may be attributable to boomerang mechanisms triggered by overly salient tax framing. These findings underscore the critical role of tax salience in shaping behavioral responses to corrective food taxes and offer practical insights for the design of more effective public health policies.
    Keywords: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404572
  13. By: Tiziano Arduini; Daniela Iorio; Francesca Marazzi
    Abstract: We study whether social standing during adolescence has persistent effects on later labor market outcomes, using relative height within school cohorts as a visible, predetermined marker. Using Add Health data, we reinterpret the height premium as positional rather than a return to absolute stature. Being one inch shorter than the tallest classmate is associated with 1.4% lower earnings for males, with no effect for females. The relationship is asymmetric, driven by a penalty for low standing, and persists into mature career. It operates through social integration rather than schooling or occupational sorting, suggesting adolescent hierarchies have long-lasting economic consequences.
    Keywords: height premium, adolescence, relative height, peer effects, social comparisons
    JEL: J31 J24 D91 I21 Z13
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12911
  14. By: Franco, Sofia; Koster, Hans
    Abstract: Drug-consumption rooms (DCRs), also known as supervised injection sites or safe injection rooms, provide a secure environment for the consumption of both legal and illegal drugs. The primary goals of DCRs are to enhance the health conditions of drug users and to reduce the public nuisance associated with drug use. Using detailed panel micro-data from the Netherlands, we find that DCRs reduce drug use in the surrounding neighborhoods by about 13 percentage points, equivalent to approximately three-quarters of a standard deviation. Additionally, drug-related crime is reduced by 24%. House prices increase by 2.5%, but this effect is observed only in low-income neighborhoods. These findings indicate that controlled drug use in DCRs can significantly enhance neighborhood quality, particularly in economically disadvantaged areas.
    JEL: I18 I31 H41 R30 R38
    Date: 2024–08
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19414
  15. By: Fabrice Kampfen (University College Dublin); Owen O'Donnell (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Xuezheng Qin (Peking University)
    Abstract: A multidimensional regression discontinuity design reveals large and asymmetric spillovers from personalized health information within Chinese families. Warning a man that he has high blood pressure (BP) is estimated to reduce his wife’s BP by 7.5% and her probability of high BP by 24% points, while there is no female-to male spillover. Warning a parent (father, particularly) reduces their adult child’s BP. Identified mechanisms are reduced adiposity (spousal) and healthier behavior (intergenerational). Asymmetry can be explained by joint health production under collective but gender-unequal household decision making. We demonstrate screening even for non-communicable disease risk can generate positive spillovers.
    Keywords: Health behavior, Peer effects, Information, Collective household, Screening
    JEL: C21 I12 I15
    Date: 2026–08–02
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20260049
  16. By: Hiroyuki Yamada (Keio University)
    Abstract: Thermal inversions have become the standard instrument for estimating the causal effect of air pollution, underpinning at least 81 published studies of health, labor, firm, and crime outcomes. Seventy-seven percent of those studies concern China, and none concerns Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines whether the design can be transported to the regions where pollution research is expanding fastest. We link 120, 820 children in 26 Sub-Saharan African countries and 128, 919 in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal to 0.01° satellite PM2.5 and to ERA5 temperature profiles measured at local dawn, and we estimate a single two-stage least squares specification six times, changing only the definition of the inversion instrument. Five of the six definitions come from published practice, and the sixth is an elevation-robust variant of our own. In the African sample, we find that all six first stages are strong and correctly signed (F=57-356). However, the second stages split by instrument family. Pressure-level definitions give positive but insignificant effects on child respiratory illness, whereas surface-layer definitions, the modal implementation in the literature, give significant negative ones. Over-identification tests reject the cross-family pairings of the count and continuous instruments (p
    Keywords: thermal inversion, instrumental variables, air pollution, child health, external validity, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia
    JEL: Q53 I15 O13 C26
    Date: 2026–08–18
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:dp2026-018
  17. By: Carpenter, Craig; Cotti, Chad
    Abstract: Especially among those in poverty, temporal variability in income causes negative effects across a variety of outcomes, including food security, health, and labor market behavior. Researchers have shown that monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) distributions result in 30-day cycles across these outcomes that can be improved by distributing SNAP in the middle of the month, smoothing incomes. The potential for analogous effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program has never been studied. Using exogenous variation in the monthly date on which individuals receive WIC benefits, we link individual-level state and federal administrative microdata to estimate: (1) the causal effects of days since WIC receipt within a 30-day period, and (2) the causal effects of the monthly distribution date across months. WIC recipients report 30-day cycles of food spending and food insecurity following WIC receipt. We find only limited evidence of reduced intensive labor market outcomes, e.g., by the 15th day since receiving WIC, recipients work 1.6 fewer hours per week (-4.9%). Controlling for these 30-day cycles, we then estimate (2) the causal effect of monthly distribution date. When incomes are smoothed by distributing WIC in the middle of the month, WIC recipient food spending is smoothed and food security improves.
    Keywords: Health Economics and Policy
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404589
  18. By: Picchio, Matteo; van Ours, Jan C.
    Abstract: High temperatures can have a negative effect on workplace safety for a variety of reasons. Discomfort and reduced concentration caused by heat can lead to workers making mistakes and injuring themselves. Discomfort can also be an incentive for workers to report an injury that they would not have reported in the absence of heat. We investigate how temperature affects injuries of professional tennis players in outdoor singles matches. We find that for men injury rates increase with ambient temperatures. For women, there is no effect of high temperatures on injuries. Among male tennis players, there is some heterogeneity in the temperature effects, which seem to be influenced by incentives. Specifically, when a male player is losing at the beginning of a crucial (second) fourth set in (best-of-three) best-of-five matches, the temperature effect is much larger than when he is winning. In best-of-five matches, which are more exhausting, this effect is age-dependent and stronger for older players.
    Keywords: Climate change; Temperature; Tennis; Injuries; Health
    JEL: J24 J61 Q51 Q54
    Date: 2024–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19428
  19. By: Duan, Dinglin; Gao, Zhifeng
    Abstract: Front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels are designed to summarize key nutritional information and support informed consumer food choices. Despite growing adoption of FOP labels on packaged food products, these labels lack a standardized format, with over 43 countries operating distinct schemes and no consensus in the literature on their comparative effectiveness. In January 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a new FOP label format that provides at-a-glance information on saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar, each categorized as "Low, " "Medium, " or "High." While prior studies have begun examining consumer responses to the FDA-proposed label, evidence on consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) remains limited. This study employs contingent valuation to estimate WTP for products bearing the FDA-proposed FOP label across items with varying nutritional profiles. The study features an online survey design with embedded zoom functionality and zone-time tracking on product pages, enabling behavioral measurement of label engagement alongside stated preference elicitation.
    Keywords: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404583
  20. By: Shan Huang; Renke Schmacker; Hannes Ullrich
    Abstract: AI can raise productivity by extracting information from rich data, yet little is known about how experts weigh AI-generated signals against established decision-support tools. We conduct a nationwide survey experiment with 372 Danish primary care physicians (21.5% of all clinics), who make diagnostic and treatment decisions on urinary tract infection vignettes before and after receiving a diagnostic signal. Holding accuracy constant, we randomize between-subjects whether the signal appears as an AI prediction or as a commonly used dipstick test result. Physicians update beliefs 41% less in response to AI than to dipstick signals, consistent with AI skepticism. Roughly one-third of physicians largely ignore the AI tool; linked administrative data show that these non-adopters exhibit lower technology use at their clinics, but that they are similar to adopters in clinical practice and prescribing measures. When physicians use the AI tool, they ignore asymmetry in informativeness between positive and negative signals and, when shown both the AI and a redundant signal, exhibit correlation neglect. These frictions in information processing lead to increased antibiotic prescribing with the AI signal in our setting. Our findings highlight the importance of training and information design for AI implementation.
    Keywords: expert decision-making, artificial intelligence, healthcare, mental models
    JEL: D81 I11 D83 J24 O33
    Date: 2026–07
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26199
  21. By: Van Kessel, Robin
    Abstract: Background: Ambitious claims suggest AI could save $200-360 billion annually in US healthcare and €212 billion in Europe, though the empirical evidence base supporting these projections remains unclear. Objective: This systematic review seeks to synthesise the available economic evidence of AI technologies in healthcare and contextualise the available economic evidence against the broader policy expectations surrounding the economic impact of AI in healthcare. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Central for scientific sources. The JBI dominance ranking matrix was used to compare and interpret the results of the included economic evaluations. Methodological quality was assessed using the JBI Critical Appraisal tool of Economic Evaluations and the CHEERS-AI reporting checklist. Results: We identified 16, 430 academic records and 1, 593 grey literature records, of which 91 records met the inclusion criteria, representing 98 unique evaluations. Of these, 36% demonstrate a clear health economic preference for the AI technology, which increased to 44% when only considering the 51 high-quality studies. AI interventions were mainly designed for healthcare providers, with ophthalmology and oncology being the most common. Conclusions: The high-quality studies show definite potential for positive cost-effectiveness and economic impact of AI technologies, though we cannot yet support the ambitious claims that AI technologies can translate to hundreds of billions in cost-savings. When combining our findings with those of randomised controlled trials evaluating AI technologies in clinical practice, it becomes evident that AI technologies frequently yield improvements in terms of clinical and economic outcomes or match the current standard of care.
    Keywords: artificial intelligence;machine learning;economic evaluation;systematic review;digital health;healthcare;health services
    JEL: I11 I18 O33
    Date: 2026–07–25
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140310
  22. By: Dureja, Abhishek (Plaksha University); Jain, Tarun (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)
    Abstract: We estimate the effect of physiological heat stress on tertiary healthcare utilization and its fiscal cost using the universe of claims from a statewide social health insurance program in Andhra Pradesh, a large tropical Indian state (2007-2015). Exploiting plausibly exogenous day-to-day variation in wet-bulb temperature within districts, we find that a day with wet-bulb temperature of at least 28 °C relative to a day in the reference bin [24 °C, 26 °C), raises the number of daily claims by 3.5%, total disbursements by 4%, and the likelihood that a district records an in-hospital death on a given day by 3.52 percentage points. Utilization is flat across cooler temperatures and rises steeply once wet-bulb temperature exceeds roughly 26 °C. Aggregated over a year, extreme-heat days add about 2.4% to program disbursements -- a lower bound on the fiscal burden. Dry-bulb temperature yields a gradient of the opposite sign, because the hottest ambient days fall in the dry pre-monsoon while physiological stress peaks in the humid monsoon. Studies relying on dry-bulb temperature in monsoonal settings may therefore recover sign-reversed estimates and understate the health costs of a warming climate.
    Keywords: climate change, heat stress, tertiary healthcare utilization, fiscal costs, India
    JEL: H4 I15 Q54
    Date: 2026–08–11
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idd:wpaper:3
  23. By: Bick, Alexander; Blandin, Adam; Caplan, Aidan; Caplan, Tristan
    Abstract: This paper documents the prevalence of work from home (WFH) in six U.S. data sets. These surveys measure WFH using different questions, reference periods, samples, and survey collection methods. Once we construct samples and WFH measures that are comparable across surveys, all surveys broadly agree about the trajectory of aggregate WFH since the Covid-19 outbreak. The most important source of disagreement in the level of WFH across surveys is in WFH by self-employed workers; by contrast, surveys closely agree on rates of WFH among employees. All surveys agree that in 2024 WFH remains substantially above pre-pandemic levels. We also highlight that full-time WFH drove most of the increase in aggregate WFH during and after the pandemic but part-time WFH has become a more significant contributor since 2022. Finally, we validate findings from survey data by comparing self-reported commuting behavior to cellphone geolocation data from Google Workplace Visits.
    Keywords: Work from home; Remote work; Telecommuting; Commuting
    JEL: I18 J21 J22 J24 L23
    Date: 2024–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19495
  24. By: Juan Carlos Angulo (Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico); Alejandra Villegas (Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico); Ana Catala (Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico)
    Abstract: Feminicide as a distinct type of crime is a relatively new phenomenon. Mexico's Gender Violence Alerts Against Women are among the country's most visible institutional response to tackle this type of crime. Using municipal-level administrative data for 2015-2025 and a staggered difference-in-differences/event-study design, this article estimates whether alert declarations are associated with changes in officially recorded feminicides. The annual full-sample estimate indicates a reduction of approximately 0.17 recorded feminicides per municipality-year, small in absolute terms but as large as 50% relative to baseline mean. To account for variation in officially recorded feminicides, we restrict our sample to municipalities with at least one recorded case and find a consistent and robust relationship between the alert declaration and the reduction of feminicides. We argue that alerts should be evaluated as emergency accountability mechanisms whose observed effects may reflect prevention, institutional coordination, reporting, classification, and public scrutiny.
    JEL: K19 J16 Z18
    Date: 2026–08–14
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smx:wpaper:2026010

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