Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Ege Aksu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters that investigate the effect of public health policies on health outcomes.

The first chapter evaluates the impact of the extensive health care reforms enacted between 2003–2013 under the Health Transformation Program (HTP) in Turkey on maternal and infant health outcomes for the poor. By focusing on a specific insurance program (Green Card) expansion that was a part of HTP, I explore changes in infant survival, fertility, and children’s vaccination status. Before 2004, all public health insurance beneficiaries (the control group) were covered for outpatient services, including prenatal and postnatal doctor visits, gestational diabetes screenings, …

Essays In Health Economics, Chuxin Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In Chapter 1, I investigate the effect of a financial incentive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on new medical procedure technology diffusion. I examine how the incentive affects diffusion among Medicare patients, for whom hospitals receive the incentives, and non-Medicare patients for whom there are no incentives. I answer these two questions by studying the New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) program offered by Medicare (Part A). It is unknown whether its incentive is enough to encourage diffusion under the prospective payment system and it also remains unknown whether it spills over to non-Medicare patients or crowds …

Understanding The Impact Of Incentive-Driven Changes In Hospital And Physician Practice Styles, Ke Zeng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that investigate impact of incentive changes on hospital and physician practice styles, as well as patient outcomes.

In an effort to curb the escalating healthcare expenditure, the Center for Medicare \& Medicaid Innovation has introduced several alternative payment models, which have garnered significant attention in numerous studies with varied findings. This first chapter introduces the focal point of this thesis, namely the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model, and provides a review of pertinent studies that have examined this model and related areas. Specifically, this chapter reviews and summarizes the findings from studies …

Essays On Impacts Of Women Empowerment On The Health Outcomes Of Children, Sagnik Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: Taking cognizance of the lack of representation of women in politics, the Indian government in 1993, enacted the 73rd constitutional amendment which led to a sudden increase in the representation of women in the local governments. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the timing of implementation of the 73rd amendment across the states, I study the spillover effects of this mandated empowerment of women on the health outcomes of children by using nationally representative survey data and employing a difference-in-difference estimation strategy. In this study, I find evidence of a positive impact of mandated women empowerment on the survival …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Eric Osborne-Christenson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters and covers topics in applied microeconomics broadly defined as health and labor. The precise topics are varied, with their unifying thread being that they are all related to marginalized or at-risk communities. The first chapter estimates the impact of Daylight Saving Time (DST) on deaths of despair (DoD) in the United States. Using Multiple Cause-of-Death Mortality Data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics from 1979-1988, the effect is identified in two ways: a regression discontinuity design (RDD) that exploits discrete time changes in the Spring and Fall; …

The Effects Of Eighth Years Of Compulsory Schooling Enforcement In Turkey, Muhammed Tumay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters that cover Education, Labor and Health Economics.

Chapter 1. Impacts of Compulsory Schooling Reform on Higher Education and Intergenerational Educational Mobility: we estimate the effects of an exogenous increase in mandatory schooling (5 years to 8 years of schooling), as a result of a change in compulsory schooling law, on higher education, potential intergenerational educational mobility, and labor market outcomes among women in Turkey. Our empirical strategy addresses a well-known identification problem where women’s years of schooling are endogenous to individual characteristics. The Law took effect in 1997, whereby girls born before January …

Essays On The Short-Term Impact Of Minimum Unit Pricing Policy In Scotland, Irena P. Xhurxhi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters, and it evaluates the short-term impact of Scotland’s Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) policy on a variety of outcome measures. Excessive alcohol consumption has long been considered one of Scotland’s greatest public health challenges, and in an attempt to change this harmful relationship with alcohol, the Scottish Government proposed an alcohol strategy comprising of over 40 measures, a central part of which was the introduction of a statutory minimum price of 50 pence per unit (10ml/8gr) of alcohol known as Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP). This policy aims to reduce alcohol consumption, and in turn, alcohol …

Essays On Paid Sick Leave In The United States, Shaoying Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters.

Chapter 1 This study estimates the causal effect of access to paid sick leave on worker mobility, by exploiting variation in the implementation of local paid sick leave mandates over time in the U.S. I use May 2004 - June 2019 Current Population Survey (CPS) basic monthly data, and by taking a Difference-in-Differences approach, I find that the local mandates significantly reduce private sector employees' monthly job turnover. This study is, to the best of my knowledge, the first to present the effect of local paid sick leave mandates in the U.S. on worker …

Effects Of Innovations In Health Care Provision And Financing, Hoda Nouri Khajavi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of four chapters that study the impacts of innovations in health care provision and financing. The relentless rise in US health care costs has led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to launch various pilot programs to create financial incentives for health care providers, suppliers, and local communities to improve the efficiency of the health care system. The fist chapter of this manuscript reviews the main pilot programs implemented and/or funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services since the 111th United States Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as …

Essays On The Market Structure Of The U.S. Health Care System, Ayse S. Diebel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the welfare implications of vertical restraints in the U.S. health care market. I focus on two phenomena that influence vertical relationships between hospitals and insurers: vertical integration and vertical bundling. Both of these practices have potential efficiency-inducing and anti-competitive effects from a theoretical standpoint, making welfare implications ambiguous. I analyze their impact on welfare in an empirical setting. This task requires structurally modeling the market by using data on hospitals, insurers, and consumers, and simulating counterfactual worlds free of vertical restraints.

I construct my dataset by combining data from multiple sources. Hospital characteristics come from the American …

Essays On The Economics Of Unhealthy Behaviors, Raul Segura-Escano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to explore a variety of responses in the form of unhealthy behaviors as a consequence of different sudden events perceived by individuals. The first one is the doubtlessly pure exogenous shock caused by an unexpected terrorist attack, Boston Marathon Bombings. The second one is the turmoil caused by the Great Recession of 2008, which is the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression during the 1930’s. This dissertation consists of the following two chapters:

Chapter 1: “The Impact of Terrorism on Mental Health and Substance Use: Evidence from the Boston Marathon Bombings” On April 15, 2013, …

Race And Gun Violence In The United States: A Case Study Of Policy Reform In Missouri, Morgan C. Williams Jr

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Gun violence remains an important contributor to racial differences in mortality within the United States. Despite the existence of these significant racial disparities in firearm homicide victimization, the relationship between gun control policy and racial disparities in homicide remains largely unexplored within the empirical crime literature. Previous research suggests that access to secondary firearm markets serves as a salient contributor to local gun violence with the regulation of private firearm sales falling exclusively within state-level jurisdiction. The role of state-level background check requirements for private firearm sales in reducing gun violence remains controversial in both the empirical literature and gun …

Essays On The Economics Of Health And Human Capital, Paloma Lopez De Mesa Moyano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores dynamics related to the formation of human capital. In the two chapters contained within, my work investigates how human capital is formed and maintained through either individual decisions or historic events. In particular, the first chapter analyzes the long-term health effects of a large-scale bombing campaign on the population of a developing country up to two generations after the event occurred; the second chapter analyzes how attending a public honors college in the U.S. affects the degree completion of students and their college quality choice. In these two different contexts, I approach the common topic of human …

Essays On The Economics Of Driving And Health, Jessica Lynn Peck

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation comprises three essays on the economics of driving and health. The first examines the effect of the ride-hailing service Uber, its launch in New York City in May 2011, and the resulting drunk-driving outcomes in the counties that received service compared with those that did not. The difference-in-differences estimation of this effect implies a 25 to 35 percent decrease in the alcohol-related collision rate for the affected New York City boroughs, or about 40 collisions per month. With differentiated treatment effects for each affected county, the difference-in-differences effect is higher for Manhattan, middling for the Bronx and Brooklyn, …

Production Of Energy And Environmental Protection As A Prerequisite For Sustainable Development, Diana Baus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper explains why renewable energy is a prerequisite for sustainable development. The development of renewable energy sources is important because renewable energy sources have a very important role in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere, eradicate poverty and increase the employment rate. In the first section the paper introduces renewable energy sources. The focus is on the function of solar energy, wind power, biomass, geothermal energy, and hydroelectric energy and their implementation globally. The second part of the paper elaborates on the economic, political, and social aspects for the development of renewable energy sources. …

Overpopulation And The Impact On The Environment, Doris Baus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this research paper, the main focus is on the issue of overpopulation and its impact on the environment. The growing size of the global population is not an issue that appeared within the past couple of decades, but its origins come from the prehistoric time and extend to the very present day. Throughout the history, acknowledged scientists introduced the concept of “overpopulation” and predicted the future consequences if the world follows the same behavioral pattern. According to predictions, scientists invented the birth control pill and set population control through eugenics. Despite that, population continued to increase and fight with …

Three Essays On The Effects Of Childbearing On Economic Well-Being And Health, Ramazan Onur Altindag

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: Couples in Turkey exhibit son preference through son-biased differential stopping behavior that does not cause a sex ratio imbalance in the population. Demand for sons leads to lower ratios of boys to girls in larger families but higher ratios in smaller families. Girls are born earlier than their male siblings, and son-biased fertility behavior is persistent in response to decline in fertility over time and across households with parents from different backgrounds. Parents use contraceptive methods to halt fertility following a male birth. The sibling sex composition is associated with gender disparities in health. Among third- or later-born …

Essays On The Economics Of Health And Risky Behavior, Markus Gehrsitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As Forrest Gump has ever eloquently pointed out: stupid is as stupid does. It turns out that most people engage in behavior that could reasonably be considered stupid, or at least risky. People overeat, chain-smoke cigarettes, drink excessively, consume harmful drugs, and drive too fast; if worst comes to worst they do some of these things simultaneously. This work evaluates three policy measures that are designed to promote health and less risky behavior: I evaluate the effects of penalties for speeding transgressions on future driving behavior, the effects of low emission zones on infant health and air pollution, and the …

Essays On The Well-Being Of An Aging Population, Alice Zulkarnain

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine health and labor issues among the middle aged and elderly.

Chapter 1. A Delayed Retirement Policy and Male Labor Supply: Evidence from the Entire Dutch Population

This chapter examines the labor supply effects of a national delayed retirement policy introduced in the Netherlands in 2009. The policy offers a reduction in taxes on labor income for each year after the age of 62 in which a person worked. I estimate the average effect of the policy on male labor supply as well as its responsiveness to the size of the incentive. Comparing …

The Effect Of Health Information Technology On Hospital Quality Of Care, Ruirui Sun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Health Information Technology (Health IT) is designed to store patients’ records safely and clearly, to reduce input errors and missing records, and to make communications more efficiently. Concerned with the relatively lower adoption rate among the US hospitals compared to most developed countries, the Bush Administration set up the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in 2006 to mandate the Health IT implementation with $25.9 billion subsidies to eligible hospitals starting 2009. Underlying the huge subsidy is the belief that Health IT can reduce hospital cost by improving efficiency and quality, and can help reduce total health expenditure. …

Essays In Health Economics, Aigbokhai Unuigbe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is motivated by changes in health and labor policies of the United States that have occurred over the last two decades. It examines how these policies as well as public programs affect behavior and outcomes. These programs and policies have the potential to impact behavior directly at the individual level and could also have indirect effects at the household level. In addition, the effects on healthcare use and health status are also examined. This dissertation consists of three chapters.

The first chapter looks at the effect of changes in Medicaid policy on legal immigrant parents in the United …