Health Economics Commons^™

Essays On Public Policy And Health Outcomes: Unintended Consequences And The Cost Of Influence, Wenhan Yan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation investigates the complex behavioral responses to public policy shifts and institutional cues, quantifying their intended and unintended societal impacts. Across two distinct empirical contexts, this research examines how individuals adapt their risk profiles when signals from political or legal authorities change and how these adaptations generate measurable externalities.

The first chapter, "From Punishment to Treatment: Unintended Social Impacts of Changing Drug Policies," shifts the focus to the intersection of health policy and criminal justice. This chapter evaluates the sudden transition from punitive drug enforcement to health-oriented decriminalization, utilizing the 2021 State v. Blake decision in Washington as a …

The Effects Of Income On Infant Health: Evidence From The Coal Boom And Bust, Chu Gek Chew

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

An individual’s health at birth is an important component in human capital accumulation, posing significant implications both in the short- and long-run. I investigate how infant health outcomes were impacted during a period of successive positive and negative economic shocks led by the coal industry between the 1970s to 1990s. Using exogenous variation within counties’ pre-existing coal reserves, I instrument for the changes in economic opportunities during the coal boom and bust. I find some limited evidence that an increase in income improves infant health outcomes. The incidence of low birthweight is decreasing in earnings growth, and effects are stronger …

Does Moving From One-Story Building To Multi-Building Affect The Health Status Of The Elderly: Evidence From China’S Par Program, Lu Cao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study investigates the causal impact of relocating from single-story to multistory buildings on the health outcomes of elderly residents in China. Using China’s Poverty Alleviation Relocation (PAR) program as an exogenous policy shock, we employ instrumental variable and difference-in-differences approaches to establish causality. Our analysis of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2018) reveals a nuanced relationship between vertical living and elderly health. While relocation to multi-story buildings is associated with deterioration in self-reported physical health status, it significantly improves mental health conditions and life satisfaction among elderly movers. We identify two key mechanisms driving these …

Essays On Aging, Health, And Labor Market, Lanjie Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of four chapters on aging, health, and labor economics.

In the first chapter, we investigate the short-term impacts of unemployment on older workers in Singapore, a setting without public unemployment insurance. Using monthly panel data, we analyze dynamic impacts on income, spending, health, and subjective well-being over two years post-unemployment. We find substantial initial earnings losses with incomplete recovery, with income remaining 46.5% below pre-unemployment levels after 24 months. Despite this persistent income gap, consumption responses are modest and comparable to countries with strong social safety nets, suggesting robust self-insurance mechanisms. We observe increased retirement among married …

Health Insurance And The Rise Of Women: Evidence From The New Cooperative Medical Scheme, Xingyu Bai

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Females are traditionally viewed as the primary providers of informal parental care in China, especially in rural areas. We investigate whether health insurance coverage in rural China, the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), can unleash more female labor force participation by reducing the burden of informal parental care. Employing a heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences estimation, we find that the NCMS has a significant positive impact on female labor supply, primarily in non-farm occupations. In contrast, we observe no significant changes in male labor supply. We explore the mechanism by showing that the NCMS significantly decreases both the provision and demand for parental …

Effect Of Catastrophic Medical Insurance On Healthcare Service Utilization And Quality, Ruiqi Ding

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

China implemented catastrophic medical insurance (CMI) program to provide additional reimbursement for individuals requiring extensive healthcare services due to severe illnesses. This study empirically assesses the impact of the CMI program on the healthcare utilization and quality of care for severely ill patients, using medical insurance claim data from 2012 to 2018 in a capital city in China. The analysis yields the following conclusions: First, CMI decreased the medical expenditure of severe patients, but it had no impact on alleviating the financial burden. Second, CMI curbed abuse and saved medical resources, and in the meantime, it increased the use of …

Three Essays On Development Economics And Human Capital, Arpita Khanna

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In the first chapter, we estimate the impact of exposure to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake on intimate partner violence with two rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys data. Using differences-in-differences estimation, we find that exposure to the earthquake lead to a statistically and economically significant increase in intimate partner violence in the urban areas but not in the rural areas. This is possibly due to an increase in the stress felt by the victims. We also offer some evidence that the impact heterogeneity between the urban and rural areas is attributable to the differences in the reconstruction processes and assistance …

Policy Impact Evaluations On Labour And Health, Junxing Chay

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters that evaluate the impacts of public policies on labour and health.

The first chapter studies a wage supplement scheme in Singapore, called the Workfare Income Supplement, which targets older low-income workers. I exploit differences in maximum benefits across age and over time to find that increasing benefits generosity encourages labour market participation and selfemployment. I also find improved life satisfaction and happiness among those with low education, who are likely to be eligible for the scheme. These results suggest that wage supplements can ease some burdens of an ageing population.

The second chapter investigates …

Essays In The Economics Of Health And Ageing, Yi Jin Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of four papers in applied microeconomics / the economics of health and ageing that analyse the causal effect of public policies, or of events / issues amenable to policy intervention. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the papers in this dissertation.

Chapter 2 investigates whether a major and growing environmental disamenity – dengue fever – leads to protective behavior that increases residential electricity consumption. Being near a dengue cluster leads to a persistent increase in electricity consumption in 4-room and 5-room/bigger flats (by 1.7% and 1.1% respectively). In addition, electricity consumption rises discontinuously when a dengue cluster’s …

Three Essays On Social Insurance, Jessica Ya Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the economics of social insurance. Each chapter explores an aspect of the evaluation and design of social insurance in terms of nutrition, healthcare and unemployment.

The first chapter, Kim, Fleisher and Sun (2016) report evidence of long-term adverse health impacts of fetal malnutrition exposure of middle-aged survivors of the 1959-1961 China Famine using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We find that fetal exposure to malnutrition has large and long lasting impacts on both physical health and cognitive abilities, including the risks of suffering a stroke, physical disabilities in speech, …