Health Economics Commons^™

A Study Of The Effects Of Certificate Of Need Law On Inpatient Occupancy Rates, Jomon Aliyas Paul, Huan Ni, Aniruddha Bagchi

Faculty Articles

Increasing healthcare costs and the deterioration of healthcare quality have always been major concerns to policy makers in the United States, and Certificate of Need (CON) Law has been implemented as one way to curb wasteful healthcare resource use. Theoretically, CON can lead to a reduction in the number of beds as well as in the number of inpatient days (possibly by shortening the length of patient stay). However, these two effects impact inpatient occupancy rate in opposite directions. We test empirically to find out which of these two effects dominate. In this study, we investigate the impact of CON …

How Informational Imperfections Lead To Sub-Optimal Solutions In Health Savings Plan And Potential Remedies In A Competitive Marketplace, Jacob Gene Dengg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the growing trend of consumer-driven health insurance, more consumers than ever have access to a high-deductible health plan paired with a health savings account, where consumers can save pre-tax income for healthcare but also face higher out-of-pocket prices, in hopes that consumers will become smarter shoppers. The Health Savings Plan is successful at lowering costs, but at the expense of consumers lowering their adherence to healthcare, raising health risk. Even in a competitive market, HSP plan designs require smart shoppers and more active healthcare self-management, but without dealing with the informational imperfections that need to be overcome to encourage …

It Is Time To Kill The Economic Theory Of Suicide, Gary N. Smith

Pomona Economics

A seminal paper by Hamermesh and Soss modeled suicide as a rational economic decision based on a comparison of the financial costs and benefits of staying alive. Their model is fundamentally flawed and their prediction that suicide rates increase with age is wrong.

The Association Between Neonatal Death And Facility Birth In Regions Of India, Diane Coffey

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND Reducing neonatal mortality in India is critical to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal of a global neonatal mortality rate (NNM) of no more than 12 per 1,000. Policy efforts to reduce India's NNM, including a large-scale conditional cash transfer program, have focused on promoting birth in health facilities, rather than at home. Between 2005 and 2015, the percentage of facility births doubled, from 40% to 80%. OBJECTIVE We assess evidence for the hypothesis that facility births reduce NNM by using new data from the National Family Health Survey, 2015-2016. METHODS We analyze the association between neonatal death and …

A Pilot Study On Adolescent Mobile Phone Use, Indirect Mental Health Costs And Cultural Context Considerations – Report, Siobhan K. Yilmaz, Alok Bohara

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Adolescents are being recognized as a generation, worldwide, that require different policy approaches to improve their health and wellbeing, including the adoption of mobile based health interventions (e.g. mHealth). While mHealth interventions are growing in popularity, many researchers/policy-makers have neglected assessing potential (indirect) costs/negative consequences from their use. Evidence from the developed world shows strong associations between cell phone use and negative mental health outcomes, but such findings are minimal in developing world contexts. Using primary data from a large-scale, school-based survey of 17-19-year-old adolescents in southwestern Nepal, this report provides background information to motivate additional work investigating the presence …

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Livelihood, Environmental And Health Benefits Of A Large Scale, Christina K. Barstow, Randall Bluffstone, Kyle Silon, Karl Linden, Evan Thomas

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Public health interventions targeting contaminated drinking water and indoor air pollution may help to reduce two of the leading causes of death among children under 5 in Rwanda - diarrhea and pneumonia. These interventions also have the potential to provide economic benefits, including reduction in expenditures on fuelwood and time spent on fuelwood collection, environmental benefits through reductions in deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, and additional economic benefits attributable to health impacts. We evaluate one such large scale intervention, the Tubeho Neza program in Western Rwanda using a cost-benefit analysis. This paper estimates monetized program benefits related to fuelwood savings, …

Selective Mortality And Malnutrition In India, Pallavi Panda

School of Business

India presents itself as a paradox with low infant mortality and high malnutrition. This paper provides survival bias as an explanation of the paradox. Using pooled health surveys from 1993 to 2005 and a pseudo-panel selection model, this study finds that the change in Height-for-Age Z-Scores (HAZ scores) can be explained by mortality selection. Specifically, children with sample average characteristics that survive have 17.4% less HAZ scores than a child randomly drawn from the population indicating an overestimation of malnutrition in India. This is consistent with the hypothesis of weaker children surviving due to skilled delivery which pulls down the …

The Impact Of Family Structure And Family Income On Child Physical Health In China, Baode Zhao

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between child health and family income and family structure. The main use of the Height-for-Age Z score (HAZ) indicator and whether the child has been sick in the past four weeks (Ill) is used as an indicator to measure children's physical health. The main explanatory variables are family income and family structure. In terms of family structure, we mainly focus on the special group of single-parent families. In addition, it also explores other factors that affect children's health, such as demographic factors, sociological factors, and economic factors. This research will …

Parental And Peer Influence On Adolescent Smoking In Vietnam, Duong Hai Yen

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

To estimate the magnitude of the association between parent and peer influences on adolescent smoking as non-; light-; and heavy current smokers. By using data from 18,912 adolescents, ages from 13 to 15 years, from two years 2007 and 2014 of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey in Vietnam, were selected for these analyses. Data collected included measures for the smoking status of the adolescent and their parents and friends. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the characteristics of each individual variable. After that, the ordered logistic regression was applied to estimate the relationship between smoking behaviour of parents and peer, …

Mental Health And Employment Status : Evidence From Thailand, Patchara Suwannasin

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Mental health and mental disorder are significantly considered to be a worldwide issue nowadays such as depression and suicidal. Moreover, the problem of employment still occurs as an aspect of unemployment or employment status issues in those people who work in each economic sector. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of employment status on mental health and to investigate the relationship between personal characteristics and mental health in Thailand. Moreover, the channels that employment may affect mental health also were investigated in this study. A cross-sectional data, 2014 Thailand survey on conditions of society, culture, and …

Factors Affecting The Purchase Of Commercial Endowment Insurance For The Chinese Adults, Tiantian Jin

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The study aimed to explore factors affecting the purchase of commercial endowment insurance for the Chinese adults. It used secondary data from “China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study”, this data was based on family and individual who are 45 and over years old with a total of 17,000 individuals in 2015. In this study the percent of people with commercial endowment insurance is 0.93%, while the percent of people without is 99.07% so it used the Binary logistic model. Factors are studied from individual characteristic consists of age, gender, education, health status and income, and family characteristic composes of number …

Essays On Health Economics Using Big Data, Samane Zarebanadkoki

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays addressing different topics in health economics. In the first essay, we perform a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles examining consumer preference for the main electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) attributes namely flavor, nicotine strength, and type. The search resulted in a pool of 12,933 articles; 66 articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. Current literature suggests consumers preferred flavored e-cigarettes, and such preference varies with age groups and smoking status. Consumer preference for nicotine strength and types depend on smoking status, e-cigarette use history, and gender. Adolescents consider flavor the most important factor trying e-cigarettes …

Geographic Determinants Of Infant Health: The Impact Of Sports Facility Construction Projects, Brad Humphreys, Jane Ruseski

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

A large body of research examines determinants of infant health outcomes but little examines geographic variation generated by exogenous economic shocks. Linking birth data from the CDC Natality files to counties building new facilities from 1995-2002, we find that sports facility construction projects generate local negative externalities. Infants born during facility construction periods have lower birth weights than infants born in comparable counties where no new facility opened. Maternal prenatal health visits also fall in the post-facility-opening period. Mechanisms for this impact include local airborne particulate matter and reduced provision of government services affecting prenatal health.

Essays On Child Well-Being And The Social Safety Net, Cody N. Vaughn

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the role of two particular social safety net programs, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), on the well-being of children from disadvantaged households. While the impact of these programs on the adults and parents of the household have been studied extensively, less is known about their effect on children. This is true for both their immediate impact on child well-being and any long-run impacts on children who grow up under these programs. Given the demonstrated importance of child well-being on later life adult outcomes, …

The Impact Of Medicare Part D On Mortality And Financial Stability, Katherine Toran

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

Using the Health and Retirement Study Panel core files from 1996 to 2014, I analyze how Medicare Part D impacted access to prescription drug coverage by various demographic factors such as race, gender, and income. In Chapter 1, I find the highest take-up rates for those who were white, female, and with higher incomes. However, increases in coverage were high across the board, such that Medicare Part D also improved drug insurance coverage for those who were black, male, and with lower income. Thus, although Medicare Part D did increase prescription drug insurance coverage for seniors across the board, I …

The Effect Of Neighborhood Crime Rates On Childhood Obesity In Los Angeles County, Lachlan Montgomery

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the effect of neighborhood crime rates on childhood obesity in Los Angeles County over a five-year period 2012-2016. Using yearly pooled cross-sectional geocoded data from the University of Southern California (USC) Price Center for Social Innovation Neighborhood Data for Social Change (NDSC) interactive platform, I run multiple ordinary least squares regressions using different measures of crime to determine if neighborhoods with higher crime rates influence the unhealthy percentage of 5^th, 7^th, and 9^thgrade public school students. I hypothesize that crime influences obesity, violent crime has a stronger correlation than property crime, …

Water And Life. A Cross-Sectional Study On Determinants Of Beverage Consumption And Water Access In One Tribal Community, Christina White

All Master's Theses

Increasingly, poor diet has been shown to be one of the most crucial factors associated with cause of death, even more critical than smoking. Research in the past two decades has consistently linked increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to the obesity epidemic contributing to a public health crisis all over the United States. Native Americans, among other minority groups, suffer obesity disproportionately from the rest of the US population, yet they continually fail to be included in research on the subject. Traditional research methods, sparse care coverage on reservations, consolidation of unique tribes into one classification, and failure to …

Association Between Retirement Status, Savings And Geriatric Depression In China, Fangyi Ren

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Against the background of an aging population and a mandatory retirement policy at relatively young ages in China, mental health problems of the retired elderly have attracted more and more attention. Yet, only a few studies have looked at the association between retirement status, savings and geriatric depression in China. Using data from the CHARLS (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study) 2015 Wave, this thesis aims to find the association between retirement status, savings and geriatric depression of those aged 45 and above, controlling for other factors such as socioeconomic status, risky health behavior, physical health status, debt, and health …

Determinants Of Healthcare Utilization And Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure In Thailand, Piraya Saichol

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Thailand launched the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) in 2001 and most studies are focusing on the impact of the UCS on healthcare utilization and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure. None of the studies, however, examines healthcare utilization and OOP expenditure across the three main public health insurance schemes, i.e. UCS, Social Security Scheme (SSS), and Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS). Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of health insurance status and use of health insurance on outpatient service utilization and healthcare OOP expenditure by using the 2017 Health and Welfare Survey data. Given large income and other disparities across …

Monthly Spending Dynamics Of The Elderly Following A Health Shock: Evidence From Singapore, Terence C. Cheng, Jing Li, Rhema Vaithianathan

Research Collection School Of Economics

We use novel longitudinal data from 19 monthly waves of the Singapore Life Panel to examine the short-term dynamics of the effects health shocks have on household health and non-health spending and income by the elderly. The health shocks we study are the occurrence of new major conditions such as cancer, heart problems, and minor conditions (e.g. diabetes, and hypertension). Our empirical strategy exploits unanticipated changes in health status through the diagnosis of new health conditions, combined with an individual fixed effect framework. We find that major shocks have large and persistent effects while minor shocks have small and mainly …

Sunshine, Fertility And Racial Disparities, Karen Smith Conway, Jennifer Trudeau

WCBT Faculty Publications

This research investigates the effect of sun exposure on fertility, with a special focus on how its effects and consequences for birth outcomes may differ by race. Sun exposure is a key mechanism for obtaining Vitamin D, but this process is inhibited by skin pigmentation. Vitamin D has been linked to male and female fertility and risk of miscarriage, and Vitamin D deficiency is more prevalent among blacks than whites. Using 1989–2004 individual live births data from the Natality Detail Files, county-level, monthly conceptions are estimated as a function of monthly solar insolation, temperature and humidity, as well as month, …

Patient-Centered Medical Homes And Hospital Value-Based Purchasing: Investigating Provider Responses To Incentives, Lauryn Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Provider incentives are a commonly used policy tool to mold provider behaviors.¹ However, while we frequently measure the change in patient outcomes, failure to consistently produce changes in outcomes does not mean that providers are not changing their behavior. This paper focuses on two programs with null or inconsistent quality outcomes to try to identify why such inconsistency occurs. The two programs, both ratified in the Affordable Care Act, are 1) patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs), and 2) the Medicare Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program.

Chapter 1: Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel survey (MEPS), I match provider characteristic …

The Impact Of Economic Development On Health : A Country-Level Analysis, Huiying Wang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study investigates the impact of economic development on health, using a panel of 217 countries (139 high-income and 78 low-income countries for the period 1995-2018). Five dependent variables are included, which are life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, under-5 mortality, survival to age 65 for the female and the male population. The preferred regression method used is fixed effects - two stage least squares modeling (FE-2SLS). The specification includes two measures of economic development, including GDP per capita and the Gini index, as well as other macro-level variables that have been identified as important determinants for population health in …

Poverty And Corruption As Determinants Of Global Antimicrobial Resistance, Lyvia Ann Sanders Guerrier De Dumast

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to global public health and is believed to cause over 700,000 deaths per year. Efforts to tackle this problem have tended to focus on reducing antibiotic consumption and promoting the appropriate use of medicines. This study examines the relative importance of other socio-economic factors, more specifically poverty (Gross National Income per capita) and corruption (measured by quality of governance), in determining antibiotic resistance compared to use of antibiotics. Using panel data of 48 countries in 2008-2017, a fixed-effects multivariate analysis was used. Sobel tests and mediation analyses were also carried out to determine the …

The Health Impacts Of Groundwater Salinity Among Household Members With Different Wealth Indexes In Coastal Bangladesh, Shayan Ara Amin

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Individual and household level health impacts are related to their wealth, a connection that expands into impacts from drinking water quality. Using the Bangladesh Poverty and Groundwater Salinity Survey 2016, this study examines the relationship of self-reported groundwater salinity on self-reported health impacts that are common symptoms of hypertension among individuals for an association with household-level wealth quintiles. This study is unique in substantiating the health-wealth relationship for the climate-change vulnerable people of southwest coastal Bangladesh, where so far studies on the impact of drinking water salinity have focused on direct health impacts and willingness-to-pay for drinking water and healthcare. …

The Relationship Between Social Participation And Smoking Among Middle-Aged And Elderly Persons In China, Yuqing Liu

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examined the relationship between social participation and smoking among middle-aged and elderly persons. This study used a secondary dataset drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS,2015). In this nationally survey, the number of observations was 9,876. The dependent variable used in this study is smoking and non-smoking. Smoking includes light smoking, moderate, and heavy smoking. The explanatory variables are family factors, demographic characteristics, and socioeconomic factors. Factors associated with smoking were examined with logistic regression model. The results showed that gender, marital status, health self-assessment, pension, chronic disease, playing Mahjong, playing chess, playing cards, or …

Three Essays On Utilizing Spatial Econometrics In Natural Resource Economics Related To Water, Health, And Energy, Elham Erfanian

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Spatial interaction and the locational structure between observations have recently gained more attention in the field of econometrics for both cross-sectional and panel data analyses. Compared to a non-spatial economic model, a spatial model relaxes the assumption of independency in observations. This research will apply spatial econometrics modeling in three different fields in applied economics: 1) water charge and minimum monthly access charge in West Virginia municipalities, 2) Naloxone access law and opioid overdose deaths among the U.S. states, and 3) ��2.5 concentrations and asthma hospitalizations in Pennsylvania counties. Based on the nature of water resource imposing spillovers in water …

The Health Care Systems Of The United States And Spain: A Comparison, Tasia Harman

Senior Honors Theses

When it comes to understanding and improving the United States health care system, comparison and analysis with the health care system of another country provides valuable insights. In this thesis, the United States’ health care system was compared to that of Spain, as the health care system of Spain is generally ranked well above the United States in terms of quality, function, and cost. In the comparison, information such as the health of the population, the quality of health care received, accessibility, and health care costs indicate the state of the health care systems and their ability to function well …

Does Medicaid Increase Emergency Room Use: Evidence From Oregon Health Program?, Md Fourkan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper strives to identify the relationship between Medicaid expansion and Emergency Department use. I use a Monte Carlo simulation for demonstrating the endogeneity problem and a copula model using the Oregon Health Program (OHP) data to show the previous literature has exaggerated the causal relation between Medicaid expansion and Emergency Department use. This paper can be divided into two parts. First, it tries to focus on the under-identification of multiple endogenous variables problem in typical econometrics papers, where researchers correct for a single endogenous variable but intentionally or unintentionally ignore the endogeneity of one or more other independent …

Three Essays In Applied Econometrics, Collin Dean Hodges

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The body of work presented here consists of a collection of research projects developed during my time as a graduate student at West Virginia University. As will soon become apparent, this collection of research topics is quite eclectic. This is, in part, due to the to the nature of the research process itself--where one often begins by asking one question and ends by answering a completely different one--but also due to the fact that my time at West Virginia University has provided me the opportunity to gain insight into a wide variety of economic fields as well as work on …