Am 1. Januar 2004 trat in Deutschland das Gesetz zur Modernisierung der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung in Kraft. Neben anderen politischen Maßnahmen beinhaltete es die Einführung der Praxisgebühr von 10 Euro für den ersten Arztbesuch innerhalb eines Quartals. Ziel dieser Maßnahme war es,...

The evaluation of interventions such as active labor market policies or medical programs by means of a randomized controlled trial is often considered the gold standard. However, randomized experiments might face severe shortcomings especially if performed at the group level. One such problem is...

Propensity score matching is a prominent strategy to reduce imbalance in observational studies. However, if imbalance is considerable and the control reservoir is small, either one has to match one control to several treated units or, alternatively, discard many treated persons. The first...

Das Gesundheitswesen ist eine der bedeutendsten Branchen der deutschen Wirtschaft. Die demografische Entwicklung, der medizinisch-technische Fortschritt und ein gestiegener Wohlstand haben dazu geführt, dass die Ausgaben für Gesundheit in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten überproportional gestiegen...

The evaluation of interventions such as active labor market policies or medical programs by means of a randomized controlled trial is often considered the gold standard. However, randomized experiments might face severe shortcomings especially if performed at the group level. One such problem is...

Propensity score matching is a prominent strategy to reduce imbalance in observational studies. However, if imbalance is considerable and the control reservoir is small, either one has to match one control to several treated units or, alternatively, discard many treated persons. The first...

This paper contributes to the analysis of policy measures that attempt to reduce health care expenditures of insurers. We examine the impact of a cash bonus program for preventive health behavior of a German health insurer on prevention effort and health care expenditures using a unique...