We propose a joint model to combine models for hospital visits and out-of-pocket medical expenditures. It allows for the presence of non-linear effects of covariates using splines to capture the effects of aging on healthcare demand. Sample heterogeneity is modeled robustly with the random...

Estimation procedures for ordered categories usually assume that the estimated coefficients of independent variables do not vary between the categories (parallel-lines assumption). This view neglects possible heterogeneous effects of some explaining factors. This paper describes the use of an...

Researchers are often interested in combined measures such as overall ratings, indices of physical or mental health, or health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) outcomes. Such measures are typically composed of two or more underlying discrete variables. I show that estimating the effect of a...

We present a general framework for Bayesian estimation and causality assessment in epidemiological models. The key to our approach is the use of sequential Monte Carlo methods to evaluate the likelihood of a generic epidemiological model. Once we have the likelihood, we specify priors and rely...

We use data from two representative U.S. household surveys, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Health and Retirement Study (Rand-HRS) to estimate Markov transition probability matrices between health states over the lifecycle from age 20–95. We use non-parametric and...

Comparing assessments of health, job satisfaction, etc. on a subjective scale across countries or socio-economic groups is often hampered by differences in response scales across groups. Anchoring vignettes help to correct for such differences, either in parametric models (CHOPIT and extensions)...

This study re-visits the health-income nexus for Malaysia using alternative econometric techniques which addressed on the small sample problem. This study covers the period of 1970-2009. Based on the appealing small sample properties, we apply the bounds testing approach to cointegration and the...

A Dynamic Hurdle Model for Zero-Inflated Count Data: With an Application to Health Care UtilizationExcess zeros are encountered in many empirical count data applications. We provide a new explanation of extra zeros, related to the underlying stochastic process that generates events. The process...