This paper uses restricted-access data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax levied in Seattle in 2018 led to declines in body mass index (BMI) and the rate of obesity. We implement an event-study design which compares...

We study the effects of the largest adverse health shock in modern medicine - the 1918 influenza pandemic - on subsequent shifts in health-related attitudes and behavior and future-oriented policies. Our analysis builds upon self-digitized, individual-level death-register excerpts, vaccination...

Several empirical papers suggest that individuals improve health-related behaviors in response to adverse shocks to physical health. However, little evidence exists regarding the questions of (i) how long-lasting these behavioral responses are and (ii) whether individuals respond similarly to...

This paper studies whether individuals that experienced parental unemployment during their childhood/early adolescence have poorer health once they reach the adulthood. We used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2002 until 2018. Our identification strategy of the causal effect of...

This paper investigates the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) on womens prescription contraceptive choices using television advertisement data and health insurance claims. I leverage quasi-random variation in exposure to local television advertising to identify the causal effect on...

This paper studies whether individuals that experienced parental unemployment during their childhood/early adolescence have poorer health once they reach the adulthood. We used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2002 until 2018. Our identification strategy of the causal effect of...

We study the effects of the largest adverse health shock in modern medicine - the 1918 influenza pandemic - on subsequent shifts in health-related attitudes and behavior and future-oriented policies. Our analysis builds upon self-digitized, individual-level death-register excerpts, vaccination...

This paper uses restricted-access data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax levied in Seattle in 2018 led to declines in body mass index (BMI) and the rate of obesity. We implement an event-study design which compares...

To what extent do economic preferences and institutional trust predict compliance with physical distancing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic? We reexamine this question by introducing the theoretical and empirical distinction between individual health behaviors in the public and in the private...

Hundreds of millions of Indian children are too short for their age. In this paper we explore whether early marriage of women in India contributes to this phenomenon. Using India's national health surveys and age at menarche as an instrument, we find that one year earlier mother's marriage...

We analyze how a worker's severe health shock affects the employment and health behavior of their older coworkers. We link comprehensive administrative data on labor market histories and health records from Austria to identify coworker networks and severe health shocks in small firms, which...

Whether monetary incentives to change behavior work and how they should be structured are fundamental economic questions. We overcome typical data limitations in a large-scale field experiment on vaccination (N = 5, 324) with a unique combination of administrative and survey data. We find that...

Health equality is an important objective in public healthcare systems, and still, we see substantial socio-economic differences. Using high-quality administrative data from Upper Austria, we analyze the socio-economic gradient in mortality and healthcare utilization following a cancer...

While health affects many economic outcomes, its dynamics are still poorly understood. We use k-means clustering, a machine learning technique, and data from the Health and Retirement Study to identify health types during middle and old age. We identify five health types: the vigorous resilient,...

Health equality is an important objective in public healthcare systems, and still, we see substantial socio-economic differences. Using high-quality administrative data from Upper Austria, we analyze the socio-economic gradient in mortality and healthcare utilization following a cancer...

Hundreds of millions of Indian children are too short for their age. In this paper we explore whether early marriage of women in India contributes to this phenomenon. Using India's national health surveys and age at menarche as an instrument, we find that one year earlier mother's marriage...

We analyze how a worker's severe health shock affects the employment and health behavior of their older coworkers. We link comprehensive administrative data on labor market histories and health records from Austria to identify coworker networks and severe health shocks in small firms, which...

Whether monetary incentives to change behavior work and how they should be structured are fundamental economic questions. We overcome typical data limitations in a large-scale field experiment on vaccination (N = 5, 324) with a unique combination of administrative and survey data. We find that...

Broadband internet has become a critical component of U.S. infrastructure, but policymakers are increasingly concerned that the widespread adoption of this technology has adversely affected adolescent mental health. To test this hypothesis, we use 2009-2019 National and State Youth Risk Behavior...

This paper introduces the matched-bet mechanism. The matched bet is an easily applicable and strictly budget-balanced mechanism that aims to help people overcome time-inconsistent behavior. I show theoretically that offering a matched bet helps both sophisticated and naive procrastinators to...

Our study examines social differences in health during childhood and adolescence in Hungary in the 2010s. For this analysis, we have collected administrative and survey data sources and organized them into a coherent statistical framework. These restructured data have been used to identify...

Background: Labor market outcomes can be directly or indirectly influenced by the health behavior patterns of the labor force. This study assesses the association between patterns of physical activity and smoking behavior maintenance (and their transitions) and the labor market outcomes of...

This paper studies the impact of sandwich generation caregiving on the health behavior, self-assessed health and life satisfaction of Russian women. It presents evidence that sandwich generation caregiving reduces the likelihood of medical examinations, and regular meals. Alcohol consumption and...

The effectiveness and cost of a public health intervention is dependent on complex human behaviors, yet health economic models typically make simplified assumptions about behavior, based on little theory or evidence. This paper reviews existing methods across disciplines for incorporating...

This paper introduces the matched-bet mechanism. The matched bet is an easily applicable and strictly budget-balanced mechanism that aims to help people overcome time-inconsistent behavior. I show theoretically that offering a matched bet helps both sophisticated and naive procrastinators to...

Background: Labor market outcomes can be directly or indirectly influenced by the health behavior patterns of the labor force. This study assesses the association between patterns of physical activity and smoking behavior maintenance (and their transitions) and the labor market outcomes of...

Our study examines social differences in health during childhood and adolescence in Hungary in the 2010s. For this analysis, we have collected administrative and survey data sources and organized them into a coherent statistical framework. These restructured data have been used to identify...

We evaluate the effects of teaching negotiation skills to adolescent girls in economically vulnerable compounds in Lusaka, Zambia ten years later. Treated participants complete 0.27 more years of education. Consistent with greater relational empowerment, they also begin sexual activity later,...

This research considers the role of income for subjective longevity assessments. The analysis uses the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. My findings indicate that treating subjective health and longevity assessments as jointly determined is important to understanding the role of income for both...

We provide novel evidence on how healthcare decision-making responds to changes in government recommendations by studying the United States Preventive Services Task Force's 2009 decision to stop recommending mammogram screenings for women aged 40-49. Using a difference-in-differences...

We examine information versus hassle costs in the context of Medicaid prior authorization requirements for preschool antipsychotic prescribing. Such prescribing increased in the 1990s, despite substantial side effects and the absence of FDA approval. State Medicaid programs began to require...

Taxes on sweetened beverages have been widely adopted in response to increases in diet-related chronic disease. An episode of particular interest occurred in Cook County, Illinois, where a beverage tax was announced, implemented, and then repealed. This paper is the first to estimate the effects...

The United States lacks a federal paid sick leave policy. However, 18 states and the District of Columbia have adopted or announced paid sick leave employer mandates to increase access to this benefit, creating a quasi-experimental setting to study whether paid sick leave affects healthcare use....

We estimate and compare impacts of cash and in-kind transfers on the consumption of temptation goods in the same population, and explore normative implications. We use two decades of data from South Carolina on cash benefits from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and in-kind benefits from the...

Can economic tools help inform the puzzlingly low rate of flu vaccination? Existing interventions focus on misinformation or nudges, not preferences over or beliefs about vaccine characteristics. Using an online experiment, we find a key role for effectiveness and short-run side-effects:...

This paper examines how people adjust their time use when they experience an increase in time spent alone, which is a growing share of adults' lives. We utilize the dramatic rise in remote work following the onset of the pandemic, which is associated with a large decline in time spent in the...

We study how abortion access affects economic hardship and crime. Using a database of abortion provider locations and operations in Texas from 2009-2019, we exploit variation in travel distance to the nearest facility created by clinic closures following the enforcement of Texas HB-2 in 2013. We...

An important but poorly understood way that economic development may influence health is through the private incentives that it creates for individuals to invest in their own health. In this paper, we study how individuals' forward-looking health investments respond to changes in expected future...

This paper investigates how physicians adjust their clinical decision-making following medical malpractice lawsuits and how these responses are driven by mental rather than financial costs, and do not align with rational expectations. We combine a comprehensive health insurance claim database...

This chapter explores the multifaceted relationship between culture and health from an economic perspective, integrating insights from anthropology, psychology, and political science. It begins by examining how culture provides meaning to illness and suffering and explores how culturally...

Health insurance lowers the out-of-pocket price of healthcare, and it is well-established that this leads to higher utilization of care. This type of "moral hazard" is typically viewed as a social cost of insurance. Within a standard model, we show that there are two important ways in which the...