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...

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...

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...

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...

Abstract 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

We use difference-in-differences research designs to estimate the effects of abortion bans on births at the county level, leveraging data on changes in driving distance and appointment availability at the nearest facility where abortion remains legal. We find that bans alone increase births, but...

We examine the multigenerational impacts of legalized abortion in the United States by analyzing how early-life exposure to this policy shift affects birth outcomes in the next generation. Using event study and two-way fixed effects models, we link maternal early-life exposure to legal abortion...

We measure whether expert patients - those trained as physicians and nurses - have fewer emergency department visits and the reasons for these differences. Relative to similar patients physicians and nurses had 19.8% and 5.1% fewer ED visits, principally due to fewer avoidable visits. The...

A large literature documents that quitting cigarette smoking may lead to weight gain because nicotine is an appetite suppressant and metabolic stimulant. However, researchers in this literature emphasize that the health benefits of smoking cessation exceed the harms from the weight typically...

Why and when could basic income inhibit employment? We randomize 200 dollars of basic income per month for two years within a non-urban disadvantaged sample tracked using high-frequency administrative data. The amount provided is 21% of average all-source income. In the short term (0.5 years...

Racial differences in mortality are large, persistent and likely caused, at least in part, by racism. While the causal pathways linking racism to mortality are conceptually well defined, empirical evidence to support causal claims related to its effect on health is incomplete. In this study, we...

With the goal of lowering incentives for alcohol and substance abuse, U.S. states have historically permitted private health insurers to deny reimbursement of medical claims stemming from alcohol or opioid impairment. However, a potential unintended consequence of such "exclusion provisions" is...

We study how preventive medical care use affects health behaviors and outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. Leveraging variation induced by a national appointment reminder program, rolled out across 315 public primary care clinics in Chile, we use an instrumental variables approach with...

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...

Nutritional disparities across socioeconomic groups contribute to health inequality in the U.S. This paper studies the role of heterogeneous consumer preferences in food choices and explores pricing policies that can promote healthier eating among disadvantaged consumers. Using detailed...

Effective information sharing is critical for the success of organizations and governments. Because information that is easy to access is more likely to be adopted, leaders often minimize friction in information delivery. However, one type of friction may increase engagement: piquing curiosity...

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...

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:...

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...