This paper empirically assesses the relative role of health plan prices, service quality and optional benefits in the decision to choose a health plan. We link representative German SOEP panel data from 2007 to 2010 to (i) health plan service quality indicators, (ii) measures of voluntary...

This study is the first to estimate the price elasticities of demand for both medical rehabilitation programs and treatment at health spas. In Germany, the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) covers both forms of therapy if administered in authorized medical facilities on referral from a physician....

This paper employs an econometric model to parse dierences in health care utilization attributable to private health insurance and differences due to self-selection into insurance status, with specifc interest in selection on unobservable traits such as insurance preference or attitude toward...

This study estimates the reform effects of a reduction in statutory sick pay levels on various outcome dimensions. A federal law reduced the legal obligation of German employers to provide 100 percent continued wages for up to six weeks per sickness episode to 80 percent. This measure increased...

We present a simple dynamic model of the demand and supply for elective surgery in the NHS and test it using a panel of quartely data for 123 English health authorities from the second quarter of 1987 to the first quarter of 1993. We find that supply is increasing in measures of the previous...

In 1999, in Germany, the statutory sick pay level was increased from 80 to 100 percent of foregone earnings for sickness episodes of up to six weeks. We show that this reform has led to an increase in average absence days of about 10 percent or one additional day per employee, per year. The...

The UK has experienced substantial increases in the number of individuals claiming work incapacity benefit (IB) and the proportion of people claiming IB for mental health reasons. Following high-profile reports claiming that intervention would cost the State nothing, the Government has increased...

We exploit regional variation in the availability of breast cancer screening policies and variations in age eligibility criteria across European regions to estimate the causal effect of home invitation on mammography uptake. We link administrative public data about regional breast cancer...

Between 2008 and 2012 new outpatient service locations were established in Hungarian micro-regions, which had lacked outpatient capacities before. We exploit this quasiexperiment to estimate the effect of geographical accessibility on outpatient case numbers using both semi-aggregate and...

The increased availability of process measures implies that quality of care is in some areas de facto verifiable. Optimal price-setting for verifiable quality is well-described in the incentive-design literature. We seek to narrow the large gap between actual price-setting behaviour in...