European COvid Survey (ECOS), a longitudinal study spanning eight European countries, was initiated early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Its purpose was to comprehend public perceptions, trust, knowledge, and behaviors related to COVID-19, including vaccination. The study aimed to enable timely...

Background: Across the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), pay-for-performance (P4P) programs have been implemented in the inpatient sector to improve the quality of care provided by hospitals. However, little is known about whether such...

This paper studies the short-term impact of public smoking bans on hospitalizations in Germany. It exploits the staggered implementation of smoking bans over time and across the 16 federal states along with the universe of hospitalizations from 2000-2008 and daily county-level weather and...

Many OECD countries have replaced per-diem hospital reimbursement with lump sum payments by diagnosis-related groups (DRGs). However, modern DRG systems still allow hospitals to pass on actual treatment costs to payers, which might hinder the efficiency of health care provision. This paper...

The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes one of the largest threats in recent decades to the health and economic welfare of populations globally. In this paper, we analyze different types of policy measures designed to fight the spread of the virus and minimize economic losses. Our analysis builds on a...