The relationship between recessions and health is mixed, with some evidence from the most recent financial crisis finding a positive effect on heath behaviours. This study uses longitudinal data spanning the periods before, during and after the Irish crisis of 2008, to test the impact of...

There is now fairly substantial evidence of a socioeconomic gradient in low birthweight for developed countries. The standard summary statistic for this gradient is the concentration index. Using data from the recently published Growing Up in Ireland survey, this paper calculates this index for...

Birth weight is an important aspect of public health which has been linked to increased risk of infant death, increased cost of care, and a range of later life outcomes. Using data from a new Irish cohort study, I document the relationship between birth weight and socioeconomic status. A strong...

Despite the fact that there are over a million new cancer cases detected in the U.S. every year, none of retirement-health literature focuses specifically on the effect that cancer has on retirement. Social Security may offer a pathway to retirement for eligible workers but the separate effects...

Estimating the unbiased effect of health shocks on employment is an important topic in both health and labour economics. This is particularly relevant to cancer, where improvements in screening and treatments have led to increases in survival for nearly all types of cancer. In order to address...

This paper explores the effectiveness of the voluntary reform. It studies a voluntary healthcare reform that was implemented in Ireland in 2008. The analysis is conducted using a theoretical model and empirical evidence. In 2008, in the hope to reduce waiting lists, new contracts were issued...

Using data from the Growing Up in Ireland Covid survey, this study examines the evolution of mental health as measured in December 2020, nine months into the pandemic, compared to observations pre pandemic for two cohorts of people. A deterioration in mental health was observed for both cohorts...

In this paper, we examine the similarities and the differences between two global problems, the Coronavirus pandemic and climate change, and the extent to which the experience with the Covid19 pandemic can be of use for tackling climate change. We show that both problems share the same...

The global COVID-19 pandemic recalls the Ebola epidemic of 2014-15 and earlier much more lethal plague epidemics. All share several characteristics, even though the second and third plague epidemics dwarfed the both the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak and COVID-19 in terms of mortality. This essay...