Im Zuge der „Kombilohn“-Debatte wird heute verbreitet Kritik am bestehenden deutschen Sozialhilfesystem geübt, und es werden Reformen nach dem Vorbild des amerikanischen „Earned Income Tax Credit“ gefordert. Der jüngste Reformvorschlag hierzu wurde vom Ifo-Institut vorgelegt. Professor...

Gesundheitsökonomen nehmen Stellung zu den „Eckpunkten zu einer Gesundheitsreform“ der Koalitionsparteien vom 4. Juli 2006.

Das Bundesministerium für Gesundheit hat Ende März Eckpunkte zur Reform des Risikostrukturausgleichs in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung vorgelegt. Welchen Anforderungen sollte eine solche Reform genügen?

In response to the growing burden of obesity, public primary prevention programs against obesity have been widely recommended. Several studies estimated the cost effects of diabetes prevention trials for different countries and found that diabetes prevention can be costeffective. Nevertheless,...

In response to the growing burden of obesity, public primary prevention programs against obesity have been widely recommended. Several studies estimated the cost effects of diabetes prevention trials for different countries and found that diabetes prevention can be costeffective. Nevertheless,...

Most systems of health care financing in EU member states currently include elements of income redistribution. The paper analyzes the effects of shifting this kind of redistribution to the tax system and argues that this reform could create two types of efficiency gains. On the expenditure side,...

In a recent paper, Pratt and Zeckhauser (JPE, 1996) discuss the measure of individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction of risks to their lives which should be used for public decisions on risk-reducing projects. They suggest to correct observed WTP for the "dead-anyway" effect, which...

It is still an open question whether increasing life expectancy as such is causing higher health care expenditures (HCE). According to the "red-herring"-hypothesis, the positive correlation between age and HCE is exclusively due to the fact that mortality rises with age and a large share of HCE...