1,720,965 research outputs found
Economic Activity and the Spread of Viral Diseases: Evidence from High Frequency Data
Full text linkViruses are a major threat to human health, and - given that they spread through social interactions - represent a costly externality. This paper addresses three main issues: i) what are the unintended consequences of economic activity on the spread of infections? ii) how efficient are measures that limit interpersonal contacts? iii) how do we allocate our scarce resources to limit their spread? To answer these questions, we use novel high frequency data from France on the incidence of a number of viral diseases across space, for different age groups, over a period of a quarter of a century. We use quasi-experimental variation to evaluate the importance of policies reducing inter-personal contacts such as school closures or the closure of public transportation networks. While these policies significantly reduce disease prevalence, we find that they are not cost-effective. We find that expansions of transportation networks have significant health costs in increasing the spread of viruses and that propagation rates are pro-cyclically sensitive to economic conditions and increase with inter-regional trade
The transition to digital television
No full textThis paper studies the role of economic policy for the transition from analogue to digital television, with particular attention to the switch off of the analogue terrestrial signal. The analogue signal cannot be credibly switched off until almost all viewers have migrated to digital, due to the policy objective of universal access to television. But before switch off, only part of the population can be reached with the digital signal. In addition, those who are reached need to spend more to upgrade their reception equipment than after switch off, because the capacity to increase the power of the digital signal will be made available only then. After reviewing the competitive structure and the role of government intervention in television markets, we present the early experience of a number of industrialized countries in the transition to digital television. We then formulate a microeconometric model of digital television adoption by individual viewers. The model is calibrated to UK data and simulated to predict the impact of government policies on the take-up of digital television. Policy makers can affect the speed of take up of digital television by: (1) controlling the quality of the signals and the content of public service broadcasters; (2) intervening in the market for digital equipment with subsidies; and (3) publicizing the conditions and date of switch off of the analogue signal. We find that if the analogue terrestrial signal is switched off only when certain aggregate adoption targets are reached, strategic delays may arise and expectations may affect the success of the switch off policy
Health selection and the effect of smoking on mortality
Full text linkWe show that individuals who are in poorer health, independently from smoking, are more likely to start smoking and to smoke more cigarettes than those with better non-smoking health. We present evidence of selection, relying on extensive data on morbidity and mortality. We show that health based selection into smoking has increased over the last fifty years with knowledge of its health effects. We show that the effect of smoking on mortality is higher for high educated individuals and for individuals in good non-smoking health
Taxes, cigarette consumption, and smoking intensity: Reply
Full text linkThis paper shows that smoking intensity, i.e. the amount of nicotine extracted per cigarette smoked, responds to changes in excise taxes and tobacco prices. We exploit data covering the period 1988 to 2006 across many US states. Moreover, we provide new evidence on the importance of cotinine measures in explaining long-run smoking behavior and we investigate the sensitivity of smoking cessation to changes in excise taxes and their interaction with smoking intensity
Market regulation and firm performance : the case of smoking bans in the United Kingdom
No full textThis paper analyzes the effects on firms of a ban on smoking in public places. Our empirical strategy relies on comparing outcomes in Scotland before and after the Scottish smoking ban (introduced in March 2006) with those in northern England, where such a ban was not in place. Our analysis of survey data collected from public houses finds that the Scottish smoking ban reduced pub sales with no concomitant effect on prices. An event study analysis of the stock market performance of pub-holding companies corroborates the negative effect of the smoking ban on firm performance
The Career Costs of Children
Full text linkWe estimate a dynamic life-cycle model of labor supply, fertility and savings, incorporating occupational choices, with specific wage paths and skill atrophy that vary over the career. This allows us to understand the trade-off between occupational choice and desired fertility, as well as the sorting both into the labor market and across occupations. We quantify the life-cycle career costs associated with children, how they decompose into loss of skills during interruptions, lost earnings opportunities and selection into more child-friendly occupations. We analyze the long-run effects of policies that encourage fertility and show that they are considerably smaller than short-run effects
Essays in Health and Labour Economics
Full text linkNo abstract availableThis PhD thesis consists of three chapters on various topics in health and labour economics.
The first, coauthored, chapter studies the efficiency of invoking individuals’ social preferences to increase vaccination intentions. We present results from a laboratory experiment which show that the presence of a passive player, whose well-being depends on active participants, creates a four- to ninefold increase in vaccine uptake. We interpret these results as suggestive of that social-preference focused public health campaigns may be more successful in raising vaccination rates than corrective information ones.
The second chapter examines the effect of the marital property regime on marital investments and outcomes. I model marriage as a relationship under contractual incompleteness and estimate the causal effect of the marital property regime on fertility, female labour supply, marriage and divorce, using the regional variation in default marital property systems in Spain and the 2005 divorce reform. I find substantial differences in female labour force participation, fertility, and marriage rate between property systems depending on the degree of integration, which is in line with the predictions of property rights theory.
The third chapter investigates whether marital contracts are useful because they enhance the value of a continued marriage or because they help deconstruct the relationship in case of separation or divorce. Using a novel, high-quality dataset on marital contracts I digitized from the records of Spanish notaries and a reform of Catalan civil law, I find strong evidence for the latter: marital contracts are valuable only if they can refer to the breakdown of the marriage
Essays in Migration Economics and Political Economy
Full text linkNo abstract availableMy thesis investigates human migration and one of its determinants, conflict. In the first chapter, I show how high attention accruing to migration has influenced border enforcement policy in Europe. In the second chapter, with two coauthors, I analyze why potential migrants make dangerous traveling choices, and how their migration intentions change when they are informed about costs and benefits of migration. In the third and last chapter, with two other coauthors, I investigate the relationship between a country's ownership of a natural resource and the likelihood of conflict
The health toll of import competition
No full textThis paper assesses the effect of import competition on the labor market and health outcomes of US workers. We first show that import shocks affect employment and income, but only in areas where jobs are more intense in routine tasks. Exploiting over 40 million individual observations on health and mortality, we find that import had a detrimental effect on physical and mental health that is concentrated in those areas and exhibits strong persistence. It decreased health care utilisation and increased hospitalisation for a large set of conditions, more difficult to treat. The mortality hazard of workers in manufacturing increased by up to 6 percent per billion dollar import increase
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