220 research outputs found
The bmte command: Methods for the estimation of treatment effects when exclusion restrictions are unavailable
No full textWe present a new Stata command, bmte (bias-minimizing treatment effects), that implements two new estimators proposed in Millimet and Tchernis (2013, Journal of Applied Econometrics 28: 982–1017) and designed to estimate the effect of treatment when selection on unobserved variables exists and appropriate exclusion restrictions are unavailable. In addition, the bmteAnnals of Economic and Social Measurement 5: 475–492; 1979, Econometrica 47: 153–161); 2) a control function approach outlined in Heckman, LaLonde, and Smith (1999, Handbook of Labor Economics 3: 1865–2097) and Navarro (2008, The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics [Palgrave Macmillan]); and 3) a more recent estimator proposed by Klein and Vella (2009, Journal of Applied Econometrics 24: 735–762) that exploits heteroskedasticity for identification. By implementing two new estimators alongside preexisting estimators, the bmte command provides a picture of the average causal effects of the treatment across a variety of assumptions. We present an example application of the command following Millimet and Tchernis (2013, Journal of Applied Econometrics 28: 982–1017)
Measuring Human Capital and its Effects on Wage Growth
No full textEver since Mincer (1974), years of labor market experience were used to approximate individual's general human capital, while years of seniority were used to approximate job specific human capital. This specification is restrictive because it assumes that starting wages at a new job depend only on job market experience. In this article I investigate the effects of human capital on wage growth by using a more flexible specification of the wage equation, which allows for rich set of information on past employment spells to affect the starting wages. In addition, I endogenize the labor mobility decision. In order to illuminate the effects of human capital accumulation patterns on wage growth, I compare counterfactual career paths for representative individuals
Minimizing Bias in Selection on Observables Estimators When Unconfoundness Fails
No full textWe characterize the bias of propensity score based estimators of common average treatment effect parameters in the case of selection on unobservables. We then propose a new minimum biased estimator of the average treatment effect. We assess the finite sample performance of our estimator using simulated data, as well as a timely application examining the causal effect of the School Breakfast Program on childhood obesity. We find our new estimator to be quite advantageous in many situations, even when selection is only on observables.Treatment Effects, Propensity Score, Bias, Unconfoundedness, Selection on Unobservables
Search Costs and Medicare Plan Choice
No full textThere is increasing evidence suggesting that Medicare beneficiaries do not make fully informed decisions when choosing among alternative Medicare health plans. To the extent that deciphering the intricacies of alternative plans consumes time and money, the Medicare health plan market is one in which search costs may play an important role. To account for this, we split beneficiaries into two groups--those who are informed and those who are uninformed. If uninformed, beneficiaries only use a subset of covariates to compute their maximum utilities, and if informed, they use the full set of variables considered. In a Bayesian framework with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, we estimate search cost coefficients based on the minimum and maximum statistics of the search cost distribution, incorporating both horizontal differentiation and information heterogeneities across eligibles. Our results suggest that, conditional on being uninformed, older, higher income beneficiaries with lower self-reported health status are more likely to utilize easier access to information
Essays in Health Economics
No full textThis dissertation consists of three chapters, each of which examines a different topic within the sphere the health economics.
In the first chapter, I use unique, proprietary medical practice data from 2019 to investigate the relationship between physicians, various categories of non-physician clinical staff, and other non-labor inputs in the production of patient office visits. Preliminary results suggest that, for some inputs, their marginal productivity has fallen over time. Cross-input elasticities generally match in terms of their historical classification as either compliments or substitutes, although the magnitudes of the elasticities have also fallen over time. One possible interpretation of these results is that medical practices have already adapted to changes in the economic, regulatory, and technological environment in which they practice and have achieved the easy efficiency gains that were once readily available to them.
In the second chapter, I use 17 years of hospital cost report data and a difference-in-differences identification strategy to examine the financial performance and utilization of safety-net hospitals in Massachusetts following the state’s 2006 reform. The results suggest the largest safety-net hospitals experienced a decline in patient revenue because of the reform and may have responded by transferring operations from inpatient facilities to outpatient centers as a cost-cutting maneuver. Other safety-net hospitals, however, did not experience the same decline in patient revenue. Should states need to reduce their supplemental payments to safety-net hospitals as part of national health care reform, these results suggest they should target their remaining funds to their most financially vulnerable safety-net hospitals.
The final chapter, co-authored with James Marton and Benjamin Ukert, evaluates the impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion on health insurance coverage, access to care, and self-reported health for individuals with and without chronic conditions. Using five years of post-reform data (2014–2018) from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and a difference-in-differences identification strategy, we find that the reform led to improvements in access to care and self-reported health for both groups. Although these improvements are mostly larger in magnitude for individuals with chronic conditions, the differences in magnitude are not statistically significant.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Economic
Minimizing bias in selection on observables estimators when unconfoundness fails
No full textWe characterize the bias of propensity score based estimators of common average treatment effect parameters in the case of selection on unobservables. We then propose a new minimum biased estimator of the average treatment effect. We assess the finite sample performance of our estimator using simulated data, as well as a timely application examining the causal effect of the School Breakfast Program on childhood obesity. We find our new estimator to be quite advantageous in many situations, even when selection is only on observables
Search costs and Medicare plan choice
No full textThere is increasing evidence suggesting that Medicare beneficiaries do not make fully informed decisions when choosing among alternative Medicare health plans. To the extent that deciphering the intricacies of alternative plans consumes time and money; the Medicare health plan market is one in which search costs may play an important role. To account for this, we split beneficiaries into two groups - those who are informed and those who are uninformed. If uninformed, beneficiaries only use a subset of covariates to compute their maximum utilities, and if informed, they use the full set of variables considered. In a Bayesian framework with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, we estimate search cost coefficients based on the minimum and maximum statistics of the search cost distribution, incorporating both horizontal differentiation and information heterogeneities across eligibles. Our results suggest that, conditional on being uninformed, older, higher income beneficiaries with lower self-reported health status are more likely to utilize easier access to information. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Exploring the Spatial Determinants of Children's Activities: Evidence from India
No full textThis paper investigates the choice of children's activities in India and provides recommendations for areas where policy intervention to promote schooling and combat child labor would be most successful. First, we recognize that child schooling and labor are not the only activities that children can engage in and include idleness as one of the choices. Second, we use a hierarchical model with spatially correlated random effects to analyze the determinants of the choice of children's activities. Lastly, we recommend that pro-schooling intervention be implemented in districts with favorable attitudes towards schooling and unfavorable attitudes towards idleness, while anti-child-labor interventions be implemented in districts where attitudes towards child labor are less favorable. We thus identify two groups of Indian districts to target appropriate government interventions
The Role of Social Norms in Child Labor and Schooling in India
No full textThis paper aims to summarize the unexplained propensity of children to engage in work, school, or neither. After controlling for a wide range of determinants of child labor, schooling, and idleness, we estimate a hierarchical model that allows for heteroskedastic, spatially correlated random effects. We use the posterior distribution of ranks of random effects to capture social norms toward children’s activities in each district and thus identify those Indian districts where social attitudes favor education and oppose child labor and idleness. We propose that government intervention be targeted at districts with pro-schooling, anti-child-labor, and anti-idleness social attitudes if limited government resources necessitate implementing minimal cost policies that have the greatest potential to succeed.Child Labor, Education, Spatial Dependence, Social Norms, India
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