This paper tests a model of cigarette consumption which mixes two types of intertemporal dependencies: habit-formation and learning about the health consequences of smoking. This latter is argued to result partly from the observation of health developments, both one's own and those of other smokers in the same household. Using seven waves of British Household Panel Survey data, we present resul...

This paper considers the role of ownership form for the financial performance of German acute care hospitals and its development over time. We measure financial performance by a hospital-specific yearly probability of default (PD). Using a panel of hospital data, our models allow for state dependence in the PD as well as unobserved individual heterogeneity. We find that private ownership is mor...

This paper uses a disclosure policy, the Nursing Home Quality Initiative, which mandates the public reporting of quality information on selected dimensions, to investigate the theories of nonprofits. My main finding is that nonprofits are as responsive as for-profits to quality disclosure: quality improves along the disclosed dimensions and diminishes along the less disclosed ones. I also find ...

Establishing the existence of equilibrium in insurance markets has always been a challenging task for economists due to imperfect information. As illustrated by Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976), imperfect information may lead to complete market failure. This paper extends the standard model of adverse selection by introducing employers that choose the set of policies that are offered to consumers...

We use an OLG model with heterogenous agents where agents can choose between a low deductibleand a high deductible health insurance. In addition, they can save tax free in a health savings account (HSA) if they choose the high deductible insurance. We study the effect of transitioning from a system with private health insurance for young agents and Medicare for old agents to a system with HSAs ...

Recent studies on the effects of anti-smoking policies on subjective well-being present mixed results and focus mainly on smokers. We contribute to the literature by exploiting the policy experiment provided by the UK public smoking bans and evaluating the impact of smoking bans on the subjective well-being of smokers, non-smokers and couples of different types of smokers. We employ matching te...

In a rare effort to internalize congestion costs, London recently instituted charges for traveling by car to the central city during peak hours. Although the theoretical influence on the number and severity of traffic accidents is ambiguous, we show that the policy generated a substantial reduction in both accidents and fatalities in the charged area and hours. At the same time, the spatial, te...

In recent years the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain has experienced an acute shortage of qualified nurses. This has placed issues of recruitment and retention in the profession high on the political agenda. In this paper we investigate the determinants of job satisfaction for nurses, and establish the importance of job satisfaction in determining nurses’ intentions to quit the NHS. We ...

Health Insurance Benefit Mandates and the Firm-Size Distribution By 2010, the average US state had passed 37 health insurance benefit mandates (laws requiring health insurance plans to cover certain additional services). Previous work has shown that these mandates likely increase health insurance premiums, which in turn could make it more costly for firms to compensate employees. Using 1996–201...

We develop a new methodology for measuring management practices in hospitals, and use this in 182 interviews of physicians and managers in public and private hospitals (covering 61% of English acute trusts). We find our management measure is strongly correlated with hospital performance, both clinical outcomes like survival rates from heart attacks, and general operational and financial outcome...