We study whether and how peer referrals increase screening, testing, identification of patients with tuberculosis, an infectious disease responsible for over one million deaths annually. In experiment 3,176 at 122 tuberculosis treatment centers in India, we find that small financial incentives raise the probability existing refer prospective screening resulting cost-effective new cases. Incenti...

We study optimal dynamic lockdowns against COVID-19 within a commuting network. Our framework integrates canonical spatial epidemiology and trade models is applied to cities with varying initial viral spread: Seoul, Daegu, the New York City metropolitan area (NYM). Spatial achieve substantially smaller income losses than uniform lockdowns. In NYM Daegu—with large shocks—the lockdown restricts i...

Participants in means-tested programs must periodically document eligibility through a recertification process. If all cases that fail are ineligible, the exact timing of this process should be irrelevant. We find later interview assignments for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which leave less time to reschedule missed interviews, decrease success by 22 percent. The consequenc...

We model optimal e-cigarette regulation and estimate key parameters. Using tax changes scanner data, we relatively elastic demand. A demographic shift-share identification strategy suggests limited substitution between e-cigarettes cigarettes. field a new survey of public health experts who report that vaping is more harmful than previously believed. In our model’s average Monte Carlo simulatio...

We study targeted lockdowns in a multigroup SIR model where infection, hospitalization, and fatality rates vary between groups—in particular the “young,” “middle-aged,” “old.” Our enables tractable quantitative analysis of optimal policy. For baseline parameter values for COVID-19 pandemic applied to US, we find that policies differentially targeting risk/age groups significantly outperform uni...

Efforts to raise US health-care productivity have proceeded slowly, potentially due the fragmentation of payment across insurers. Each insurer’s efforts improve care could influence how doctors practice for other insurers, leading unvalued externalities. We study a randomized letter intervention by Medicare curtail overuse antipsychotics. The letters did not mention private insurance but reduce...

Les notions de « parcours patient », soins », sante », vie » sont aujourd’hui largement mobilisees et reprises dans les discours discussions politiques professionnels autour l’amelioration la prise en charge des patients (Porter, 2010). Dans le domaine managerial, mobilisation ces souffre d’une importante faiblesse conceptuelle. Peu reflexions empiriques ou scientifiques permettent definir prec...

This paper uses the rollout of the first Community Health Centers (CHCs) to study the longer-term health effects of increasing access to primary care. Within ten years, CHCs are associated with a reduction in age-adjusted mortality rates of 2 percent among those 50 and older. The implied 7 to 13 percent decrease in one-year mortality risk among beneficiaries amounts to 20 to 40 percent of the 1...

The food environment is increasingly hypothesized to cause obesity. This study investigates the impacts of access to supermarkets, the primary source of healthy foods, on the bodyweight outcomes of children. The empirical analysis uses a statewide individual-level panel data set covering health screenings of public schoolchildren along with annual georeferenced business lists and utilizes the p...