Privatization and Labor Cost Savings: Evidence from Health Care Services

This study examines whether privatization is associated with low public sector health care wages and with low probability of public sector employment for health care providers. Findings suggest that privatization contributes significantly to low wages of union health care providers in the public sector. Privatization also contributes to a low probability of public sector employment in this industry, especially to unionized workers. These results indicate that competition enhancing policy can promote lower labor costs even in a service sector that employs a highly skilled work force.

人口老龄化背景下保险公司投资养老实体产业研究

我国人口老龄化趋势日益严峻，积极发展养老实体产业成为解决未来老龄人口养老问题的重要举措。我国养老实体产业发展还存在着土地性质不明确、行业标准不统一、经营模式不规范、税收优惠不普及等问题。保险资本作为重要的社会投资力量，参与投资建设养老实体产业，既能缓解我国养老困境，又有利于保险公司缓解投资压力、匹配长期性负债资产、提高整体偿付能力等等。     

新型农村合作医疗与个人缴付额的操作:以广东为例

探讨新型农村合作医疗个人缴付额更合理、有效的确定方法,以进一步体现其积极、公平的实际效果。运用回归分析方法通过筛选解释变量提出了估计一个地区农民年均医疗费用的计算公式;分析了现行的新型农村合作医疗个人缴付额安排的不足,尤其是在科学性和合理性方面的不足;并依据所提出的计算公式重新构建了若干更加积极、公平的个人缴付额安排。     

社区医养结合的经济评估方法及应用

社区医养结合是一个复杂的系统,其可持续发展受多因素影响,因此对其进行经济评估理应成为政府进一步推广该类项目工作的必要环节。根据不同目的或不同背景,评估者可采用成本-最小化、成本-效益、成本-效果等狭义经济评估方法,也可采用成本-效用、成本-结果、多准则决策等更广泛的经济评估方法。评估实践表明,由于其复杂性特性,经济评估结论分歧较大。因此,社区医养结合经济评估方法的选择应该适合需要支持的决策过程。     

Assortative matching and commercial insurance participation: Evidence from the China Household Finance Survey

We investigated three assortative matching forms, positive assortative matching, women marrying up and men marrying up, and their effects on household commercial insurance participation, the number of family members with commercial insurance and household premium expenditures. Men marrying up has a significantly positive effect on the possibility of household commercial insurance participation and the number of family members having commercial insurance. The effect of men marrying up is larger in health insurance than in life insurance and annuity due to the salience of health risks. Finally, men marrying up interacts with the gender and risk attitude of the household financial decision-maker and may jointly affect household commercial insurance participation. Female decision-makers in marriages are more likely to purchase commercial insurance.     

Who bears the burden of social insurance? Evidence from Japanese health and long-term care insurance data

Using the society-managed health insurance data, which is cross-sectional time-series and covers 1670 health insurance societies for seven years (FY1995–2001), we found for the first time in Japan that the majority of the employers' contribution to health insurance is shifting back onto the employees in the form of wage reduction. On the other hand, we cannot find such evidence for the contribution to long-term care insurance using a two-year (FY2000–2001) panel data set. The difference can be theoretically explained by how employees value the contribution relative to social security benefits they enjoy. J. Japanese Int. Economies 18 (4) (2004) 565–581.     

Health and Financial Strain: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances

Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, this study examines the relationship between health status and financial strain controlling for the dual endogeneity between the two factors. Simultaneous two-stage probit models are estimated for self-reported health status and three measures of financial strain. The results from all three models indicate that poor health significantly increases the probability of financial strain. There is little evidence that financial strain contributes to poor health. The findings suggest that severe health conditions may result in larger financial burdens while large financial burdens are unlikely to accelerate a decline in health status. In the end, health may be contributing to widening financial disparities, especially among the poor who are in poor health.     

Inflation Expectations and Inflation Uncertainty in the Eurozone: Evidence from Survey Data

This paper uses the European Commission’s Consumer Survey to assess whether inflation expectations have converged and whether inflation uncertainty has diminished following the introduction of the euro in Europe. Consumers’ responses to the survey suggest that inflation expectations depend more on past national inflation rates than on the ECB’s anchor for price stability. Inflation expectations do not converge significantly faster than actual inflation rates. Regarding inflation uncertainty, the data indicate a relationship with country size following the introduction of the euro. This suggests that within EMU, inflation uncertainty may increase in countries that have a smaller influence on ECB policy. JEL no.  D84, E31, E58     

从宁波实践看新型农村合作医疗的可持续发展

新型农村合作医疗制度是解决中国广大农民医疗保障的一个重要制度。文章通过对宁波市新型农村合作医疗的深入调研，分析了宁波农村合作医疗的特点，剖析了其存在的问题和不足，提出了一系列解决的对策，以促使宁波新型农村合作医疗的可持续发展。     

The Wage Elasticity of Informal Care Supply: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

This article focuses on the wage elasticity of informal care supply to elderly parents employing an instrumental variable approach to account for the fact that the wage rate is likely to be correlated with omitted variables. Using the 1998 wave of the 1998 ), the wage elasticity of informal care supply is estimated to be negative and larger in magnitude than found previously. The lower bound of this elasticity is estimated to be ?1.8 for males and ?3.6 for females. Additional findings suggest that this wage elasticity differs by the type of care provided to elderly parents and that it is larger in magnitude among individuals with siblings and those with independently living parents. Overall the reductions in the informal care constitute about 18% of the labor supply response for men and about 56% of the labor supply response for women, which are not compensated by monetary transfers.     

Health care cost of floods: Evidence from Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan

Using the difference-in-difference (DID) method, this study uses Typhoon Morakot, which occurred in August 2009, as an example to estimate the effect of flooding on health care cost burden. The main data source is the medical claims records of a cohort of three million patients in Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system. By examining flood-related physiological diseases and disaster-related mental illnesses, our results indicate that the increase in outpatient health care costs resulting from the flood caused by the typhoon is approximately NTD 8.95 billion (USD 280 million), equivalent to approximately 69% of the annual special budget for flooding prevention during the period 2006–2019 in Taiwan. Moreover, the increase in outpatient expenditure for mental illnesses is nearly 10 times that of physiological diseases. An important implication of our findings is that the cost of preventing natural disasters, such as floods, can be offset by saving health care costs, particularly for mental illnesses. Our results also suggest that in addition to providing safe drinking water and indoor residual spraying, offering continuous post-disaster mental health services can further save health care expenditures caused by natural disasters.     

Income mobility in a high-inequality society: Evidence from the first two waves of the National Income Dynamics Study

The study of income inequality and income mobility has been central to understanding post-apartheid South Africa's development. This paper uses the first two waves of the National Income Dynamics Study to analyse income mobility using longitudinal data, and is the first to do so at a nationally representative level. We investigate both the correlates and root causes of moving up and down the income distribution over time. Using both absolute and relative changes as reference points, we highlight some of the factors associated with South Africans moving into and out of poverty.     

超大城市流动人口健康教育水平及影响因素

选取超大城市流动人口作为研究对象,采用比较分析的方法,分析中国超大城市流动人口健康教育状况;采用 计量回归的方法,研究个体特征因素、家庭特征因素、流动特征因素、公共服务供给与获得这四个方面的指标对中国 超大城市流动人口健康教育水平的影响。结果表明,中国超大城市流动人口的健康教育水平低于其他地区,有较大 提升空间;个体特征因素、家庭特征因素、流动特征因素、公共服务供给与获得四个方面的指标对超大城市流动人口健康教育水平均有较强影响。     

Intergenerational Transfers and Asset Inequality in Japan: Empirical Evidence from New Survey Data

This paper quantitatively examines the impact of intergenerational transfers on asset inequality among Japanese households. We estimate an intergenerational asset transfer function with various control variables, using a unique micro dataset taken from a survey conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office. Employing three different models, a Tobit model, an interval regression model and an ordered probit model, to ensure that our results are independent of the specific econometric approach used, we investigate whether asset transfers received are correlated with households’ financial strength. We find that higher income households are likely to receive larger asset transfers. However, the contribution of intergenerational transfers to asset inequality appears to be small.     

居民参与福州市韧性社区建设的影响因素——基于499份调查数据

基于福州市499份调查数据,以计划行为理论为基础,通过结构方程模型分析、OLS回归分析研究了福州市居民参与韧性社区建设的影响因素。研究结果表明,当前福州市韧性社区建设中居民的参与行为整体偏低,参与意愿和参与行为存在背离;参与态度、社会规范、政策引领、参与行为控制均能对居民参与韧性社区建设的意愿产生显著的正向影响,其中政策引领的影响程度最大;居民的参与行为受到参与意愿和参与行为控制的共同影响,参与行为控制的影响程度更大。根据实证结果,提出应从坚持党建引领、推进政策落地两个方面纵深发力,促进福州市韧性社区建设中的居民参与。