The effect of non-employment-based health insurance program on firm's offering of health insurance: Evidence from the social health insurance system in China

To achieve universal health insurance coverage, many developing countries have established a segmented health insurance system, which contains separate programs for workers with formal employment and residents without formal employment. A potential concern with such a segmented system is that the establishment of a non-employment-based insurance program may generate a disincentive for firms to provide health insurance benefits to workers. In this study, we empirically examine this crowd-out effect of a non-employment-based insurance program, the Urban Residents Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI), in China. Exploiting city-by-year variations in the roll-out process of the program and utilizing a unique administrative dataset on Chinese firms, we find that the enactment of URBMI reduced a firm's offering of an employment-based health insurance program by a statistically significant 0.94-1.29 percentage point. This crowd-out effect was stronger among domestic private firms, new firms, and firms that are individual-owned.     

Institutional difference and foreign direct investment location choice: Evidence from China

Resting upon an extensive data set on foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in China, we investigate the role of institutional difference in determining the locational choice of foreign direct investment (FDI). Estimation results using firm-level discrete choice model suggest that FIEs from source countries that are more remote institutionally from the Chinese mainland exhibit a higher degree of sensitivity to regional economic institutions in their choice of FDI location. Furthermore, we find that FIEs coming from countries with better institutions than China are more sensitive to the institutional difference. Interestingly, we find that the deterrent effect of institutional distance on FDI entry is mitigated for FIEs coming from countries with more ethnic Chinese individuals in their overall populations.     

The impact of rural electrification on income and education: Evidence from Bhutan

We investigate the impact of a rural electrification program on household income and children's schooling in rural Bhutan. Using propensity score matching, we find that electrification had a statistically significant impact on nonfarm income and education. Nonfarm income increased by 61 percent and children gained 0.72 additional years of schooling and 9 minutes of study time per day. We do not observe significant effects on farm income. Results are consistent and robust to different matching algorithms. Our findings indicate that investments in reducing energy deficit may help improve human welfare in Bhutan.     

The impact of debt restructuring on firm investment: Evidence from China

This paper empirically investigates the causal effects of debt restructuring on firm investment using the propensity matching score with difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method based on the panel data of listed companies in China from 2005 to 2016. The results show that the impact of debt restructuring on firm investment are heterogeneous among different property rights, industry natures, restructuring payment modes and amounts, and debt renegotiation characteristics. Our analyses indicate that debt restructuring has a more significant impact on promoting investment efficiency for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), firms in industries with excess capacity, and debt-restructuring firms that pay off debts with assets. Debt restructuring significantly aggravates overinvestment when the amount of debt restructuring is large. When shareholder bargaining power is higher than that of debtholders in the debt renegotiation, debt restructuring has a significant inhibitory effect on underinvestment. Smaller debt renegotiation frictions exacerbate underinvestment and help mitigate overinvestment. This paper provides a new perspective for understanding the rationality of debt restructuring and has implications for policymakers and corporate decision makers aiming to improve debt governance and investment efficiency.     

The impact of digital finance on household consumption: Evidence from China

Using panel data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2013, 2015, and 2017 and the digital inclusive finance index developed by Peking University, this study examined impacts of the digital inclusive finance on household consumption and explored its mechanisms. Results suggest that the digital inclusive finance could promote households consumption. A heterogeneity analysis showed that households with fewer assets, lower income, less financial literacy and in third- and fourth-tier cities experienced larger facilitating effects of digital finance on consumption compared to their counterparts. For consumption categories, digital finance was positively correlated with food, clothing, house maintenance, medical care, and education and entertainment expenditures. In terms of consumption structure, digital finance mainly promoted the recurring household expenditures rather than the non-recurring expenditures. Further analyses based on the mediating model found that online shopping, digital payment, obtainment of online credit, purchase of financing products on the internet and business insurance, were the main mediating variables through which digital finance affected household consumption.     

Adverse selection in health insurance markets? Evidence from state small-group health insurance reforms

The past decade witnessed major changes in state laws governing the sale of health insurance to small employers. States took measures to restrict insurers' ability to distinguish between high and low-risk customers because of concern about the low rate of coverage among workers in small firms, the high prices in the small-group market and the absence of federal health reform. Using both individual-level and employer-level data, I test predictions about the effect of reforms on the employer-provided health insurance market. I estimate these effects for small firms and their workers using large firms and their workers in the same states, as well as large and small firms and their workers in non-reform states, as comparison groups. I find the reforms decreased the rate of employer coverage on average for workers in small firms by less than two percentage points. Within small firms, low-expenditure individuals experienced a larger decline in the rate of coverage through their employer, while the coverage rate of high-expenditure individuals rose slightly in some specifications. There is also evidence that comprehensive reforms increased premiums slightly for small employers, and that most of this increase was passed on to workers through higher employee contributions.     

The cost of imperfect agency in health care: Evidence from rural Cameroun

Health is a pressing problem facing Africans today, yet health care systems in Africa are inadequate and under-funded. We show that pervasive imperfect agency means that they are also inefficient. Imperfect agency (due to unobservable medical effort) is a recognized market failure in health care, but its impact is difficult to measure. We take an indirect approach to estimation and infer the cost of unobservable effort from the behavior of utility-maximizing patients, specifically their willingness to incur measurable costs to avoid practitioners who shirk. We use a unique data set from rural Cameroun where patients choose between the government health system, church-operated (mission) health facilities and, importantly, traditional healers. Traditional healers provide health services on an outcome–contingent basis where patients pay only if they are cured. Both government and mission facilities, in contrast, are paid on a fee-for-service basis. Patients' choices of practitioners, combined with quantitative information about patients' illnesses, permit a structural estimation of the value of unobservable medical effort. The results allow investigation into the nature of agency, its costs, and the manner in which contracts reduce and patient behavior mitigates those costs. We estimate that in the absence of imperfect agency, utility from health care would increase by at least 160%. Even in the face of imperfect agency, the sophistication of patients in choosing between existing contracts for different illnesses increases utility by up to 20%.     

The impact of health on wages: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

While income is generally considered an important determinant of health, little evidence has been offered on the reverse relationship, particularly for developed economies. This paper considers the effect of self-assessed general and psychological health on hourly wages using longitudinal data from six waves of the British Household Panel Survey. We employ single equation fixed effects and random effects instrumental variable estimators suggested by Hausman and Taylor (1981), Amemiya and MaCurdy (1986), and Breusch, Mizon and Schmidt (1989). Our results show that reduced psychological health reduces the hourly wage for males, while excellent self-assessed health increases the hourly wage for females. We also find the health variables to be positively correlated with the time-invariant individual effect. Further, we confirm the findings of previous work which suggested that the majority of the efficiency gains from the use of the instrumental variables estimators fall on the time-invariant endogenous variables, in our case academic attainment, and add further support to the hypothesis of a negative correlation between educational attainment and individual characteristics which affect wages. First version received: January 2000/Final version received: October 2000     

The impact of scientific research on health care: Evidence from the OECD countries

This paper investigates the impact of scientific research on health care productivity in a set of OECD countries, in the years from 1960 to 2008. To this end, we have matched information collected from the OECD Health Data 2010 with data gathered from the Scopus database on the papers published and their relative citations. Our empirical results suggest that medical research plays an important role in explaining health care productivity, although various countries are characterized by different velocities in assimilating scientific knowledge. Another important result that emerges from our work is that countries characterized by a faster absorption of academic science, such as the US, have on average a milder impact of scientific research on health productivity, compared with countries with slower absorption. As one would expect, we also find that countries absorbing more scientific research also bear higher health costs.Results from this study may support policy makers in designing incentive mechanisms to improve the impact of medical research on the health care system.     

The impact of COVID-19 on seasoned equity offering: Evidence from China

This study examines the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on the association between Chinese firms' SEO announcements and market reaction afterwards. Our findings indicate that market investors would respond more negatively to the SEO announcements and undergo more SEO underpricing for firms from regions significantly affected by the pandemic than those from the less-affected regions. Furthermore, higher CSR scores and more involvements in accounting conservatism could mitigate these effects. The main mechanism of the moderating effect from CSR performance and accounting conservatism is that CSR investment and accounting conservatism could lessen information asymmetry between the SEO announced firms and outside investors. Finally, we document that the main motivation of SEO issuance during the pandemic is market timing.     

Two separated effects of employer-provided health insurance on job mobility

We estimate the effect of employer-provided health insurance (EPHI) on job mobility via a dynamic model of joint employment and health insurance decision in the presence of uncertainty about wage rate and health status transitions. The model is based on a Markov decision process in which a hedonic wage approach provides an economic rationale for the different choices and health insurance serves as an input to the health production process. Including health transitions in the model helps us to understand how the availability of EPHI (positive job characteristic) and holding EPHI (the wage-health insurance trade-off) enter into the individuals’ decisions. The model is estimated using the 1999–2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey panel 4, and the results show that the ‘pure’ effects of holding EPHI are negligible, the ‘full’ effects of EPHI are significant and the degrees of the inefficiency vary between 14% and 25% across different states.     

The impact of political cycle: Evidence from coalmine accidents in China

This paper examines the impact of political cycle on coalmine accidents in China. The political cycle is formed by the major local meetings of legislative bodies held every year in all provinces of China. This is because the government has a strong incentive to maintain social stability during the meetings and to focus on economic growth in other times. We test how such cycles affect coalmine fatality using monthly data at the provincial level between 2000 and 2010. We find that the number of accidents and casualties were significantly lowered during the local events of “two sessions” after controlling for other time fixed effects. The temporary reduction of accidents seemed to have been achieved by controlling production rather than by improving safety measures. The magnitude of the cycle for accidents is enlarged in provinces where media exposure is stronger and where the vice governor in charge of safety is faced with a possible extension to another term in the current post.     

The implications of job matching for retirement health insurance and leave benefits

This paper focuses on potential reasons for variations in benefit packages, in particular variations in the availability of retirement health insurance and leave. An important feature of our analysis is that we do not start with heterogeneity in workforces to explain fringe benefit differences across employers. It would be straightforward to say that differences across employers in fringe benefit packages simply represent differences in the preferences of their workforces. Rather, we focus on heterogeneity across employers as an important source of differences in fringe benefit packages. Preliminary evidence is found supportive of the predicted differences in the likelihood of such fringe benefits as retirement health insurance and leave based upon two variables–the extent of on-the-job training offered by the employer and the size of the employers. We also examine the implied links between these fringe benefits and such variables as average tenture and the proportion of the workforce that is female.     

The determinants of FDI location choice in China: a discrete-choice analysis

This study addresses two questions: What are the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice in China? What are the factors that determine investors’ choice between ‘Economic zones’ in China on one hand, and ‘other cities’ of China on the other hand? This study shows that FDI location choice is sensitive both on the endowment conditions in different regions/cities/economic zones in China as well as on the country of origin of the FDI. Based on a data set of 1218 observations, the results of the binary logit regressions indicate that the protection of intellectual rights, agglomeration economies, investments in education and gross regional product affect the location choice of FDI in China. This choices, however, varies depending on the origin of the FDI. Policy makers can use these findings to channel FDI to targeted regions/ cities.     

Internet use and consumption diversity: Evidence from rural China

The Internet is integral to modern living. While the Internet is ubiquitous in China's urban areas, its uptake is still lagging in the country's rural regions—the development potential of the Internet remains untapped, and despite China's steep economic growth during the 21st century, the living standards in its rural regions remain low. The Internet can accelerate rural development in China. This study is focused on analyzing whether and to what extent Internet use affects consumption diversity, an indicator of the quality of life, in rural China. To this end, we employ the instrumental-variable-based two-stage endogenous treatment regression model to analyze the 2018 China Family Panel Studies survey data. The modeling approach allows us to account for the endogeneity of Internet use. The results show that consumption diversity is positively associated with Internet use. Furthermore, it rises with household income, household size, and wealth. Whether the Internet is accessed via smartphones or computers has no bearing on household consumption diversity. We also find that education, household income, and wealth increase one's predicted probability of using the Internet. The results also point to regional differences in consumption diversity and the likelihood of using the Internet.     

The impact of cost on the choice of university: evidence from Ontario

Abstract. This paper provides the first Canadian study of the link between cost to the student and the choice of university. Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the differences among Ontario universities in ‘net cost’ defined as tuition and fees minus the expected value to an academically strong student of a guaranteed merit scholarship. Our estimates generally indicate no relationship between net cost and the overall share of strong applicants that a university is able to attract. An increase in net cost is associated with an increase in the ratio of strong students from high‐income neighbourhoods to strong students from middle‐income and low‐income neighbourhoods in Arts and Science programs but not in Commerce and Engineering. Finally, more advantaged students are more likely to attend university, but merit aid is not of disproportionate benefit to those from more economically advantaged backgrounds, given registration. JEL classification: Health Education and Welfare     

The impact of Nepal's earthquake on the health status of rural children

We study the impact of Nepal's 2015 earthquake on the health status of children aged 0–5 years. Using a difference-in-differences approach we find that the earthquake decreased height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) and that this effect is largely driven by females, who experienced an average decline of −0.763 standard deviations in their HAZ. Further, we find that females in the 0–3 years age group and in the least wealthy households are the most vulnerable. This is particularly unfortunate, as the first 3 years of life can impact long-term health and well-being, and female undernutrition contributes to the intergenerational transmission of poverty and ill health.     

The health implications of social pensions: Evidence from China's new rural pension scheme

This paper estimates the causal effect of income on health outcomes of the elderly and investigates underlying mechanisms by exploiting an income change induced by the launch of China's New Rural Pension scheme (NRPS). Using this policy experiment, we address the endogeneity of pension income by applying a fixed-effect model with instrumental variable correction. The results reveal that pension enrollment and income from the NRPS both have had a significant beneficial impact on objective measures of physical health and cognitive function of the rural elderly. Pension recipients respond to the newly acquired pension income in multiple ways: improved nutrition intake, better accessibility to health care, increased informal care, increased leisure activities, and better self-perceived relative economic situation. These in turn act as channels from pension income to health outcomes of the Chinese rural elderly.     

The choice of ownership structure: Evidence from Russian mass privatization

We use a large data set of Russian manufacturing firms to describe the ownership structure in the Russian industry at the end of the mass privatization program in 1994 and its subsequent evolution. The data shows a high, but gradually decreasing ownership stakes of firm insiders (managers and workers). We estimate the effect of a wide range of firm characteristics on the decision to privatize, the initial ownership structure after privatization, and on subsequent changes of ownership stakes. We test and find support for several predictions of the model by Aghion and Blanchard (1998). For example, collusion among workers makes them more reluctant to sell shares to outsiders. Firms in financial distress show a higher incidence of insiders selecting the option of privatization leading to high insider ownership. This can be explained by their desire to insure against unemployment in the case of restructuring by outsiders. No evidence is found of a sequencing in privatization according to the performance of firms before privatization. A methodological novelty of this paper is the application of a tobit model with sample selection to the choice of ownership stakes.