Health Economics

This research unit investigates the interactions between socioeconomic conditions, economic decisions and population health. This is an under-researched area in economics, epidemiology and medicine alike, in spite of its fundamental questions such as: How is health and life expectancy related to socio-economic status and macro-economic conditions over the life-cycle? To what extent can exogenous and endogenous life-experience explain heterogeneity in individuals’ health within and between countries? What determines the demand for health care? How often are retirement decisions made for health reasons, how often for economic reasons such as pension incentive effects? How will the demand for annuities develop, and how strong is adverse selection likely to be?

In these contexts the effects of institutions are of central interest. In particular, how do individuals respond to changes in legal frameworks? How do institutions moderate the effects of socio-economic status on morbidity and mortality?

In addition to this the research unit has a strong methodological focus. Central issues are the advancement of econometric methods, identification of causal effects, measurement of health, data quality in retrospective surveys, and similar topics.

Members of this research unit:

• Dr. Tabea Bucher-Koenen (FB-Leiterin)
• Helmut Farbmacher
• Fabrizio Mazzonna, Ph.D.
  
• Martin Spindler

Ongoing projects:

Completed operations: