[Econmaster2012] Research Seminar in Economics

[Frank Stähler]

Dear all,

The presenter in  this week's "Research Seminar in Economics" on 
Tuesday, 07.01.2014, is Ilke Onur from the University of South Australia

The title of his talk will be

"The Impact of Private Hospital Insurance on the Utilization of Hospital 
Care in Australia"

http://www.wiwi.uni-tuebingen.de/forschung0/research-seminars/research-seminar-in-economics.html

The seminar starts at 18.00 h in Room E09, Mohlstr. 36. You can find an 
abstract of the paper below.

Everybody is welcome.

Best wishes,

Udo Kreickemeier


Abstract
We use the 2004-'05 wave of the Australian National Health Survey to 
estimate the impact of private hospital insurance on the propensity for 
hospitalization as a private patient. We employ instrumental-variable 
methods to account for the endogeneity of supplementary private hospital 
insurance purchases. We calculate moral hazard based on a 
difference-of-means estimator. We decompose the moral hazard estimate 
into a diversion component that is due to an insurance-induced 
substitution away from public patient care towards private patient care, 
and an expansion component that measures a pure insurance-induced 
increase in the propensity to seek private patient care. We find some 
evidence of self-selection into insurance but this finding is not 
robust to alternative specifications. Our results suggest that on 
average, private hospital insurance causes a sizable and significant 
increase in the likelihood of hospital admission as a private patient. 
However, there is little evidence of moral hazard; the treatment effect 
of private hospital insurance on private patient care is driven almost 
entirely by the substitution away from public patient care towards 
private patient care.



















-- 
Frank Stähler
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
International Economics and Labor Markets
The University of Tübingen
Mohlstr. 36 (V4)
D-72074 Tübingen, Germany
frank.staehler at uni-tuebingen.de

Adjunct Professor of Economics
School of Economics
The University of Adelaide
frank.staehler at adelaide.edu.au

http://www.frank-staehler.de