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Microeconometric analysis of health in developing countries

Maldonado-Vargas, Norman
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397664157

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics.
This dissertation analyzes health human capital issues in developing countries. The first two essays examine the production of human capital at the household level, and the third essay analyzes supply of health care services. The first essay tests for noncooperative behavior using the Mexican Family Life Survey (MXFLS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of households that identifies and keeps track of local and international migrants. Migration introduces asymmetries of information that might trigger noncooperative behavior of spouses left behind. I use the MXFLS to study noncooperative behavior in Mexican households and the way this behavior affects children's human capital. I find that migration causes noncooperative behavior in the spouse left behind, namely spouses reduce the time in doing chores and do not change their labor supply. At the same time, boys do more agricultural work and girls have to spend more time in taking care of other members. Migration positively affects school enrollment, but nonlinear effects suggest younger children are bearing most of the negative effect because, as the literature suggests, lower school enrollment at early ages means lower cognitive achievement later on. In the second essay I analyze production of health in Chinese children. Modernization and subsequent changes in lifestyle have caused a dramatic increase in prevalence of obesity in China. Since obesity is one of the main forces driving noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), increases in prevalence of obesity in children lead to higher incidence of NCDs and reduction in health human capital. Intervention in public policy must be based on an understanding of how health is produced in the household. I use the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to carry out structural estimation of the health production function for children in China. Results suggest that calorie intake is the most important input in the production of excessive weight with an impact on weight three times larger than sedentary activities and six times larger than physical activities. Calorie intake also has a more than proportional effect on unhealthy extra weight. These results suggest that public health policies must focus on reducing excessive calorie intake. The third essay studies subsidies for public hospitals in Colombia. Health services in Colombia are provided by public and private hospitals that, by law, must compete with one another in a perfectly competitive environment. However, by constitutional mandate, public hospitals must guarantee health care for all - even in municipalities where market conditions cannot sustain a hospital and government subsidization is required. The subsidy should provide the hospital enough solvency to operate as well as incentives to be efficient. I propose a method to estimate subsidies for public hospitals. The method combines measures of efficiency derived from cost frontiers and production frontiers. Estimations for 2008 suggest an aggregate subsidy of $4869.2 MM Colombian pesos. Also, the proportion of costs that must be subsidized is lower for hospitals that offer more complex health services.
Joyce Chen (Advisor)
Brian Roe (Committee Member)
Alessandra Faggian (Committee Member)
124 p.
Economics; Education; Health
Economics, Human Capital, Health, Microeconometrics, Mexico, China, Colombia

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Citations

  • Maldonado-Vargas, N. (2014). Microeconometric analysis of health in developing countries [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397664157

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Maldonado-Vargas, Norman. Microeconometric analysis of health in developing countries. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397664157.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Maldonado-Vargas, Norman. "Microeconometric analysis of health in developing countries." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397664157

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1397664157
701
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.