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Four Essays on the Socio-Economic Causes and Consequences of Individual Health as well as Public Health Crises: Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam

Buying Control? 'Locus of Control' and the Uptake of Supplementary Health Insurance

This paper analyses the relationship between locus of control (LOC) and the demand for supplementary health insurance. Drawing on longitudinal data from Germany, we find robust evidence that individuals having an internal LOC are more likely to take up supplementary private health insurance (SUPP). The increase in the probability to have a SUPP due to one standard deviation increase in the measure ...

Face Mask Use and Physical Distancing before and after Mandatory Masking: No Evidence on Risk Compensation in Public Waiting Lines

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of mandatory face mask usage triggered a heated debate. A major point of debate is whether community use of masks creates a false sense of security that would diminish physical distancing, counteracting any potential direct benefit from masking. We conducted a randomized field experiment in Berlin, Germany, to investigate how masks affect distancing and ...

Physician Effects in Antibiotic Prescribing: Evidence from Physician Exits

Human antibiotic consumption is considered the main driver of antibiotic resistance. Reducing human antibiotic consumption without compromising health care quality poses one of the most important global health policy challenges. A crucial condition for designing effective policies is to identify who drives antibiotic treatment decisions, physicians or patient demand. We measure the causal effect of ...

Hate Is Too Great a Burden to Bear: Hate Crimes and the Mental Health of Refugees

Against a background of increasing violence against non-natives, we estimate the effect of hate crime on refugees’ mental health in Germany. For this purpose, we combine two datasets: administrative records on xenophobic crime against refugee shelters by the Federal Criminal Office and the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees. We apply a regression discontinuity design in time to estimate the effect of ...

Study protocol of the ‘CORONA-MONITORING bundesweit’ study (RKI-SOEP study) published

The study protocol of the CORONA-MONITORING nationwide study (RKI-SOEP study) has been published in the Journal of Health Monitoring and is freely available.In the study, which was conducted in a collaboration between the Robert Koch Institute and the Socio-Economic Panel at DIW Berlin, SOEP respondents were sent self-tests in the form of PCR and DBS tests to be sent to the RKI for analysis. In addition, ...

School Health Programs: Education, Health, and Welfare Dependency of Young Adults

Essays on the Economics of the Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry makes a significant contribution to global health and economic welfare through the development and production of innovative medical treatments. This dissertation consists of four essays which advance our understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and how to effectively regulate this sector. Each chapter aims to provide new insights, which are relevant for policymakers, ...

Global Economy: USA and China Leading the Way, Europe Lagging Behind: DIW Economic Outlook Spring 2021

The resurgence of the pandemic and renewed lockdowns have slowed the recovery of the global economy, but the overall losses will be less severe than after the first coronavirus wave in spring 2020. Industry in particular continues to develop well. In contrast, retail trade and personal services have been heavily affected, especially in hard-hit regions such as Europe. However, the fiscal stimulus cushions ...

German Economy between Lockdowns and Normality: DIW Economic Outlook Spring 2021

By lifting lockdown measures as coronavirus case numbers are rising and the vaccine rollout is proceeding slowly, the German economy is being sent on a stop-go course. Re-opening measures will probably be followed by renewed closures, at least regionally, in order to keep the spread of COVID-19 under control. Nevertheless, industry is robust overall, primarily due to good foreign business. In the service ...