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Health Statistics and Econometrics

Administrative data and data linkage; collecting health
data for econometric analysis; categorical data methods; count data; duration analysis; econometric evaluation by non-experimental methods; econometric evaluation with randomized experiments; econometrics in technology assess- ment; macro panels; models of health care costs; models for risk adjustment; panel data methods; productivity analysis; simulation methods and mixture models; spatial econometrics.

Are we estimating the effects of health care expenditure correctly?

It is a contentious issue in philosophy whether an omission can be the cause of an event. At the very least it seems we should consider causation by omission differently from ‘ordinary’ causation. Consider Sarah McGrath’s example. Billy promised Alice to… Read More »Are we estimating the effects of health care expenditure correctly?

Weekend effect explainer: why we are not the ‘climate change deniers of healthcare’

The statistics underlying the arguments around the weekend effect are complicated. Despite over a hundred empirical studies on the topic, and an observed increase in the risk of mortality for weekend admissions in multiple countries, there is still no real… Read More »Weekend effect explainer: why we are not the ‘climate change deniers of healthcare’

Transformative treatments: a big methodological challenge for health economics

Social scientists, especially economists, are concerned with causal inference: understanding whether and how an event causes a certain effect. Typically, we subscribe to the view that causal relations are reducible to sets of counterfactuals, and we use ever more sophisticated… Read More »Transformative treatments: a big methodological challenge for health economics

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“Doing the math” on the distribution of healthcare expenditures: a Pareto-like distribution is inevitable

Yesterday I explored one of the major challenges to affordable, universal health insurance, namely the high cost of providing care to the sickest patients. The extreme distribution of healthcare costs means that “Targeting the highest spenders represents the greatest opportunity… Read More »“Doing the math” on the distribution of healthcare expenditures: a Pareto-like distribution is inevitable

The health of people who live in slums and the trouble with estimating neighbourhood effects

Slums are a large and growing feature of urban areas in low and middle income countries. But, despite the ease with which you might picture what such informal settlements look like, there is no consensus about what exactly defines a… Read More »The health of people who live in slums and the trouble with estimating neighbourhood effects

Placebos for all, or why the p-value should have no place in healthcare decision making

David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at UCL, has a new essay over at Aeon opining about the problems with p-values. A short while back, we also discussed p-value problems, and Colquhoun arrives at the same conclusions as us about the… Read More »Placebos for all, or why the p-value should have no place in healthcare decision making