Bismarck’s Health Insurance and the Mortality Decline
| Autor: | Stefan Bauernschuster, Erik Hornung, Anastasia Driva |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Mortality Decline
Natural experiment 060106 history of social sciences media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences Empire 06 humanities and the arts Fixed effects model Infectious disease (medical specialty) Statutory law 0502 economics and business Health insurance 0601 history and archaeology Social determinants of health Business 050207 economics General Economics Econometrics and Finance Demography media_common |
| Zdroj: | Journal of the European Economic Association. 18:2561-2607 |
| ISSN: | 1542-4774 1542-4766 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jeea/jvz052 |
| Popis: | We study the impact of social health insurance on mortality. Using the introduction of compulsory health insurance in the German Empire in 1884 as a natural experiment, we estimate difference-in-differences and regional fixed effects models exploiting variation in eligibility for insurance across occupations. Our findings suggest that Bismarck’s health insurance generated a significant mortality reduction. Despite the absence of antibiotics and most vaccines, we find the results to be largely driven by a decline of deaths from infectious diseases. Further evidence suggests that statutory access to well-trained doctors was an elementary channel. This finding may be explained by insurance fund physicians transmitting new knowledge on infectious disease prevention. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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