AN NBER PUBLICATION ISSUE: No. 2, June 2021

The Bulletin on Health

Summarizes recent NBER Working Papers pertaining to health topics. It is distributed digitally three times a year and is free.

Research Summaries

Higher Prescription Drug Cost-Sharing Raises Mortality among Medicare Beneficiaries

Article

What are the health consequences when patients reduce their use of prescribed medications in response to higher out-of-pocket costs? In The Health Costs of Cost-Sharing (NBER Working Paper 28439), researchers Amitabh Chandra, Evan Flack and Ziad Obermeyer use the distinctive out-of-pocket cost-sharing features of Medicare Part D to demonstrate that such reductions can increase mortality. Their analysis makes use of the fact that two 65-year-old Medicare enrollees with...

Malpractice Allegations Alter Practice Patterns of Emergency Department Doctors

Article

When physicians are accused of malpractice, how does this experience affect their practice of medicine? Researchers Caitlin Carroll, David M. Cutler and Anupam Jena use administrative data on all emergency medicine physicians in Florida to answer this question in How Do Physicians Respond to Malpractice Allegations? Evidence from Florida Emergency Departments (NBER Working Paper 28330). During the 2005 to 2013 study period, 25 percent of emergency medicine physicians...

Featured Researcher: Marika Cabral

Article

Marika Cabral is a Research Associate in the NBER’s programs on Health Care and Public Economics. She is an associate professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on interactions between the government and insurance markets, and much of her recent work focuses on Medicare and workers’ compensation insurance. Her work has addressed the incidence of insurance subsidies, interactions between public and private insurance, gender...

Affiliates' Research in Medical Journals, Summer 2021

Article

Many NBER-affiliated researchers publish some of their findings in medical and other journals that preclude pre-publication distribution. This makes it impossible to include these papers in the NBER Working Paper Series. This is a partial listing of recent papers in this category by NBER affiliates. Life Expectancy in Adulthood Is Falling for Those without a BA Degree, but as Educational Gaps Have Widened, Racial Gaps Have Narrowed Case A, Deaton A. PNAS 118(11...

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