Current Research
Research in progress
Paolo Berta, Gianni De Fraja and Stefano Verzillo “Optimal Healthcare Contracts: Empirical Evidence from Italy”.
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the contracts offered by a large healthcare purchaser to health service providers. The system, based on the DRG principle that all hospitalisations in a diagnosis group are refunded at the same rate, permits nevertheless considerable variation in the amount reimbursed within each DRG. We build a theoretical model which explains this variability as the attempt of the health authority to ensure appropriate matching between hospitals and patients. We test the model using a very large and detailed administrative dataset for the largest region in Italy. In line with our theoretical results, we show that the state funded purchaser offers providers a system of incentives such that, as required by optimality, the most efficient providers both treat more patients and also treat more difficult patients, and are compensated for doing so with a higher average payment per treatment.
Gianni De Fraja “International Mobility of Academics: Theory and Evidence”, CEPR Discussion Paper 18117, April 2023.
Abstract
The labour force in the university sector of many countries is extremely international. I propose a theoretical model to study cross border academic mobility, where academics bargain with institutions over pay and choose the countries where they live and work to maximise their lifetime utility. I then test the model on a subset of well over 900,000 research active academics over 33 years. The model predicts academics to respond to short term conditions, such as those caused by changes in their own record and exchange rate fluctuations, with the decision to move of more eminent academics being less influenced by short-term exchange rate fluctuations, but more by changes in their record. These conclusions are confirmed by the empirical analysis.
Gianni De Fraja, Jesse Matheson, Paul Mizen, James Rockey, and Shivani Taneja , “Willingness and ability to work from home: Inequality and the rise of remote working”, CEPR Discussion Paper 17431, July 2022.
Abstract
The shift to remote work may be one of the Covid-19 pandemic's most important long-term consequences. The largest impact of the shift is likely to be on the workers themselves. We measure this with a unique survey of UK workers. We have four main findings. First, workers expect substantial remote working over the medium term -- an average of 2 days per week. Second, female, better-educated and better-paid workers, and those with longer commutes have employers who plan more working from home than they desire. Third, workers report their employers’ plans for remote working are worth around 5 per cent of pre-tax wages. Fourth, this valuation is unconditionally correlated with wages, but this correlation is economically small, and increases inequality only by under 1 percentage point when the valuation of expected remote working is added to wages. Therefore, the advent of working from home amounts to a large boost to average incomes, with only a small rise in associated inequality. Finally, we provide a simple model which shows that, rather than being unlikely, it is very plausible that the asymmetric distribution of the changes in mode of working benefits all workers, with counter-intuitive effects on inequality.
Sabrina Auci, Gianni De Fraja, and Manuela Coromaldi, “The Effect of School Autonomy on Pupils’ Performance: Academy Conversion in English Primary Schools ”.
Abstract
This paper examines the effect of the change in the governance regime of English primary school on their pupils' education attainment. Starting in 2010, primary schools could apply to convert to ``academy'' status, thereby increasing their autonomy. Approximately one third of them have done so up to now. We examine whether this has had an effect on their pupils' performance. We use a Mundlak approach and instrument the conversion decision with the percentage of converted schools and the political leaning of the voters in the school's administrative authority to account for potential endogeneity of the application to change status. We find that conversion to academy status had limited effects on the pupils' attainment in the short term, but that this improved achievement fades away as time passes.