Bensnes, S. & Huitfeldt I. (2020). "Rumor Has It: Physician and Patient Responses to Online Ratings". Journal of Health Economics. [Published version] [pre-print]
Bensnes, S. (2019). Scheduled to gain: Short- and long-run effects of examination scheduling, Scandinavian Journal of Economics. [Published version] [pre-print]
Bensnes, S. & Strøm, B. (2018). Earning or learning: How extending closing time in the retail sector affects youth employment and education. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. [Published version] [pre-print]
Bensnes, S. S. (2016). You sneeze, you lose: The impact of pollen exposure on cognitive performance during high-stakes high school exams. Journal of Health Economics. [Published version] [pre-print]
Media:
"Reconciling Estimates of the Long-Term Earnings Effect of Fertility". Joint with Ingrid Huitfeldt and Edwin Leuven. [Working paper]
Abstract: This paper presents novel methodological and empirical contributions to the child penalty literature. We propose a new estimator that combines elements from standard event study and instrumental variable estimators and demonstrate their relatedness. Our analysis shows that all three approaches yield substantial estimates of the long-term impact of children on the earnings gap between mothers and their partners, commonly known as the child penalty, amounting to 15 percent. However, the models lead to very different conclusions as to whether it is mothers or partners who drive this penalty – the key policy concern. While the event study attributes the impact to mothers, our results suggest that maternal changes account for less than half of the penalty. Our paper also has broader implications for event-study designs. In particular, we assess the validity of the event-study assumptions using external information and characterize biases arising from selection in treatment timing. We find that women time fertility as their earnings profile flattens. The implication of this is that the event-study overestimates women’s earnings penalty as it relies on estimates of counterfactual wage profiles that are too high. These new insights in the nature of selection into fertility show that common intuitions regarding parallel trend assumptions may be misleading, and that pre-trends may be uninformative about the sign of the selection bias in the treatment period.
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"Time to Spare and Too Much Care? Congestion, Treatment Provision and Health Outcomes in the Maternity Unit". [Working paper]
Abstract: Identifying the causes of unwarranted variations in medical treatment is complicated by endogeneity issues such as the endogenous matching of patients and providers. This paper tackles these issues in the setting of maternity units using the number of women in local areas with the same due date as an instrument for congestion. I find that congestion, measured as a higher admission level, leads to fewer medical interventions and better APGAR scores. Children born to mothers admitted on busy days are also less likely to be readmitted to acute care early in life, indicating a negative marginal health return for treatments provided due to spare capacity. The paper shows that short-term increases in congestion at maternity wards can improve health outcomes for newborns as they are shielded from overtreatment.
"Copayments and Healthcare Utilization". Joint with Ingrid Huitfeldt and Victoria Marone.
Abstract: Consumers' private valuations of healthcare services are a critical input for health insurance system design. Using a policy change that raised the age threshold for copayment waivers, we study private valuations of primary care visits among Norwegian teenagers. We estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for healthcare services for various socio-economic groups as well as teenagers with pre-existing medical conditions. Given the accounting cost of supplying healthcare we also estimate the cost of copayment waivers by patient types, the implied social externality required for cost effectiveness and the redistributive properties of the waivers.
"Missing the mark? School spending and educational outcomes". Joint with Sturla Løkken.
Abstract: We study the effect of school spending on student outcomes. We rely on a reform that changed budgets from being based on resource use, such as teacher wages and class sizes, to be based on the number and types of students in the catchment area. Schools responded to the reform by altering class sizes and teacher-student ratios in accordance with new budget constraints. We find no evidence that student learning was affected in any degree, and limited evidence of migration responses.
Bensnes, S., Huitfeldt, I., Snilsberg, Ø., Telle, K. (2021). Hvem bruker “Fritt behandlingsvalg”? Tidskrift for velferdsforskning, 1, 1-9. [Link]
Andresen, M., Bensnes, S., Løkken, S. (2020). Hva koster det å stenge utdanningssektoren? Beregning av kostnader av smittevernstiltak mot COVID-19 for humankapital, studieprogresjon og produktivitet Samfunnsøkonomen, 2, 51-63. [Link]
Media:
Andresen, M., Bensnes, S., Løkken, S. Hva koster det å stenge utdanningssektoren? Beregning av kostnader av smittevernstiltak mot COVID-19 for humankapital, studieprogresjon og produktivitet. SSB Rapport nr. 15/2020. [Link]
Falch, T., Bensnes, S., Strøm, B. (2016). Skolekvalitet i videregående opplæring. Utarbeidelse ad skolebidragsindikatorer. SØF-rapport nr. 01/16. [Link]