Australian Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar 

University of Melbourne - University of New South Wales - University of Sydney - University of Technology Sydney -  University of Queensland 

Semester 2 - 2022

Welcome back to the Virtual Australian Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar Series! We are now entering our third season. This event is organised by A/Professor Victoria Baranov (UMelb), Dr Sarah Walker (UNSW), Professor Stefanie Schurer (USyd), Dr Rebecca McKibbin (USyd), Professor Adeline Delavande (UTS), and Professor Brenda Gannon (UQ). 

The seminar series is open to the public. Sign up HERE for mailing list.

When, How  Long & How to Access? We meet every second Wednesday for 60 minutes.  The start time  depends on the speaker (but no later than 4 pm Sydney/Melbourne time). Reminder emails will be sent out via email. Questions? Please email Stefanie Schurer University of Sydney who is this semesters overall coordinator of the series for questions.

10 Aug- 9 AM Manasi Deshpande (University of Chicago) Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/89572402478  Title: The (Lack of) Anticipatory Effects of the Social Safety Net on Human Capital Investment. Abstract: How does the expectation of government benefits in adulthood affect human capital investments in childhood? In a simple economic model, expected future benefits decrease childhood human capital investments through income and substitution effects. The experts we surveyed also predicted a large decrease. We test this prediction by conducting a randomized controlled trial with families of children who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a cash welfare program for children and adults with disabilities. The vast majority of parents whose children receive SSI overestimate the likelihood that their child will receive SSI benefits in adulthood. We provide randomly-selected families with information on the predicted likelihood that their child will receive SSI benefits in adulthood and use this randomized information shock to identify the effect of expectations about future benefits. We find that reducing the expectation that children will receive benefits in adulthood does not increase investments in children's human capital. This zero effect is precisely estimated, and we strongly reject the positive null hypothesis from our expert survey. Leading explanations for the zero effect include parents' plans to increase their own work effort, and parents making resource-constrained investment decisions based at least partly on non-financial goals. 

24 Aug- 9.30 AM  Alessandra Voena (Stanford University) Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/86228608107 Title: Gendered spheres of learning and household decision making over fertility. Abstract: While men and women often make joint decisions about fertility, it is typically women who give birth. This gives rise to gendered spheres of costs and, potentially, information. We develop a model in which information asymmetries over maternal health risk can persist between spouses in equilibrium and affect fertility outcomes. To empirically study the role of these information asymmetries, we conduct an experiment on couples in Zambia, varying whether the husband or wife receives information about maternal health risk. At baseline, husbands have significantly lower awareness of maternal mortality risk factors than wives. One year postintervention, husbands exhibit significant gains in knowledge of maternal risk, but only when the information is delivered directly to them. Wives’ risk awareness increases regardless of which spouse is given the information. Importantly, households treated with information on maternal risk experience a sizable reduction in the probability of pregnancy. However, only when the information is delivered directly to husbands is the change in fertility uncompensated with transfers, and accompanied by an improvement in marital satisfaction. These findings suggest that strategic communication concerns underpin persistent information asymmetries, likely intensifying spousal disagreement over fertility, and thereby increasing fertility itself, in settings with high maternal health risk.

7 Sep - 9 AM Marcella Alsan (Harvard University)  Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/88452467088 Title: Representation and Legitimacy: Evidence from Clinical Trials. Abstract: Does lack of representation in the innovative process affect views on the value of product innovations --- i.e., the technology's legitimacy? We test this hypothesis in the setting of clinical trials. Pharmaceutical firms naturally choose the most expeditious ways of meeting regulatory requirements, including accruing a rapidly recruitable sample of patients to clinical trials. In practice, this ``business as usual" approach routinely results in low enrollment of Black patients for U.S. drug approval. In this paper, we investigate why racial under-representation persists and  the consequences of this for the perceived legitimacy of clinical trial findings among physicians and patients. Results from our two survey experiments -- one for patients and one for physicians -- suggest that clinical trial evidence generated from representative samples is valued over and above the safety and efficacy of the drug itself. These results are driven by Black patients and the physicians who care for them.

12 Oct - 9 AM Gautam Rao (Harvard University) https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/89889955174 Title: The Long-Run Effects of Psychotherapy on Depression, Beliefs, and Economic Outcomes Abstract: We revisit two clinical trials that randomized depressed adults in India (n=775) to a brief course of psychotherapy or a control condition. Four to five years later, the treatment group had 11 percentage points less depression than the control group. The more effective intervention averted 9 months of depression on average over five years and cost only $66. Therapy changed people's beliefs about themselves in three ways. First, it reduced their likelihood of seeing themselves as a failure or feeling bad about themselves. Second, when faced with a novel work opportunity, therapy reduced over-optimistic belief updating and thus reduced overconfidence. Third, it increased self-assessed levels of patience and altruism. Therapy did not increase levels of employment or consumption, possibly because of other constraints on employment in the largely female study sample.

Missed the talk? Here is the recording: LINK

9 Nov - 9 AM Lance Lochner (University of Western Ontario)  https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/88568232182 Title: The Consumption Value of College. Abstract: This paper uses the Euler equation and novel data from Berea College students on their consumption expenditures during and after college, desired borrowing amounts, beliefs about post-college earnings, and elicited risk-aversion and time preference parameters to determine their consumption value of college attendance.  Estimates suggest an average annual consumption value of college as high as $15,110 with considerable heterogeneity across students.  Accounting for these benefits raises the average expected return to college by as much as 18% and substantially lowers the estimated willingness-to-pay for higher student loan limits.

23 Nov - No seminar 

7 Dec- 9 AM Berk Özler (World Bank Development Research Group). Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/83819007375 Title: Can personalized digital counseling improve consumer search for modern contraceptive methods? . Abstract: Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are highly effective in preventing unintended pregnancies, but like many promising modern technologies take-up remains low. This paper analyzes a randomized controlled trial of a personalized digital counseling intervention addressing informational constraints and choice architecture, cross-randomized with discounts for LARCs. The counseling intervention encourages shared decision-making (SDM) using a tablet-based app, which provides a tailored ranking of modern methods to each client according to their elicited needs and preferences. Take-up of LARCs in the status quo regime at full price was 11%, which increased to 28% with discounts. SDM roughly tripled the share of clients adopting a LARC at full price to 35% and discounts had no incremental impact in this group. Consistent with theoretical models of consumer search, SDM clients evaluated more methods, which led to higher adoption rates for second- or lower-ranked LARCs. Our findings suggest that low-cost individualized recommendations can potentially be as effective in increasing unfamiliar technology adoption as providing large subsidies.

14 Dec - 10 AM Prashant Bharadwaj (University of California, San Diego). Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/87514130035 . Title: Towns and Rural Land Inequality in India. Abstract: Using the universe of land records from a large state in India, we document three empirical facts on rural land holding inequality at the village-level: 1) inequality is higher close to urban areas and decreases with distance, 2) this is due to fewer medium-sized farms (i.e. more small and large farms near urban areas), and 3) the distance to urban area-land holding inequality relationship depends on the size of the urban area - larger the urban area, greater the inequality close to such towns. A simple model where individual farmers face financial frictions, a U-shaped agriculture production function linking land size and farm productivity, and a significant urban opportunity cost of farm production, explains these patterns. While medium-sized farmers exit agriculture and large farmers consolidate, financial and land market frictions are key factors behind the preponderance of small farms even near towns.