Research

Research Contract: DynamicsHealth

ANR JCJC (2024-2027)

Healthcare needs in France are expected to grow in the next few decades. Aging population, an increase in diseases due to sedentary and poor health behavior (France is one of the European countries with the highest alcohol and tobacco consumption), a shortage of doctors, and the growth of treatment costs associated with innovation are expected to put pressure on the rise of healthcare expenditure. These major issues require a better understanding of how and why healthcare expenditure (HCE) evolves to better anticipate future healthcare needs. Evidence from foreign countries are hardly transposable to the French case, and little is known about the factors of HCE growth in France. Moreover, how these growth factors vary across time is still unknown. The factors driving HCE growth most of the time let aside the role of supply and demand. Thus, little is known, for example, about the impact of doctor shortage on HCE; whether telemedicine addresses medical desert issues; or how public policies can affect HCE.

DynamicsHealth aims to take advantage of the French administrative data that covers exhaustively every health care use for all French residents, to develop a pioneer and comprehensive analysis of how HCE evolves in France and to explain the reasons for these changes on the supply and demand sides. The main objectives are to: (i) describe the evolution of care over 16 years and understand the role of aging, technology, morbidity, and economic factors; (ii) identify the causal impact of supply variation on HCE. I will focus on the closure of doctors' practices and the arrival of new types of supply, such as telemedicine. (iii) Understand how public policies can modify the demand for healthcare by other levers than price. The role of having access to care through or under an insured (child under his parent and spouse under his wife) will be of particular interest because it highlights the role of confidentiality rules on healthcare demand.

Job offers on this contract:

Research Contract: Project BB-FUTURE

Horizon grant (2023-2027)
Join with: Max Planck Institute & Munich Research Institute for the Economic of Ageing; Bruegel; University Carlos III Madrid; Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning McGill University; 

The baby boomers are in the process of retiring. Most are between 60 and 65 when they retire and almost 80% self-assess their health as good. A huge number of research projects has analyzed retirement decisions and the impact of this “pension wave” on the transformation of pension systems in the ageing societies in Europe and elsewhere. There is no lack of pension finance projections and policy advice for pension reforms and their socio-economic effects, including active ageing and the role of elder citizens in transforming our economies into “silver economies”.

Much less is known about the second great transformation that will follow the pension wave. In the mid2030s, the health of the baby boomers will have deteriorated and many in these large cohorts will be in need of formal and/or informal long-term care. This “care wave” will transform two generations: the baby boomers in need of care and their children who may supply care. It will have significant implications for labour supply, especially for women, saving behaviour, and therefore for productivity, economic growth and its inclusiveness.

The overarching objective of BB-Future is to make a concerted effort to understand the size and the implications of the care wave on economic and social outcomes, to appreciate the quality of this second ageing-related transformation and to develop policy recommendations for advance planning on the EU and MS levels.

More information on the project here. 

Job ooffers on this contract:


Working Papers & Work in Progress (Working Paper on Request)


Abstract: We investigate the horizontal inequity in long-term care use in France by income. Horizontal inequity is defined as differences in treatment of individuals with the same needs. To identify the horizontal inequity, we standardised the use of long-term care on needs and informal care access. We find evidence of equity in use of long-term care by income decile, despite a slightly higher use of need-standardised formal care among the wealthiest. We decompose the need-standardised formal care assistance by type of care and find evidence that the inequity in care use for the wealthiest individuals comes mostly from housekeeper and life assistant. Lastly, we find that the public assistance design -- which includes a co-payment proportional to income -- contributes to the equity in the long term care use. 


Abstract: The recent increase in suicide rate in the Unites State among the middle-age white has shed light on research related to suicide. It revives the interest on questions related to the cause of suicide, both at the individual and at the society level. This paper address the question of the role of economic development in explaining suicide. We use a unique dataset of one century of information at the department level on death and economic development. This dataset has never been used before, and allows for the first time to have one century of History to raise the question of the association between suicide rate and economic development at the local level. Thus, it is the first paper to both show that social determinant of suicide evolve across time. France knew a turnaround: before the 60's, the economic development of a region was positively associated with suicide risk while from the 80's the most developed area were those with the lowest suicide rate.