Research

Life After Loss: The Causal Effect of Parental Death on Daughters' Fertility

with Felix Glaser

Using Austrian administrative data, this study examines the causal effect of parental death on daughters’ fertility through a difference-in-differences approach. The findings indicate that parental death leads to quantitatively insignificant changes in the number of children and the probability of childlessness. Complementary analyses show no substantial effects on labor market participation, residential mobility, or long-term mental health. The evidence suggests that fertility decisions remain largely unaffected by the logistical and emotional challenges of parental loss, highlighting the resilience of reproductive choices to external life shocks. 

In: Journal of Population Economics, 2025, 38:6

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Healthcare Utilization and Outcomes in Atrial Fibrillation Patients Treated by Drug Therapy versus a Catheter Ablation Strategy - A Middle European Propensity Matched Cohort Study

with Martin Martinek, Harry J. G. M. Crijns, Barbara A. B. Essers & Gerald Pruckner 

Background and Aims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent arrhythmia, associated with increased mortality and morbidity and causing relevant costs. Treatment options consist of catheter ablation (PVI) and rate or rhythm control drugs (non-PVI). Methods: We analyze inpatient and outpatient data from the Upper Austrian Health Insurance Fund. Data of patients with a first hospitalization for AF in the years 2005 to 2018 were examined, using propensity score matching (PSM) including all CHA2DS2-VASc variables and working “collar”. Results: Out of 21,791 AF patients, PSM identified 1013 well-matching pairs (PVI and non-PVI). Over a ten-year period, the PVI treatment strategy group reveals significantly higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures (€2200/year). Positive economic effects can be demonstrated by a 5.1 percentage points (pp) higher employment rate and fewer retirements (7.6pp). Of utmost important is the 5.8pp all-cause mortality reduction over 10 years in the PVI treatment strategy. Conclusions: A PVI based treatment strategy results in higher healthcare expenditures vs. drug therapy alone. Most of these higher costs were caused by the PVI procedures during this period. Thus, more effective and efficient methods are needed to further reduce costs for the intervention and prevent repeat procedures. The benefit of a PVI treatment strategy is seen in higher employment rates, which are crucial from a societal perspective and should be a strong argument for caregivers. We show a significant reduction in all-cause mortality, which we partly attribute to the PVI procedure itself, to a stricter risk factor assessment and treatment, and a tighter medical adherence. 

In: Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease, 2022, 9(12)

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Sick Happens: The Effect of Worker Health Shocks on Coworkers' Employment and Health Behavior

with Wolfgang Frimmel

We analyze how a worker's severe health shock affects the employment and health behavior of their older coworkers. We link comprehensive administrative data on labor market histories and health records from Austria to identify coworker networks and severe health shocks in small firms, which cause substantial increases in healthcare expenditures, absenteeism, and mortality, as well as persistent reductions in the labor supply of affected workers. Combining a matching approach with a difference-in-difference framework, we find a significant impact of a health shock on the labor market outcomes and health behavior of older coworkers. Affected coworkers are about 2.3 percentage points more likely to be employed in the shock firm and tend to delay retirement. Although there is no change in daily earnings and earnings growth, coworkers are more likely to receive special bonus payments after leaving the firm. The employment effects are larger when the health shock affects a high-skilled worker and when the shocked worker leaves the firm after the health shock. Finally, we find that female coworkers in the treatment group are more likely to have a mammography, especially in response to health shocks due to cancer. We find no statistically significant effects on participation in general health check-ups and PSA tests, or on coworker absenteeism.

Working Paper Download (Version: October 2024): [JKU Working Paper]

External Pay Transparency and the Gender Wage Gap

with Wolfgang Frimmel, Bernhard Schmidpeter & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

We show that providing publicly available wage information in vacancies, so-called external pay transparency, can reduce the gender wage gap. There is an increasing interest in pay transparency policies as a tool to combat unequal pay. We exploit a reform of Austria's Equal Treatment Law to evaluate how providing wage information in vacancies affects the gender wage gap. To take into account that the value of providing such external pay information is likely to be heterogeneous along the wage distribution, we implement a Quantile Difference-in-Difference model. The reform led to a small overall reduction of the gender wage gap. Our main results highlight that reductions in the wage gap are larger in circumstances where women are likely to hold  misspecified beliefs about their labor market options and when needing to make job acceptance decisions under pressure. The reduction in the gender wage gap was caused by an increase in women's earnings, particularly at the lower part of the distribution. Earnings of men, on the other side, remained largely constant. Our results lend support to policy proposals aimed at increasing external pay transparency. 

Working Paper Download (Version: June 2023): [IZA]

Media: Die Presse

The Austrian Healthcare System: Changes and Challenges

with Alexander Ahammer & Katrin Zocher

We study the sustainability of the Austrian healthcare system. In the first part of the chapter, we provide background on the state of the Austrian healthcare sector. In the second part, we review major healthcare interventions that recently took place in Austria, discussing their effectiveness and implications for sustainability. In the third part, we address five public health challenges that are particularly interesting in the Austrian context: ageing, risky health behaviours, healthcare access in rural areas, refugees and infectious disease epidemics. 

In: Baltagi, B.H. and Moscone, F. (Ed.): The Sustainability of Health Care Systems in Europe (Contributions to Economic Analysis, Vol. 295), Emerald Publishing Limited 

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