Publications by authors named "Jonathan Spiteri"

The accumulation of wealth by households is an essential contributor towards macroeconomic and financial stability and resilience, while also affecting social mobility. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between household wealth and the receipt of inheritances and intergenerational transfers. We use detailed micro-level data from the 2017 vintage of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for households across the Euro Area in order to explore this relationship in detail, analyzing various classes of assets and liabilities, together with inflows of inheritances and gifts between 2014 and 2017, as well as any associated wealth effects.

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The role of the media as a source of reliable health information during the COVID-19 pandemic has come under intense scrutiny, with claims of misinformation and partisanship coming from all sides of the political divide. This paper seeks to understand the relationship between exposure to biased media outlets and the likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 in the USA. I use detailed household data extracted from the 2020 American National Election Study in order to gauge media consumption patterns, coupled with data on media bias scores for different outlets and programmes.

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The impact of economic growth on health outcomes has generated various conflicting results in recent years, particularly with the emergence of cardiovascular disease as one of the most salient global health issues. This paper looks at the relationship between economic development and health outcomes. We first estimate an empirical model using data on annual cardiovascular disease mortality in a panel of 27 European countries, over the period 2003 to 2014, together with per capita GDP levels in each country.

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Objective: To develop and evaluate a low-cost computer-based tool to elicit dietary choices in an incentive compatible manner, which can be used on-line or as part of a laboratory study.

Methods: The study was conducted with around 255 adults. Respondents were asked to allocate a fixed monetary budget across a choice of around a hundred grocery items with the prospect of receiving these items with some probability delivered to their home by a real supermarket.

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In this study, we analyzed healthcare provision and health expenditure across six Mediterranean countries that adopt the National Health System (Beveridge model) and that form part of the European Union (EU) with the main aim being that of analyzing and comparing out-of-pocket health spending in countries with a European Mediterranean connection. To this end, we considered various economic indicators and statistics to derive commonalities and differences across these countries and also compared trends in these indicators to those observed across the rest of the EU. We then analyzed these findings in light of other data related to the quality of healthcare delivery and the infrastructure of the health system and discussed recent developments in healthcare within each country and the main challenges faced by the respective health systems.

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