Quantifying the human impact of Melbourne's 111-day hard lockdown experiment on the adult population.

Lockdown was used worldwide to mitigate the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and was the cornerstone non-pharmaceutical intervention of zero-COVID strategies. Many previous impact evaluations of lockdowns are unreliable because lockdowns co-occurred with severe coronavirus disease related health and financial insecurities. This was not the case in Melbourne's 111-day lockdown, which left other Australian jurisdictions unaffected.

Mortality inequality, spatial differences and health care access.

Although Australia maintains relatively high standards of health and healthcare, there exists disparity in health outcomes and longevity among different segments of the population. Internationally, there is growing evidence that life expectancy gains are not being shared equally among the rich and the poor. In this paper we examine the evolution of mortality inequality in Australia between 2001 and 2018.

Waiting to get a pension: The impact of pension eligibility on psychological distress.

In this paper, we examine how pension eligibility affects the psychological distress levels of older women in Australia by exploiting the exogenous changes in the eligibility ages of the old Age Pension (AP). The unique features of the Australian AP allow us to study the impact of the reform on the non-working, as well as on the working population. The empirical results show that pension eligibility has a modest but consistently beneficial effect on psychological stress levels.

Payment mechanism and hospital admission: New evidence from Thailand healthcare reform.

In 2007, Thailand's Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS), one of the three main public health insurers, adopted a new payment mechanism for hospital admission. There has been a shift from fee-for-service toward Diagnostic Related Group (DRG)-based payment that transfers financial risk from the government to health care providers. This study investigates the effects of this policy change on hospital admission, frequency of admission, length of stay (LOS), type of hospital admitted, and out-of-pocket (OOP) inpatient medical expenditure.

Lives saved during economic downturns: Evidence from Australia.

Worldwide, countries have been restricting work and social activities to counter the emerging public health crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic. These measures have caused dramatic increases in unemployment. Some commentators argue that the "draconian measures" will do more harm than good due to the economic contraction, despite a large literature that finds mortality rates decline during recessions.

The effect of bereavement on cognitive functioning among elderly people: Evidence from Australia.

This paper explores the effects of experiencing the death of a spouse, relative or close friend on cognitive functioning of Australian elderly. Using rich longitudinal data, we show that experiencing a loss is associated with a modest decline in cognitive function. Our results show that on average the effects are more pronounced for males and the strongest effects are associated with the loss of the spouse or a close friend.

Billing system and health care utilization: Evidence from Thailand.

We examined the role of billing processes in health care utilization by exploiting a shift in provider payment from fee-for-service reimbursement towards fee-for-service direct disbursement for outpatient services in Thailand. Specifically, prior to October 2006, affected patients had to pay the full cost of outpatient treatment and subsequently received reimbursement; thereafter, these payments can be sent directly to the providers, without patients having to pay anything upfront. By using nationally representative micro-data and a difference-in-difference methodology, we show that the direct disbursement policy leads to an increase in outpatient utilization among the sick.

The effect of retirement on elderly cognitive functioning.

Cognitive functioning exhibits a clear lifecycle pattern with a general deterioration over older ages. This article estimates the short-term effect of retirement on cognitive performance of elderly Australians by exploiting the exogenous variation in retirement decisions induced by changes in social security eligibility rules. The empirical results show that on average retirement has a negative but modest effect on cognition, and the rate of cognitive decline with age is greater for men than women.

Effects of house prices on health: New evidence from Australia.

Recent house price variation has strongly affected households' housing wealth and debt, yet the non-economic consequences of these changes in housing wealth are still poorly understood. Using a sample of 19,000 individuals from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) for 2001-2015, we examine the relationship between house price fluctuations and individual health by exploiting large exogenous changes in house prices in Australia. We find that an increase in local house prices is associated with a positive effect on the physical health of outright owners and a negative effect on the physical and mental health of renters.