How important are tobacco prices in the propensity to start and quit smoking? An analysis of smoking histories from the Spanish National Health Survey

This paper analyses the effect of tobacco prices on the propensity to start and quit smoking using a pool of the 1993, 1995 and 1997 editions of the Spanish National Health Surveys. The estimates for several parametric models of the hazard rate for starting and quitting suggest that i) The public health measures applied as of 1992 have had a significative effect on both reducing the hazard of starting and increasing the hazard of quitting, ii) Prices have a very weak effect on the hazard of starting in the male population and no significant effect in the female population, iii) The price floor of cigarrettes, proxied by the average price of a pack of black cigarrettes, has a significant effect on the quitting hazard which is robust across specifications and applies to both men and women. The implied price elasticity of the time up to quitting is situated around -1.4.Smoking, taxes, health, care

Unobserved heterogeneity and censoring in the demand for health care

This paper analyses the demand for private health care by Spanish households using a micro budget survey. The methodology used takes care of the three part decision process involved in this type of behaviour, namely the decision to use private health care, how often to do so and how much to spend each time and also the effects of unobserved heterogeneity. Since the theoretical framework corresponds to the Grossman model of health investment, the results also provide a test of the theory when these issues are considered. Finally, the obtained evidence also suggest that the current system of tax deductions for private health care expenditures is regressive.Health, microeconometrics

Are tax subsidies for private medical insurance self-financing? Evidence from a microsimulation model for outpatient and inpatient episodes

This paper analyses whether or not tax subsidies to private medical insurance are self-financing by means of a structural approach. We construct a simulation routine based on a microeconometric discrete choice model that allows us to evaluate the impact of premium changes on the utilisation of outpatient and inpatient health care services. We simulate the 1999 Spanish tax reform that abolished the tax deduction for expenditures on private health insurance using a representative sample of the Catalan population. Prior to this reform, foregone tax revenue arising from deductions after the purchase of private insurance amounted to €69.2 M. per year. In contrast, the elimination of the subsidies to private policies is estimated to generate an extra cost for the public sector of about €8.9 M. per year.Health care utilisation, structural modelling, tax reform evaluation

The importance of individual heterogeneity in the decomposition of measures of socioeconomic inequality in health: An approach based on quantile regression

This paper shows how recently developed regression-based methods for the decomposition of health inequality can be extended to incorporate individual heterogeneity in the responses of health to the explanatory variables. We illustrate our method with an application to the Canadian NPHS of 1994. Our strategy for the estimation of heterogeneous responses is based on the quantile regression model. The results suggest that there is an important degree of heterogeneity in the association of health to explanatory variables which, in turn, accounts for a substantial percentage of inequality in observed health. A particularly interesting finding is that the marginal response of health to income is zero for healthy individuals but positive and significant for unhealthy individuals. The heterogeneity in the income response reduces both overall health inequality and income related health inequality.Health inequalities, unobserved heterogeneity, quantile regression

Efectos de la concentración y competencia en la eficiencia del sistema portuario español

Treballs Finals del Màster Universitari d'Economia, Regulació i Competència als Serveis Públics (ERCSP), Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2013-2014, Tutora: Marta González Aregall ; Director: Xavier FagedaEste trabajo desarrolla un análisis de la actual situación de la eficiencia de los puertos en España. La hipótesis con la que se trabaja es que el número de puertos en una determinada área, afecta negativamente a la eficiencia de los mismos. En primer lugar se procede a realizar una medición de la eficiencia portuaria española de los últimos años. En una segunda etapa se crean índices que midan el grado de concentración y competencia. Por último, se crea un modelo de regresión de datos de panel mediante Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios para el período de 2008 a 2012. Se estima la eficiencia portuaria a través de variables de tráfico y tamaño, junto con variables de concentración y competencia. De esta manera, se identifica y mide cómo afectan estas variables a la eficiencia del sector. Según los resultados obtenidos, la concentración y la competencia portuaria afectan negativamente a la eficiencia