Mireia Jofre-Bonet

Bidding behavior in a repeated procurement auction: A summary

Abstract This paper considers bidding behavior in a repeated procurement auction setting. We study highway procurement data for the state of California between December 1994 and October 1998. We consider a dynamic bidding model that takes into account the presence of intertemporal constraints such as capacity constraints. We estimate the model non-parametrically and assess the presence of dynamic constraints in bidding.

Public health care and private insurance demand: The waiting time as a link

This paper analyzes the effect of waiting times in the Spanish public health system on the demand for private health insurance. Expected utility maximization determines whether or not individuals buy a private health insurance. The decision depends not only on consumers covariates such as income, socio-demographic characteristics and health status, but also on the quality of the treatment by the public provider. We interpret waiting time as a qualitative attribute of the health care provision. The empirical analysis uses the Spanish Health Survey of 1993. We cope with the absence of income data by using the Spanish Family Budget Survey of 1990–91 as a complementary data set, following the Arellano–Meghir method [4]. Results indicate that a reduction in the waiting time lowers the probability of buying private health insurance. This suggests the existence of a crowd-out in the health care provision market.

Value to smokers of improved cessation products: Evidence from a willingness-to-pay survey

The present study demonstrated the use of willingness to pay to value hypothetical new smoking cessation products. Data came from a baseline survey of participants in a clinical trial of medications for smoking cessation (N=356) conducted in New Haven, Connecticut. We analyzed individual willingness to pay for a hypothetical tobacco cessation treatment that is (a) more effective than those currently available and then (b) more effective and attenuates the weight gain often associated with smoking cessation. A majority of the respondents (n=280; 84%) were willing to pay for the more effective treatment, and, of those, 175 (63%) were willing to pay more if the increased effectiveness was accompanied by attenuation of the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. The present study suggests the validity of using willingness-to-pay surveys in assessing the value of new smoking cessation products and products with multifaceted improvements. From these data, we calculated estimates of the value of a quit. For the population studied, this survey suggests a substantial market for more effective smoking cessation treatments.

Burning a hole in the budget: tobacco spending and its crowd-out of other goods.

Smoking is an expensive habit. Smoking households spend, on average, more than

Health care: private and/or public provision

US1000 annually on cigarettes. When a family member quits, in addition to the former smoker’s improved long-term health, families benefit because savings from reduced cigarette expenditures can be allocated to other goods. For households in which some members continue to smoke, smoking expenditures crowd-out other purchases, which may affect other household members, as well as the smoker. We empirically analyse how expenditures on tobacco crowd-out consumption of other goods, estimating the patterns of substitution and complementarity between tobacco products and other categories of household expenditure. We use the Consumer Expenditure Survey data for the years 1995–2001, which we complement with regional price data and state cigarette prices. We estimate a consumer demand system that includes several main expenditure categories (cigarettes, food, alcohol, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care) and controls for socioeconomic variables and other sources of observable heterogeneity. Descriptive data indicate that, comparing smokers to nonsmokers, smokers spend less on housing. Results from the demand system indicate that as the price of cigarettes rises, households increase the quantity of food purchased, and, in some samples, reduce the quantity of apparel and housing purchased.

A comparison of the sensitivity of EQ-5D, SF-6D and TTO utility values to changes in vision and perceived visual function in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

Abstract This paper studies the interaction of private and public health care providers. I present a model, which acknowledges that consumers differ in their income levels. Health care is provided by a public firm maximizing social welfare and/or private providers maximizing profits. The decision process of firms consists of three stages: entry choice, selection of health care quality and quantity produced. With mixed provision, in equilibrium, the private provider serves the high quality demand, and the public supplier serves the low quality demand. Mixed provision results in a welfare improvement compared to the strictly private regime, and is less costly than a purely public regime.

Creating an Aggregate Outcome Index: Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Substance Abuse Treatment

BackgroundEconomic viability of treatments for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) should be assessed objectively to prioritise health care interventions. This study aims to identify the methods for eliciting utility values (UVs) most sensitive to differences in visual field and visual functioning in patients with POAG. As a secondary objective, the dimensions of generic health-related and vision-related quality of life most affected by progressive vision loss will be identified.MethodsA total of 132 POAG patients were recruited. Three sets of utility values (EuroQoL EQ-5D, Short Form SF-6D, Time Trade Off) and a measure of perceived visual functioning from the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25) were elicited during face-to-face interviews. The sensitivity of UVs to differences in the binocular visual field, visual acuity and visual functioning measures was analysed using non-parametric statistical methods.ResultsMedian utilities were similar across Integrated Visual Field score quartiles for EQ-5D (P = 0.08) whereas SF-6D and Time-Trade-Off UVs significantly decreased (p = 0.01 and p = 0.001, respectively). The VFQ-25 score varied across Integrated Visual Field and binocular visual acuity groups and was associated with all three UVs (P ≤ 0.001); most of its vision-specific sub-scales were associated with the vision markers. The most affected dimension was driving. A relationship with vision markers was found for the physical component of SF-36 and not for any dimension of EQ-5D.ConclusionsThe Time-Trade-Off was more sensitive than EQ-5D and SF-6D to changes in vision and visual functioning associated with glaucoma progression but could not measure quality of life changes in the mildest disease stages.

Anorexia, Body Image and Peer Effects: Evidence from a Sample of European Women

This article proposes a method of calculating a practical index of improvement for conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis of substance abuse treatment. While the methodology of cost-effectiveness analysis necessitates the use of a single outcome measure, substance abuse treatment can produce multiple, important outcomes that must be considered in policy decisions about funding and alternative treatments. Thus, there is a need to aggregate the variety of outcomes from substance abuse treatment into a single index. The proposed index is a preference-weighted sum of outcomes using data from the Addiction Severity Index. The methodology and use of the index for conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis are illustrated using Addiction Severity Index data from a controlled quasi-experimental field study of case management.

Estimating quality-adjusted life years from patient-reported visual functioning

Excessive preoccupation with self�?image (or identity) is regarded as a factor contributing to the proliferation of food disorders, especially among young women. This paper models how self�?image and peer effects influence health�?related behaviours, specifically food disorders. We empirically test our claims using data from the Eurobarometer Survey. Our findings suggest that the larger peers’ body mass, the lower the likelihood of being anorexic. Self�?image is correlated with body weight. We use several definitions of peers’ body mass, and find that all are negatively associated with the likelihood of women being thin or extremely thin.

An economic comparison of hospital-based and community-based glaucoma clinics

PurposeGlaucoma is an important disease, the impacts of which on vision have been shown to have implications for patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The primary aim of this study is to estimate a mapping algorithm to predict EQ-5D and SF-6D utility values based on the vision-specific measure, the 25-item Visual Functioning Questionnaire (VFQ-25), as well as the clinical measures of visual function, that is, integrated visual field, visual acuity, and contrast sensitivity.MethodsOrdinary least squares (OLS), Tobit, and censored least absolute deviations were compared using data taken from the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, to assess mapping functions to predict the EQ-5D and SF-6D from the VFQ-25, and tests of visual function. These models were compared using root mean square error (RMSE), R2, and mean absolute error (MAE).ResultsOLS was the best-performing model of the three compared, as this produced the lowest RMSE and MAE, and the highest R2.ConclusionsThe models provided initial algorithms to convert the VFQ-25 to the EQ-5D and SF-6D. Further analysis would be needed to validate the models or algorithms.