An Empirical Analysis of Income Elasticity of Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure in Mauritius

A free universal healthcare provision exists in Mauritius. Yet the share of out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure out of total household expenditure has been growing over time. This study estimates income elasticity of out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure using Mauritian household data within an Engel curve framework. In the absence of longitudinal data on out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure patterns, the study proposes the application of the pseudo-panel approach using cross-sectional Household Budget Survey waves from 1996/97 to 2017. Income elasticity of out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure is estimated to be 0.938, which is just below unity. This implies that out-of-pocket healthcare demand is not considered to be a luxury, but a necessity in Mauritius. In order to see the differences in income elasticities by income groups, separate regressions are estimated for each income quartile over different years. The results indicate that income elasticities of out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure vary non-monotonically.

La participación en actividades deportivas en Colombia: enfoque empírico desde la economía, 2008-2015

El deporte es una actividad esencial para promover la calidad de vida y un notorio movilizador de recursos económicos. Esta investigación identifica y analiza los determinantes de la decisión de participar en actividades deportivas en las cinco ciudades principales de Colombia durante el periodo 2008-2015. A partir de una base de microdatos de hogares se estiman modelos tipo probit aplicados a un pseudo-panel: uno para actividades físicas y deportivas, y otro, para espectadores. Las variables tradicionales como ingreso y tiempo de ocio, y en especial, factores estructurales como género, estratificación, pobreza y capital social explican las amplias brechas de acceso en las principales urbes colombianas.

Working Still Harder

The authors use data from the British Skills and Employment Surveys to document and to try to account for sustained work intensification between 2001 and 2017. They estimate the determinants of work intensity, first using four waves of the pooled cross-section data, then using a constructed pseudo-panel of occupation–industry cells. The latter approach suggests biases in cross-section models of work intensity, associated with unobserved fixed effects in specific occupations and industries. The pseudo-panel analysis can account for slightly more than half (51%) of work intensification using variables that measure effort-biased technological change, effort-biased organizational change, the growing requirement for learning new things, and the rise of self-employment. The authors interpret the work intensification and these effects within a power-resources framework.