HP426      Half Unit
Applied Health Econometrics

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Most research questions, in health economics require students to apply econometric techniques. This course will introduce these techniques and students exiting the course can expect to have acquired a competency in econometrics as it is applied to health economics. The seminars - which are lab based - will allow students to apply these methods to practical problems using Stata and interpret the results.

This content of this course may be useful to those considering the half unit HP423 Advanced Health Economics. 

15 hours of lectures and 18 hours of workshops in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course will be delivered through a combination of lectures and workshops totalling a minimum 25 hours in Autumn Term. 

There will be a departmental reading week in Week 6 of term.

Data analysis

One formative assessment will require the analysis of some data in STATA and the description of the results.

• Joshua David Angrist, Jorn-Steffen Pischke (2015) Mastering 'Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect. (most relevant to the course)
• Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, (2009) Introductory econometrics: a modern approach, 4th edition.
• Gertler, P. J., Martinez, S., Premand, P., Rawlings, L. B., & Vermeersch, C. M. (2016). Impact evaluation in practice. The World Bank.
• Almond, D. (2006). Is the 1918 influenza pandemic over? Long-term effects of in utero influenza exposure in the post-1940 US population. Journal of political Economy, 114(4), 672-712.

• Almond et al. (2010) “Estimating marginal returns to medical care: Evidence from at-risk newborns” The quarterly journal of economics 125.2 (2010): 591-634.
• Camacho, A. (2008). Stress and birth weight: evidence from terrorist attacks. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 98(2), 511-15.
• Card, David, Carlos Dobkin, and Nicole Maestas. "The impact of nearly universal insurance coverage on health care utilization: evidence from Medicare." American Economic Review 98.5 (2008): 2242-58.
• Carpenter, Christopher, and Carlos Dobkin. "The effect of alcohol consumption on mortality: regression discontinuity evidence from the minimum drinking age." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1.1 (2009): 164-82.
• Carpenter, C., & Dobkin, C. (2011). The minimum legal drinking age and public health. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25(2), 133-56.
• Currie, J., Ray, S. H., & Neidell, M. (2011). Quasi-experimental studies suggest that lowering air pollution levels benefits infants’ and children’s health. Health Affairs, 30(12), 2391-2399.
• Duflo, E. (2001). Schooling and labor market consequences of school construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an unusual policy experiment. American economic review, 91(4), 795-813.
• Finkelstein, A., Taubman, S., Wright, B., Bernstein, M., Gruber, J., Newhouse, J. P., ... & Oregon Health Study Group. (2012). The Oregon health insurance experiment: evidence from the first year. The Quarterly journal of economics, 127(3), 1057-1106.
• Galiani, S., Gertler, P., & Schargrodsky, E. (2005). Water for life: The impact of the privatization of water services on child mortality. Journal of political economy, 113(1), 83-120.
• Powell-Jackson, T., Mazumdar, S., & Mills, A. (2015). Financial incentives in health: New evidence from India’s Janani Suraksha Yojana. Journal of health economics, 43, 154-169.

Research project (100%, 3500 words)

100% Research project (data analysis with STATA and write-up of 3,500 words)