In this episode of EcoEchoes, we speak with Professor Job van Exel, a health economist, director of research at ESHPM, and the original founder of this podcast. We discuss the challenges in defining and measuring informal caregiving, especially for incorporating it into economic evaluations and then to further down the line inform policy. For example, we talk about the distinctions between objective and subjective burden, and the different assumptions and potential biases in different valuation approaches (proxy good, opportunity cost, contingent valuation, perseverance time). In the final part of the episode, Job reflects on his career trajectory, the role of luck and curiosity, and gives advice for early-stage researchers on career planning and embracing opportunities.   Guest: Job van Exel, Professor of Health Economics at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM), Erasmus University RotterdamHost: Fanny Tallgren, Andrea De Palma   If you are interested in reading more about this topic, then this paper summarizes work done at ESHPM in terms of measuring and valuing the impact of patient interventions on informal carers. In this paper, you can learn more about the perseverance time measure, and in this paper, how to use a discrete choice experiment to determine the value of an hour of time caregiving. This paper describes how to include broader effects of caregiving in an economic evaluation of a patient intervention using a measure that is compatible with how effects are measured in patients (and the healthcare perspective). This paper shows how to estimate caregiver time using information that is typically available in clinical trials: the EQ-5D scores of patients and their gender. 

This episode’s guest is Danae Arroyos-Calvera, Associate Professor in Behavioural and Experimental Economics at the University of Birmingham. She discusses her research on cooperation, moral wiggle room, and plausible deniability in public goods games. The conversation explores the challenge of translating lab findings to policy, the importance of publishing null results, and the balance between image, incentives, and fairness in human behaviour.In the final part, Danae shares advice for early-career researchers on trusting the process, asking for what you need, and handling tough seminar questions with confidence. Guest: Danae Arroyos-Calvera, Associate Professor, University of BirminghamHost: Fanny Tallgren, Andrea De Palma Timestamps:(00:20) Danae’s research background in behavioural economics(07:25) The “Limits of Moral Wiggle Room” experiment(23:00) Results and implications(27:00) From lab to policy and the value of null results(42:00) Advice for PhD students and young researchers

In this episode, Yubraj Acharya discusses his paper ‘Reducing Non-Prescription Antibiotics Use through Community Education in Low-Income Countries’. He sheds light on the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and shares about the intervention he conducted in Nepal, aimed at reducing non-prescribed antibiotic use among parents of children. Guest: Yubraj Acharya, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Administration and Demography at Pennsylvania State University, The United States. Hosts: Fanny Tallgren, Karen Trujillo Jara Timestamps: 0:36 Meet our guest: Yubraj Acharya 06:00 Drivers of antibiotics use in community contexts 11:40 Series of work conducted on Antimicrobial Resistance 12:30 Components of the study intervention in Nepal 21:50 Findings  33:10 Considerations for scaling up a similar study in other settings 37:00 Experience of living in Rotterdam

In this episode, Judith Bom and Gaia Bagnasco discuss their latest paper mapping care pathways for people in their last 6 years before death with dementia in the Netherlands. You can find the paper here. First, we talk about why studying ageing and dementia matters and how the Dutch long-term care system works. We then move on to discuss what their latent class analysis reveals about three distinct care trajectories: the late formal care group, the mixed care group and the early nursing home group. We also talk about the important roles of informal care, income, gender and the home environment in predicting these pathways. Finally, we discuss their upcoming research on dementia-friendly housing and cross-country comparisons. Guest: Judith Bom (Assistant professor) and Gaia Bagnasco (PhD), both in health economics at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management Hosts: Fanny Tallgren, Dyllis De Pessemier Mentioned resources: Dementie in kaart 

This episode’s guest is Anna Stirner, a PhD Candidate in Health Economics at the University of Cologne. She discusses her experimental study on physicians’ use of therapeutic decision support (DS) systems in pediatric antibiotic prescribing, examining how access, effort costs, and quality incentives shape uptake and care quality. The conversation explores the challenge of antibiotic overprescription, how younger versus more experienced physicians respond to DS, and policy implications for integrating DS into clinical practice. At the end, Anna also shares her next research steps and gives advice to PhD students. Guest: Anna Stirner, PhD Candidate, University of CologneHost: Andrea De Palma Timestamps: (00:13) Anna’s research background and interest in decision support (02:40) Decision support systems in German healthcare (04:01) Research design and experimental setup (12:54) Main results: effort costs, incentives, and uptake (15:20) Case severity, physician experience, and heterogeneity (21:00) Policy takeaways and implementation challenges (23:52) Future research directions and advice for PhD students

Episode Description This episode’s guest is Vahid, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Erasmus School of Economics. His work is focused on the intersection between labor and health economics. In this episode, he presents his working paper on childhood mental health effects of early life exposure to paternal job loss. The discussion sheds light on a critical aspect of job loss and how this scenario can hit harder on families by emotional and psychological challenges.   Guest: Vahid Moghani, Postdoctoral Researcher, Erasmus School of Economics. Host: Fanny Tallgren Timestamps: (06:02) Introduction to the study: job loss and effects on people (10:14) Details on the dataset used (e.g., sample characteristics) (21:40) Main findings of the study related to children’s medication use (29:51) Reflections on policy implications (35:50) Causal random forest as an alternative method to assess heterogeneity (42:18) Recommendations on the use of AI in the scientific field

This episode’s guest is Professor Hans van Kippersluis from Erasmus School of Economics. He discusses his working paper “Skipping your workout, again? Measuring and understanding time inconsistency in physical activity”, co-authored with Diarmaid Ó Ceallaigh and Kirsten Rohde. The paper studies time inconsistency in physical activity using survey data from the Dutch Lifelines cohort. They find that participants not only overestimate but also underestimate their future exercise. We talk about why present bias may not be the only explanation for the misalignment between intentions and behaviour, and how it may not be a stable personality trait. Hans also explains the use of choice matching to incentivise honest survey responses. Finally, we discuss how to write well-structured papers, the use of econometric methods for causal inference, and how Hans keeps up with developments in the econometrics literature. Guest: Hans van Kippersluis, Professor of Applied Economics at Erasmus School of EconomicsHosts: Fanny Tallgren & Prithviraj Basu Mallik Timestamps: (00:23) Introduction to Professor Hans and his research journey(03:43) Motivation for the study on physical activity and time inconsistency(08:21) Choice matching method to incentivise honest survey responses(13:33) Key findings of the paper(30:40) How to write a good economics paper(39:05) Causal inference and staying up to date with econometrics

This episode’s guest is Amal Ahmad, an Assistent Professor at the Development Economics group at Wageningen University. She presents her working paper on the effect of early mother's marriage on child growth in India. The authors explore this causal relationship using age at menarche as an instrumental variable. The conversation discusses the data and methods used, as well as policy implications and their political feasibility in the Indian context. Guest: Amal Ahmad, Assistent Professor, Development Economics group, Wageningen University Hosts: Prithviraj Basu Mallik & Dyllis De Pessemier

This episode's guest is Michael Haylock, a health economist now working in consulting after a postdoc at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He presents his paper “Improving the availability of stem cell donors,  a letter and email intervention” which looks at the effects of a behavioural intervention to reduce attrition among registered donors. We talk about the importance and logistics of stem cell donation, how commitment nudges can help identify more reliable donors, and the challenges of working with large registries. Michael also discusses a second paper on pro-social workplace behaviour, showing how leadership and personality shape helping cultures. The working paper is titled "Helping in the Workplace: The Role of Leadership and Employee Personality and Preferences". The episode ends with reflections on PhD life advice and transitioning to consultancy.  Guest: Michael Haylock, Health Economist at bcmed GmbHHosts: Fanny Tallgren & Prithviraj Basu MallikDisclaimer: The views expressed are Michael’s own and do not represent those of his current or previous institutions. Timestamps: (00:23) Introduction to Michael Haylock and his research background (03:56) What is the bone marrow registry and why stem cell donation matters (08:29) How the donor–patient matching and international coordination works (13:16) High attrition rates among registered donors and behavioural intervention design (18:03) Summary of key findings: commitment nudges and donor reliability (30:13) Second paper: helping behaviour in the workplace and leadership roles (36:00) Trust, altruism, and personality as drivers of workplace cooperation (43:39) Transitioning from academia to consulting: motivation and differences (51:00) Productivity advice for PhD students and research workflow tips

This episode’s guest is Benjamin Chibuye, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Danish Centre for Health Economics (DaCHE) in Department of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark. He presents his working paper on physician altruism and opioid prescribing, focusing on how Danish general practitioners respond to national guidelines in light of their professional motivations. The conversation explores the complexities of health provider behaviour, the role of public service motivation, and the broader policy implications for addressing opioid overuse. Guest: Benjamin Chibuye, Postdoctoral Researcher, Danish Centre for Health Economics, University of Southern Denmark Hosts: Fanny Tallgren & Andrea De Palma Timestamps: (01:05) Benjamin’s academic journey and research interests in development and health economics (06:08) Study overview: physician altruism, opioid guidelines, and the double agency problem (14:16) Measuring altruism through survey data and linking it to prescribing behaviour (20:00) Analytical strategy: using registry data and a difference-in-differences design (27:25) Why physician heterogeneity matters for health policy effectiveness (32:57) Reflections on the supply side of the opioid crisis and advice for early-career researchers  

This one is for the experimental economists. Fanny shares her experience attending the Economic Science Association’s European Meeting in Helsinki in September 2024. This was Fanny's first experience attending a non-health conference. Listen to find out why the conference is worth attending if you run experiments. The next European meeting will take place in Brno, Czech Republic from Wednesday 3 September until Saturday 6 September 2025. Find out more about the conference by clicking this link. Deadline for submitting an abstract is 5th May.  Also, this episode was recorded back in October 2024, which is before we had a proper studio. Therefore, this episode has rougher audio than in our latest episodes. Thanks for your patience with the sound quality! Timestamps: (0:00) Why try an "econ” conference & what the ESA actually does(2:00) Keynote #1 – Ingvil Almas(4:30) Keynote #2 – Douglas Bernheim(9:20) Keynote #3 – Leonardo Bursztyn (12:00) Special sessions: How to scale experiments with John List and Abhijeet Singh, The importance of reproducibility of experiments, How to get tenure(18:10) The range of experiments presented (Field, lab and online)(21:00) Conference culture—walking tours, beer tasting, reindeer-spotting & Sunday-9 a.m. presentations(24:00) Main take-aways

In this episode we introduce our co-host Dyllis De Pessemier. She briefly introduces herself and shares her experience attending the 34th Alzheimer Europe Conference in Geneva. She presented her first project there, titled "The effect of a person with dementia's permanent nursing home admission on their partner's mental well-being". We also talk about our experiences attending conferences alone.  The next Alzheimer Europe conference will be from 6th to 8th October 2025 in Bologna, Italy. Abstract submission closes 30th April 2025! Link to the conference is here.  

This episode's guest is Benoit Decerf, a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank, presenting his paper named "Attitudes on the trade-off between poverty and longevity". The discussion explores how mortality can be integrated into poverty measurement, the methodology used to estimate people's willingness to trade income for additional years of life, and the implications of these findings for policy and economic modeling. Benoit also shares insights into working at the World Bank compared to academia and provides advice for those interested in research roles at international institutions. Guest: Benoit Decerf, Senior Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank Hosts: Fanny Tallgren & Andrea De Palma Disclaimer: The discussion from this podcast episode reflects Benoit's views, not those of the World Bank. Timestamps:  (01:19) Objectives and overview of Benoit's research (05:54) Methodology for estimating the trade-off between poverty and mortality (16:56) Key findings and cross-country comparisons (32:55) Implications of the study and future research (35:43) Working at the World Bank and tips for young researchers

In our third conference review episode, Prithvi discusses with Fanny his experience attending two courses in Lucerne, Switzerland by the Swiss Society of Health Economics: one on Empirical Policy Evaluation and another on Machine Learning. The discussion covers expectations, course content, key takeaways, and practical applications of the methods learned. You can find the link to the Lucerne website here.

We got the chance to record an episode with Alexander Marin and to talk about his working paper "The Heterogeneous Risk and Dynamics of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures" where he uses machine learning (multivariate random forest) and time series models (ARMA) to analyse healthcare expenditure trends in the US. We talk about how health care spending and the persistence of elevated spending following a health shock varies across different demographic groups, such as age, income, insurance status, and health conditions. We also briefly touch on the challenges of writing papers which are methodological contributions, and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. Lastly, Alexander shares a bit about his ongoing research related to the future of healthcare funding in ageing societies. Guest: Alexander Marin, Postdoc at the University of Southern Denmark in the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics Hosts: Fanny Tallgren & Andrea De Palma Timestamps:  (01:49) Start of discussion of paper (08:58) Methods used in the paper (27:42) Results of the paper (35:55) Alexander's work at the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics  

In the second conference review, Fanny talks to Prithvi about her experience at the Nordic Health Economists’ Study Group meeting which took place in August 2024 at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, Finland.  You can find the link to the 2024 NHESG website here. If you would like to apply for NHESG conference at University of Oslo coming up in August 2025, you can do so using this link. Abstract submission deadline is Monday, April 14, 2025. 

We had the pleasure to record an episode with Amitabh Chandra. We discuss his working paper "Productivity Differences in Fundamental Life-Sciences Discovery" co-authored with Connie Xu. The aim of the paper is to research whether a life scientist's university has an effect on their productivity. To answer this question, they first attempt to measure a scientist's productivity, and then use a movers design to estimate the causal effect of the university on productivity. We end the episode with a conversation about what makes a research idea worth pursuing as well as the purpose and art of presentations.   Guest: Amitabh Chandra (Professor at Harvard)  Hosts: Prithviraj Basumallik and Fanny Tallgren   Timestamps: (4:45) Beginning of the discussion of working paper  (14:38) The results of the paper  (19:17) Movers design used to estimate the causal effect (28:00) What makes a research idea worth pursuing?  (36:36) The purpose and art of presentations

This episode's guest is Orla Doyle, Professor at the School of Economics at University College Dublin and Director of the UCD Childhood and Human Development Research Center. We discuss her extensive experience, both in conducting research and valorizing its societal impact through policy. An excellent example is the 'Preparing For Life' - trial, an early childhood intervention, of which the age-14 follow-up study has recently been wrapped up. Read more about the trial: https://geary.ucd.ie/preparingforlife/.    Guest: Orla Doyle (Professor at the School of Economics, University College Dublin)  Hosts: Andrea De Palma and Dyllis De Pessemier    Timestamps:  (00:35) Introduction and research focus  (09:35) The role of economists in the field of early childhood development studies  (12:11) The 'Preparing For Life' - trial  (30:20) Societal impact of the 'Preparing For Life' - trial  (35:30) Project management as a researcher  (40:15) Creating positive impact through research  (44:15) Tips for PhD students   

In this episode, Alexander Ahammer, an applied microeconomist, chats with and Prithvi and Andrea after his presentation about his working paper "The labor and health economics of breast cancer" co-authored with Gerald J. Pruckner and Flora Stiftinger. The paper uses Austrian microdata to study how a breast cancer diagnosis impacts health expenditures and labor market outcomes. They find that a diagnosis increases inpatient health expenditure, imposes a wage penalty and reduces work hours in comparison to other women of similar age who do not get diagnosed with breast cancer. They argue that a potential reason for reduced work hours is a change in time preferences rather than incapacitation or employer discrimination. Ahammer also shares his research interests in general and gives advice for early-career researchers on finding meaningful research questions and improving presentation skills. Guest: Alexander Ahammer (Assistant professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and a Research Affiliate at IZA Institute of Labor Economics)   Hosts: Prithviraj Basu Mallik and Andrea De Palma    Timestamps:  (01:14) Ahammer introduces himself and summarizes the paper (07:00) The paper's research methodology and data  (14:17) Ahammer’s broader research agenda (18:23) Discussion of how to choose research projects. Low hanging fruit vs "big" research ideas (23:40) The importance of presentation skills and telling a story   If you would like to donate for breast cancer research, we have put a link for you here. 

Happy New Year and welcome back!  In this short episode, Fanny and Prithvi share their own experience at the Lowlands Health Economists' Study Group (lolaHESG) conference, outlining how the program is structured and highlighting key activities and tips on how to make the best of the experience.  This episode marks the start of a series of conference reviews, so stay tuned for more firsthand insights!