Behavioral responses to health innovations and the consequences for socioeconomic outcomes

Better health, bigger pension?

The project consists of three parts. The first part will establish the foundation, by analyzing the impact of health innovations on social and economic factors: If someone expects to live longer this will not only impact his long-term planning but already his actions today. Improvements in health can improve productivity and employment options and facilitate a longer work life – all of these, in turn, impact for example  savings decisions.

Headed by Mette Gørtz, the group collaborating on this first working package will study users of two specific health innovations, namely HIV and diabetes treatments, with the aim of answering the key question: How do innovations in health affect individual economic decisions regarding employment, investment and savings? And what are the consequences, ultimately, for the economy?

Who benefits from health innovations?

Studies show that life expectancy has risen and mortality has declined over recent decades. But not all groups in society have experienced the same progress and the socioeconomic gap in health is growing. Is this because richer and better-educated people adhere better to physicians' advice, or adopt new health technologies faster than others? This could be the case if health innovations are characterized by complex technology and knowledge, whereas if the innovations aim to remedy diseases that are known to more often affect people with low incomes, then we can expect an equalization in health inequality.

Torben Heien Nielsen is in charge of this second part of the project treating the development of life expectancy and mortality for a wide range of diseases across income groups in society. The group will follow the development of the last 35 years identifying shifts in mortality for groups in society and investigating whether the shifts are related to emergence of new medicine, new health technologies or new knowledge within the field of health.

The meeting between the patient and the doctor

Previous studies point to a strong link between education and health: the better educated live healthier and longer lives. But we know that there are large differences in health behavior across the population, in terms of lifestyle, diet and exercise habits, as well as the tendency to seek medical attention. The question is: what role does education itself really play?

This third part of the project aims at opening the black box of knowledge on the  behavioral mechanisms that could drive the observed relationship between education and health. Notably, this project will focus on one known driver of educational attainment and behavior, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and the role of these skills in the patient-doctor interaction. Miriam Gensowski heads the group that will work to establish the patient's socio-emotional skills and behaviors that drive the health production process, and their effect on the interaction with physicians and the physician's ability to prescribe successful treatment.