Episode 22: Benoit Decerf and the trade-off between poverty and longevity
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
--------
43:20
Conference Review 3 - Lucerne courses
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.
--------
13:30
Episode 21: Alexander Marin and the Dynamics of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures
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
--------
41:59
Conference Review 2 - NHESG2024 / Nordic Health Economists’ Study Group meeting
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.
--------
9:48
Episode 20: Amitabh Chandra and the productivity of scientists
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
Hello, listeners!
In 2024, a professor and a group of PhD students decided it was time to give research in health economics a voice (or set of voices!). Through this podcast, we aim to reveal the stories behind health economics research, create a resource for PhD students, academics, and anyone with an interest in this field, review key conferences and share tips that help us make our way in academia.
Portugal