Microeconometric essays in health, sports and education economics

PhD ceremony: Mr. C. Bojke, 14.45 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Thesis: Microeconometric essays in health, sports and education economics

Promotor(s): prof. P. Kooreman, prof. R.H. Koning

Faculty: Economics and Business

The objective of the thesis is to estimate production functions in health, sports and education by appealing to micro-economic models populated with evidence summarised by econometric techniques capable of producing estimates of policy decisions in a meaningful metric.

The author presents an economic evaluation of an intervention sharing the care of frail elderly patients between health professionals. The model estimates modest increments in costs and benefits that suggest a cost-effective intervention at conventional levels of willingness to pay for a QALY. However, uncertainty leads to expected values of information of £100 million and a 25% chance that the intervention is not cost-effective.

Also the author estimates the impact play-off systems make on match-day attendance. A conceptual model identifies the link between competition design and demand drivers: play-off systems create more games with significance by redistributing significance across games. Bojke estimates that play-offs increase attendance by approximately 1% which is not uniformly distributed. As play-off promoted teams have a higher hazard of relegation this challenges the notion that play-offs are of unambiguous benefit.

Finally the author describes the development of formula funding in education in England in light of the ongoing debate surrounding the impact of funding. Adopting a model that accounts for the endogeneity of funding to 66 primary schools over 3 years the author estimates that, although statistically significant, additional funding has had a limited practical impact on educational outcomes. As such, policy makers may wish to consider how to shift the education production function rather than contemplate further movements along it.