Member contributions

Dr Jonathan James, Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg, Dr Kerry Papps and Dr Eleonora Fichera have organised the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE) conference in 2019 which facilitates exchange and communication of ideas across researchers from European and other countries across the globe.

Dr Eleonora Fichera has organised the South West Health Economists’ Study Group workshop in 2018. This has then led the Department of Economics at the University of Bath to be a member of the newly instituted South West Academic Network of Health Economists (SWAN-HE), a collaboration between health economists at the University of Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Cardiff.

Health behaviours

Our work in this area

We investigate the causes and consequences of risky health behaviours. We evaluate policies that directly or indirectly affect health behaviours.

Dr Jonathan James has organised the Economics of health behaviours and health information workshop at Pall Mall (London), a two-day event bringing together new research from across the world, as academic researchers present new studies on responses to messaging around health issues, from healthy eating and exercise to blood pressure. 

Recent grant funded research explored the Effect of a tailored health warning on socio-economics behaviour and health outcomes.

Our work has appeared as part of a policy brief published by University of Bristol on nutritional labelling. Related research on sugar taxes has been published in Wired and as a blog post for the Institute for Policy Research.  

Publications

  Selected recent publications:

• The response to nutritional labels: Evidence from a quasi-experiment
• Facilitating Healthy Dietary Habits: An Experiment with a Low Income Population
• A Computer-Based Incentivized Food Basket Choice Tool: Presentation and Evaluation
• Does Patient Health Behaviour respond to Doctor Effort?
• Liquid Assets? The Short-Run Liabilities of Binge Drinking
• Incentives and Children's Dietary Choice: A Field Experiment in Primary Schools
• How do individuals' health behaviours respond to an increase in the supply of health care? Evidence from a natural experiment
• Is treatment “intensity” associated with healthier lifestyle choices? An application of the Dose Response Function
• How do consumers respond to “sin taxes”? New evidence from a tax on sugary drinks

Environment

Our work in this area

We are interested in how the socio-economic, built and natural environment affects health and wellbeing. Our approach brings together health and environmental economics with the social, environmental, engineering and political sciences.

We are a key partner of multimillion pounds consortium Tackling the root causes upstream of unhealthy urban development decision-making (TRUUD).   

Publications

Selected recent publications:

• Do Wealth Shocks Affect Health? New Evidence from the Housing Boom
• Is owning your home good for your health? Evidence from exogenous variations in subsidies in England
• Pandemics, vulnerability and prevention: time to fundamentally reassess how we value and communicate risk?
• Income and Health in Tanzania: An Instrumental Variable Approach
• Costs and benefits of adaptation: "Economic appraisal of adaptation options for the agriculture sector"
• Estimating environmental health costs: Valuation of children’s health impacts
• Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development: Reflections on the Operationalization of a Transdisciplinary Case Study
• Projection of economic impacts of climate change in sectors of Europe based on bottom up analysis: human health
• Economic valuation of air pollution mortality: A 9-country contingent valuation survey of value of a life year (VOLY)
• Physical and economic consequences of climate change in Europe
• Policy Interventions to Address Health Impacts Associated with Air Pollution, Unsafe Water Supply and Sanitation, and Hazardous Chemicals
• The effects of occupational safety and health interventions
• The transmission of women's fertility, human capital, and work orientation across immigrant generations
• From High School to the High Chair: Education and Fertility Timing
• Health and Education Expansion
• Out of sight, out of mind? The education outcomes of children with parents working abroad
• Welfare Losses of Road Congestion]
• The Congestion Relief Benefit of Public Transit. Evidence from Rome

Mental health and wellbeing

Our work in this area

  We are interested in the measurement of mental health and wellbeing as well as the causes and consequences of poor mental health.

We examine:

• the relation between economic resources and wellbeing
• measurement and validation of mental health indicators
• the political and economic consequences of poor mental health
• the relation between physical and mental health

Publications

  Selected recent publications:

• The effects of exercise and relaxation on health and wellbeing
• The effect of cash transfers on mental health: Opening the black box – a study from South Africa
• The worse the better? Quantile treatment effects of a conditional cash transfer programme on mental health
• Validation of the SF12 mental and physical health measure for the population from a low-income country in sub-Saharan Africa
• The effect of cash transfers on mental health – New evidence from South Africa
• The dynamics of physical and mental health in the older population
• The relationship between physical and mental health: A mediation analysis
• Is owning your home good for your health? Evidence from exogenous variations in subsidies in England
• Wellbeing over 50
• Happy Voters     

Healthcare policies

Our work in this area

Dr Eleonora Fichera has jointly organised with the Institute of Policy Research the Health Policy webinar series which explores the role of health policies during the pandemic. The series has hosted speakers from think-tanks and charities such as the:

• Health Foundation
• King’s Fund
• Office for Health Economics

Recent grant funded work includes the evaluation of performance based financing in Sub-Saharan Africa (PEMBA) and of an early cancer diagnosis programme in Cwm Taf.  

Publications

  Selected recent publications:

• Pay for Performance: A Reflection on How a Global Perspective Could Enhance Policy and Research
• Can medical products be developed on a non-profit basis? Exploring product development partnerships for neglected diseases
• Coronavirus and the NHS: a big dose of cash is welcome, but not enough on its own
• Designing and using incentives to support recruitment and retention in clinical trials: a scoping review and a checklist for design
• Access to vaccine technologies in developing countries: Brazil and India
• A framework for evaluating service innovations in the Early Cancer Diagnosis Programme: Report for the Cwm Taf University Health Board (Lot 1)
• Does Patient Health Behaviour respond to Doctor’s Effort?
• Pay for Performance and Contractual Choice: the case of General Practitioners in England
• Can payers use prices to improve quality? Evidence from English hospitals
• How do individuals' health behaviours respond to an increase in the supply of health care? Evidence from a natural experiment
• Is treatment “intensity” associated with healthier lifestyle choices? An application of the Dose Response Function
• Quality target negotiation in health care: evidence from the English NHS
• Comparative performance evaluation: quality