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 Rotterdam

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.

Guest: Danae Arroyos-Calvera, Associate Professor, University of Birmingham

Timestamps:

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 Cologne

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 Economics

Timestamps:

(00:23) Introduction to Professor Hans and his research journey

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 GmbH

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