Co-sponsored by Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development, and the Asia Health Policy Program

Pakistan followed the example of many large Asian countries and started introducing publicly financed health insurance under the so-called "Sehat Sahulat Program" (SSP) from 2015 onwards. The SSP initially covered hospitalization expenses for poor households in selected districts and by now covers millions of households all over Pakistan. This talk explains the recent reforms, focusing on information barriers to utilizing the SSP. In particular awareness about coverage seems to be a key issue, making the system not easy to navigate for poor households. A first study shows that education plays an important role for successfully utilizing health care under the scheme in this context. Information and awareness about financial protection, however, is only one element of health care decisions. Even if beneficiaries know which household members are covered under which condition in which facility, they might still be unsure about where treatment is most appropriate given their medical condition. A second study thus provides theoretical and empirical evidence on how incomplete financial and medical information jointly affect health provider choices, and how this might explain limited health service utilization under the SSP.

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Andreas Landmann is a Full Professor of Development Economics at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg where he uses applied econometrics and behavioral research in the area of development economics. A lot of his work investigates insurance in low-income countries, with a special focus on health. In particular, he analyzes different impact evaluations on health insurance provision in Pakistan. Additionally, he is interested in decisions under risk and uncertainty, as well as prosocial preferences. He conducted several large-scale impact evaluations, randomized control trials, and behavioral experiments in the Philippines, Germany, Vietnam, China, and Pakistan, all of them including primary data collection. Prior to joining the FAU, he held research positions at the University of Göttingen, the Paris School of Economics, and the University of Mannheim, from where he also holds a PhD.

Co-sponsored by Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development, and the Asia Health Policy Program

We study a commons problem in the context of the emergency ambulance service in Tokyo. Emergency ambulance service is free in Japan, and no one is excluded from using it. Because capacity is limited, individually rational ambulance use may delay the use by others, lowering the chance of survival. The Fire Department urges the proper use of ambulances to save lives that can be saved, but little is known about the extent of the negative consumption externality. In this paper, we first estimate how one's ambulance use affects others with respect to arrival delays and survival rates. Then, we analyze the impact of potential remedies that alter non-excludability and rivalry in ambulance use.

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Toshiaki Iizuka is a Professor at Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo. His research interests are in the field of health economics and industrial organization. He has written articles on incentive and information in the healthcare markets, which appeared in leading economics journals, including American Economic Review, RAND Journal of Economics, and American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Dr. Iizuka currently serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Health Economics and a member of the Central Social Insurance Medical Council, a council of the Japanese Health Ministry that determines provider payments and drug prices. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Co-sponsored by Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development, and the Asia Health Policy Program

Digitization in healthcare coupled with advances in artificial intelligence and other so-called "4th Industrial Revolution" technologies are enabling a radical shift in how healthcare is delivered. Few places are attempting to integrate these into healthcare as rapidly as China. This talk will discuss China's comparative advantage in healthcare digitization and lay out a research agenda for the economics of digital health. While these technologies bring potential to improve access to high- quality care and lower costs, unintended consequences and effects on healthcare markets are underexplored. Evidence on these issues is needed to inform policy and better harness these technologies for population health. Specific applications will be drawn from ongoing research in China and elsewhere.

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Sean Sylvia is an Assistant Professor of health economics at UNC. His primary research interest is in the delivery of healthcare in China and other middle-income countries. Working with multidisciplinary teams of collaborators, he conducts large-scale population-based surveys and randomized trials to develop and test new approaches to provide healthcare to the poor and marginalized. His recent work focuses on the use of information technology to expand access to quality healthcare.