EC979 Problem Set (2024)C/C++

Java Python EC979 Problem Set (2024)

Question 1 (25 marks)

Read the attached article and discuss how the services offered by modern diagnostics companies like the ones described in the article affect customers’ decisions to get a full screening. In your answer, make sure to relate aspects of these services discussed in the article to specific parameters in the preventative health decision model discussed in class.

Question 2 (25 marks)

In the US, mortality for cardiovascular diseases is much higher among Black individuals than among white individuals.

1.    What could explain this fact? Name at least 2 factors on the demand side and 2 factors on the supply side(5 marks)

2.   The following table shows summary statistics for different types of patients (all hospitalized for heart conditions) in the US. PCI is a coronary intervention that helps improve outcomes for these patients. Describe the table. What does it show about black mortality and access to care? (5 marks)

3.    Suppose the government noticed that some areas had increasing rates of cardiovascular mortality and opened some centers performing PCIs in those areas in 2023. They ask you to look at 1-year mortality data in the following table. Using these data, how does mortality change after opening a center? Can you attribute this change to the opening of the centers? Why yes or why not  (5 marks)

Mortality per 100,000 before opening (2022)	Mortality per 100,000  after opening (2023)
100	110

4.    Now suppose you also get data for neighboring areas where no center opens but only for the post period, as in the Table below. Can you conclude centers’ openings improve mortality? Why yes or why not? (5 marks)

	Mortality per 100,000  after opening (2023)
Treatment Areas	110
Areas without Opening	120

EC979 Problem Set (2024)C/C++

5.    How can you use all the data in the table below to provide a valid estimate of the effect of  opening a center? What assumptions do you need for this estimate to be causal? (5 marks)

	Mortality per 100,000 before opening (2022)	Mortality per 100,000  after opening (2023)
Treatment Areas	100	110
Areas without Opening	130	120

Question 3 (25 marks)

1.    Researchers measure are interested in the relationship between purchase and consumption of healthy foods and 1) patience and 2) present bias (i.e., hyperbolic discounting). Define these terms in the context of behavioral health economics and explain how each could affect purchase and consumption of health foods. (5 marks)

2.    Describe the below table. What do Columns 1-4 table suggest is the relationship between patience, present bias, and healthy food purchase and consumption?  (5 marks)

3.    What do you think do Columns 5 and 6 measure? What do the results in those columns indicate? What could be a potential policy solution to improve outcomes? (5 marks)

4.    Researchers provided subsidies to buy healthy foods to a random subset of these individuals. Results from this experiment are in the table below. Describe the table. How do these results relate to your discussion in question 3.3? (5 marks)

5.    Stress has been shown to affect time preferences and to make people more impatient and more present-biased. How can this finding and the findings above relate to patterns of obesity being higher among low-income individuals? Discuss. (5 marks)

Question 4 (25 marks)

1.    Describe the below figure. (5 marks)

2.   The below figure shows the share of individuals predicted by a machine learning model to be in the top quartile of vulnerability to exposure to PM 2.5 by how urban the zip code where they live is. Describe the figure and discuss at least two reasons that can explain the patterns. (10 marks)

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