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In the past three decades, the number of obese adults in the United States has doubled and the number of obese children almost tripled, which may lead to increased medical expenditures, productivity loss, and stress on the health care system. Economic analysis now shows that weight gain is the result of individual choices in response to economic environments and demonstrates that incentives can influence individual behaviors affecting weight. Determinants are varied and include year- and area-specific food prices, availability of food outlets and recreational facilities, health insurance, and

Unlike earlier work in medical economics, which has focused on medical care, these ten papers stress the production and consequences of health itself. They reveal a serious concern with real-world health problems in their investigation of such subjects as infant mortality, life expectancy, morbidity, and disability. These papers are unusual, as well, in bringing to bear on these problems new and powerful theoretical and statistical tools. They draw on, and in some cases are, original sources for new bodies of data. As such, Economic Aspects of Health comprises a useful blend of relevance and r

In the past three decades, the number of obese adults in the United States has doubled and the number of obese children almost tripled, which may lead to increased medical expenditures, productivity loss, and stress on the health care system. Economic analysis now shows that weight gain is the result of individual choices in response to economic environments and demonstrates that incentives can influence individual behaviors affecting weight. Determinants are varied and include year- and area-specific food prices, availability of food outlets and recreational facilities, health insurance, and minimum wage levels. Timely and important, Economic Aspects of Obesity provides a strong foundation for evaluating the costs and benefits of various proposals designed to control obesity rates

This dissertation studies economic aspects of commuting. It explores, on one hand the mechanism of self-selection into long-distance commuting, return to commuting and, on the other hand, the factors that determine exits from commuting. After investigation of the main bulk of literature about commuting, the research addresses the selectivity of commuters from ex-ante earnings and ability distributions (Chapter 1), monetary return to the commuting distance (Chapter 2) and factors that affects the probability of various exits from commuting spells (Chapter 3) with particular focus on the role of commuting distance and earnings. The analysis uses extensive longitudinal dataset with the precise geocoded information on the individuals' places of work and residence which is based on the administrative registers of Statistics Sweden. The first research paper, titled "Self-selection into long-distance commuting on earnings and latent characteristics", focuses on understanding the nature of selectivity, as it is important factor in interpretation the results of empirical research. In our study we consider two potential dimensions of self-selection: the selection based on latent characteristics and the selection based on the measured earnings before starting long distance commuting. Both dimensions are captured using single model allowing identification of testable hypothesis about the simultaneous selection based on the previous earnings and latent characteristics. In order to conduct our analysis, we apply extensive administrative geocoded dataset with precise individual information including the coordinates of the places of residence and work. We demonstrate the negative selection of commuters from the ex-ante earning distribution. In the same time, our results indicate that the individuals with unobserved traits associated with higher earnings are also more likely engage into the long distance commuting. The second research paper, titled "Return to commuting distance in Sweden", aims to estimate the magnitude of the economic return to commuting and compare the relative returns received by men and women. We apply fixed effect models to deal with individual unobserved heterogeneity that could potentially generate an endogeneity issue. We use a large dataset based on Administrative Registers for Sweden, which gathers detailed information on residential and job location, and indirectly on commuting. Results indicate that individuals receive relatively small compensations for commuting, with higher returns in agglomerations. Moreover, the relative return as a fraction of hourly wage is approximately similar across genders. This last finding provides evidence of similar bargaining powers for both men and women. In our third paper, titles "Hazard from commuting: the role of earnings and distance. The case of Sweden", we estimate the effect of earnings and commuting distance on the probability of exiting from a duration spell of commuting using a discrete time competing risk model. The data set, used in analysis, is based on the Swedish administrative registers from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Tax Board and covers the period between 2000 and 2009. The problem of endogeneity of individual earnings and commuting distance in determining the length of work-related commuting spells is addressed using two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI). The estimates reveal that the earnings paid by firms have a positive impact on the probability of migration and a negative impact on the probability of job separation. At the same time, greater distance increases the probabilities of migrating closer to the place of work, re-employment closer to the place of residence and separation to non-employment while decreasing the probabilities of migration further away from the place of work and re-employment further away from the place of residence. The results are revealed to be robust in the samples of married and unmarried individuals.

The papers in this volume cover the subject of international migration. The three papers in the first part deal with general aspects. The first paper discusses the influence of migration on world development (Hatton and Williamson), the second models the patterns of labor migration when workers differ in their skills and information is asymmetric (Stark), and the third explores the economics of international labor and capital flows (Grubel). The second part focuses on experiences in the United States and contains four papers. These papers discuss the performance of immigrants in the U.S. labor market (Chiswick), the influence of immigrants on entrepreneurship in the nineteenth-century U.S. (Ferrie and Mokyr), ethnic identity, assimilation of immigrants, and the intergenerational transmission of immigrants' skills (Borjas), and the labor market consequences of U.S. immigration (Greenwood and McDowell). The three papers in the final part discuss lessons for Europe's migration policies. The first paper asks whether immigration policy can help to stabilize social security systems (Felderer), the second explores the economic consequences of immigration and the resulting lessons for immigration policies (Simon), and the third reviews the conference's papers in the light of recent European developments (Zimmermann)

One of the more striking aspects of the Dutch Welfare State is its apparent difficulty in controlling the number of transfer recipients. A prime example of this management problem is the Disability Insurance program. This monograph presents a thorough investigation of the behavioral responses of employees and firms to this generous disability scheme. The heart of the study is the empirical part based on a rich data set of persons who apply for benefits and those who do not. The data derive both from self-reports as well as medical and vocational expert evaluations. Combining facets of health economics, medical sociology and econometric technique, the authors are able to reveal the intricate causalities that underlie the disability process.

The costs of systemic treatment of lung cancer are rising rapidly due to the use of new and targeted substances. Increases in survival will further add to this development. This explains the exemplary health economic relevance of the treatment of lung cancer, which can be analyzed using various economic methods and instruments. From epidemiologic and economic perspectives, prevention should be given highest priority but the formation of health political and social opinion is not yet completed. Valid evidence on the roles of screening interventions can be expected in the next years. In this article legal, institutional and cooperative approaches within the health care system to address this problem are discussed.