Events & Activities
M-CHEP is a platform for fostering cooperation regarding research, methodology, and teaching between its members. Furthermore, the center organises a research seminar series, where topical research in health economics and health policy is discussed and ideas are exchanged.
Upcoming events
April 2025
9
4:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.
M-CHEP Research Seminar - Hybrid event
Mehlika Toy , PhD (Erasmus University Rotterdam, HTA)
A Decision Analytic Approach to Evaluating Cost-Effective Strategies for Eliminating Hepatitis B Virus Infection
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B affects nearly 300 million people worldwide and remains a leading cause of liver cancer and premature death—despite the availability of highly effective vaccines and antiviral treatment. In this talk, findings from a series of health economic modeling studies that evaluate the impact, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, and challenges of hepatitis B screening and treatment strategies across different countries will be presented.
About the author
Mehlika Toy is a tenured Assistant Professor in the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) research group at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Previous events
February 2025
26
4:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.
November 2024
6
4:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.
M-CHEP Research Seminar - Hybrid event
Mahesh Karra , PhD (Boston University)
User-Centered Approaches to Contraceptive Counseling: Experimental Evidence from Urban Malawi
Abstract
We test how two user-centered approaches to counseling shape women's contraceptive preferences and behavior: 1) tailored counseling that presents contraceptive methods based on women’s stated preferences; and 2) prompting women with the choice to invite male partners to counseling. A total of 782 women were randomized to receive tailored or standard counseling, cross-randomized with the prompt to bring partners to counseling. Following counseling, women were offered transport and access to a high-quality family planning clinic for one month. Women who received tailored counseling were 17.3 percent more likely to be discordant between their stated preferred method and method use. Women who were prompted with the choice to invite their partners were 14.5 percent less likely to change their stated preferred method but 15.8 percent more likely to use their stated method. While both approaches aim to facilitate user-centered contraceptive decision-making, neither necessarily yields strictly preferred outcomes for women.
September 2024
11
4:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.
M-CHEP Research Seminar - Hybrid event
Carlos Riumallo Herl, PhD (Erasmus School of Economics)
Tailoring incentives for prevention: A field experiment in El Salvador
Abstract
Financial incentives have been used extensively to encourage appropriate health behaviors. However, these incentives are often untargeted and therefore may not reach the populations that benefit the most. In this study, we evaluate whether incentives tailored to people’s unobserved risks can encourage the demand for preventive healthcare services. For this study, we partnered with a micro‑finance organization in El Salvador and randomized 906 informal workers to receive either a fixed or tailored incentive for completing a free preventive screening. We found that both incentives increased the uptake of preventive services by approximately 30%, but tailored incentives were not more effective than fixed ones at encouraging higher-risk individuals. The lack of effective targeting in the tailored incentives is explained by the participants’ inaccurate risk perceptions. Our results show that there is no association between actual and perceived risk, which emphasizes the limitation of incentives that rely on individuals knowing and revealing their own risk types. Overall, our results suggest that tailored incentives are equally efficient at promoting access to preventive services, as compared with fixed incentives, but not better at targeting those that would benefit more. This highlights the limitations of using such types of incentive design when conditions depend on largely unobservable risk factors.
June 2023
22
2:00p.m. - 3:00p.m.
M-CHEP Research Seminar - Hybrid event
Alexander Ahammer , PhD (University Linz, IZA)
The labor and health economics of breast cancer
Abstract
We estimate the long-run labor market and health effects of breast cancer among Austrian women. Compared to a random sample of same-aged non-affected women, those diagnosed with breast cancer face a 22.8 percent increase in health expenses, 6.2 percent lower employment, and a wage penalty of 15 percent five years after diagnosis. Although affected women sort into higher quality jobs post-diagnosis, this is offset by a reduction in working hours. We argue that the hours reduction is more likely driven by an increase in the time preference rate, meaning that patients increasingly value the present over the future, rather than by an incapacitation effect or employer discrimination.
M-CHEP Research Seminar - Hybrid event
Manuela de Allegri, PhD (Institute of Global Health, University of Heidelberg)
Evaluating the impact and economic value of user fee removal policies - 15 years of health economics and policy research in Burkina Faso