Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141531 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9772
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We use a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to evaluate the impact of cost-sharing on the use of health services. In the Italian health system, individuals reaching age 65 and earning low incomes are given total exemption from cost-sharing for health services consumption. Since the probability of exemption changes discontinuously at age 65, we use a Fuzzy RDD in which the age threshold is used as an instrument for exemption. We find that prescription drug consumption, specialist visits and diagnostic checks remarkably increase with exemption. However, using several measures of health outcomes we do not find any change in individual health.
Subjects: 
health insurance
healthcare demand
cost-sharing
moral hazard
health outcomes
fuzzy regression discontinuity design
instrumental variables
JEL: 
I10
I13
I11
I18
C26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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