Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227378 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13851
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper takes advantage of a natural experiment to examine the relationship between the price and saliency of health services. A large employer e-mailed individually-targeted health education encouraging high-value care to high-risk employees. Weeks before the program launched, a company reorganization affecting about a quarter of employees resulted in that group not receiving the intervention. Using event study, difference-in-differences, and triple differences methods, I find that costlier services are associated with relatively less utilization and that prior use was associated with relatively more utilization following the campaigns. These results may inform employer, governmental, and health insurer choices concerning low-cost interventions seeking to shift health behaviors, and may also be relevant in other settings in which targeted informational nudges are deployed.
Subjects: 
nudges
health care
price
saliency
information
prior beliefs
JEL: 
I1
D8
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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