Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/29915 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
Ruhr Economic Papers No. 142
Publisher: 
Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI), Essen
Abstract: 
The reliability of general self-rated health status is examined using the reform of the public health insurance system of Germany in 2004 as a source of exogenous variation. Among others, the reform introduced a co-payment for ambulatory doctor visits and increased the co-payments for prescription drugs. This natural experiment allows identification of the causal impact of the program on self-assessed health and hence reveals the sensitivity of this subjective measure to a perturbation in the insurance system. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, the results indicate that after the policy intervention, the respondents in the treated group perceived their own health status as better than their hypothetical untreated state even when there is no discernible impact on actual health.
Subjects: 
Natural experiment
cognitive dissonance
self-rated health status
JEL: 
G22
H43
I18
ISBN: 
978-3-86788-160-9
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
255.02 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.