IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/vfsc16/145577.html

Bismarck’s Health Insurance and the Mortality Decline

Author

Listed:
  • Driva, Anastasia
  • Bauernschuster, Stefan
  • Hornung, Erik

Abstract

We study the impact of social health insurance on mortality. Using the introduction of compulsory health insurance in the German Empire in 1884 as a natural experiment, we estimate flexible difference-in-differences models exploiting variation in eligibility for insurance across occupations. Our findings suggest that Bismarck’s health insurance generated a significant mortality reduction. Despite the absence of antibiotics and most vaccines, we find the results to be largely driven by a decline of deaths from infectious diseases. We present evidence suggesting that the decline is associated with access to health services but not sick pay. This finding may be explained by insurance fund physicians transmitting new knowledge on infectious disease prevention.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Driva, Anastasia & Bauernschuster, Stefan & Hornung, Erik, 2016. "Bismarck’s Health Insurance and the Mortality Decline," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145577, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145577
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Becker, Sascha O. & Hornung, Erik, 2020. "The Political Economy of the Prussian Three-Class Franchise," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1143-1188, December.
    3. Daniel Gallardo‐Albarrán, 2020. "Sanitary infrastructures and the decline of mortality in Germany, 1877–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 730-757, August.
    4. Christine Valente & Hans H. Sievertsen & Mahesh C. Puri, 2020. "Saving Neonatal Lives for a Quarter," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 20/728, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    5. Baten, Jörg & Batinti, Alberto & Costa-Font, Joan & Radatz, Laura, 2024. "Health insurance and height inequality: Evidence from European health insurance expansions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Timothy W. Guinnane & Jochen Streb, 2021. "The Introduction of Bismarck's Social Security System and its Effects on Marriage and Fertility in Prussia," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(3), pages 749-780, September.
    7. Erik Hornung, 2021. "Industrialisierung im Deutschen Reich: Welche Rolle spielte die öffentliche Infrastruktur?," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(4), pages 258-262, April.
    8. Halla, Martin & Kah, Christopher & Sausgruber, Rupert, 2021. "Testing for Ethnic Discrimination in Outpatient Health Care: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Germany," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 319, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    9. Jäger, Philipp, 2023. "Can pensions save lives? Evidence from the introduction of old-age assistance in the UK," Ruhr Economic Papers 995, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    10. Martin, Lisa & Baten, Joerg, 2022. "Inequality and Life Expectancy in Africa and Asia, 1820‐2000," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 40-59.
    11. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Rocha, Rudi & Soares, Rodrigo R., 2019. "Does Universalization of Health Work? Evidence from Health Systems Restructuring and Expansion in Brazil," IZA Discussion Papers 12111, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Bublitz, Elisabeth & Wyrwich, Michael, 2018. "Technological change and labor market integration," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 45, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    13. Tommy Krieger, 2024. "Elites and health infrastructure improvements in industrializing regimes," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 433-468, September.
    14. Cantoni, Davide & Yuchtman, Noam, 2020. "Historical Natural Experiments: Bridging Economics and Economic History," CEPR Discussion Papers 14401, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Sonia Bhalotra & Rudi Rocha & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2020. "Can Universalization of Health Work? Evidence from Health Systems Restructuring and Expansion in Brazil," Working Papers 03, Instituto de Estudos para Políticas de Saúde.
    16. Tommy Krieger, 2022. "Elites and Health Infrastructure Improvements in Industrializing Regimes," CESifo Working Paper Series 9808, CESifo.
    17. Gregori Galofré-Vilà & Martin McKee & David Stuckler, 2022. "Quantifying the mortality impact of the 1935 old-age assistance," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(1), pages 62-77.
    18. Timothy W. Guinnane & Tobias A. Jopp & Jochen Streb, 2021. "Bismarcks Sozialversicherung und ihr Einfluss auf Deutschlands demografischen Wandel," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(4), pages 262-265, April.
    19. Richard Franke, 2022. "Poverty, pollution, and mortality: The 1918 influenza pandemic in a developing German economy," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1026-1053, November.
    20. Elisabeth Bublitz & Michael Wyrwich, 2024. "Labor market changes and social inclusiveness across regions: evidence from the rise of the modern office," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 72(3), pages 863-879, March.
    21. Krieger, Tommy, 2020. "Elite structure and the provision of health-promoting public goods," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-064, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    22. Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh & Azimatun Noor Aizuddin & Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Salem, 2023. "Is National Health Insurance Feasible for Saudi Healthcare Services? A Qualitative Study," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 13(1), pages 3-26.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145577. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.