Speaker: Professor Sambit Bhattacharyya

Time: 2:30 p.m., November 14th, 2024 (Thursday)

Place: Conference Room on the 8th Floor, Office Building, School of Economics

Speaker Information: 

Prof. Sambit BHATTACHARYYA is a Professor of Economics and Head of Department of Economics at the University of Sussex, UK since 2020. Prior to joining Sussex, he has held faculty positions at the University of Oxford (UK) and the Australian National University (Australia). He holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University. He has made sustained and significant contributions to the fields of development economics, macroeconomics and political economy. He has published widely in leading international scientific journals. He is a co-editor of Review of Development Economics. He also regularly appears on TV and Radio programmes and sits on expert governmental panels.  

More Information:

Conventional wisdom states that healthcare is a luxury good. Spending on healthcare is expected to rise disproportionately with rising income. However, India appears to be a clear outlier with its aggregate national healthcare spending falling during rapid economic expansion. We explore this curious anomaly by estimating the causal effect of income on healthcare expenditure using large longitudinal household and patient level administrative datasets covering the period 2016-2020. An unanticipated shock in the form of a reduction in mandated employees' provident fund contribution for women is used to identify the causal effect in female led households. We find that an unanticipated income shock is associated with a decrease in overall spending on healthcare in female led households even after controlling for improved health outcomes for women, health-status, healthcare utilization at the intensive margin (i.e., hospital visits to seek treatment). Our results suggest that healthcare spending by females in India and the global South is guided by dynamic preferences and social norms.