题目：Are Recessions Good for Your Health? A Macroeconomic Analysis

主讲人：Kevin Huang, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Vanderbilt

Abstract

Over the past forty years US constantly exhibits much higher medical expenditure-output ratio than European countries. Why do Americans spend much more in medical care than Europeans? This paper argues the differences in taxation, especially labor income and consumption tax rates, is a key element to understand the gap in medical expenditure between US and major European countries. Using a neoclassical growth model with endogenous health accumulation, this paper quantitatively shows that di§erence in labor income and consumption tax rates alone can explain almost half of the difference in health expenditure-GDP ratio between US and European countries. Higher tax rates widens tax wedge in the key intratemporal equation that governs the time allocation between market work and leisure and hence reduces labor supply. With more leisure time, individuals tend to use more time input in producing health and hence crowd out the share of medical spending in health production.