时间：11月15日（周五）13：30-15：00

地点：北京大学经济学院305教室

主持人：赵耀辉、雷晓燕、张丹丹、秦雪征、王耀璟、袁野

主讲人：宋光祥（北京大学国家发展研究院）、苏瑞冰（北京大学国家发展研究院）

报告一：

题目: Information, Belief, and Health Behavior: Evidence from China

报告摘要:

Individuals with imperfect information may make suboptimal choices, so giving them more information can lead to improved decision making. We build a Bayesian updating model to illustrate this phenomenon and use a unique Chinese survey that provides data on information shock, belief updating and corresponding behaviors to test it. We find that when individuals receive new information regarding their hypertension status, behavioral changes, such as quitting smoking and taking medication, are more likely if the new information leads to updated belief. On the other hand, there are no behavioral changes if individuals maintain their old belief despite the new information. Furthermore, we find heterogeneous effects across subgroups of individuals: Females and rural people are more likely to update their belief than their male and urban counterparts; the impact on quitting smoking is larger for male than female; the impact on taking medication is larger for female than male; and both are significantly larger in rural than urban areas. We find no significant impacts on drinking.

主讲人简介:

宋光祥，北京大学国家发展研究院三年级硕士生，研究领域为发展与健康经济学。

报告二：

题目：Is the Growth of Health Spending Share in China Rational?

报告摘要：During the past 25 years, China has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world. Meanwhile the health share of spending has also been increasing rapidly. A key question arises: China spent a rising share of total economic resource on health and enjoy substantially longer lives. Is it rational? I attempt to build a model based on Hall and Jones 2007 to explain the trend from the perspective of social planners. As people's incomes rise and consumption increases, the marginal utility of non-health consumption declines rapidly. However, the marginal utility of health consumption declines relatively slowly, for spending on health can help individuals to purchase additional periods of utility. Finally, the model concludes that optimal health share should grow along with income.

主讲人简介:

苏瑞冰，北京大学国家发展研究院二年级硕士生，研究领域为劳动与健康经济学。