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16
percent of people surveyed in Dresden in mid-1990 were willing to make out-of-pocket
expenses for better health care (Scharf, 1999).
Nolte, Scholz, Shloknikov, and McKee (2002) evaluate the contribution of
medical care to life expectancy in East and West Germany as well as Poland by
evaluating amenable mortality rates. Amenable mortality rates are the mortality rates for
a group of diseases that are responsive to medical care or health policy. Overall, the
authors find that as medical care improved in East Germany, life expectancy increased.
Between 1991/1992 and 1996/1997 life expectancy from birth to age 75 increased by
0.91 years for women and 1.41 years for men in East Germany. Over the same time
period, they estimate that reductions in death rates from amenable conditions accounted
for 25% of the increase in temporary life expectancy for women. This improvement in
the quality of medical care could have an indirect effect on health satisfaction through
improvements in health or a direct effect on health satisfaction if people are more
satisfied with their health from the knowledge that they have access to better medical
care. If the improvement in health care affected the older age group in East Germany but
not the younger age group, then that could explain why health satisfaction declined for
the younger age group, but not for the older age group.
There is also evidence to suggest that the infrastructural changes in health care in
East Germany after reunification could have led to a decrease in health satisfaction in the
East relative to the West. The West German system was characterized by competitive
sickness funds, similar to U.S. insurance companies, and autonomous doctors. The East
German system, however, was run by the government and characterized by omnipresent
16
Object Description
| Title | Essays on health and well-being |
| Author | Zweig, Jacqueline Smith |
| Author email | smith2@usc.edu; jackiesmith04@yahoo.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Economics |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-23 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 26 Apr. 2012. |
| Date published | 2012-04-26 |
| Advisor (committee chair) |
Easterlin, Richard A. Ham, John C. |
| Advisor (committee member) | Melguizo, Tatiana |
| Abstract | This dissertation is comprised of three chapters that use microeconometric techniques to investigate the factors that affect people’s well-being. In the first two chapters, well-being is defined as life satisfaction or health satisfaction. The first chapter explores how the movement from socialism to capitalism affected the life satisfaction and health satisfaction of East Germans relative to West Germans after reunification. The second chapter examines whether women are happier, less happy, or equally happy as men in countries at various stages of development. The third chapter examines whether pollution affects the academic performance of school children; their academic performance and achievements will have important implications for their future well-being. |
| Keyword | happiness; well-being |
| Geographic subject | Germany |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1990/2010; 2002/2008 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3782 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Zweig, Jacqueline Smith |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Zweig-4500 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume23/etd-Zweig-4500.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 25 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 16 percent of people surveyed in Dresden in mid-1990 were willing to make out-of-pocket expenses for better health care (Scharf, 1999). Nolte, Scholz, Shloknikov, and McKee (2002) evaluate the contribution of medical care to life expectancy in East and West Germany as well as Poland by evaluating amenable mortality rates. Amenable mortality rates are the mortality rates for a group of diseases that are responsive to medical care or health policy. Overall, the authors find that as medical care improved in East Germany, life expectancy increased. Between 1991/1992 and 1996/1997 life expectancy from birth to age 75 increased by 0.91 years for women and 1.41 years for men in East Germany. Over the same time period, they estimate that reductions in death rates from amenable conditions accounted for 25% of the increase in temporary life expectancy for women. This improvement in the quality of medical care could have an indirect effect on health satisfaction through improvements in health or a direct effect on health satisfaction if people are more satisfied with their health from the knowledge that they have access to better medical care. If the improvement in health care affected the older age group in East Germany but not the younger age group, then that could explain why health satisfaction declined for the younger age group, but not for the older age group. There is also evidence to suggest that the infrastructural changes in health care in East Germany after reunification could have led to a decrease in health satisfaction in the East relative to the West. The West German system was characterized by competitive sickness funds, similar to U.S. insurance companies, and autonomous doctors. The East German system, however, was run by the government and characterized by omnipresent 16 |
