Record Details

The effect of temporary parental benefit on children’s antibiotics use: Evidence from a natural field experiment

Review of Economics and Institutions

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Field Value
 
Title The effect of temporary parental benefit on children’s antibiotics use: Evidence from a natural field experiment
 
Creator Wickström Östervall, Linnea; Lund university
Hahlin, Annika; Strama Stockholm, Stockholm County Council
Lundevall, Astrid; Strama Stockholm, Stockholm County Council
 
Subject —
antibiotics use; social security; temporary parental leave; natural experiment; resistance
I18, H51, J22
 
Description Prudent use of antibiotics is important to delay the spread of resistance. This paper analyses the effect on children’s antibiotics use of a reform of the temporary parental benefit in Sweden. The reform increased the maximum compensation for this benefit. The level of compensation for social security may affect the propensity of a patient or parent to push for a prescription for antibiotics, as a less generous compensation makes it more expensive to be absent from work and since there is widespread overconfidence in the effectiveness of antibiotics. Using municipality level data, we show that the reform resulted in a reduction in children’s antibiotics use by about five per cent. The result is fairly robust to alternative empirical strategies, suggesting that welfare policies can have important indirect effects that should be taken into account.
 
Publisher University of Perugia
 
Contributor Funding: The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation
 
Date 2019-07-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.rei.unipg.it/rei/article/view/286
10.5202/rei.v10i1.286
 
Source Review of Economics and Institutions; Vol 10, No 1 (2019)
2038-1379
2038-1344
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.rei.unipg.it/rei/article/view/286/189