Essays in the Economics of Health and Ageing

This dissertation consists of four papers in the economics of health and ageing. Chapter 2 documents a persistent increase in electricity consumption due to protective behaviour in response to dengue outbreaks. This increase cost S$11.9 to S$16.3 million per annum, or 7% – 12% of the overall costs of dengue in Singapore. Chapter 3 studies the long-term effects of in-utero exposure to mild nutritional shocks, and finds that in-utero exposure to Ramadan leads to poorer subjective well-being across a broad range of domains, as well as higher rates of diagnosed cardiovascular conditions and higher body mass index (among women). Chapter 4 evaluates the effect of Singapore’s first national non-contributory pension, the Silver Support Scheme, on subjective well-being. Consistent with predictions from the permanent income hypothesis, we find that well-being improved at announcement, but did not improve significantly further at disbursement of the pension. Chapter 5 reports results from a randomized controlled trial of a new transitional care program (TCP) in a large Singaporean academic hospital. The TCP reduced utilization and improved patient quality of life, leading to net cost savings of about S$1,300 per patient over six months.