Date of Completion

7-26-2013

Embargo Period

7-26-2013

Major Advisor

Dennis Heffley

Associate Advisor

Thomas Miceli

Associate Advisor

Nishith Prakash

Field of Study

Economics

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Campus Access

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay proposes an innovative incentive-based health insurance plan as a potential solution for correcting suboptimal levels of prevention due to misperception of health-risks in developing economies. The incentive-plan may be a useful health insurance plan for poor economies, where the under-perception of risk is a potential problem and the health care market is underdeveloped due to limited resources. Uninsured people can be covered under this plan, which will correct three potential problems: lack of access to medical care, under investment in preventive effort due to misperception of health-risk and moral hazard. It may also reduce the cost of medical care by encouraging individuals to invest more in staying healthy.

The other two essays are empirical studies in the context of India, where I analyze how different socioeconomic factors and presence of microcredit in a village are associated with ever-married women’s health in India. The data from Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) has been used in these analyses. IHDS is a cross sectional data for the period of 2004-05.

The second essay analyzes how education and different socioeconomic factors are associated with ever-married (15-49 years) women’s health in India. The study finds that education is positively and significantly associated with women’s health in India, whereas age, number of children, and being separated from the partner are negatively associated with women’s health. It stresses the importance of educating girls and women in India, and also underscores the importance of family planning as having more children is negatively associated with women’s health.

The third essay examines the association of presence of microcredit in a village and ever-married women’s health in India. It finds that after controlling for socioeconomic factors, presence of microcredit has a positive and significant conditional correlation with women’s health. Besides presence of microcredit in a village, other socioeconomic factors, like, education, usages of media also are positively and significantly associated with women’s health, while age and number of children have negative conditional correlation with women’s health.

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