Health, innovation, and population

In a diverse set of investigations, researchers at EF are assessing the role of the health care system in improving health, longevity and well-being while keeping track of the macroeconomic implications. A particular focus lies on the role of medical progress as a driver of increasing health care effectiveness.

Applying rigorous macroeconomic modelling around a human-capital augmented production function and state-of-the-art projections, in this line of work EF researchers are joining force with international collaborators assessing the macroeconomic burden associated with a wide range of communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as the macroeconomic benefit of efforts aimed at disease reduction.

Large shocks to health significantly impact an individual's well-being. However, the effects can substantially vary between individuals. Researcher in EELC conducted a study investigating the relationship between socioeconomic environment (SEE) and survival after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) separately for women and men in the City of Vienna, Austria. Furthermore, researchers in EDC used a theoretical framework to assess the impact of a potential life-altering health shock on the consumption and health expenditure decisions over the whole individual life-cycle.

Researchers at EF are exploring in a variety of projects and in collaboration with researchers at inter alia the Vienna Institute of Demography, the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the Harvard School of Public Health the nexus between population and economic change. This includes work on the impact of population ageing and population decline on human capital accumulation and sustained economic growth, the long-run impact of medical innovation on longevity and economic growth, as well as studies into the roll out of population changes over time.

Researchers at EF are exploring, in collaboration with POPJUS and other partners, the health impacts of climate change with a particular focus on the behavioral responses and circumstances that will importantly shape the long-term development along the health-climate nexus.