Episode 18: Alexander Ahammer on health and labour economics

In this episode, Alexander Ahammer, an applied microeconomist, chats with and Prithvi and Andrea after his presentation about his working paper "The labor and health economics of breast cancer" co-authored with Gerald J. Pruckner and Flora Stiftinger. The paper uses Austrian microdata to study how a breast cancer diagnosis impacts health expenditures and labor market outcomes. They find that a diagnosis increases inpatient health expenditure, imposes a wage penalty and reduces work hours in comparison to other women of similar age who do not get diagnosed with breast cancer. They argue that a potential reason for reduced work hours is a change in time preferences rather than incapacitation or employer discrimination. Ahammer also shares his research interests in general and gives advice for early-career researchers on finding meaningful research questions and improving presentation skills.

Guest: Alexander Ahammer (Assistant professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and a Research Affiliate at IZA Institute of Labor Economics)  

Hosts: Prithviraj Basu Mallik and Andrea De Palma

  

Timestamps: 

(01:14) Ahammer introduces himself and summarizes the paper

(07:00) The paper's research methodology and data 

(14:17) Ahammer’s broader research agenda

(18:23) Discussion of how to choose research projects. Low hanging fruit vs "big" research ideas

(23:40) The importance of presentation skills and telling a story

 

If you would like to donate for breast cancer research, we have put a link for you here.