Eleonora Fichera
Biographic Data
| ID | 1725229 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eleonora Fichera |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eleonora |
| FAMILY NAME | Fichera |
| SIGNATURE | FICHERA E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bath |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4729-0338 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 105 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The long-term and economic impact of childhood early life shocks
Childhood exposure to famine represents a severe early-life shock that may shape health, cognitive, and labour-market outcomes across the life course. Yet evidence on its causal consequences in later life remains limited. This study examines whether early-life starvation during the Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961) affected later-life health, cognitive functioning, and labour-market outcomes. The analysis draws on data from the China Health and Re…
And Breathe Normally
A randomised control trial on the impact of nudges, information and incentives on food choices of vulnerable families
This study examines the impact of information, nudges and cash aid on food choices among vulnerable families receiving Red Cross aid in Spain. We use data on 1429 participants of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) ran across 73 branches of the Red Cross in Catalonia, a region of Spain. While all RCT participants received cash-aid food vouchers, they were randomised to the following additional treatment arms: i) informational intervention about t…
How has the strict lockdown during the Sars-COV-2 outbreak changed the diet of Spaniards
The very restrictive lockdown negatively impacted the characteristics of food and beverage purchases made by Spaniards. However, we are unsure whether there was substitution to restaurant and bar visits. Additional work to find out whether there were permanent changes in purchasing behaviour after lockdown ended is needed in the future
Estimating the late-life effects of social and emotional skills in childhood using midlife mediators
The effects of in-utero exposure to influenza on mental health and mortality risk throughout the life-course
How do consumers respond to "sin taxes"? New evidence from a tax on sugary drinks
It is unclear what the effects of taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are on consumer behaviour and which consumers may be affected the most. We evaluate the effect of the SSB tax introduced in Catalonia (but not in the rest of Spain) in May 2017 using loyalty card data of monthly purchases by 884,843 households from May 2016 to April 2018. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach, we study the SSB tax effect on the purchased quantity of …
Can Results-Based Financing improve health outcomes in resource poor settings? Evidence from Zimbabwe
Result Based Financing (RBF) has been implemented in health systems across low and middle-income countries (LMICs), with the objective of improving population health. Most evaluations of RBF schemes have focused on average programme effects for incentivised services. There is limited evidence on the potential effect of RBF on health outcomes, as well as on the heterogeneous effects across socio-economic groups and time periods. This study analyse…
Is owning your home good for your health? Evidence from exogenous variations in subsidies in England
Home ownership is an important component of wealth and may affect health through a range of mechanisms. Using macro- and micro-level data from 2000 to 2008, we seek to estimate the causal effect of home ownership on health by exploiting the Right to Buy policy, which encouraged long-term tenants of publicly rented housing to buy their home at a large discount. At the macro-level we find that a 10 percentage-point increase in home ownership rates …
The effect of cash transfers on mental health – new evidence from South Africa
Our findings show that UCT programmes have strong mental health benefits for the poor adult population
The worse the better? Quantile treatment effects of a conditional cash transfer programme on mental health
Poor mental health is a pressing global health problem, with high prevalence among poor populations from low-income countries. Existing studies of conditional cash transfer (CCT) effects on mental health have found positive effects. However, there is a gap in the literature on population-wide effects of cash transfers on mental health and if and how these vary by the severity of mental illness. We use the Malawian Longitudinal Study of Family and…
The effect of cash transfers on mental health
There is a gap in the literature in understanding how cash transfer programmes affect mental health. We aim to fill this gap by conceptualising and estimating the mediation effects of an unconditional cash transfer programme on mental health. We use a sample of 4,535 adults living below the South African poverty line in four waves (2008-2014) of the South African National Income Dynamics Study. We use information on individual exposure to South A…
The relationship between physical and mental health
There is a strong link between mental health and physical health, but little is known about the pathways from one to the other. We analyse the direct and indirect effects of past mental health on present physical health and past physical health on present mental health using lifestyle choices and social capital in a mediation framework. We use data on 10,693 individuals aged 50 years and over from six waves (2002-2012) of the English Longitudinal…
Is treatment “intensity” associated with healthier lifestyle choices? An application of the dose response function
Healthy lifestyle choices and doctor consultations can be substitutes or complements in the health production function. In this paper we consider the relation between the number of doctor consultations and the frequency of patient physical activity. We use a novel application of the Dose-Response Function model proposed by Hirano and Imbens (2004) to deal with treatment endogeneity under the no unmeasured confounding assumption. Our application t…
How do individuals' health behaviours respond to an increase in the supply of health care? Evidence from a natural experiment
The efficacy of the management of long-term conditions depends in part on whether healthcare and health behaviours are complements or substitutes in the health production function. On the one hand, individuals might believe that improved health care can raise the marginal productivity of their own health behaviour and decide to complement health care with additional effort in healthier behaviours. On the other hand, health care can lower the cost…
Income and Health in Tanzania. An Instrumental Variable Approach
There is a substantial debate over the direction of the causal relation between income and health. This is important for our understanding of the health production process and for the policy debate over improving healthcare. We instrument income with rainfall measurements by matching satellite information on timing and positioning of 21 rainfall stations to longitudinal data (1991-94) of over 4,000 individuals in 51 villages in Tanzania. A 10% in…
The relationship between physical and mental health
There is a strong link between mental health and physical health, but little is known about the pathways from one to the other. We analyse the direct and indirect effects of past mental health on present physical health and past physical health on present mental health using lifestyle choices and social capital in a mediation framework. We use data on 10,693 individuals aged 50 years and over from six waves (2002-2012) of the English Longitudinal…
Income and Health in Tanzania. An Instrumental Variable Approach
There is a substantial debate over the direction of the causal relation between income and health. This is important for our understanding of the health production process and for the policy debate over improving healthcare. We instrument income with rainfall measurements by matching satellite information on timing and positioning of 21 rainfall stations to longitudinal data (1991-94) of over 4,000 individuals in 51 villages in Tanzania. A 10% in…
How do consumers respond to "sin taxes"? New evidence from a tax on sugary drinks
It is unclear what the effects of taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are on consumer behaviour and which consumers may be affected the most. We evaluate the effect of the SSB tax introduced in Catalonia (but not in the rest of Spain) in May 2017 using loyalty card data of monthly purchases by 884,843 households from May 2016 to April 2018. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach, we study the SSB tax effect on the purchased quantity of …
Can Results-Based Financing improve health outcomes in resource poor settings? Evidence from Zimbabwe
Result Based Financing (RBF) has been implemented in health systems across low and middle-income countries (LMICs), with the objective of improving population health. Most evaluations of RBF schemes have focused on average programme effects for incentivised services. There is limited evidence on the potential effect of RBF on health outcomes, as well as on the heterogeneous effects across socio-economic groups and time periods. This study analyse…
The effect of cash transfers on mental health
There is a gap in the literature in understanding how cash transfer programmes affect mental health. We aim to fill this gap by conceptualising and estimating the mediation effects of an unconditional cash transfer programme on mental health. We use a sample of 4,535 adults living below the South African poverty line in four waves (2008-2014) of the South African National Income Dynamics Study. We use information on individual exposure to South A…
The worse the better? Quantile treatment effects of a conditional cash transfer programme on mental health
Poor mental health is a pressing global health problem, with high prevalence among poor populations from low-income countries. Existing studies of conditional cash transfer (CCT) effects on mental health have found positive effects. However, there is a gap in the literature on population-wide effects of cash transfers on mental health and if and how these vary by the severity of mental illness. We use the Malawian Longitudinal Study of Family and…
Income and Health in Tanzania. An Instrumental Variable Approach
There is a substantial debate over the direction of the causal relation between income and health. This is important for our understanding of the health production process and for the policy debate over improving healthcare. We instrument income with rainfall measurements by matching satellite information on timing and positioning of 21 rainfall stations to longitudinal data (1991-94) of over 4,000 individuals in 51 villages in Tanzania. A 10% in…
Is treatment “intensity” associated with healthier lifestyle choices? An application of the dose response function
Healthy lifestyle choices and doctor consultations can be substitutes or complements in the health production function. In this paper we consider the relation between the number of doctor consultations and the frequency of patient physical activity. We use a novel application of the Dose-Response Function model proposed by Hirano and Imbens (2004) to deal with treatment endogeneity under the no unmeasured confounding assumption. Our application t…
How do individuals' health behaviours respond to an increase in the supply of health care? Evidence from a natural experiment
The efficacy of the management of long-term conditions depends in part on whether healthcare and health behaviours are complements or substitutes in the health production function. On the one hand, individuals might believe that improved health care can raise the marginal productivity of their own health behaviour and decide to complement health care with additional effort in healthier behaviours. On the other hand, health care can lower the cost…
The relationship between physical and mental health
There is a strong link between mental health and physical health, but little is known about the pathways from one to the other. We analyse the direct and indirect effects of past mental health on present physical health and past physical health on present mental health using lifestyle choices and social capital in a mediation framework. We use data on 10,693 individuals aged 50 years and over from six waves (2002-2012) of the English Longitudinal…
Is owning your home good for your health? Evidence from exogenous variations in subsidies in England
Home ownership is an important component of wealth and may affect health through a range of mechanisms. Using macro- and micro-level data from 2000 to 2008, we seek to estimate the causal effect of home ownership on health by exploiting the Right to Buy policy, which encouraged long-term tenants of publicly rented housing to buy their home at a large discount. At the macro-level we find that a 10 percentage-point increase in home ownership rates …
The effect of cash transfers on mental health – new evidence from South Africa
Our findings show that UCT programmes have strong mental health benefits for the poor adult population
The worse the better? Quantile treatment effects of a conditional cash transfer programme on mental health
Poor mental health is a pressing global health problem, with high prevalence among poor populations from low-income countries. Existing studies of conditional cash transfer (CCT) effects on mental health have found positive effects. However, there is a gap in the literature on population-wide effects of cash transfers on mental health and if and how these vary by the severity of mental illness. We use the Malawian Longitudinal Study of Family and…
The effect of cash transfers on mental health
There is a gap in the literature in understanding how cash transfer programmes affect mental health. We aim to fill this gap by conceptualising and estimating the mediation effects of an unconditional cash transfer programme on mental health. We use a sample of 4,535 adults living below the South African poverty line in four waves (2008-2014) of the South African National Income Dynamics Study. We use information on individual exposure to South A…
The effects of in-utero exposure to influenza on mental health and mortality risk throughout the life-course
How do consumers respond to "sin taxes"? New evidence from a tax on sugary drinks
It is unclear what the effects of taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are on consumer behaviour and which consumers may be affected the most. We evaluate the effect of the SSB tax introduced in Catalonia (but not in the rest of Spain) in May 2017 using loyalty card data of monthly purchases by 884,843 households from May 2016 to April 2018. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach, we study the SSB tax effect on the purchased quantity of …
Can Results-Based Financing improve health outcomes in resource poor settings? Evidence from Zimbabwe
Result Based Financing (RBF) has been implemented in health systems across low and middle-income countries (LMICs), with the objective of improving population health. Most evaluations of RBF schemes have focused on average programme effects for incentivised services. There is limited evidence on the potential effect of RBF on health outcomes, as well as on the heterogeneous effects across socio-economic groups and time periods. This study analyse…
Estimating the late-life effects of social and emotional skills in childhood using midlife mediators
How has the strict lockdown during the Sars-COV-2 outbreak changed the diet of Spaniards
The very restrictive lockdown negatively impacted the characteristics of food and beverage purchases made by Spaniards. However, we are unsure whether there was substitution to restaurant and bar visits. Additional work to find out whether there were permanent changes in purchasing behaviour after lockdown ended is needed in the future
And Breathe Normally
A randomised control trial on the impact of nudges, information and incentives on food choices of vulnerable families
This study examines the impact of information, nudges and cash aid on food choices among vulnerable families receiving Red Cross aid in Spain. We use data on 1429 participants of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) ran across 73 branches of the Red Cross in Catalonia, a region of Spain. While all RCT participants received cash-aid food vouchers, they were randomised to the following additional treatment arms: i) informational intervention about t…
The long-term and economic impact of childhood early life shocks
Childhood exposure to famine represents a severe early-life shock that may shape health, cognitive, and labour-market outcomes across the life course. Yet evidence on its causal consequences in later life remains limited. This study examines whether early-life starvation during the Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961) affected later-life health, cognitive functioning, and labour-market outcomes. The analysis draws on data from the China Health and Re…
Medicine (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Environmental health (8 works) · Gerontology (6 works) · Psychiatry (6 works) · Demographic economics (5 works) · Economic growth (5 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (5 works) · Mental health (5 works)