Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, dear colleagues, in the name of the Department of Economics, I cordially invite you to our research seminar March, 24th, 2021, 4pm Daniel Prinz (IFS) https://sites.google.com/view/danielprinz/ <https://sites.google.com/view/danielprinz/> The liquidity sensitivity of healthcare consumption: Evidence from social security payments http://www.nber.org/papers/w27977 <http://www.nber.org/papers/w27977> Abstract: Some consumers lack the cash needed to pay for medical care. As a result, they either delay care until they can pay for it or they forgo the care altogether. To test for such a possibility, we study the distribution of monthly Social Security checks among Medicare Part D enrollees. When Social Security checks are distributed, prescription fills increase by 6-12 percent. In that sense, drug consumption of low-income Medicare recipients is "liquidity sensitive." We then study recipients who transition onto a program that eliminates copayments. When those recipients do not face copayments, their drug consumption becomes less liquidity sensitive. That finding implies that, beyond risk protection, generous insurance also provides recipients with the ability to consume healthcare when they need it rather than when they have cash. Further, we find that recipients whose drug consumption is most liquidity sensitive exhibit price elasticities of demand that are twice the size of the average elasticity, suggesting that more-generous insurance causes recipients both to re-time prescription filling and also to start filling prescriptions that they otherwise would not fill. We present a stylized model that uses this finding to call into question the conventional interpretation of demand-response to price as solely inefficient moral hazard. Daniel Prinz joined the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 2021. He is Country Programme Manager for Ethiopia in the Centre for Tax Analysis in Developing Countries. His research covers topics in public finance, including social insurance, taxation, and inequality. Published papers: *. Life expectancy inequalities in Hungary over 25 years: The role of avoidable deaths, Population Studies, 2021, with Anikó Bíró, Tamás Hajdu, and Gábor Kertesi *. Disentangling policy effects using proxy data: Which shutdown policies affected unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic? Journal of Public Economics, 2020, with Ed Kong *. Healthcare Spending Inequality: Evidence from Hungarian Administrative Data, Health Policy, 2020, with Anikó Bíró *. screening in contract design: Evidence from the ACA health insurance exchanges, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2019, with Mike Geruso and Tim Layton Registration for the zoom link at https://www.jku.at/en/department-of-economics/research/research-events/onlin... <https://www.jku.at/en/department-of-economics/research/research-events/online-research-seminar/> You will find the schedule for the summer term at https://www.jku.at/en/department-of-economics/research/research-events/more-... <https://www.jku.at/en/department-of-economics/research/research-events/more-details-about-the-online-economics-research-seminar/> With best regards, rené böheim — PD René Böheim, PhD Department of Economics JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITÄT LINZ Altenberger Straße 69 4040 Linz, Österreich P +43-732-2468-7369