Health drain: the effect of internal migration on regional disparities in healthcare costs
Kulshreshtha,Shobhit Salm,Martin Wuebker,Ansgar
Kulshreshtha,Shobhit
Salm,Martin
Wuebker,Ansgar
Abstract
Internal migration can increase regional disparities in healthcare costs between economically disadvantaged and more prosperous regions in the same country. Persons who move to more prosperous regions tend to be young and healthy while persons who move to or remain in economically disadvantaged regions are on average older and sicker. In this study, we propose a novel framework that allows estimating the effect of internal migration and resulting changes in population composition on average healthcare costs in different regions. Our framework refines a "move people back" approach by adjusting for place effects. Based on data for the entire population of the Netherlands, we show that internal migration during the 1998-2018 period increased average healthcare costs in economically disadvantaged provinces by up to 3.4%, and it explains 29.3% of regional variation in healthcare costs.
Description
Date
2025-09-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Internal migration, Move people back approach, Regional variation in health, Regional variation in healthcare costs, I14 - Health and Inequality, H51 - Government Expenditures and Health, R23 - Regional Migration ; Regional Labor Markets ; Population ; Neighborhood Characteristics, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
Citation
Kulshreshtha, S, Salm, M & Wuebker, A 2025, 'Health drain: the effect of internal migration on regional disparities in healthcare costs', Journal of Population Economics, vol. 38, no. 3, 66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-025-01123-1
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess