IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jecrev/v75y2024i4d10.1007_s42973-024-00174-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does free cancer screening make a difference? Evidence from the effects of a free-coupon program in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Meng Zhao

    (Gakushuin University)

Abstract

Cancer risk increases with age rapidly after midlife. One of the serious consequences of population aging is the substantial adverse effect of cancer on labor productivity and health expenditures. To address this issue, mass cancer screening for target population is increasingly becoming a common practice. However, cancer screening rates remain low in many areas, and there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the mental health effects of cancer screening. In 2009, a national free-coupon program was launched in Japan to provide free breast and cervical cancer screenings to the target population. The program further provided a voucher for a free colorectal cancer screening in 2011. Using rich data from the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions in Japan from 2007 to 2013, this study exploits the exogenous variation in the incentive to receive cancer screening driven by the program to analyze: (a) the effects of the program on screening uptake and (b) the effects of cancer screening on mental health, self-reported symptoms, and smoking behavior. Our results suggest that the program significantly increased the probability of attending breast and cervical cancer screenings by approximately 9–10% and that of attending colorectal cancer screening by approximately 6% for female and 3% for male. Cancer screening appears to have some heterogeneous effects on mental health and smoking behavior, but the estimates are generally weak and/or inconsistent.

Suggested Citation

  • Meng Zhao, 2024. "Does free cancer screening make a difference? Evidence from the effects of a free-coupon program in Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 75(4), pages 739-778, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jecrev:v:75:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s42973-024-00174-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s42973-024-00174-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s42973-024-00174-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s42973-024-00174-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David M. Cutler, 2008. "Are We Finally Winning the War on Cancer?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 3-26, Fall.
    2. Hiroshi Sano & Rei Goto & Chisato Hamashima, 2017. "Does lack of resources impair access to breast and cervical cancer screening in Japan?," Discussion Papers CRR Discussion Paper Series A: General 27, Shiga University, Faculty of Economics,Center for Risk Research.
    3. Chiburis, Richard C. & Das, Jishnu & Lokshin, Michael, 2012. "A practical comparison of the bivariate probit and linear IV estimators," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 762-766.
    4. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Tamar Oostrom & Abigail Ostriker & Heidi Williams, 2020. "Screening and Selection: The Case of Mammograms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(12), pages 3836-3870, December.
    5. Isaiah Andrews & James H. Stock & Liyang Sun, 2019. "Weak Instruments in Instrumental Variables Regression: Theory and Practice," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 727-753, August.
    6. Young, Alwyn, 2022. "Consistency without inference: instrumental variables in practical application," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115011, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Keane, Michael & Neal, Timothy, 2023. "Instrument strength in IV estimation and inference: A guide to theory and practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 1625-1653.
    8. Young, Alwyn, 2022. "Consistency without Inference: Instrumental Variables in Practical Application," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    9. Kim, Hyuncheol Bryant & Lee, Sun-mi, 2017. "When public health intervention is not successful: Cost sharing, crowd-out, and selection in Korea's National Cancer Screening Program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 100-116.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. ZHAO Meng (KONISHI Moe), 2023. "Does Free Cancer Screening Make a Difference? Evidence from the effects of a free-coupon program in Japan," Discussion papers 23067, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Romagnoli, Matteo, 2024. "Clean sweep: Electricity liberalization and the direction of technological change in the electricity sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(8).
    3. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2024. "Estimating Causal Effects with Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," IFRO Working Paper 2024/03, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    4. Jens Klooster & Mikhail Zhelonkin, 2024. "Outlier robust inference in the instrumental variable model with applications to causal effects," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 86-106, January.
    5. Keane, Michael & Neal, Timothy, 2023. "Instrument strength in IV estimation and inference: A guide to theory and practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 1625-1653.
    6. Borja Larrain & Peter Roosenboom & Giorgo Sertsios & Francisco Urzúa, 2024. "Ownership Concentration and Firm Value: New Evidence from Owner Stakes in IPOs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(7), pages 4441-4464, July.
    7. Wang, Wenjie & Zhang, Yichong, 2024. "Wild bootstrap inference for instrumental variables regressions with weak and few clusters," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 241(1).
    8. Angrist, Joshua & Kolesár, Michal, 2024. "One instrument to rule them all: The bias and coverage of just-ID IV," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 240(2).
    9. Zhaonan Qu & Yongchan Kwon, 2024. "Distributionally Robust Instrumental Variables Estimation," Papers 2410.15634, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    10. Bensch, Gunther & Ankel-Peters, Jörg & Vance, Colin, 2023. "Spotlight on Researcher Decisions – Infrastructure Evaluation, Instrumental Variables, and Specification Screening," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277703, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Ankel-Peters, Jörg & Vance, Colin & Bensch, Gunther, 2022. "Spotlight on researcher decisions – Infrastructure evaluation, instrumental variables, and first-stage specification screening," OSF Preprints sw6kd, Center for Open Science.
    12. Juan R. Hernández & Mateo Hoyos & Daniel Ventosa-Santaulària, 2024. "Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets under Global Uncertainty," Working Papers DTE 634, CIDE, División de Economía.
    13. Marianne P. Bitler & Christopher S. Carpenter & Danea Horn, 2021. "Effects of the Colorectal Cancer Control Program," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2667-2685, November.
    14. Abbasi, Ali & DiTraglia, Francis J. & Gazze, Ludovica & Pals, Bridget, 2023. "Hidden hazards and screening policy: Predicting undetected lead exposure in Illinois," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Arora, Varun & Chakravarty, Sujoy & Kapoor, Hansika & Mukherjee, Shagata & Roy, Shubhabrata & Tagat, Anirudh, 2023. "No going back: COVID-19 disease threat perception and male migrants' willingness to return to work in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 533-546.
    16. Slichter, David & Tran, Nhan, 2023. "Do better journals publish better estimates?," MPRA Paper 118433, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Tran, Tuyen Quang & Van Vu, Huong, 2024. "The long-term effects of war on foreign direct investment and economic development: evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    18. Jordan Adamson & Lucas Rentschler, 2023. "Criminal justice from a public choice perspective: an introduction to the special issue," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 223-227, September.
    19. Simeth, Markus & Wehrheim, David, 2024. "On “Innovation and institutional ownership”," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    20. Eberhardt, Markus, 2022. "Democracy, growth, heterogeneity, and robustness," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cancer screening; Free-coupon program; Japan; Mental health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jecrev:v:75:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s42973-024-00174-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.