Economics Seminar Series with Jinyeong Son

Jinyeong Son is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Health Care Markets, Policy, and Regulation at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. His research focuses on health economics, public economics, and labor economics, including the impacts of medical innovation and health insurance on outcomes and policy. 

Jinyeong Son will be presenting The Impact of Medical Innovation on Health and Disability 

Abstract: Despite substantial growth in medical technology, there is limited causal evidence on the impacts of many medical innovations on health and disability. This paper investigates the impact of a major surgical innovation: the move from conventional open surgery to minimally invasive surgery. Using an instrumental variables research design along with administrative data on injured workers undergoing orthopedic surgery, we quantify the impact of minimally invasive surgery (compared to analogous open surgery) on subsequent health care use, return to work, long-term disability, and social insurance payments. The findings suggest minimally invasive surgery reduces health care spending in the two years following surgery by 30%—through both reduced complexity of the surgery itself and large reductions in subsequent health care use.