Topics 2nd Cohort

Our research agenda will focus especially on the relationship between processes and outcomes in settings such as preventive and curative services, elective and non-elective treatments, diagnostics and long-term care. Areas of application will include specific areas of disease. We will also employ the exogenous variation induced by recent developments such as the Covid-19 pandemic. We will study the process-outcome relationship in various contexts such as provider cooperation, patient-physician interactions, and provider responses to incentives set by third-party payers or the government.

First recruitment period from April 2025

Quality of care in the long-term care sector

With an aging population, the demand for long-term care (LTC) services in Germany is growing rapidly.

The German LTC system is characterized by compulsory LTC insurance that pays out fixed subsidies for informal care, formal care at home, and formal care in nursing homes. These services are provided by private firms (ambulatory care services and nursing homes), who engage in competition. Market entry is not restricted.

The number of beneficiaries has been constantly rising (tripled over the last 25 years) and so has the number of places in nursing homes. The demographic change intensifies staff shortages and increases demand for professional care. There are narratives in the press about substantial shortages of places in the long-term care homes market and low quality of care.

PhD students will use methods from industrial economics to investigate how labor quotas and the adoption of new technologies could affect quality of care in the German long-term care market, as part of the Research Training Group of the HCHE.

The two projects for the first recruitment period are:

Photo: HCHE

The PhD student will investigate the effects of skilled labour quotas on quality of care using German administrative data.

Photo: HCHE

The PhD student could study the adoption of new technologies in long-term care markets with help of a survey. This survey could be linked to administrative data to evaluate how the adoption of new technologies is linked to the quality of care provision.

Second recruitment period (expected in October 2025)

1. Measuring the needs and benefits in informal care for people with chronic wounds

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Matthias Augustin

2. Quality of formal and informal care in patients with post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS)

First Supervisor: PD Dr. Christine Blome

3. The role of quality indicators in the selection of GPs

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. André Hajek

4. The provision of credence goods under dual health insurance

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mathias Kifmann

5. Which factors influence the use of emergency medical services for low acuity problems – a mixed methods study

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hans-Helmut König

6. Reciprocity and Decision-Making Mechanisms in Physician-Patient Interaction – An Experimental Analysis

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Johanna Kokot

7. Provider decision making and its impact on quality of care - an analysis of changes in financial incentives

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jonas Schreyögg

8. Estimation of Treatment Effects with Unstructured Data with an Application to the Quality of Healthcare

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Martin Spindler

9. How digital / online patient-physician contacts impact quality of care

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tom Stargardt

10. Impact of health insurance on health and quality of life

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Petra Steinorth

Topics 2nd Cohort

First recruitment period from April 2025

Second recruitment period (expected in October 2025)

Call for Applications

Contact