Lunch Seminar with Susan Stewart (National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge)

Susan Stewart presents her team’s work on a satellite account for the U.S. health sector, measuring healthcare productivity for the elderly from 1999 to 2012. The study tracks changes in quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) and medical spending across 80 conditions. Overall, healthcare shows annual productivity growth of 1.5%, though with significant variation: care for cardiovascular diseases achieved high productivity growth, while treatment for musculoskeletal conditions was expensive without corresponding improvements in outcomes.