Ginger Zhe Jin, Ph.D.

Recent Accomplishments

Jin’s research has been concentrated in two areas: (1) evaluating the role of information in population health, and (2) explaining individual interactions within the family. With regards to population health, Jin’s paper (with Phillip Leslie, 2003) in the Quarterly Journal of Economics examined the effect of hygiene report cards on restaurant hygiene and food borne illness. In 1998, Los Angeles County introduced hygiene quality grade cards to be displayed in restaurant windows. The study shows that the grade cards caused a decrease in the number of food borne illness hospitalizations. Her paper in the Journal of Environmental Health (with Philip Leslie et al., 2005) confirms that the impact on food borne illness hospitalizations persists over time. Jin's other research focuses on more classical issues of population health including a 2006 paper (with Alan Sorensen) in the Journal of Health Economics that estimates the influence of publicized ratings on the health plan choice of 2.2 million federal annuitants. By contrasting public and nonpublic plan ratings, they find that the ratings disseminated by the National Committee of Quality Assurance had a meaningful influence on individual choices, particularly for individuals choosing a plan for the first time. In another project, Jin examines the direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs. She finds that DTCA has motivated more ambulatory visits at doctor's office, but does not have a significant impact on the choice of prescription. Jin and Toshiaki Iizuka document that the DTCA of tobacco cessation products increases smoking among the college-educated population that had access to health insurance, and that DTCA reduced the likelihood of moderate exercise. These findings suggest that, through changes in health habits, DTCA may have perverse and long-run impacts on population health. Jin's second research area focuses on intra-familial interactions. Hao, Hotz and Jin (2006, NBER working paper #11872) apply the theory of reputation formation to parental control over teenage risky behaviors. Using teenage childbearing and high school dropout as two examples, they find that both the likelihood of teenagers engaging in risky behaviors and parental transfers decrease with the number of younger children at risk, as the theory predicts. In another working paper, Jin and Xu (2006) examine the correlation between matchmaking and marriage quality. Using a survey of 10,000 Chinese couples in 1991, they find that parent- or friend-involved matches are worse than self-matches in terms of domestic harmony and joint couple income.

Funded Research

Jin’s work on health plan information was funded by the Agency for HealthCare Research of Quality (AHRQ) dissertation grant 1999-2000. The project evaluating the impact of restaurant hygiene regulation in Los Angeles county was funded by NSF 2001-2004. Jin also has a current grant from the National Bureau of Economic Research, supporting a study on college and university reactions to the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Future Plans

Future research will focus on information issues in population health. For example, one of Jin’s ongoing projects (with Pradeep Chintagunta) examines the diffusion and withdrawal of Cox-2 Inhibitors. Using detailed patient diaries of drug use, they have estimated how doctors learn about drug efficacy and what role patient feedback and advertising play in this learning process. Next, the study will examine more recent years and investigate how the withdrawals of Vioxx and Bextra affect the prescription choice of existing Cox-2 and other substitutable drugs. In addition, Jin has started a new project focusing on the online aspects of prescription drugs. More specifically, she intends to document: how consumers search for drug information online; what kind of information is available when consumers enter drug brands in various online search engines; how FDA news about prescription drugs gets diffused in major search engines; the relationship to drug advertising via traditional channels; and how federal and state policies affect the demand and supply of online pharmacies.