Joan Costa-Font (he/him)

The Longevity Economy: Financing Healthy Ageing

LSE Health's @lseahil.bsky.social & UPenn's PARC invite submissions to the 2026 Workshop on 'The Longevity Economy: Financing Healthy Ageing' 🌍 Topics: pensions, LTC, housing & behavioural econ.

Deadline: 1 May 2026. #LSEHealth

🔗 bit.ly/47oUnUs

Individual ill health weakens support for a fairer healthcare system New research finds that people in worse health become less supportive of a fairer healthcare system, with implications for public policy around healthcare equity

New research by Marcello Antonini @hope-uom.bsky.social and @jcosta-font.bsky.social @lsehealthpolicy.bsky.social shows that improving population health both enhances wellbeing directly and bolsters public backing for more equitable healthcare systems.

@lseinequalities.bsky.social

Major news outlets: Please consider prominently reporting what this all-star team of researchers has found.
www.nber.org/papers/w34791

Reframing biological age as risk-equivalent age - Nature Aging Biological aging clocks predict health outcomes, including morbidity and mortality, more accurately than chronological age alone, yet defining true biological age remains contentious. We propose ‘risk...

"Physicians and healthcare leaders can then begin to consider risk-equivalent age as a critical vital sign. This will mean treating risk-equivalent age similarly to any other vital sign: measure it, discuss it with patients and act to modify it" www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Sleep and Biological Rhythms Small shifts in diurnal rhythms are associated with an increase in suicide: The effect of daylight saving Michael BERK, Seetal DODD, Karen HALLAM, Lesley BERK, John GLEESON, Margaret HENRY 21 February 2008 Abstract Large disruptions of chronobiological rhythms are documented as destabilizing individuals with bipolar disorder; however, the impact of small phase altering events is unclear. Australian suicide data from 1971 to 2001 were assessed to determine the impact on the number of suicides of a 1-h time shift due to daylight saving. The results confirm that male suicide rates rise in the weeks following the commencement of daylight saving, compared to the weeks following the return to eastern standard time and for the rest of the year.

“Suicides rise following commencement of Daylight Saving Time, compared to the return to Standard Time.”

Happening next Tuesday 📚

Join #LSEHealth as Dr Deborah Cohen launches 'Bad Influence: How the Internet Hijacked Our Health': exploring how health influencers and digital marketing have reshaped medicine.

📅 Tue 10 Feb, 6pm
📍 Marshall Building, LSE
📚 Books available
www.lse.ac.uk/lse-health/e...

A photo of Noah Feldman beside A quite with the ABC News logo “If we cannot impeach a president who abuses his office fir his personal advantage, we no longer live in a democracy — we live in a monarchy, or we live under a dictator.@ Noah Feldman, Harvard Law School

PhD Fellowship position in Economics at Oslo Business School, OsloMet | The Economic Misfit Oslo Metropolitan University is Norway's third largest university with 23,000 students and over 2,600 employees. We have campuses in central Oslo and at Romerike. OsloMet educates students and conduct...

🎓 PhD Fellowship in Economics – Oslo Business School

Ready to pursue your doctoral dream in Norway?

OsloMet is recruiting a PhD Research Fellow in Economics for a 4-year fully funded position

Salary: NOK 550,800/year

Apply by: February 28, 2026

Read more: theeconomicmisfit.com/2026/02/02/p...

Being interdisciplinary mostly means everyone agrees your work is interesting but not for their journal.

Leaving academia?

Nominations now open for #LSEHealth’s Brian Abel-Smith + Walter Holland Awards! 🏆

Two £10k prizes honour researchers whose work transformed health policy or public health.

Nominate by 13 Feb:👉 www.lse.ac.uk/lse-health/a...

Did communist education systems improve public health? Despite the failures of Soviet healthcare, communist education systems produced durable health benefits through physical education and gender equality in sport.

What impact did communist education systems have on health?

@jcosta-font.bsky.social @lsehealthpolicy.bsky.social @lseinequalities.bsky.social & Anna Nicińska cite health benefits due to emphasis on physical education, preventive health & gender-equal sports participation @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social

📢 New JHE paper on wealth shocks and long-term care insurance in the US.

Using 1996–2016 data, the study finds positive wealth shocks reduce private LTC coverage—driven mainly by financial wealth, with no change in Medicaid eligibility.

🔗 bit.ly/3ZlHg1Y

@jcosta-font.bsky.social

Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew

Hey, Boomers: Read this. Your vaccinations may be doing double duty! (Gift article)

Who actually writes the medical training materials used worldwide? 🤔

Join #LSEHealth on Mon 19 Jan as Prof Patricia Kingori (Oxford) reveals highly educated scholars ghost-writing medical assignments yet remain invisible to the system.📅

6:30pm📍 In-person & online
www.lse.ac.uk/events/who-t...

Body Mass Index and Anthropometric Criteria to Assess Obesity This cross-sectional study estimates US obesity prevalence using newly proposed anthropometric criteria.

Body Mass Index and Anthropometric Criteria to Assess Obesity jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The figure depicts a scatter plot of the instrument (exposure to BCG vaccination) against the two outcomes of the analysis: attitudes toward fair access (panel 1) and willingness to support fair financing (panel 2), at the country level. The size of the circles reflects the standard deviation of the two outcome variables measured in each country. People’s quality of life is directly affected by policy decisions about access to healthcare and funding, making it increasingly important to understand how the public interprets fairness. This column examines how people’s health status, proxied by exposure to the BCG vaccination, shapes their attitudes towards equal access to care and willingness to pay higher taxes. Individuals with better health are more supportive of fair health financing and equal access to care, suggesting that improving population health may bolster public backing for more equitable health systems.

Marcello Antonini & Joan Costa-i-Font find that individuals with better health are more supportive of fair health financing and equal access to care. Improving population health may bolster public backing for more equitable health systems.
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky

Rising wealth means that older people are more likely to self-insure rather than buy long-term care insurance | USAPP Unexpected increases in wealth mean that individuals are significantly less likely to buy long-term care insurance and are more likely to self-insure.

Rising wealth means that older people are more likely to self-insure rather than buy long-term care insurance find
@jcosta-font.bsky.social and Nilesh Raut of @lsehealthpolicy.bsky.social and Richard Frank of @brookings.edu

blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

🔍 What happens when we make healthcare free among all older adults? A gender-focused perspective♀️♂️

New research in Social Science & Medicine by Wanying Wang and Joan Costa Font highlights a critical area of focus for an ageing population in the UK.

➡️Read here: bit.ly/3KejGjY

On Monday, #LSEHealth hosted Prof Adolfo Rubinstein, Argentina's former Health Minister, examining President Milei's libertarian reforms.⚖️
Over 130 attended this critical discussion on whether market-driven solutions can deliver for public health.🗨️

Watch it back:👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJD4...

Poor heart health in middle age linked to dementia in old age – new study A 25-year study reveals that silent heart damage in your 50s can predict dementia risk decades later.

Poor heart health in middle age linked to dementia in old age – new study theconversation.com/poor-heart-h...

#Alzheimers #dementia #health #wellness

Two Postdoctoral Researchers on Health Inequalities Two Postdoctoral Researchers on Health Inequalities

Looks like a great opportunity for pop health researchers... #demography #episky
jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Reminder! Our Economics of Longevity & Ageing webinar series kicks off next month, on 19 Nov!
With Amy Finkelstein Massachusetts Institute of Technology presenting 'Elderly Health & Longevity in the US'
Register: https://cepr.org/events/event-series/economics-longevity-ageing-webinar-series
#EconSky

What is the secret of the “healthy stress” enjoyed by kings and queens? What is the “royal advantage” enjoyed by royals vs ordinary people in life expectancy? And what is “healthy stress” enjoyed by kings and queens specifically?

How much longer than the rest of us do royals live for? And do kings and queens enjoy a “healthy stress”?

@jcosta-font.bsky.social @lsehealthpolicy.bsky.social @lseahil.bsky.social for @lseinequalities.bsky.social

A lot of people -- millions! -- are saying that attending a pro-democracy march is a great way to get some exercise, increase social connection, improve sleep quality, and improve your brain health.

SEHO Conference 2026 - SEHO Conference 2026 -

🚨 Call for #papers 🚨

Don't forget to submit your paper for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society of the #Economics of the #Household (SEHO).

It will take place in Pavia on 3–4 June 2026 and is organized by the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Pavia.

seho2026.unipv.it

What is the secret of the “healthy stress” enjoyed by kings and queens? What is the “royal advantage” enjoyed by royals vs ordinary people in life expectancy? And what is “healthy stress” enjoyed by kings and queens specifically?

What is the “royal advantage” enjoyed by royals vs ordinary people in life expectancy? And is there a surprising “healthy stress” enjoyed by kings and queens specifically?

Joan Costa-Font reports in our latest blog post #LSEInequalitiesBlog

🔗 buff.ly/a0o09fe

One week to go! ⏰
#LSEHealth is hosting Yale's Prof Janet Currie on 13 Oct where she'll examine youth mental health realities. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

She'll show that suicide trends often move independently of other indicators. 📈
Chaired by @jcosta-font.bsky.social
More info:👉 bit.ly/48iFgxa

Run, graduate, run: Internationally mobile students’ reactions to changing political landscapes in Europe - Public Choice Over the last decades, Europe has attracted an increasing number of internationally mobile students. The related influx of talent into European labour markets constituted an important factor in the knowledge economy. This research addresses the question of whether changing political landscapes in Europe, such as increasing support for right-wing parties, could translate into a diminishing attractiveness of European economies. To this end, international graduates’ staying behaviour in 27 European destination countries is compared based on bilateral stay rates for 144 countries of origin from 2009 to 2019. International graduates are found to display a notable sensitivity concerning the electorate’s preferences: If the potential median voter is located on the right of the political spectrum, the number of international graduates willing to stay declines by about one quarter. This effect is stronger in election years when voters’ political preferences become more salient. Further results suggest that international graduates are also more prone to leaving if the political centre erodes or one of the political fringes becomes too dominant. Eventually, this amounts to a considerable loss for European economies since international graduates have acquired destination country-specific human capital and are easily integrated into host societies.

International graduates are sensitive to voters' preferences: they are about 25% less likely to stay when the median voter leans right, especially in election years. They are also more likely to leave when the centre erodes or extremes dominate link.springer.com/article/10.1...

LSE Health September newsletter highlights researchers driving global health impact! 📰

From BBC interviews on malaria breakthroughs to Economist warnings on Europe's elderly care crisis. Plus academic tribute & upcoming events. 💡

READ NOW: mailchi.mp/lse/lse-heal...

#LSEHealth