Daily Paper Digest

Supplemental private health insurance is becoming more common in universal healthcare systems as a way to secure faster access to specialists, diagnostics, and elective care. This column examines how such insurance affects healthcare use and access. New evidence from Sweden shows that gaining coverage increases and expedites healthcare use, while much of the extra care is still delivered and financed within the public system through referrals back from private providers. As coverage is concentrated among higher-income workers while health needs are greater among lower-income individuals, the benefits and spillovers are distributed unequally.

Work from home expanded dramatically after the pandemic. This column presents evidence from Italy that this transformation may have reduced one of the most persistent sources of gender inequality in labour markets: the motherhood penalty. Post-pandemic, mothers employed in jobs compatible with remote work experienced substantially higher earnings in the year following childbirth relative to mothers in less flexible ones, and were also more likely to remain in full-time employment. The authors also find that mothers whose partners work in highly remote-compatible jobs experienced significantly smaller earnings losses after childbirth. The evidence suggests that workplace organisation is an effective lever for reducing the cost of having children.

Supplemental private health insurance is becoming more common in universal healthcare systems as a way to secure faster access to specialists, diagnostics, and elective care. This column examines how such insurance affects healthcare use and access. New evidence from Sweden shows that gaining coverage increases and expedites healthcare use, while much of the extra care is still delivered and financed within the public system through referrals back from private providers. As coverage is concentrated among higher-income workers while health needs are greater among lower-income individuals, the benefits and spillovers are distributed unequally.

Europe's Capital Markets Union debate is again centred on how to turn savings into productive investment. This column uses Danish ownership and register data to show that pension fund equity investment is associated with higher productivity only among unlisted firms. It argues that this is consistent with four distinct channels: capital supply, long-term commitment, engagement, and signalling. This has implications for the tension between microprudential safety and macroeconomic risk-bearing. A well-designed Capital Markets Union should support investment vehicles that allow pension funds to invest in unlisted equity while preserving diversification, transparency, and saver protection.