Date of Thesis

Spring 2021

Description

Chronic kidney failure is a global health issue that can often require a kidney donation. The supply of available kidneys, however, is limited, leading to a massive international kidney shortage that is growing rapidly each year. In responding to these shortages, perhaps, several countries have implemented policies that incentivize living kidney donation. Estimating the impact of these incentive policies on living kidney donations is important if we are to understand this global health crisis. Although previous studies have discovered a correlation between the incentivizing policies and living kidney donations, there has been little attempt made to control for confounding variables. This study estimates the effect of various governmentally implemented incentive policies on the number of living kidney donors by performing an econometric analysis using panel data obtained from select international sources. Panel data methods were used to estimate 14 econometric models to determine the significance of the polices in question. Overall, three out of the seven policies (or policy bundles) were found to have a significant positive effect on living kidney donation rates. Before discussing these empirical processes, this study first catalogs the incentivizing polices those countries have implemented; it explains why increasing organ donation numbers is critically important; and, it reviews other studies that have considered this topic.

Access Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Type

Bachelor of Science

Major

Mathematical Economics

First Advisor

Thomas Kinnaman

Second Advisor

Christopher Magee

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Econometrics Commons

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