Antibiotic Resistance: Socio-Economic Determinants and the Role of Information and Salience in Treatment Choice

Antibiotics save millions of lives, but their use contributes to bacterial resistance, a major global public-health threat that requires effective policies to preserve antibiotic effectiveness. ABRSEIST studies how antibiotic use and resistance are distributed across the population and identifies and evaluates demand-side interventions targeting physicians and patients. Combining detailed healthcare data with econometric methods, machine learning, and experiments, the project examines the drivers of antibiotic prescribing and resistance and the role of new technologies, including AI, in clinical decision-making. Its findings contribute to the design of targeted policies for more appropriate antibiotic use and advance economic approaches to evaluating AI-supported decision-making in healthcare.

Research Output

AI adoption by human experts: Evidence from primary care physicians (Shan Huang, Renke Schmacker, and Hannes Ullrich)

Machine predictions and human decisions with variation in payoffs and skill: the case of antibiotic prescribing (Michael A. Ribers and Hannes Ullrich)

Complementarities between algorithmic and human decision-making: The case of antibiotic prescribing (Michael A. Ribers and Hannes Ullrich)

Provider effects in antibiotic prescribing: evidence from physician exits (Shan Huang and Hannes Ullrich)

Assessing the value of data for prediction policies: The case of antibiotic prescribing (Shan Huang, Michael A. Ribers, and Hannes Ullrich)

Salience of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic prescribing in primary care: pre-analysis plan (Shan Huang, Michael A. Ribers, Hannes Ullrich, Jonas Bredtoft Boel, Barbara Juliane Holzknecht, Jette Brommann Kornum, and Michael Pedersen)

Selection bias in routine surveillance of antibiotic resistance (Michael Ribers)

Competitive pressure and antibiotic prescribing in primary care (Temulun Borjigen and Hannes Ullrich)

Collaborators

Hannes Ullrich (Principal Investigator)
Research Associate, Department Firms and Markets, DIW Berlin
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

Rune Munck Aabenhus
Associate Professor of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

Temulun Borjigen
PhD Student, Berlin School of Economics, Department Firms and Markets, DIW Berlin

Lars Bjerrum
Professor of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

Jonas Bredtoft Boel
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Copenhagen University Hospital—Herlev and Gentofte

Gloria Cristina Cordoba Currea
Assistant Professor of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

Barbara Juliane Holzknecht
Senior Physician, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Copenhagen University Hospital—Herlev and Gentofte
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen

Shan Huang
Postdoc, Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics

Jette Brommann Kornum
Senior Physician, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Aalborg University Hospital

Jonas Lieber
PhD Student, Department of Economics, University of Chicago
Research Assistant, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

Michael Pedersen
Senior Physician, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Copenhagen University Hospital—Amager and Hvidovre

Michael Allan Ribers
Senior Advisor, Danish Medicines Agency

Renke Schmacker
Postdoc, Department Public Economics, DIW Berlin
Postdoc, Department Market Behavior, WZB

Janus Laust Thomsen
Professor of General Practice, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University
Director, Center for General Practice, Aalborg University

Funding

This project was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 802450) for the period of 2019 – 2025.