Person:
Hou, Xiaohui
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
health economics; social safety nets; poverty
Degrees
ORCID
Departments
Health, Nutrition and Population, East Asia and Pacific Region, World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Hou, Xiaohui is a Senior Economist in the World Bank. Joined as a Young Professional, she has since worked in Human Development department and Poverty Reduction and Economic Management department across the East Europe and Central Asia region, the South Asia region, and most recently the East Asia and Pacific region. She also spent a number of years in the World Bank Institute, the capacity building arm of the World Bank, focusing on face to face training and network development. Her fields include health economics, social safety net, labor economics and impact evaluation. She has published a dozen of papers in both economics and medical peer reviewed journals. She also teaches as a visiting scholar. A Peking University graduate, she obtained her Ph.D. in the Health Services and Policy Analysis and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s degree in Health Policy and Administration from the Washington State University.
Publication Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
-
Publication
Reforming the Basic Benefits Package in Armenia: Modeling Insights from the Health Interventions Prioritization Tool
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03-26)Armenia is an upper-middle-income (UMI) country in the South Caucasus region. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and a regional crisis have resulted in the real economy's contraction following rapid growth in the past five years. Improving access to high-quality health care is essential for responding to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and preventing mortality from infectious diseases in Armenia. Armenia is faced with the challenge of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) when funding for health services faces downward pressures due to a donor funding transition, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and regional conflict. This report is part of the World Bank’s technical support toward universal health coverage in Armenia, which includes advisory services and analytics aimed at supporting the government’s efforts to expand access to high-quality health care. The report draws on the Health Interventions prioritization tool to optimize allocations across essential health services in the basic benefits package and estimate the potential impact of these allocations on population health. -
Publication
Exploring Factors Driving the Performance of Rural Health Care in Papua New Guinea
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-06)Examining performance patterns of sub-national units, such as provinces and districts, within a health system is important to understand their drivers and what might be needed to improve outputs. Such literature is relatively rare in low and middle-income countries. It is particularly relevant for Papua New Guinea, which is underperforming in relation to its neighbours and targets for core health indicators and faces particular geographical challenges, with a dispersed and diverse population. In this analysis, we undertake simple correlation analysis between remoteness of populations, expenditure on frontline services and core outputs by provinces and regions, such as antenatal care, outpatient visits, outreach clinics, referrals of patients and facility supervision in 2012. In the context of the challenging geography of Papua New Guinea, these are expected to be important factors. Some expected patterns were found – for example, between remoteness and higher service costs, as well as between remoteness and higher outreach services. Outpatient visits, however, increased with remoteness, which was surprising. Our correlation analyses suggest a virtuous circle operating in some areas (even in the most geographically challenged) between outreach clinics, immunisation coverage, supervision, frontline spending and overall health system performance, which merits further investigation into the factors supporting these and how they can be reinforced elsewhere. Whilst expenditure did not correlate closely with provincial performance, it was evident that the provinces with higher performance across the selection of metrics typically were also the higher spenders on frontline services. There was some correlation of higher performance with density of public provision. More fine-grained assessment, including at the district level, will be needed to understand the low levels of outreach clinics, transfers and supervision, all of which are critical for quality health care in these kinds of contexts. The analysis illustrates what can be learned from combining routine data sources, as well as the limits and the need to complement such analysis with more detailed local qualitative investigations. It also reinforces the message that local leadership, supportive supervision and resources directed to frontline services can be effective in raising health system performance, even in challenging settings. -
Publication
Turning Challenges into Opportunities: The Medium Term Health Expenditure Pressure Study in Timor-Leste
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016)Timor-Leste has achieved significant improvements in the health sector since becoming independent a little over a decade ago. Timor-Leste is undergoing an epidemiology transition as the non-communicable disease burden increases, while infectious disease prevalence remains high. The report aims to: (i) analyze trends in health sector public expenditures (budgets and realized expenditures); (ii) document trends in staffing and training, including their costs; (iii) understand the likely resource envelope available to the health sector over the next five years (from all sources); and (iv) provide options to adjust expenditures, to support key priorities, and improve the efficiency of existing expenditures to create space for key priorities. This report reviews the critical fiscal issues facing the health sector in the medium term, including the key areas demanding fiscal space, and the likely resource envelope from government and donors. The report analyzes past trends in health expenditures (by the government and donors), forecasts future resource availability, and examines implications for the Ministry of Health (MOH) to sustain delivery of quality health services. The report is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two analyzes human resource development in health by discussing three scenarios for medium term health staff planning. Chapter three examines trends in government health spending by key expenditure areas and discusses the increasingly important role that government spending will play in the health sector. Chapter four analyzes the past trends in donor health financing in Timor-Leste. Chapter five concludes by reviewing four key areas (rising wage bill, pharmaceutical spending, overseas medical transfers, and declining donor spending) that are exerting pressure on health sector financing, and suggests policy recommendations based on the analysis detailed in this report. -
Publication
Improving Allocative Efficiency in Zimbabwe’s Health Sector: Results from the Health Interventions Prioritization Tool
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)The country of Zimbabwe has seen some important improvements in key health outcomes since 2009. However, despite progress in some areas of the health sector, the country did not meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and current progress falls short of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) milestones. As is often the case, the poor and rural populations in Zimbabwe bear a disproportionate burden of disease and health risks. The situation is compounded by national economic challenges and health sector spending inefficiencies that have resulted in households bearing an increasing share of health sector financing, mainly through out-of-pocket expenditures. Households provide approximately 25 percent of health sector financing in Zimbabwe. Again, the poor and rural populations are hardest hit by this economic reality. Zimbabwe was one of the few countries in which HIPtool was piloted at the proof of concept stage. HIPtool enables the mathematical prioritization of interventions based on existing data and a set of criteria. It provides a technical foundation to further develop an essential health benefits package. However, HIPtool, at this stage in development, still has strong limitations, which are outlined along with results in this report.