What connects data governance, health inequalities, and behavioral economics? The answer lies at the heart of Learning Health Systems — systems that continuously integrate evidence to improve care, policy, and practice. 

In this series by the Competence Center for Learning Health Systems, three researchers bring complementary lenses to one shared challenge: closing the gap between evidence and action. Across three sessions, researchers in health policy, behavioral economics, and health economics explore how evidence can inform and be integrated into policy and practice. Together, they ask what a health system truly needs in order to learn and what stands in the way. The series is moderated by Dr. Helena Antonie Baier. 

For Session 2, the speaker will be Dr. Marina Krauss from the University of Augsburg, whose expertise focuses on health economics and labor market inequalities. Marina Krauss studies the effects of early childcare availability on maternal health by exploiting variation following a major reform. Linking county-level childcare coverage rates with individual data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, they find negative effects on maternal physical and mental health. Notably, partners’ health remains unaffected, leading to a widening health gap within households.