Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Antidepressent Treatment For Depression: Total Charges And Therapy Duration, Deborah G. Dobrez, Catherine A. Melfi, Thomas W. Croghan, Thomas J. Kniesner, Robert L. Obenchain

Center for Policy Research

Background: The economic costs of depression are significant, both the direct medical costs of care and the indirect costs of lost productivity. Empirical studies of antidepressant costeffectiveness suggest that the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) may be no more costly than tricyclic antidepressants (TCA), will improve tolerability, and is associated with longer therapy duration. However the success of depression care usually involves multiple factors, including source of care, type of care, and patient characteristics, in addition to drug choice. The cost-effective mix of antidepressant therapy components is unclear.

Aims of the Study: Our study evaluates cost and antidepressant-continuity …

Chasing The Elderly: Can State And Local Governments Attract Recent Retirees?, William Duncombe, Mark Robbins, Douglas A. Wolf

Center for Policy Research

Recruiting recent retirees to relocate from elsewhere has become an important economic development strategy in an increasing number of states. State governments have planned or enacted a variety of tax and fee incentives to lure retirees. The objective of this paper is to determine whether states can, in fact, influence the retirement destination of elder households using fiscal tools. To estimate the determinants of retiree location decisions we have developed an extensive data set on county attributes, and a methodology for estimating an individual-level discrete-choice model for a very large number of potential locations. Using 1990 county-to-county migration data, we …

Association Between Body Size And Mortality In Later Life, Christine L. Himes

Center for Policy Research

The rising prevalence of obesity in the United States has focused attention on the health consequences of excess weight. Obesity is linked to many of the major causes of death in the United States, including heart disease, some types of cancer, strokes, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. However, the effects of body size on mortality and health among the elderly are much less clear. This paper extends our current understanding of the relationship between body size and mortality by using two nationally representative, longitudinal datasets of individuals at older ages. These analyses indicate that obesity may not contribute greatly to increased mortality …

Patterns Of Time Use Of People Age 55 To 64 Years Old: Some Cross-National Comparisons, Anne H. Gauthier, Timothy M. Smeeding

Center for Policy Research

Objectives. This paper examines the patterns of time use of adults age 55 to 64 years old in six countries: Austria, Canada, Finland, Italy, Sweden, and the United States. It examines the discontinuity in daily activities by employment status and gender. Methods. The paper uses nationally representative samples from time use surveys carried out in each country. We compute aggregate patterns of time use by employment status and gender for seven categories of activities: personal activities, paid work, unpaid work, housework, social leisure, active leisure, and passive leisure. We also compute dissimilarity indices to measure the degree of discontinuity in …

Medicaid, Managed Care, And Kids. 12th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture On Health Policy, Deborah A. Freund

Center for Policy Research

This policy brief talks about what managed care for Medicaid is, how it influences kids, and how it relates to the State Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It focuses on what we have learned over the last 20 years through research about cost, use, and quality. It also discusses some of the expectations we had for children covered by Medicaid managed care. Finally, it talks about the future of Medicaid managed care and the implications for CHIP.

Worldwide Population Aging: Endogenous Policy Formation And Capital Market Transmissions In The Presence Of Symmetric Demographic Shocks, Mehmet Serkan Tosun

Center for Policy Research

This paper examines the transition effects of population aging in more developed regions that is also expected to occur in developing regions in the near future. We address these effects by exploring the influences of internationally mobile capital and a politically responsive fiscal policy in a two-country overlapping generations model. Our results show that the combination of capital mobility and endogenous fiscal policy play an important role in how economies respond to population aging. Capital mobility has consumption smoothing effects but endogenous fiscal policy is the key factor in creating asymmetries between countries. The interaction of the two may even …

Does Chronic Illness Affect The Adequacy Of Health Insurance Coverage?, Kevin T. Stroupe, Eleanor D. Kinney, Thomas J. Kniesner

Center for Policy Research

Although chronically ill individuals need protection against high medical expenses, they often have difficulty obtaining adequate insurance coverage due to medical underwriting practices used to classify and price risks and to define and limit coverage for individuals and groups. Using data from healthy and chronically ill individuals in Indiana, we found that illness decreased the probability of having adequate insurance, particularly among single individuals. Chronic illness decreased the probability of having adequate coverage by about 10 percentage points among all individuals and by about 25 percentage points among single individuals. Pre-existing condition exclusions were a major source of inadequate insurance. …

Chronic Illness And Health Insurance-Related Job Lock, Kevin T. Stroupe, Eleanor D. Kinney, Thomas J. Kniesner

Center for Policy Research

We examine job duration patterns for evidence of health insurance-related job lock among chronically ill workers or workers with a chronically ill family member. Using Cox proportional hazard models, we allow for more general insurance effects than in the existing literature to indicate the impact of health insurance and health status on workers' job durations. We use data for workers in Indiana predating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to examine the potential impact of HIPAA on job mobility. Chronic illness reduced job mobility by about 40 percent among the workers in our sample who relied on their …

How Well Can We Track Cohabitation Using The Sipp? A Consideration Of Direct And Inferred Measures, Reagan Anne Baughman, Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Scott Houser

Center for Policy Research

Cohabitation is an alternative to marriage and to living independently for an increasing number of Americans. Despite this fact, research exploring links between living arrangements and economic behavior is limited by a lack of data that explicitly identify cohabiting couples. To aid researchers in using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) rich data for cohabitation issues, our paper considers direct and inferred measures of cohabitation. Our findings suggest that: (1) the best inferred measures in pre-1966 SIPP depends upon a researcher's goals, and (2) the SIPP counts a larger number of cohabiting couples than the widely used CPS.

Microdata Panel Data And Public Policy: National And Cross-National Perspectives, Richard V. Burkhauser

Center for Policy Research

This paper focuses on the movement of data-based social policy analysis from a single-country cross-section frame to a multi-country panel frame. It provides examples of policy insights this movement to panel data has permitted, both with respect to economic well-being and behavior--using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). It also suggests fruitful areas for future panel data-based policy research.

Are We Understating The Impact Of Economic Conditions On Welfare Rolls?, Dan A. Black, Terra G. Mckinnish, Seth G. Sanders

Center for Policy Research

In this brief we argue that welfare participation is more sensitive to economic conditions than previously believed. Why? Prior research focused on short-term economic fluctuations and ignored differences between high- and low-skilled workers. As welfare is long-term (i.e., permanent) it makes more sense to make comparisons with long-term economic trends. Also, since low-skilled workers are more likely to end up on welfare, it is proper to focus on their economic opportunities. Thus, we focus on the long-term impact of economic conditions on welfare participation, and we concentrate our analysis on low-skilled workers. Specifically, we analyze long-term changes in the supply …