Health Economics Commons^™

A Study Of The Effects Of Certificate Of Need Law On Inpatient Occupancy Rates, Jomon Aliyas Paul, Huan Ni, Aniruddha Bagchi

Aniruddha Bagchi

Crop Residues: The Rest Of The Story, Douglas L. Karlen, Rattan Lal, Ronald F. Follett, John M. Kimble, Jerry L. Hatfield, John A. Miranowski, Cynthia A. Cambardella, Andrew Manale, Robert P. Anex, Charles W. Rice

Douglas L Karlen

Synopsis In the February 15, 2009 issue of ES&T Strand and Benford argued that oceanic deposition of agricultural crop residues was a viable option for net carbon sequestration (43 [4], 1000−1007). In reviewing the calculations and bringing their experience to bear, Karlen et al. argue in this Viewpoint that crop residue oceanic permanent sequestration (CROPS) as envisioned by Strand and Benford will not work. They further propose alternative possibilities in agricultural methods to achieve a net decrease of CO2 emissions.

Saving Lives With Stem Cell Transplants, Damien Sheehan-Connor, Ted C. Bergstrom, Rodney Garratt

Ted C Bergstrom

Blood stem cell transplants can be life-saving for some patients, but the chances of finding a matching donor are small unless a large number of potential donors are evaluated. Many nations maintain large registries of potential donors who have offered to donate stem cells if they are the best available match for a patient needing a transplant. An alternative source of stem cells, umbilical cord blood, is stored in banks. Everyone faces a small probability of needing a transplant which will increase their likelihood of survival. The registries and cord blood banks are thus an interesting example of a pure …

Saving Lives With Stem Cell Transplants, Damien Sheehan-Connor, Ted Bergstrom, Rodney Garratt

Ted C Bergstrom

For patients with certain diseases, blood stem cell transplants can be life-saving. But a transplant is likely to be successful only if the immune systems of the donor and recipient are a close genetic match. Human immune systems are extremely diverse and a patient's chances of finding a matching donor would be small without the ability to search a very large number of possible donors. For this reason, most advanced nations maintain large registries of potential donors who have offered to donate stem cells if they happen to be the best available match for a patient needing a transplant. In …

Something In The Water: Contaminated Drinking Water And Infant Health, Janet Currie, Joshua Graff Zivin, Katherine Meckel, Matthew Neidell, Wolfram Schlenker

Joshua Graff Zivin

No abstract provided.

Price Elasticity Of Expenditure Across Health Care Services, Fabian Duarte

Fabian Duarte

Policymakers in countries around the world are faced with rising health care costs and are debating ways to reform health care to reduce expenditures. Estimates of price elasticity of expenditure are a key component for predicting expenditures under alternative policies. Using unique individual-level data compiled from administrative records from the Chilean private health insurance market, I estimate the price elasticity of expenditures across a variety of health care services. I find elasticities that range between zero for the most acute service (appendectomy) and −2.08 for the most elective (psychologist visit). Moreover, the results show that at least one third of …

Workplace Deviance And Recession, Aniruddha Bagchi

Aniruddha Bagchi

No abstract provided.

Work Incentives And The Food Stamp Program, Hilary Hoynes, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Labor supply theory makes strong predictions about how the introduction or expansion of a social welfare program impacts work effort. Although there is a large literature on the work incentive effects of AFDC and the EITC, relatively little is known about the work incentive effects of the Food Stamp Program and none of the existing literature is based on quasi-experimental methods. We use the cross-county introduction of the program in the 1960s and 1970s to estimate the impact of the program on the extensive and intensive margins of labor supply, earnings, and family cash income. Consistent with theory, we find …

Education And The Poor, Lisa Barrow, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

No abstract provided.

How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence From Project Star, Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Emmanuel Saez, Diane Schanzenbach, Danny Yagan

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

In Project STAR, 11,571 students in Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms within their schools from kindergarten to third grade. This article evaluates the long-term impacts of STAR by linking the experimental data to administrative records. We first demonstrate that kindergarten test scores are highly correlated with outcomes such as earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. We then document four sets of experimental impacts. First, students in small classes are significantly more likely to attend college and exhibit improvements on other outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings …

Impacts Of Social Upbringing On Family Integration In Military Life In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

In a country on the eve of losing one third of its land, 80% of potential natural resources and 75% of external exports value, economic future seems gloomy. Many opinions were given for economic solutions after the Southern Sudan secession. However, that does not support a theoretical framework that those are the only reasons for the expected economic collapse. Our theory here is that such collapse already happened because of economic mismanagement, corruption and hoarding initiated by the calls for empowerment and carried out by the regime's members. Such acts extended to the banks, economic institutions and randomized privatization. The …

Is Being In School Better? The Impact Of School On Children's Bmi When Starting Age Is Endogenous, Patricia Anderson, Kristin Butcher, Elizabeth Cascio, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

In this paper, we investigate the impact of attending school on body weight and obesity using a regression-discontinuity design. As is the case with academic outcomes, school exposure is related to unobserved determinants of weight outcomes because some families choose to have their child start school late (or early). If one does not account for this endogeneity, it appears that an additional year of school exposure results in a greater BMI and a higher probability of being overweight or obese. When we compare the weight outcomes of similar age children with one versus two years of school exposure due to …

Impacts Of Formal Financing On The Development Of The Sudanese Agricultural Sector, Issam A.W. Mohamed Professor

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The agricultural sector of Sudan is faced by many problems. In the irrigated schemes, the government who officially owns most of them there are entrenched managerial problems that brewed for more than six decades. Moreover, the privatization policies of those schemes provoked many outcries and protests. Large schemes like Gezira have collapsed, this year 2011, only 10% of its over one million hectares were cultivated. The rainfed farming is not different with lack of machineries, shortages of available labor and high priced agricultural inputs, it is not expected to fare better than the irrigated schemes. However, even if those problems …

Impacts Of Sudan Macroeconomic Policy On Agriculture, Issam A.W. Mohamed Professor

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The crisis of Southern Sudan and eminent secession in 9 July 2011 is a nightmare to the Sudanese national economy. The dependence on oil revenue that controlled the country for the past 11 years and negligence of the other real economy's economic sectors, agriculture and industry severely threatens the country. That is not only with diminished returns but with also with economic nightmarish economic catastrophe, famine and internal implosion. Short-sightedness on utilizing the oil money that bubbled the economy atrophied the real economic sectors and disabled it from responding to secession consequences of parting with 75% of revenues from oil …

Effects Of Social Edification And Family Integration In Military Life In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The Sudanese army human components are unique in its composition. That is reflected in the country's political and social life. The independence of 1956 means fifty five of turmoil and turbulences. Democratically elected governments controlled the country for only ten years while the military institution's coup de etats took the rest. This paper studies the impacts of social upbringing on the families, military or civilians in order too shed lights on why all military, seemingly are possessed by the illusion of grasping power. The military seems built into the Sudanese society in superior form, i.e., above the law. Thus if …

Inside The War On Poverty: The Impact Of Food Stamps On Birth Outcomes, Douglas Almond, Hilary Hoynes, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

This paper evaluates the health impacts of a signature initiative of the War on Poverty: the introduction of the modern Food Stamp Program (FSP). Using variation in the month FSP began operating in each U.S. county, we find that pregnancies exposed to FSP three months prior to birth yielded deliveries with increased birth weight, with the largest gains at the lowest birth weights. We also find small but statistically insignificant improvements in neonatal mortality. We conclude that the sizable increase in income from FSP improved birth outcomes for both whites and African Americans, with larger impacts for African American mothers.

Who Would Be Affected By Soda Taxes?, Diane Schanzenbach, Leslie Mcgranahan

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

In 2009–10, 17 states considered expanding taxation on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) as a potential source of funds and a means to curb obesity. This article examines the various types of soda tax proposals, the underlying economic theory, and the anticipated impact of the proposed taxes on different population groups.

Challenges Of Formal Social Security Systems In Sudan, Issam A.W. Mohamed Professor

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The present paper discusses issues of challenges of social security systems in Sudan. Following parameters advanced by ILO and UNCOSOC, those systems are analyzed. The conclusions focus on their applicability that faces axial difficulties mainly presented in the state of institutional interregnum facing the country. Moreover, it is important to revisit aspects of social cohesion that serves greater role in traditional social security in the Sudan.

Analysis Of The Impact Of Cash Out-Flow From The Banking Sector On The Sudanese Economy, Issam A.W. Mohamed Professor

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Sudan as an example of LDCs the banking sector has been suffering from the problem of cash outflow over the last three decades, generating the following impacts: Loss of banking sector of its role of financial inter-mediation, cash scarcity in the banking sector, large government borrowings from unreal source of finance, thus, more inflation. The research attempts to specify the main determinants of cash outflow from the banking sector in Sudan (during the period 1972-2001). Hence, those revealing the major impacts of the cash outflow on the economic activity and rates of inflation. The research hypotheses were: (1) the Banks …

Effects Of Multicollinearity On The Estimation Of Macroeconomic Variables: Using Data From Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The problem of multicollinearity in the assessments of coefficients is well established. However, it is rarely researched in the estimations of macroeconomic variables and economic performance of developing countries. Predicatively, it has impacts on the estimations of coefficients that should be used in economic decisions, strategic planning and if researchers are more industrious estimations of monetary supplies and demands. All such parameters are very basic and essential in economic plannings and their applications should be done not only in research but in ground applications of the specialized authorities, e.g., Ministries of Finance, Central Banks, Pricing Units, etc. However, that is …

Adequate (Or Adipose?) Yearly Progress: Assessing The Effect Of "No Child Left Behind" On Children's Obesity, Patricia Anderson, Kristin Butcher, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

This paper investigates how accountability pressures under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) may affect children’s rate of overweight. Schools facing increased pressures to produce academic outcomes may reallocate their efforts in ways that have unintended consequences for children’s health. For example, schools may cut back on recess and physical education in favor of increasing time on tested subjects. To examine the impact of school accountability programs, we create a unique panel data set of schools in Arkansas that allows us to test the impact of NCLB rules on students’ weight outcomes. Our main approach is to consider schools to be …

Experimental Evidence On The Effect Of Childhood Investments On Postsecondary Attainment And Degree Completion, Susan Dynarski, Joshua Hyman, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

This paper examines the effect of early childhood investments on college enrollment and degree completion. We use the random assignment in the Project STAR experiment to estimate the effect of smaller classes in primary school on college entry, college choice, and degree completion. We improve on existing work in this area with unusually detailed data on college enrollment spells and the previously unexplored outcome of college degree completion. We find that assignment to a small class increases the probability of attending college by 2.7 percentage points, with effects more than twice as large among blacks. Among those with the lowest …

Humanitarian Aid, Internal Displacement And Social Impacts In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The study presented here reviews activities of NGOs in Sudan by surveying and studying the activities of Save the Children of United Kingdom. Activities of NGOs in Sudan were always a controversial issue that resulted in the expulsion of many in 2009. There were also precedents of such expulsions in previous and following years. The paper discusses humanitarian work in Sudan, positive and negative sides. The case study's activities of the Save the Children efforts in Jebel Aulia Internally Displaced People, specially their efforts in education were investigated. It is concluded that introduce invaluable help in educational field, building classes …

Economic Crisis And External Trade In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Nowadays, Sudan suffers severe financial crisis with the eminent demise of 75% of its oil revenues that represented over 90% of its foreign currency after the secession of its Southern part after a constitutional referendum. The compensatory revenues generating economic sectors are not able in the short, medium or runs to function due to the lack/diminished infrastructures. Hard currency exchange rates have soured against the domestic one and inflation sky-rocketed with severe recession grasping the economic cycle in the country which assess logic assumptions of stagflation. Reforming Sudan's foreign trade sector is essential though it will not replace oil revenues …

Impacts Of Islamic And Commercial Banks' Reserves Restrictions On Macroeconomic Parameters Of Sudan (2007-2009), Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The paper analyzes the impacts of Islamic and conventional Banks reserves' restrictions in Sudan. Comprehensively, those restrictions are necessary for health banks, performance and the viability of the macroeconomic performance in any country. The selected period of the analysis (2007-2009) is vital to study impacts of the Global Financial Crisis on the Sudanese economy. The paper introduces available data on banks institutions, macroeconomic policies and the central Bank of Sudan considering its part on controlling money supply and demand besides drawing policies for banks behaviors. It is conceivable from my conclusions here that there are conflicts between conventional and Islamic …

Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

In relation to the Cosmos, we all, as human beings, live on this tiny planet we call Earth, a planet that supports and sustains life, as we know it. There are many different kinds of people, plants, and animals functioning in harmony with soil, air, and water--all linked to one another in a complex web of life to form one Earth community. Unfortunately, we often take this miracle and ecosystem of life for granted. When, however, we take the ecosystem of life too much for granted, Mother Earth "speaks," reflecting imbalances and dis-harmonies. When Mother Earth "speaks," her message is …

Left Behind By Design: Proficiency Counts And Test-Based Accountability, Derek Neal, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

We show that within the Chicago Public Schools, both the introduction of NCLB in 2002 and the introduction of similar district-level reforms in 1996 generated noteworthy increases in reading and math scores among students in the middle of the achievement distribution but not among the least academically advantaged students. The stringency of proficiency requirements varied among the programs implemented for different grades in different years, and our results suggest that changes in proficiency requirements induce teachers to shift more attention to students who are near the current proficiency standard.

School Policies And Children's Obesity, Patricia Anderson, Kristin Butcher, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

No abstract provided.

Measuring Poverty And Human Capital Development In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Catastrophes in Sudan are of many dimensions. Food security is a chronic and intrinsic problem in Sub Saharan Africa which is a fact recognized by the international society. Political instability, civil wars and finally recent secession of its Southern part is another fact which may be taken as a vivid example for other regions of that previously largest African country to be followed. The present paper introduces an analysis and assessment of measurements for human development indices in Sudan. It is empirically concluded that human welfare is invisible. The parameters are very low. Strategies are needed to provide for basic …

Consumption Responses To In-Kind Transfers: Evidence From The Introduction Of The Food Stamp Program, Hilary Hoynes, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Economists have strong theoretical predictions about how in-kind transfers, such as providing vouchers for food, impact consumption. Despite the prominence of the theory, there is little empirical work on responses to in-kind transfers, and most existing work fails to support the canonical theoretical model. We employ difference-indifference methods to estimate the impact of program introduction on food spending. Consistent with predictions, we find that food stamps reduce out-of-pocket food spending and increase overall food expenditures. We also find that households are inframarginal and respond similarly to one dollar in cash income and one dollar in food stamps.