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Full-Text Articles in Sociology
The Economic Costs Of Quarterly Monitoring And Recovery Management Checkups For Adults With Chronic Substance Use Disorders, Michael T. French, Michael L. Dennis, Kathryn E. Mccollister, Christy K. Scott
The Economic Costs Of Quarterly Monitoring And Recovery Management Checkups For Adults With Chronic Substance Use Disorders, Michael T. French, Michael L. Dennis, Kathryn E. Mccollister, Christy K. Scott
Michael T. French
Recovery management checkups (RMCs) for clients with substance use disorders reduce the time from relapse to treatment reentry, increase treatment retention, and improve long-term outcomes. The objectives of this article are to calculate and compare the economic costs of providing outcome monitoring (OM) only with those of providing OM + RMC to help understand the feasibility of disseminating this model more widely. We estimate the total and incremental costs of OM and OM + RMC using data from a recently completed randomized controlled trial with adult chronic substance users (N = 446). Adding RMC to OM increased total intervention costs …
The Cost Of Treating Addiction From The Client's Perspective: Results From A Multi-Modality Application Of The Client Datcap, Kathryn Mccollister, Michael French, Jeffrey Pyne, Brenda Booth, Richard Rapp, Carey Carr
The Cost Of Treating Addiction From The Client's Perspective: Results From A Multi-Modality Application Of The Client Datcap, Kathryn Mccollister, Michael French, Jeffrey Pyne, Brenda Booth, Richard Rapp, Carey Carr
Michael T. French
There is a considerable disparity between the number of individuals who need substance abuse treatment and the number who actually receive it. This is partly due to the fact that many individuals with substance use disorders do not perceive a need for formal treatment. Another contributing factor, however, is a discrepancy between the real and perceived cost of services. Although many cost evaluations of substance abuse treatment have been conducted from the treatment provider perspective, less is known about the client-specific costs of attending treatment (e.g., lost work and leisure time, transportation, out-of-pocket and in-kind payments). Concerns about financial and …
Longitudinal Analysis Of Changes In Illicit Drug Use And Health Services Utilization, Michael T. French, Hai Fang, Ana Balsa
Longitudinal Analysis Of Changes In Illicit Drug Use And Health Services Utilization, Michael T. French, Hai Fang, Ana Balsa
Michael T. French
Objective. To analyze the relationships between illicit drug use and three types of health services utilization: emergency room utilization, hospitalization, and medical attention required due to injury(s). Data. Waves 1 and 2 (11,253 males and 13,059 females) from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). Study Design. We derive benchmark estimates by employing standard cross-sectional data models to pooled waves of NESARC data. To control for potential bias due to time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity, we reestimate the relationships with fixed-effects models. Principal Findings. The cross-sectional data models suggest that illicit drug use is positively and significantly related …
Beauty And The Labor Market: Accounting For The Additional Effects Of Personality And Grooming, Michael T. French, Philip K. Robins, Jenny F. Homer
Beauty And The Labor Market: Accounting For The Additional Effects Of Personality And Grooming, Michael T. French, Philip K. Robins, Jenny F. Homer
Michael T. French
This paper examines the influence of three non-cognitive personal traits — beauty, personality, and grooming — on the labor market earnings of young adults. It extends the analyses of Hamermesh and Biddle [1994, American Economic Review 84(5): 1174–1194] and others who focus primarily on the effects of beauty on labor market earnings. We find that personality and grooming significantly affect wages, and their inclusion in a model of wage determination reduces somewhat the effects of beauty. We also find some evidence of employer discrimination based on these traits in the setting of wages.
The Effects Of Alcohol Use On Academic Achievement In High School, Michael T. French, Ana Balsa, Laura M. Giuliano
The Effects Of Alcohol Use On Academic Achievement In High School, Michael T. French, Ana Balsa, Laura M. Giuliano
Michael T. French
This paper examines the effects of alcohol use on high school students’ quality of learning. We estimate fixed-effects models using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Our primary measure of academic achievement is the student's grade point average (GPA) abstracted from official school transcripts. We find that increases in alcohol consumption result in small yet statistically significant reductions in GPA for male students and in statistically non-significant changes for females. For females, however, higher levels of drinking result in self-reported academic difficulty. The fixed-effects results are substantially smaller than OLS estimates, underscoring the importance of addressing unobserved …
This Recession Is Wearing Me Out! Health-Related Quality Of Life And Economic Downturns, Michael T. French, Maria E. Davalos
This Recession Is Wearing Me Out! Health-Related Quality Of Life And Economic Downturns, Michael T. French, Maria E. Davalos
Michael T. French
Previous research on the relationships between macroeconomic conditions and health status reveal improvements in physical health during economic downturns. However, few studies have examined whether mental health status improves or declines during tough economic times. This paper estimates the effect of a key macroeconomic indicator, the state-level unemployment rate, on health-related quality of life. Analyzing recent data from Waves 1 and 2 of the NESARC and controlling for individual heterogeneity with fixed-effects models, our study suggests that health-related quality of life, both physical and mental, worsens with increases in the unemployment rate. Although the effect sizes are relatively small in …
Alcohol Use And Popularity: Social Payoffs From Conforming To Peers' Behavior, Michael T. French, Ana Balsa, Jenny Homer, Edward Norton
Alcohol Use And Popularity: Social Payoffs From Conforming To Peers' Behavior, Michael T. French, Ana Balsa, Jenny Homer, Edward Norton
Michael T. French
Although many economic analyses of adolescents have examined the costs of risky behaviors, few have investigated the gains that young people derive from such actions, particularly in terms of social payoffs for complying with peer behavior. This paper studies the relationship between adolescents' use of alcohol (relative to that of their peers) and popularity at school. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a rich and nationally representative survey with detailed information on social networks. Our findings suggest that adolescents are socially rewarded for conforming to their peers' alcohol use and penalized (to a lesser degree) …
Disseminating Quality Improvement: Study Protocol For A Large Cluster-Randomized Trial, Michael T. French, Andrew R. Quanbeck, David H. Gustafson, James H. Ford Ii, Alice Pulvermacher, K John Mcconnell, Dennis M. Mccarty
Disseminating Quality Improvement: Study Protocol For A Large Cluster-Randomized Trial, Michael T. French, Andrew R. Quanbeck, David H. Gustafson, James H. Ford Ii, Alice Pulvermacher, K John Mcconnell, Dennis M. Mccarty
Michael T. French
Background: Dissemination is a critical facet of implementing quality improvement in organizations. As a field, addiction treatment has produced effective interventions but disseminated them slowly and reached only a fraction of people needing treatment. This study investigates four methods of disseminating quality improvement (QI) to addiction treatment programs in the U.S. It is, to our knowledge, the largest study of organizational change ever conducted in healthcare. The trial seeks to determine the most cost-effective method of disseminating quality improvement in addiction treatment. Methods: The study is evaluating the costs and effectiveness of different QI approaches by randomizing 201 addiction-treatment programs …
That Instrument Is Lousy! In Search Of Agreement When Using Instrumental Variables Estimation In Substance Use Research, Michael T. French, Ioana Popovici
That Instrument Is Lousy! In Search Of Agreement When Using Instrumental Variables Estimation In Substance Use Research, Michael T. French, Ioana Popovici
Michael T. French
The primary statistical challenge that must be addressed when using cross-sectional data to estimate the consequences of consuming addictive substances is the likely endogeneity of substance use. While economists are in agreement on the need to consider potential endogeneity bias and the value of instrumental variables estimation, the selection of credible instruments is a topic of heated debate in the field. Rather than attempt to resolve this debate, our paper highlights the diversity of judgments about what constitutes appropriate instruments for substance use based on a comprehensive review of the economics literature since 1990. We then offer recommendations related to …
Does Having A Dysfunctional Personality Hurt Your Career? Axis Ii Personality Disorders And Labor Market Outcomes, Michael T. French, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Susan L. Ettner
Does Having A Dysfunctional Personality Hurt Your Career? Axis Ii Personality Disorders And Labor Market Outcomes, Michael T. French, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Susan L. Ettner
Michael T. French
Despite recent interest in how psychiatric disorders affect work outcomes, little is known about the role of personality disorders (PDs), which are poorly understood yet prevalent (15%) and impairing. We used nationally representative data for 12,457 men and 16,061 women to examine associations of PDs with any employment, full-time employment, chronic unemployment, being fired or laid off, and having trouble with a boss or co-worker. Antisocial, paranoid, and obsessivecompulsive PDs demonstrated the broadest patterns of associations with adverse outcomes. Findings suggest that PDs may have implications for the productivity of co-workers as well as that of the disordered employees themselves.