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States’ Covid-19 Restrictions Were Associated With Increases In Drug Overdose Deaths In 2020, Douglas A. Wolf, Shannon M. Monnat, Jennifer Karas Montez, Emily E. Wiemers, Elyse Grossman May 2024

States’ Covid-19 Restrictions Were Associated With Increases In Drug Overdose Deaths In 2020, Douglas A. Wolf, Shannon M. Monnat, Jennifer Karas Montez, Emily E. Wiemers, Elyse Grossman

Center for Policy Research

Drug overdoses surged in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts raised concerns in the pandemic’s early months about how the pandemic and the policies enacted to stem it might increase overdose risk. This brief summarizes the findings of a paper that used national data to identify how states’ COVID-19 policies affected drug overdose rates among U.S. adults ages 25-64 during the first year of the pandemic. Results show that counties located in states that adopted more aggressive in-person activity restrictions experienced larger increases in 2020 than counties located in states with fewer limitations. State economic support policies …


Stronger Regulations On Air Pollution Could Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Rates, Yue Sun Dec 2023

Stronger Regulations On Air Pollution Could Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Rates, Yue Sun

Center for Policy Research

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, but there are large disparities in CVD death rates across the country. Air pollution also plays an important role in shaping geographic disparities in CVD mortality, as air pollutants can become absorbed in human circulation systems, and cause inflammation, damage nervous systems, and trigger poor CVD outcomes. This brief reports the results of a study that used data on air pollution and from death certificates to estimate the association between fine particulate matter and cardiovascular disease mortality rates in the U.S. in 2016-2018. Results show that cutting …


Beyond The “Model Minority” Mirage: How Does Positive Bias Affect Asian Students And Other Students Of Color?, Ying Shi, Maria Zhu Jul 2023

Beyond The “Model Minority” Mirage: How Does Positive Bias Affect Asian Students And Other Students Of Color?, Ying Shi, Maria Zhu

Center for Policy Research

Asian Americans are often perceived as a “model minority” in classrooms. While this stereotype seems positive, it may raise expectations for Asian students and bolster negative stereotypes for students in other minority groups due to teacher bias. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used data from the North Carolina Education Research Data Center (NCERDC) from 2007 to 2013 to identify the presence of positive bias in teachers’ assessments towards Asian American students in grades 3-8 and its effects on other minority groups. The authors find that teachers rate Asian students’ academic skills more favorably than similar White students …


Affirmative Action Is A Successful Policy For Diversity In College Graduation, Amy Lutz, Pamela R. Bennett, Rebecca Wang Jun 2023

Affirmative Action Is A Successful Policy For Diversity In College Graduation, Amy Lutz, Pamela R. Bennett, Rebecca Wang

Center for Policy Research

Affirmative action in higher education has become an active arena for policymaking and legal challenges in the United States. A question frequently raised about affirmative action is whether racial and ethnic minority students who benefit from affirmative action are successful in the academically demanding context of selective colleges. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, the authors analyzed racial-ethnic differences in cumulative GPAs for White, Black, and Latino students who were high school seniors in 2004 and subsequently attended selective colleges and universities. Results show that Black and Latino students were more likely to graduate from selective colleges than White …


How Did Healthcare Affordability Change For U.S. Adults With Intellectual Disability After The Implementation Of The Affordable Care Act?, Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich May 2023

How Did Healthcare Affordability Change For U.S. Adults With Intellectual Disability After The Implementation Of The Affordable Care Act?, Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich

Center for Policy Research

Individuals with intellectual disabilities are marginalized in the United States and have worse health outcomes than their peers without disabilities. Lower socioeconomic status and a reliance on social welfare benefits and public health insurance programs often create barriers to access to care. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to make healthcare services more accessible. This brief summarizes the findings from a recent study that examined patterns in healthcare affordability under the ACA or noninstitutionalized adults ages 18-64 with intellectual disabilities. The findings suggest that the ACA increased the likelihood that adults with intellectual disabilities would access medical, specialty, …


Children In Economically Disadvantaged Households Have Lower Early Literacy Skills Than Their Higher-Income Peers, Michah W. Rothbart, Colleen Heflin, Gabriella Alphonso Mar 2023

Children In Economically Disadvantaged Households Have Lower Early Literacy Skills Than Their Higher-Income Peers, Michah W. Rothbart, Colleen Heflin, Gabriella Alphonso

Center for Policy Research

Literacy is critical for numerous developmental outcomes and wellbeing among children. Low literacy skills in childhood can also negatively affect individuals in adulthood. Using data from nearly 300,000 kindergarten students in Virginia (2014-2017), this study finds that children in households that participate in more than one social assistance program (such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Free or Reduced-Price Lunch) have lower literacy skills when they enter kindergarten than children whose households participate in fewer or no social programs.


America And Hope In The Time Of Fentanyl And Meth: A Fireside Chat With Sam Quinones, Sam Quinones Jan 2023

America And Hope In The Time Of Fentanyl And Meth: A Fireside Chat With Sam Quinones, Sam Quinones

Center for Policy Research

For the 34th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy, Sam Quinones sat down with Dr. Shannon Monnat for a fireside chat. He discussed how the drug-trafficking world has changed over the last twenty years, the rise of fentanyl and methamphetamine in the U.S., how drug use in the U.S. reflects American society, and what kind of policies will help with this epidemic.


Health Have, Health Have Nots In A Time Of Covid-19, Sandro Galea Nov 2020

Health Have, Health Have Nots In A Time Of Covid-19, Sandro Galea

Center for Policy Research

In this brief, my goal is to talk about something which has animated a lot of my thinking and writing in the past decade. It is how our health is fundamentally socially patterned and reflects the world around us. This has been true for decades in this country, and one could also argue, globally, however this brief will focus on this topic at the national level. As you will see, I will talk mostly of health haves and health have nots in general, but as we progress, show how COVID-19 has made this evermore apparent.


Marijuana Legalization: Beyond Yes Or No., Keith Humphreys Nov 2019

Marijuana Legalization: Beyond Yes Or No., Keith Humphreys

Center for Policy Research

This paper will first go over some basic terms and concepts, then discuss what’s going on in the world around cannabis with a focus on the United States. I will then offer some policy options to consider if New York chooses to legalize recreational cannabis.


How Equitable Is The Education Finance System In New York State?, John Yinger Jul 2019

How Equitable Is The Education Finance System In New York State?, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

This policy brief provides an overview and evaluation of the education finance system in New York State. The brief addresses four broad topics: student performance disparities in New York State, the nature of the New York State education finance system, the contributions of the New York foundation aid formula to educational equity, and the benefits to all taxpayers in New York State from education finance reform.


Unequal Hopes, Lives, And Lifespans In The Usa: Lessons From The New Science Of Well-Being, Carol Graham Sep 2018

Unequal Hopes, Lives, And Lifespans In The Usa: Lessons From The New Science Of Well-Being, Carol Graham

Center for Policy Research

Given that we have had historic increases in inequality, as well as stagnant poverty levels for several decades, I will tell the story of poverty and inequality in the U.S. from the perspective of the metrics of happiness and well-being. My research—and the book that resulted—found that inequality is part of this story, but not the only part. The story was much more complicated than I anticipated. One of the most interesting parts of the story includes different levels of hope and resilience across races and places. Poverty and inequality play a big role, but there is much more to …


Rental Market Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From An Email Correspondence Audit, David Schwegman Jan 2018

Rental Market Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From An Email Correspondence Audit, David Schwegman

Center for Policy Research

I present the results of a randomized pair-email correspondence audit of 6,490 property owners in 94 U.S. cities to provide a nationally-representative estimate of the level of discrimination that same-sex couples experience when inquiring about rental housing. I find that same-sex male couples, especially non-White same-sex male couples, are less likely to receive a response to inquiries about rental units. I also find that same-sex male Black couples are subject to more subtle forms of discrimination than heterosexual Black couples. I also examine if state and local anti-discrimination laws covary with rates of housing discrimination against same-sex couples. While my …


The Opioid Epidemic: A Practice And Policy Perspective, Gail D'Onofrio Oct 2017

The Opioid Epidemic: A Practice And Policy Perspective, Gail D'Onofrio

Center for Policy Research

I will be talking about the escalating opioid epidemic and some innovative solutions my colleagues and I at Yale University and throughout the state of Connecticut, are working on to mitigate the consequences of this public health crisis.


Network Effects On Labor Contracts Of Internal Migrants In China- A Spatial Autoregressive Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Ying Deng, Xiangjun Ma Sep 2017

Network Effects On Labor Contracts Of Internal Migrants In China- A Spatial Autoregressive Model, Badi H. Baltagi, Ying Deng, Xiangjun Ma

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies the fact that 37 percent of the internal migrants in China do not sign a labor contract with their employers, as revealed in a nationwide survey. These contract-free jobs pay lower hourly wages, require longer weekly work hours, and provide less insurance or on-the-job training than regular jobs with contracts. We find that the co-villager networks play an important role in a migrant’s decision on whether to accept such insecure and irregular jobs. By employing a comprehensive nationwide survey in 2011 in the spatial autoregressive logit model, we show that the common behavior of not signing contracts …


Pregnancy Medicaid Expansions And Fertility: Differentiating Between The Intensive And Extensive Margins, Lincoln H. Groves, Sarah Hamersma, Leonard M. Lopoo Aug 2017

Pregnancy Medicaid Expansions And Fertility: Differentiating Between The Intensive And Extensive Margins, Lincoln H. Groves, Sarah Hamersma, Leonard M. Lopoo

Center for Policy Research

The theoretical and empirical links between public health insurance access and fertility in the United States remain unclear. Utilizing a demographic cell-based estimation approach with panel data (1987-1997), we revisit the large-scale Medicaid expansions to pregnant women during the 1980s to estimate the heterogeneous impacts of public health insurance access on childbirth. While the decision to become a parent (i.e., the extensive margin) appears to be unaffected by increased access to Medicaid, we find that increased access to public health insurance positively influenced the number of high parity births (i.e., the intensive margin) for select groups of women. In particular, …


Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton Jul 2017

Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines the dynamic relationship between union elections and occupational safety among manufacturing establishments. Data on union elections come from the National Labor Relations Board, and data on workplace inspections and accident case rates come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The results indicate that union elections improved occupational safety. First, workplace inspections trended upwards before the election, then decreased immediately after the election, due almost entirely to employee complaints. Second, accident case rates were relatively stable before the election, then trended downwards after the election, due to accidents involving days away from work, job restrictions, and job …


The Effect Of Workplace Inspections On Worker Safety, Ling Li, Perry Singleton Feb 2017

The Effect Of Workplace Inspections On Worker Safety, Ling Li, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

The Occupation Safety and Health Administration enforces safety regulations through workplace inspections. To identify the effect of inspections on worker safety, this study exploits quasi-experimental variation in inspections due to OSHA’s Site Specific Targeting plan. The SST plan used establishment-level data on accidents and injuries to target establishments for inspection. The primary inspection list consisted of establishments with case rates exceeding a cutoff. This cutoff generated a discontinuous increase in inspections, which is used to identify the effect of inspections on worker safety. Using the fuzzy regression discontinuity design and local linear regression, the estimated effect of an inspection on …


The Effects Of State And Federal Mental Health Parity Laws On Working Time, Jinqi Ye Feb 2017

The Effects Of State And Federal Mental Health Parity Laws On Working Time, Jinqi Ye

Center for Policy Research

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the impacts of state and federal mental health parity laws on related labor market outcomes, particularly working time. Implemented in the last two decades, these policies aim to eliminate differences in mental and physical health benefits among group health plans. The mandated benefits for mental health drive up the costs of providing health insurance substantially. In response, employers may avoid hiring more full-time workers, whose compensation includes health insurance, by increasing working time per worker and reliance on part-time employment. Employees may also have an incentive to increase their labor supply to qualify …


Retention Heterogeneity In New York City Schools, Douglas Almond, Ajin Lee, Amy Ellen Schwartz Nov 2016

Retention Heterogeneity In New York City Schools, Douglas Almond, Ajin Lee, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

Performance on proficiency exams can be a key determinant of whether students are retained or "held back" in their grade. In New York City, passing the statewide proficiency exam essentially guarantees promotion, while roughly 13% of those students who fail the exam are retained. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find that female students are 25% more likely to be retained in their grade due to exam failure than boys. Hispanic students are 60% more likely and Black students 120% more likely to be retained due to exam failure (relative to White students). Poverty and previous poor performance also increase the …


The Health Care Expenditure And Income: A Global Perspective, Badi H. Baltagi, Raffaele Lagravinese, Francesco Moscone, Elisa Tosetti Nov 2016

The Health Care Expenditure And Income: A Global Perspective, Badi H. Baltagi, Raffaele Lagravinese, Francesco Moscone, Elisa Tosetti

Center for Policy Research

This paper investigates the long-run economic relationship between health care expenditure and income in the world using data on 167 countries over the period 1995-2012, collected from the World Bank data set. The analysis is carried using panel data methods that allow one to account for unobserved heterogeneity, temporal persistence, and cross-section dependence in the form of either a common factor model or a spatial process. We estimate a global measure of income elasticity using all countries in the sample, and for sub-groups of countries, depending on their geo-political area and income. Our findings suggest that at the global level, …


A Roadmap For Reducing Gun Violence In America, Daniel Webster Oct 2016

A Roadmap For Reducing Gun Violence In America, Daniel Webster

Center for Policy Research

How do you reduce gun violence in America? It seems rather daunting. I’m going to take you through some key things I think we can do to have far less gun violence in America


A Framework For Measurement Error In Self-Reported Health Conditions, Ling Li, Perry Singleton Aug 2016

A Framework For Measurement Error In Self-Reported Health Conditions, Ling Li, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study develops and estimates a model of measurement error in self-reported health conditions. The model allows self-reports of a health condition to differ from a contemporaneous medical examination, prior medical records, or both. The model is estimated using a two-sample strategy, which combines survey data linked medical examination results and survey data linked to prior medical records. The study finds substantial inconsistencies between self-reported health, the medical record, and prior medical records. The study proposes alternative estimators for the prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed conditions and estimates the bias that arises when using self-reported health conditions as explanatory variables.


So Many Hospitals, So Little Information: How Hospital Value Based Purchasing Is A Game Of Chance, Andrew I. Friedson, William C. Horrace, Allison F. Marier Aug 2016

So Many Hospitals, So Little Information: How Hospital Value Based Purchasing Is A Game Of Chance, Andrew I. Friedson, William C. Horrace, Allison F. Marier

Center for Policy Research

As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, participating Medicare hospitals have part of their Medicare reimbursements withheld and then redistributed based on quality performance. The Hospital Value Based Purchasing reimbursement plan relies partly on ordinal rankings of hospitals to determine how money is distributed. We analyze the quality metric distributions used for payment and show that there is not enough information to reliably differentiate hospitals from one another near the payment cutoffs; and conclude that a large part of the payment formula is driven by sampling variability rather than true quality information. Alternative reimbursement plans are developed.


The Dynamic Effect Of Disability On Marriage: Evidence From The Social Security Disability Insurance Program, Ling Li, Perry Singleton Jun 2016

The Dynamic Effect Of Disability On Marriage: Evidence From The Social Security Disability Insurance Program, Ling Li, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines the dynamic effect of disability on marriage. Data on disability and marriage come from the New Beneficiary Survey, designed to characterize new beneficiaries of the Social Security Disability Insurance Program. Using an event-study model, the study finds that disability onset decreased marriage among beneficiaries, but only at younger ages. The study further examines whether the effect of disability on marriage is due to formation, dissolution, or both, and whether the effect varies by educational attainment and subsequent mortality. The results highlight the importance of marriage selection in the oft-cited relationship between marriage and better health.


Estimating The Effects Of The Minimum Wage In A Developing Country: A Density Discontinuity Design Approach, Hugo Jales Oct 2015

Estimating The Effects Of The Minimum Wage In A Developing Country: A Density Discontinuity Design Approach, Hugo Jales

Center for Policy Research

This paper proposes a new framework to identify the effects of the minimum wage on the joint distribution of sector and wages in a developing country. I show that under reasonable assumptions, cross-sectional data on the worker's wage and sector can identify the joint distribution of the latent counterparts of these variables; that is, the sector status and wage that would prevail in the absence of the minimum wage. I apply the method in the “PNAD”, a nationwide representative Brazilian cross-sectional dataset for the years 2001 to 2009. The results indicate that the size of the informal sector is increased …


Welfare Reform And Children’S Health, Badi H. Baltagi, Yin -Fang Yen Nov 2014

Welfare Reform And Children’S Health, Badi H. Baltagi, Yin -Fang Yen

Center for Policy Research

This study investigates the effect of the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program on children’s health outcomes using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) over the period 1994 to 2005. The TANF policies have been credited with increased employment for single mothers and a dramatic drop in welfare caseload. Our results show that these policies also had a significant effect on various measures of children’s medical utilization among low-income families. These health measures include a rating of the child’s health status reported by the parents; the number of times that parents consulted a doctor; and …


Improving Public Health Safety Nets After An Economic Recession, Sanjay Basu Oct 2014

Improving Public Health Safety Nets After An Economic Recession, Sanjay Basu

Center for Policy Research

When we say ‘here’s what’s going on with our nation’s health,’ how do we know the answer? Where is the data coming from? How can we best evaluate our public health system? We’re talking about it every day on CNN given the Ebola scare. What do we mean by our ‘public health system’? I would argue that we should expand our definition to mean something more than hospitals and clinics, or doctors and nurses. In particular, I’ll argue that some of our non-health programs that we have as part of the safety net actually make a bigger health impact than …


Health Promotions 2.0: The Future Of Wellness Programs In America, Rajiv Kumar Nov 2013

Health Promotions 2.0: The Future Of Wellness Programs In America, Rajiv Kumar

Center for Policy Research

In no small part because of technology, the way we live and work is being transformed. I believe that those of us who are interested in health policy can play an important role in guiding that transformation. I submit to you that unhealthy living is a social issue; that conditions such as obesity and diabetes are social diseases and that their prevalence is a social problem. If we have a social problem, then we need a social solution. I believe part of that solution can be found in the worksite health promotion and wellness programs that have taken root across …


Medicaid Expansion, Long-Term Care Financing In Retirement States And The Post World War Ii Birth Cohort, Toni P. Miles Aug 2013

Medicaid Expansion, Long-Term Care Financing In Retirement States And The Post World War Ii Birth Cohort, Toni P. Miles

Center for Policy Research

This policy brief contains a formal consideration of ideas discussed during a presentation to the 2012 Syracuse Seminar on Aging. Like most briefs, it will appeal to policy makers and academics craving detailed demographic, fiscal and policy data. Before diving into this brief, I would encourage readers to view the presentation video (available at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bsv8K7DdJFY). As you will see, the seminar was informal and the discussion was wide ranging. In contrast, this brief focuses on limitations faced by states as they finance longterm care. It is primarily concerned with the Medicaid expansion and growing need for care as the …


Palliative Care And The Health Care Crisis In The United States: A Candid Conversation With Dr. Diane Meier, Diane E. Meier Mar 2013

Palliative Care And The Health Care Crisis In The United States: A Candid Conversation With Dr. Diane Meier, Diane E. Meier

Center for Policy Research

This paper is a synthesis of the 2012 Lourie Lecture, framed as a series of questions and responses, and supported by images used in the lecture. I’m going to focus on the growth of this new field called palliative care and will make the connection that the crisis afflicting healthcare in the United States cannot be addressed without widespread scaling and implementation of palliative care across the system. My subject is not end-of-life care, but rather care during serious illness. A serious illness is something a person can live with for many years, such as emphysema, or end-stage renal disease …