Economics Commons^™

Quantifying The Value Of Public Health Investments, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This session reviews recent findings from a series of studies that estimate the health and economic effects attributable to investments in public health services and delivery systems.

Developing Service Delivery Measures For Studies Of Practice Variation: The Mprove Study, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

OBJECTIVES: A growing body of evidence indicates that the delivery of public health activities varies widely across states and communities, creating missed opportunities for prevention as well as inequities in health protection. Consequently, HHS recently used a consensus-based process to develop a framework for improving quality in public health and to identify a set of nine priority areas for improvement. As next steps in operationalizing this framework, measures of quality in public health are needed to guide public health improvement initiatives and to support research on the comparative effectiveness of alternative public health strategies. This presentation profiles the methodology developed …

Scale And Scope Effects In Public Health Delivery: Estimating Gains From Regionalization, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

OBJECTIVES: Current approaches to health system reform under the Affordable Care Act include efforts to enhance the delivery of public health services that promote health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis. The nation’s public health delivery system comprises nearly 3000 local public health agencies that vary widely in size, resources, and capabilities. Economic pressures, workforce shortages, and new national accreditation standards are leading these agencies to explore mechanisms for pooling resources and expertise across local jurisdictions to enhance delivery and improve population health. This analysis uses longitudinal observations on a national sample of local public health agencies …

Funding Public Health: A New Iom Report On Investing In A Healthier Future, George Isham, Robert Kaplan, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

A new Institute of Medicine report recommends establishing a national target for life expectancy and implementing new mechanisms for financing public health strategies to acheive this target.

Expanding The Evidence Base For Accreditation And Qi: Progress In Practice-Based Research Networks, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Studies that examine the implementation and impact of quality improvement strategies in public health are underway through the Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks.

Estimating Medical Cost Offsets Attributable To Public Health Spending, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

BACKGROUND: Policy strategies for reforming the U.S. health care system to control costs and improve health outcomes include the possibility of expanded support for public health activities that are designed to prevent disease and promote health on a population-wide basis. These activities include efforts to monitor and report on community health status, investigate and control disease outbreaks, educate the public about health risks and prevention strategies, develop and enforce laws and regulations to protect health, and inspect and assure the safety and quality of water, food, air and other resources necessary for health. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act …

The Science Of Public Health Practice: Using Pbrns For Delivery System Research In Public Health Settings, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

PBRN research tests strategies for improving the delivery of services that promote health and prevent disease and injury on a population-wide basis.

Investing In A Healthier Future: Iom Dissemination Workshop, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This session discusses strategies for implementing new financing strategies and funding mechanisms for public health services.

Patterns Of Interaction In Public Health Research Networks: Insight From Network Analysis, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

OBJECTIVES: Studies from the past three decades have found evidence of wide variation in public health practices and policies across states and communities despite an expanding evidence base of efficacious public health strategies, suggesting gaps in implementation and translation processes. Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) are expected to accelerate research participation and translation. This study uses social network analysis methods with twelve Public Health PBRNs to study processes influencing the implementation and translation of research within diverse public health settings.

DATA and METHODS: A cross-sectional network analysis survey was validated and fielded with participants in two cohorts of public health PBRNs …

Using State And Local Health Survey Data To Advance Phssr, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

State and local health survey data can be used to evaluate the implementation and impact of public health delivery innovations in real-world practice settings.

Harnessing The Potential Of Comparative Effectiveness Research And Delivery System Innovation Through Practice-Based Research, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Testing delivery system innovations in health care and public health allows the practice-based research enterprise to lead the way toward gains in health and economic efficiency.

Estimating Medical Cost Offsets Attributable To Public Health Spending, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Uncertainty about the magnitude and timing of economic returns associated with spending on public health services has contributed to policy debates about the optimal role of the federal government in financing these services.

Public Health Spending, Preventable Outcomes, And Medical Cost Offsets: Questions For Health Reform, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Uncertainty continues to surround the health and economic effects that can be expected from increased federal spending on public health and prevention strategies. Recent research provides some insight into the question of whether spending on public health strategies can offset the need for future spending on medical care.

The Long-Term Decline In Kentucky’S General Fund Buoyancy, Michael T. Childress, William Hoyt

Issue Brief on Topics Affecting Kentucky’s Economy

No abstract provided.

Industry And Labor Characteristics And Projections: The Beam And Wia Regions, Christopher R. Bollinger, Kenneth R. Troske

CBER Research Report

Executive Summary:

The Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement region encompasses the Louisville and Lexington MSAs and the corridor between them. It is an area with much of the manufacturing, medical and transportation & warehousing industries of Kentucky contained within. Over 36% of the population and 38% of the Kentucky labor force live and work in this region. This report analyzes the labor market structure within the region. We also examine the labor market structure in five Workforce Investment Act Regions: Bluegrass, Lake Cumberland, Lincoln Trail, Kentuckiana Works, and Indiana Region 10. We examine employment at the industry and occupation level and …

Child Food Security And The Food Stamp Program: What A Difference A Month Makes, Yiran Li, Bradford Mills, George Davis, Elton Mykerezi

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Most Americans believe that children should not have either persistent concerns about the quality and quantity of food to eat or lack of actual access to food due to low household resources. However, in 2007, approximately 3.3 million households (8.3 percent of households with children) had food insecure children who did not have consistent access to adequate and safe foods (Nord and Golla, 2009). This implies less than complete coverage of children by the food-assistance safety net.

The United States’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), historically and commonly known as the Food Stamp Program (FSP), is a federal-assistance program designed …

Low Income Preschoolers' Non-Parental Care Experiences And Household Food Insecurity, Colleen Heflin, Irma Arteaga, Sara Gable

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Rates of food insecurity in households with children have significantly increased over the past decade. The majority of children, including those at risk for food insecurity, participate in some form of non-parental child care during the preschool years. To evaluate the relationship between the two phenomenon, this study investigates the effects of child care arrangements on food insecurity in households with children. To address the selection bias problem that arises from the fact that enrollment in different types of child care is not a random process, this study uses propensity scores techniques. The authors compare outcomes across five child care …

Families With Hungry Children And The Transition From Preschool To Kindergarten, Colleen Heflin, Irma Arteaga, Sara Gable

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper exploits a source of variation in the eligibility for federal nutrition programs to identify the program effects on food insecurity. Children are eligible for the WIC program until the day before they turn 61 months old. The result is an age discontinuity in program participation at the 61-month cutoff. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth-cohort dataset, we find strong evidence of a sizeable increase in household food insecurity at the 61- month cutoff. Our findings are robust to different model specifications, datasets, and various bandwidth choices using various non-parametric estimations.

On Persistent Poverty In A Rich Country, T.M. Tonmoy Islam, Jenny Minier, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

We examine differences in income within the U.S., and the regions of persistent poverty that have arisen, using a newly assembled dataset of counties that links historical 19th century Census data with contemporaneous data. The data, along with an augmented human capital growth model, permit us to identify the roles of contemporaneous differences in aggregate production technologies and factor endowments, in conjunction with the historical roles of institutions, culture, geography, and human capital. We allow for possible cross-county factor mobility via a correlated random effects GMM estimator that identifies simultaneously the coefficients on time varying and time-invariant determinants of income. …

Three Essays On The Role Of Extensive And Intensive Margin In International Trade, Rishav Bista

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine the impact of various trade policies on the extensive (new trading relationships) and intensive (increase in trade of existing relationships) margins of trade, whereas past studies have been limited to aggregate trade flows. An inquiry into the extensive and intensive margins of trade reveals that total aggregate trade masks the heterogeneous trade creating effect of policy variables. Furthermore, this dissertation also takes into account the econometric issues that have plagued the traditional empirical model that analyzes the impact of these policies on trade.

The first chapter examines the impact of hosting and …

Three Essays On Fiscal Federalism And The Role Of Intergovernmental Tranfers, James W. Saunoris

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation is composed of three essays, each examining a unique question relating to the role of intergovernmental transfers in fiscal federalism. Using a panel of the 48 contiguous U.S. states along with recent advances in nonstationary panel and spatial econometric methods this dissertation offers a number of important insights into the workings of intergovernmental transfers and therefore a clearer understanding of the interactions among the different layers of government. The third chapter examines the relationship between intergovernmental revenues from the federal government and intergovernmental expenditures to local governments. As observed by Wildasin (2010), there remains remarkable stability in the …

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2012, Kenneth R. Troske, Christopher R. Bollinger, Glenn C. Blomquist, Merl Hackbart, Michael T. Childress

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Nutrition Merchandising And Consumer Preferences On Willingness To Pay For Local Tomatoes And Strawberries In Kentucky And Ohio, Lyudmyla Kompaniyets

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This project investigates the impacts of nutrition merchandising on consumers’ willingness to pay for local tomatoes and strawberries. The data come from survey of Kentucky and Ohio residents in June 2011. Two thousand one hundred twelve individuals from Kentucky and Ohio were surveyed, to find out the impact of selfawareness of health benefits and health benefits information on their willingness to pay. The consumers were offered one of the three survey versions. The versions varied by how much nutrition information was provided to the consumer related to both strawberries and tomatoes – otherwise identical. A had the most, B had …

Willingness To Pay For Country-Of-Origin Labeled, Traceable, And Bse-Tested Beef, Kar Ho Lim

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

While previous studies have investigated country-of-origin effect from various angles, it remained unexplored the extent to which Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) affects U.S. beef imports from specific countries. Using choice-experiment data, willingness to pay (WTP) for Australian, Canadian beef in addition to other enhancement attributes were estimated with a Mixed Logit Model and a Latent Class Model. The results revealed unobserved taste heterogeneity and important differences in the WTP between the imported and domestic steak. The Latent Class Model estimated the range of discount needed for consumers to switch from U.S. to Canadian steak was a range from $1.09 …

Three Essays On Financial Development, Biniv K. Maskay

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation investigates three separate issues pertaining to a country's financial development. The first essay provides an introduction to the three essays. The second essay examines the combined effect of financial development and human capital on economic growth. While both financial development and human capital are individually positively correlated with growth, the literature has not emphasized their combined effect on growth. In this essay, I analyze the extent to which the effect of financial development on growth depends on a country's level of human capital. Using dynamic panel difference and system GMM, as well as the pooled OLS, I find …

Fiscal Federalism And Spatial Interactions Among Governments, Longjin Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation examines multiple state and local expenditure categories in the United States to expand understanding of fiscal federalism and spatial interactions among governments. First, the author investigates the relationship between police expenditures and crime rates from a spatial perspective. Both police expenditures and crime rates in one state are found to exhibit a similar pattern to that in neighboring states. Spatial correlation is also detected between police expenditures and crime rates. As police of neighbors in fact deter crime at home, there are positive externalities present among the states. Second, the author conducts new tests on the Leviathan hypothesis, …

Three Essays Concerning The Relationship Between Exports, Macroeconomic Policy, And Economic Growth, Brandon James Sheridan

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays that collectively investigate the relationship between exports, macroeconomic policy and economic growth. The first essay investigates the relationship between disaggregated exports and growthto address why many developing countries rely on primary goods as their main source of export income when evidence suggests they could earn higher returns by exporting manufactured goods.Using regression tree analysis, I find that although increasing manufacturing exports is important for sustained economic growth, this relationship only holds once a threshold level of development is reached. The results imply that a country needs a minimum level of education before it is …

Essays On The Persistence Of Poverty, T M Tonmoy Islam

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation investigates the reasons behind the persistence of income among individuals and US counties. I look at the role of initial conditions in explaining current level of income. In my first essay, I look at how childhood neighborhood conditions affect income of a person. To study persistence, I model income as an autoregressive process where the coefficient on the lagged dependent variable heterogeneous across individuals. In my second essay, I derive a new way to measure chronic poverty, or long term poverty. Current measures of chronic poverty cannot be used to compare improvements of poverty rates over time. Using …

Three Essays On The Health Insurance Coverage Of Young Adults, David M. Yaskewich

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation examines the health insurance status of young adults during the transition to adulthood. In a series of three essays, I analyze what happens as young adults reach important milestones and the effects of public policies. The first essay is a descriptive study on how insurance status changes after reaching age 19 and graduating from college. The likelihood of becoming uninsured rises sharply once turning age 19 and then peaks at age 23. While the proportion uninsured also increases following college graduation, this increase disappears after one year. The second essay analyzes the effect of a dependent age law …

Voter Ideology, Tax Exporting, And State And Local Tax Structure, John M. Foster

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

State and local governments play an important role in financing and delivering public services in the United States. In 2008, state and local governments collected 57 percent of total federal, state, and local revenue (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, Tax Policy Center, 2009). The decentralization of fiscal responsibility has enabled a high degree of variation in state and local tax structures to emerge. This dissertation presents two empirical studies that extend the positive literature on state and local tax policy.

The extant literature contains evidence of a direct relationship between voter ideology and state and local tax progressivity. However, the …