Source Themes

How Undervalued is the Covid-19 Vaccine? Evidence from Discrete Choice Experiments and VSL Benchmarks

Two discrete choice experiments conducted at the beginning of Covid-19 vaccination campaign show that people undervalued the Covid-19 vaccine relative to benchmarks implied by the standard value of a statistical life (VSL). Our first experiment found …

Medicaid and the Mental Health of Minority Populations: Evidence from Administrative Data

We investigate the impact of the expansions of Medicaid coverage due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on under-served populations using claims data from the period 1999-2021. These panel data include the universe of American Indian and Alaska Native …

Self-Governance of Healthcare Systems

Self-governance is an important legal right as well as a political and moral goal for many Native Americans in the United States. In this paper, I study policy changes that make it easier for tribal governments to exercise their self-governance …

The Effect of the Budget Cycle on Native American Health Outcomes

Indian Health Service provides healthcare for 2.5 million Alaskan Natives and Native Americans. However, health disparities between Native Americans and other groups have been widening. One important factor for this trend is funding. In this paper, I …

Mask Mandate Costs

Mask mandates were controversial policies during the pandemic. Although there is considerable research on the benefits of masks, there has been no research on the distribution of perceived costs of compliance with mask mandates. This article presents …

The effect of soda taxes beyond beverages in Philadelphia

Soda taxes are implemented in several cities across the US with the aim of reducing sugar intake from sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). Sugar is linked to obesity and to higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. Sodas are targeted with …

Self-Governance of Healthcare Systems

I estimate the causal effects of self-governed local health care facilities on health outcomes in Alaskan Native and Native American communities. I use a staggered adoption difference in difference design based on the formation of tribal compacts …

Effects of large gatherings on the COVID-19 epidemic: Evidence from professional and college sports

We compare COVID-19 case loads and mortality across counties that hosted more versus fewer NHL hockey games, NBA basketball games, and NCAA basketball games during the early months of 2020, before any large outbreaks were identified. We find that …

Back to Business and (Re)employing Workers? Labor Market Activity During State COVID-19 Reopenings

In the early phases of the COVID-19 epidemic labor markets exhibited considerable churn, which we relate to three primary findings. First, reopening policies generated asymmetrically large increases in reemployment of those out of work, compared to …