Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
One health risk factor often overlooked in this blog is going to war. Veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan frequently return home with traumatic brain injury from roadside bombs, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other injuries. Marketplace chronicles the problems veterans experience trying to collect military benefits after returning to civilian life. The…
Some of the biggest public health problems involve the use of drugs in alcohol. Individuals use drugs and alcohol because they receive some psychic benefit. However, this has a cost to their own health and often the health of others (e.g., drunk driving, increased homicide rates). Whether or not the government should be involved in…
The “Anti-spam” edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Hank Stern’s InsureBlog.
Pay-for-performance (P4P) has long been tauted as a means to improve quality. However, since the Holmstrom and Milgrom (1991) paper on multitasking, it has been known that compensating individuals on one measured dimension can compel them to substitute effort away from unmeasured dimensions. For instance, if a mortgage broker is compensated only for the number…
Today, G.M. and Chrysler must submit a government-mandated recovery plan to Congress. The N.Y. Times reports that G.M is trying get the United Auto Workers to agree to cutback in its employee and retiree health care benefits. “[G.M.] has to address how a company that lost more than $20 billion last year can afford $5…
This past week, I have accepted a job offer to work as a Research Associate for Acumen, LLC. Founded by Stanford Economist Thomas MaCurdy, Acumen is a contract research firm. The firm specializes in program evaluation for Medicare and Medicaid. I am very excited about my new position and will begin full time work at the…
I have been traveling a lot lately doing flyouts for job interviews. I was at an airport recently and forgot to flush the toilet. Usually this is not a problem, since most urinals at airports are automatic flush toilets. However, in this case the toilet was not an automatic flush toilet. This got me thinking…
My paper titled “Why Does Getting Married Make You Fat? Incentives and Appearance Maintenance” was just accepted for presenatation at the Western Economic Association International (WEAI) conference. This paper is co-authored with Uri Gneezy. The conference will take place June 29-July 3, 2009 in Vancouver, Canada.
Be it rent or mortgage payments, paying for shelter is the largest after-tax expense for most people. Differences in housing prices can greatly affect your purchasing power. If you earn $50,000 in Wausau, Wisconsin, you will be able to afford a much larger house than if you lived in San Francisco. Of course, living…
This June, I will finish my Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. I am currently interviewing for a post-graduate employment and will likely move to another city. Which city should I move to? Of course, much of this has to do with personal preference. Do you like warm weather or seasons?…