Faculty & Research Published Research Research Economics Health Policy Education Social Equity Social Psychology Facet Area of Focus - Research Craig Volden Bala Mulloth Eileen Chou Benjamin Castleman Sarah Turner Edgar O. Olsen Sophie Trawalter Benjamin Converse Christine Mahoney Timothy Wilson Adam Leive James H. Wyckoff William Shobe Charles Holt Daniel W. Player Daphna Bassok Harry Harding Jay Shimshack Jeanine Braithwaite John Pepper Richard Bonnie David Leblang John Holbein Leora Friedberg Molly Lipscomb James Savage Sebastian Tello-Trillo Frederick P. Hitz Gabrielle Adams Gerald Warburg Isaac Mbiti Paul S. Martin Raymond C. Scheppach Ruth Gaare Bernheim Andrew S. Pennock Gerald Higginbotham Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi Jennifer Lawless Michele Claibourn Noah Myung Philip Potter (-) Christopher J. Ruhm Facet People - Research Facet UVA Partner - Research Published Research Health Policy Social Psychology Estimated Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Clinically Significant Anxiety and Depression Among US Adults During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Ronald C. Kessler, Victor Puac-Polanco How much did clinically significant anxiety and depression increase among US adults during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this survey study of more than 1.4 million respondents in the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, responses to a screening question calibrated to a 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire score of 6 or greater suggested that aggregate prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and depression increased only modestly overall among US adults in 2020 compared with 2017 to 2019. Learn more Working Paper Health Policy The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review Of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Justine Mallatt, Kosali I. Simon This study reviews quasi-experimental studies that examine the relationship between opioids and health and healthcare, and crime outcomes in the U.S. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Social Equity Has Mortality Risen Disproportionately for the Least Educated? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Adam Leive Two Batten professors examine whether the least educated population groups experienced the worst mortality trends at the beginning of the 21st century by measuring changes in mortality across education quartiles. Learn more Published Research Oklahoma Wanted $17 Billion To Fight Its Opioid Crisis: What's The Real Cost? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm The state's plan — and the basis of that $17 billion ask — was looking at abatement for the next three decades. That 30-year plan was authored by Christopher Ruhm, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia. He says you can easily get into the billions when you consider the costs of dealing with this epidemic in the long term. Learn more Published Research Economics Education Cognitive Performance and Labour Market Outcomes Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Dajun Lin, Randall Lutter We use the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and other sources to examine how cognitive performance near the end of secondary schooling relates to labour market outcomes through age fifty. Our preferred estimates control for individual and family backgrounds, non-cognitive attributes, and survey years. Learn more Published Research Economics Time Preferences and Consumer Behavior Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, David Bradford, Charles Courtemanche, Garth Heutel, Patrick McAlvanah We investigate the predictive power of survey-elicited time preferences. The discount factor elicited from choice experiments using real payments predicts various health, energy, and financial outcomes, including overall self-reported health, smoking, installing energy-efficient lighting, and credit card balance. Learn more Published Research Health Policy Geographic Variation in Opioid and Heroin Involved Drug Poisoning Mortality Rates Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm An important barrier to formulating effective policies to address the rapid rise in U.S. fatal overdoses is that the specific drugs involved are frequently not identified on death certificates. This analysis supplies improved estimates of state opioid and heroin involved drug fatality rates in 2014, and changes from 2008 to 2014. Learn more Published Research Drug Involvement in Fatal Overdoses Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm Death certificate data from the Multiple Cause of Death (MCOD) files were analyzed to better understand the drug categories most responsible for the increase in fatal overdoses occurring between 1999 and 2014. Statistical adjustment methods were used to account for the understatement in reported drug involvement occurring because death certificates frequently do not specify which drugs were involved in the deaths. Learn more Published Research Economics Macroeconomic Conditions and Opioid Abuse Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Alex Hollingsworth, Kosali Simon We examine how deaths and emergency department (ED) visits related to use of opioid analgesics (opioids) and other drugs vary with macroeconomic conditions. As the county unemployment rate increases by one percentage point, the opioid death rate per 100,000 rises by 0.19 (3.6%) and the opioid overdose ED visit rate per 100,000 increases by 0.95 (7.0%). Learn more Published Research Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in Dual-Earner Households Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Ann P. Bartel, Maya Rossin-Slater, Jenna Stearns, Jane Waldfogel Using difference‐in‐difference and difference‐in‐difference‐in‐difference designs, we study California’s Paid Family Leave (CA‐PFL) program, the first source of government‐provided paid parental leave available to fathers in the Unites States. Relative to the pre‐treatment mean, fathers of infants in California are 46 percent more likely to be on leave when CA‐PFL is available. Learn more Published Research Economics Health Effects of Economic Crises Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm This analysis summarizes prior research and uses national, US state and county‐level data from 1976 to 2013 to examine whether the mortality effects of economic crises differ in kind from those of the more typical fluctuations. The tentative conclusion is that economic crises affect mortality rates (and presumably other measures of health) in the same way as less severe downturns – leading to improvements in physical health. Learn more Published Research The Changing Benefits of Early Work Experience Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Charles L. Baum We examine whether the benefits of high school work experience have changed over the last 20 years by comparing effects for the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Our main specifications suggest that the future annual earnings benefits of working 20 h per week in the senior year of high school have fallen from 17.4% for the earlier cohort, measured in 1987–1989, to 12.1% for the later cohort, in 2008–2010. Learn more Pagination Current page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Next page Next ›
Published Research Health Policy Social Psychology Estimated Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Clinically Significant Anxiety and Depression Among US Adults During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Ronald C. Kessler, Victor Puac-Polanco How much did clinically significant anxiety and depression increase among US adults during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this survey study of more than 1.4 million respondents in the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, responses to a screening question calibrated to a 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire score of 6 or greater suggested that aggregate prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and depression increased only modestly overall among US adults in 2020 compared with 2017 to 2019. Learn more
Working Paper Health Policy The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review Of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Justine Mallatt, Kosali I. Simon This study reviews quasi-experimental studies that examine the relationship between opioids and health and healthcare, and crime outcomes in the U.S. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Social Equity Has Mortality Risen Disproportionately for the Least Educated? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Adam Leive Two Batten professors examine whether the least educated population groups experienced the worst mortality trends at the beginning of the 21st century by measuring changes in mortality across education quartiles. Learn more
Published Research Oklahoma Wanted $17 Billion To Fight Its Opioid Crisis: What's The Real Cost? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm The state's plan — and the basis of that $17 billion ask — was looking at abatement for the next three decades. That 30-year plan was authored by Christopher Ruhm, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia. He says you can easily get into the billions when you consider the costs of dealing with this epidemic in the long term. Learn more
Published Research Economics Education Cognitive Performance and Labour Market Outcomes Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Dajun Lin, Randall Lutter We use the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and other sources to examine how cognitive performance near the end of secondary schooling relates to labour market outcomes through age fifty. Our preferred estimates control for individual and family backgrounds, non-cognitive attributes, and survey years. Learn more
Published Research Economics Time Preferences and Consumer Behavior Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, David Bradford, Charles Courtemanche, Garth Heutel, Patrick McAlvanah We investigate the predictive power of survey-elicited time preferences. The discount factor elicited from choice experiments using real payments predicts various health, energy, and financial outcomes, including overall self-reported health, smoking, installing energy-efficient lighting, and credit card balance. Learn more
Published Research Health Policy Geographic Variation in Opioid and Heroin Involved Drug Poisoning Mortality Rates Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm An important barrier to formulating effective policies to address the rapid rise in U.S. fatal overdoses is that the specific drugs involved are frequently not identified on death certificates. This analysis supplies improved estimates of state opioid and heroin involved drug fatality rates in 2014, and changes from 2008 to 2014. Learn more
Published Research Drug Involvement in Fatal Overdoses Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm Death certificate data from the Multiple Cause of Death (MCOD) files were analyzed to better understand the drug categories most responsible for the increase in fatal overdoses occurring between 1999 and 2014. Statistical adjustment methods were used to account for the understatement in reported drug involvement occurring because death certificates frequently do not specify which drugs were involved in the deaths. Learn more
Published Research Economics Macroeconomic Conditions and Opioid Abuse Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Alex Hollingsworth, Kosali Simon We examine how deaths and emergency department (ED) visits related to use of opioid analgesics (opioids) and other drugs vary with macroeconomic conditions. As the county unemployment rate increases by one percentage point, the opioid death rate per 100,000 rises by 0.19 (3.6%) and the opioid overdose ED visit rate per 100,000 increases by 0.95 (7.0%). Learn more
Published Research Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in Dual-Earner Households Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Ann P. Bartel, Maya Rossin-Slater, Jenna Stearns, Jane Waldfogel Using difference‐in‐difference and difference‐in‐difference‐in‐difference designs, we study California’s Paid Family Leave (CA‐PFL) program, the first source of government‐provided paid parental leave available to fathers in the Unites States. Relative to the pre‐treatment mean, fathers of infants in California are 46 percent more likely to be on leave when CA‐PFL is available. Learn more
Published Research Economics Health Effects of Economic Crises Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm This analysis summarizes prior research and uses national, US state and county‐level data from 1976 to 2013 to examine whether the mortality effects of economic crises differ in kind from those of the more typical fluctuations. The tentative conclusion is that economic crises affect mortality rates (and presumably other measures of health) in the same way as less severe downturns – leading to improvements in physical health. Learn more
Published Research The Changing Benefits of Early Work Experience Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Charles L. Baum We examine whether the benefits of high school work experience have changed over the last 20 years by comparing effects for the 1979 and 1997 cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Our main specifications suggest that the future annual earnings benefits of working 20 h per week in the senior year of high school have fallen from 17.4% for the earlier cohort, measured in 1987–1989, to 12.1% for the later cohort, in 2008–2010. Learn more