Faculty & Research Published Research Research Health Policy Education Social Equity Social Psychology (-) Economics Facet Area of Focus - Research Adam Leive Edgar O. Olsen David Leblang Molly Lipscomb Bala Mulloth Charles Holt Christine Mahoney Eileen Chou John Pepper Leora Friedberg Raymond C. Scheppach Sebastian Tello-Trillo (-) Christopher J. Ruhm Facet People - Research Facet UVA Partner - Research 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 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 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 Economics What U.S. Data Should be Used to Measure the Price Elasticity of Demand for Alcohol? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Alison Snow Jones, Kerry Anne McGeary, William C. Kerr, Joseph V. Terza, Ravi S. Pandian, Thomas K. Greenfield Learn more Published Research Economics The Economics of Risky Behaviors Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Cawley J., Thomas G. McGuire, Mark V. Pauly, Pedro Pita Barros (eds.) Risky health behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex, and poor diets and sedentary lifestyles (leading to obesity) are a major source of preventable deaths. This chapter overviews the theoretical frameworks for, and empirical evidence on, the economics of risky health behaviors. 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 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 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 Economics What U.S. Data Should be Used to Measure the Price Elasticity of Demand for Alcohol? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Alison Snow Jones, Kerry Anne McGeary, William C. Kerr, Joseph V. Terza, Ravi S. Pandian, Thomas K. Greenfield Learn more
Published Research Economics The Economics of Risky Behaviors Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm, Cawley J., Thomas G. McGuire, Mark V. Pauly, Pedro Pita Barros (eds.) Risky health behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex, and poor diets and sedentary lifestyles (leading to obesity) are a major source of preventable deaths. This chapter overviews the theoretical frameworks for, and empirical evidence on, the economics of risky health behaviors. Learn more