Faculty & Research Published Research Research Education Social Psychology Health Policy Social Entrepreneurship Environmental Policy Ethics Leadership Racial Justice and Equity National Security Political Science Advocacy Domestic Policy & Politics International and Global Affairs Democracy Social Equity International Development Research and Commentary (-) Economics Facet Area of Focus - Research Christopher J. Ruhm 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 Facet People - Research Facet UVA Partner - Research Published Research Health Policy Economics Health Insurance Design Meets Saving Incentives: Consumer Responses to Complex Contracts Authors: Adam Leive To lower health care costs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. This paper tests whether consumers use HSAs as self-insurance over the life cycle. Learn more Published Research Economics Health Policy Health Insurance for Whom? The ‘Spill-up’ Effects of Children’s Health Insurance on Mothers Authors: Sebastian Tello-Trillo, Daniel S. Grossman, Barton Willage New research shows that expansions in children’s Medicaid eligibility increases the likelihood a mother is married, decreases her labor market participation, and reduces her smoking and alcohol consumption. Learn more Published Research Economics Wage Insurance and Labor Market Trajectories Authors: Adam Leive, Benjamin G. Hyman, Brian K. Kovak, Theodore Naff Wage insurance provides income support to displaced workers who find reemployment at a lower wage. This group of scholars study the effects of the wage insurance provisions of the US Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program using administrative data from the state of Virginia. What they find suggests that wage insurance eligibility increases short-run employment probabilities and that wage insurance and TAA training may yield similar long-run effects on employment and earnings. Learn more Published Research Economics Does HUD Overpay for Voucher Units, and Will SAFMRs Reduce the Overpayment? Authors: Edgar O. Olsen One argument for Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) is that they would reduce overpayment for voucher units in low-rent neighborhoods. This article provides a more comprehensive theoretical analysis that leads to the conclusion that the worst voucher units and those in the worst neighborhoods will usually rent for more than the mean market rent of identical units, and the best units in the best neighborhoods will rent for less than this amount. Learn more Working Paper Economics Domestic Policy & Politics Alleviating Poverty through Housing Policy Reform Authors: Edgar O. Olsen The purpose of this paper is to describe proposals for reform of low-income housing assistance that will alleviate poverty without increasing public spending. Low-income housing assistance is fertile ground for such reforms. Learn more Published Research Economics New Case: Losses (and Gains) from Health Reform for Non-Medicaid Uninsureds Authors: Adam Leive, Mark Pauly, Scott Harrington This article examines how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would change financial resources for and transfers to the previously uninsured if they were to purchase coverage in the ACA insurance exchanges (marketplaces) in 2014. The results suggest that the law provides gains to some, relative to their spending in the pre-ACA period, particularly those in poor health and with very low incomes, but it also potentially imposes financial losses on many, again compared to their experience when uninsured. Learn more Published Research Economics Social Entrepreneurship Diogenes-FG: Heralding Responsible Innovation in Fiduciary Services for Retirement and Nonprofit Trustees Authors: Bala Mulloth, Robert Patterson, John Whitworth Diogenes pioneered the use of technology to support trustees and boards in their role as fiduciaries of employee retirement funds. Typically, a multinational corporation with operations in 30-40 countries may have hundreds of pension plans, each with their own characteristics. 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 Health Policy A Cautionary Tale in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Perils and Pitfalls of Observational Data Analysis Authors: Adam Leive, Armando Franco, Dana Goldman, Daniel McFadden Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. 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 Environmental Policy Decentralization and Pollution Spillovers: Evidence from the Re-Drawing of County Borders in Brazil Authors: Molly Lipscomb, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak Learn more Pagination Current page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Next page Next ›
Published Research Health Policy Economics Health Insurance Design Meets Saving Incentives: Consumer Responses to Complex Contracts Authors: Adam Leive To lower health care costs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer tax incentives encouraging people to trade off current consumption against future consumption. This paper tests whether consumers use HSAs as self-insurance over the life cycle. Learn more
Published Research Economics Health Policy Health Insurance for Whom? The ‘Spill-up’ Effects of Children’s Health Insurance on Mothers Authors: Sebastian Tello-Trillo, Daniel S. Grossman, Barton Willage New research shows that expansions in children’s Medicaid eligibility increases the likelihood a mother is married, decreases her labor market participation, and reduces her smoking and alcohol consumption. Learn more
Published Research Economics Wage Insurance and Labor Market Trajectories Authors: Adam Leive, Benjamin G. Hyman, Brian K. Kovak, Theodore Naff Wage insurance provides income support to displaced workers who find reemployment at a lower wage. This group of scholars study the effects of the wage insurance provisions of the US Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program using administrative data from the state of Virginia. What they find suggests that wage insurance eligibility increases short-run employment probabilities and that wage insurance and TAA training may yield similar long-run effects on employment and earnings. Learn more
Published Research Economics Does HUD Overpay for Voucher Units, and Will SAFMRs Reduce the Overpayment? Authors: Edgar O. Olsen One argument for Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) is that they would reduce overpayment for voucher units in low-rent neighborhoods. This article provides a more comprehensive theoretical analysis that leads to the conclusion that the worst voucher units and those in the worst neighborhoods will usually rent for more than the mean market rent of identical units, and the best units in the best neighborhoods will rent for less than this amount. Learn more
Working Paper Economics Domestic Policy & Politics Alleviating Poverty through Housing Policy Reform Authors: Edgar O. Olsen The purpose of this paper is to describe proposals for reform of low-income housing assistance that will alleviate poverty without increasing public spending. Low-income housing assistance is fertile ground for such reforms. Learn more
Published Research Economics New Case: Losses (and Gains) from Health Reform for Non-Medicaid Uninsureds Authors: Adam Leive, Mark Pauly, Scott Harrington This article examines how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would change financial resources for and transfers to the previously uninsured if they were to purchase coverage in the ACA insurance exchanges (marketplaces) in 2014. The results suggest that the law provides gains to some, relative to their spending in the pre-ACA period, particularly those in poor health and with very low incomes, but it also potentially imposes financial losses on many, again compared to their experience when uninsured. Learn more
Published Research Economics Social Entrepreneurship Diogenes-FG: Heralding Responsible Innovation in Fiduciary Services for Retirement and Nonprofit Trustees Authors: Bala Mulloth, Robert Patterson, John Whitworth Diogenes pioneered the use of technology to support trustees and boards in their role as fiduciaries of employee retirement funds. Typically, a multinational corporation with operations in 30-40 countries may have hundreds of pension plans, each with their own characteristics. 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 Health Policy A Cautionary Tale in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Perils and Pitfalls of Observational Data Analysis Authors: Adam Leive, Armando Franco, Dana Goldman, Daniel McFadden Health care costs represent a nearly 18% of U.S. gross domestic product and 20% of government spending. While there is detailed information on where these health care dollars are spent, there is much less evidence on how this spending affects health. 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 Environmental Policy Decentralization and Pollution Spillovers: Evidence from the Re-Drawing of County Borders in Brazil Authors: Molly Lipscomb, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak Learn more