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.

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.

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.

Batten professor Molly Lipscomb has a creative solution to a public sanitation crisis—and a new vision for the center that’s helping to address it.

According to new research from Batten’s Christopher J. Ruhm, the federal government’s opioid grant funding structure favors the least populous states, which are not always the states with greatest need. In an op-ed for The Hill, Ruhm suggests several ways to improve the targeting of federal grants that aim to assist states with opioid problems.

In a new paper published in the journal Health Affairs, Batten’s Christopher J. Ruhm and co-author Bradley A. Katcher find that the federal government’s opioid grant funding structure favors the least populous states, which are not always the states with greatest need.

The headlines were inescapable: States faced a financial disaster of epic proportions because of COVID-19. But, the predictions were wrong. In an article for The Conversation, Batten's Raymond Scheppach explains why the disaster never happened.

What if you could grow your money by investing in companies whose missions align with your own? In an op-ed for Charlottesville Tomorrow, Batten's Christine Mahoney outlines how socially conscious investors could make a big impact in Virginia.

Tatenda Mabikacheche (MPP ’21) grew up in Zimbabwe during a period of incredible economic instability. What she’s learned during her time at Batten, she said, can help her country rebuild.

In 1974, Congress invented the reconciliation process to reduce deficits. More recently, reconciliation has been used in ways that increase the deficit. Batten’s Ray Scheppach spoke with The Conversation to explain the process.