Recessions may be good for overall physical health, but this one could be different. Batten professor Chris Ruhm presented an online talk Wednesday offering an economist’s view of the overall health effects of the COVID-19 recession. His talk was the school’s third installment of its expert chat series about COVID-19.

Batten's David Leblang joins Robert Bruner and David Smith to discuss the economic consequences of COVID-19 and possible policy responses during a public webinar.

The number of Americans dying from drug overdoses has risen rapidly in the last decade, with opioids viewed as the primary culprit. However, recent research suggests that opioids are not the only drug involved. According to Batten professor of economics, Christopher J. Ruhm, half of the overdose deaths have involved polydrug use and deaths involving nonopioid drugs are rising almost as fast as those involving opioids.

As the U.S. economy continues its longest-ever period of expansion, economists are beginning to call attention to some indicators that point to a potential downturn. One of those economists is Batten Professor Ray Scheppach.

Is it the “ostrich effect?” Misguided optimism? Ease of shopping during normal times? Or a distrust of government warnings?

On February 23, the third annual NASPPA-Batten Student Simulation Competition will take place, bringing together a record 585 graduate students from around the globe to tackle policy issues associated with forced migration through computer-based simulated gameplay.

In answers to unique questions from the National Survey of Families and Households, spouses reveal information about the value of their options outside of marriage as well as their beliefs about the value of their spouses’ outside options. We use this data to demonstrate several features of household bargaining.

Recent evidence suggests that the default options implicit in economic choices (e.g., 401(k) savings by white-collar workers) have extraordinarily large effects on decision-making. This study presents a field experiment that evaluates the effect of defaults on savings among a highly policy-relevant population: low-income tax filers.

The literature on EU integration has long recognized that the European Commission has promoted a pan‐European civil society in order to increase the legitimacy of the supranational institutions. While we know the Commission fosters EU civil society by encouraging their formal and informal participation in the EU policymaking processes and by directly funding them (Mahoney 2004), we have, until now, known very little about just how much money the Commission has been granting EU civil society organizations and to which segments of European civil society.