RESEARCH

PUBLICATIONS:

“The Impact of Non-Economic Damages Cap on Health Care Delivery in Hospitals”.  American Law and Economics Review, 2012, 14(1): 192-234   (link to working paper version)
    Abstract: Previous literature focused on narrowly defined treatments reached conflicting conclusions about the association between tort reforms and treatment intensity. Using county level panel data, I evaluate the impact of noneconomic damages caps on broadly defined measures of health care delivery in hospitals. Caps adoption leads to a 3.5% decrease in surgeries, a 2.5% decrease in admissions, a 4.5% decrease in outpatient visits but has no significant effect on emergency care. These results are not driven by spillovers across state borders or by improvements in health and are accompanied by an increase in mortality from complications of medical and surgical care.
 
"Medical Regulation and Health Outcomes: The Impact of the Physician Examination Requirement” (with Daniel K. Benjamin). Health Economics, 2013, 22(4): 393-409.
    Abstract: This article investigates the effect on health outcomes of the regulation prohibiting physicians from prescribing drugs without a prior physical examination. This requirement could improve health by reducing illegal access to prescription drugs. However, it reduces access to health care by making it more difficult for patients and physicians to use many forms of telemedicine. Thus, this regulation generates a trade-off between access and safety. Using matching techniques, we find that the physician examination requirement leads to an increase of 1% in mortality rates from disease, the equivalent of 8.5 more deaths per 100,000 people, and a decrease of 6.7% in injury mortality, the equivalent of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 people. The magnitude of these effects is larger in rural areas and in areas with low physician density and is accompanied by an 18% increase in the number of days lost each month to illness.
                           web appendix

"Oil, Growth, and Health: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show?” (with Kevin K. Tsui) Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2013, 115(4): 1107-1137.
    Abstract: We show that previous results from the resource curse literature are primarily driven by collapsing in oil prices since the mid-1980s. Exploiting cross-country variations in the size of initial oil endowments and the timing of oil discoveries, we find that there is a stable positive relationship between oil abundance and long-run economic growth. Using dynamic panel data methods, we also find no evidence that higher oil rents hinder growth. Focusing on material gain, however, understates the welfare gain from oil, because oil-rich countries benefit more in infant-mortality reduction and longevity gain. Interestingly, such oil-led health improvements are more pronounced in nondemocratic countries, where initial heath conditions were poor and oil wealth is concentrated among the ruling elites.
 http://ssrn.com/abstract=2060337

“Oil and Conflict: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show?” (with Kevin K. Tsui)  American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2013, 5(1): 49-80.
     Abstract: This paper examines the effect of oil wealth on political violence. First, we revisit one of the main empirical findings of the civil conflict literature, namely that oil wealth causes civil war. Using a unique historical panel dataset of oil discoveries and extractions, we show that simply controlling for country fixed effects removes the statistical association between the value of oil reserves and civil war onset. This non-result is robust to using natural disaster in oil-producing nations as an instrument for oil price. Other macro-political violence measures, such as coup attempts and irregular leadership transitions, are also not significantly correlated with oil wealth. To further address endogeneity concerns, we exploit changes in oil reserves over time due to randomness in the success or failure of oil explorations. We find little robust evidence that oil discoveries increase the likelihood of violent challenges to the state in the sample of country-years in which at least one exploratory well is drilled. Rather, oil discoveries increase military spending in the subsample of nondemocratic countries. Similar results are obtained using propensity score matching methods to correct for selection based on the likelihood of oil exploration. We suggest a possible explanation of our findings based on the idea that oil-rich nondemocratic regimes effectively expend resources to deter potential challengers.
 http://ssrn.com/abstract=1347700

1.      WORKING PAPERS

“The Impact of Diabetes Mandates on Infant Health” (with Lee Spector) Southern Economic Journal forthcoming
    Abstract: Among the factors thought to contribute to lagging improvements in infant health in recent years are increasing obesity and diabetes prevalence among women of childbearing age. This paper uses a difference-in-difference-in-difference empirical strategy to investigate the impact of mandated insurance coverage for diabetes on adverse pregnancy outcomes. Among educated women, who have high rates of coverage through private insurance affected by mandates, diabetes mandates are associated with a reduction in low birth-weight and premature birth prevalence. These gains are concentrated among older women and are larger for African-Americans. There is a weaker effect on the prevalence of high birth weight, potentially because of the deleterious effects of an increased probability of weight gain in excess of 35 pounds among diabetic women in states with mandates.
                               Appendix not for publication

“The Determinants of Birth Outcomes: A Study Using Variation in Tornado Exposure”
    Abstract: Previous literature finds that adverse events are correlated with poorer infant outcomes but the timing and mechanisms by which this occurs are poorly understood. This papares uses tornadoes as a source of random variation in exposure to stressors. First using detailed data on the date of conception I find that, among the 1999-2007 conception cohorts there is evidence of selection: exposure to tornadoes during the second trimester leads to fewer live births and changed sex ratios among live births. Second, I argue that tornado destruction represents an exogenous decrease in wealth and investigate its impact on birth outcomes. Conditional on being exposed to tornadoes, tornado damages do not significantly affect live birth outcomes. However, repeated exposure during the third trimester is associated with prematurity and lower weight at birth.

 "The Impact of Non-Economic Damages Caps on Prenatal Care and Infant Health”   
"Economic Growth and Obesity: Findings of an Obesity Kuznets Curve" (with Kurt Rotthoff)
" The Impact of State Contraceptive Insurance Mandates" (with Angela K. Dills)

      WORK IN PROGRESS:

 “Infant Health and Vulnerable Populations: Identifying Mechanisms for Public Policy” (with Inas R. Kelly)
“Technological Improvement and Climate Change Mitigation: Evidence from the Diffusion of Air Conditioning and Seasonal Mortality in the US” (with Kevin K. Tsui)
“The Impact of Changes in Family Structure on Women’s Education”