scholarly journals Debt Relief and Debtor Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Consumer Bankruptcy Protection

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 1272-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Dobbie ◽  
Jae Song
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Debt Relief ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Consumer Bankruptcy ◽  
Annual Earnings ◽  
The Impact

Consumer bankruptcy is one of the largest social insurance programs in the United States, but little is known about its impact on debtors. We use 500,000 bankruptcy filings matched to administrative tax and foreclosure data to estimate the impact of Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection on subsequent outcomes. Exploiting the random assignment of bankruptcy filings to judges, we find that Chapter 13 protection increases annual earnings by $5,562, decreases five-year mortality by 1.2 percentage points, and decreases five-year foreclo-sure rates by 19.1 percentage points. These results come primarily from the deterioration of outcomes among dismissed filers, not gains by granted filers. (JEL D14, I12, J22, J31, K35)

Association of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act with access to elective spine surgical care

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jacob K. Greenberg ◽  
Derek S. Brown ◽  
Margaret A. Olsen ◽  
Wilson Z. Ray
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spine Surgery ◽  
Surgical Procedures ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Surgical Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
The Impact

OBJECTIVE The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid eligibility in many states, improving access to some forms of elective healthcare in the United States. Whether this effort increased access to elective spine surgical care is unknown. This study’s objective was to evaluate the impact of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act on the volume and payer mix of elective spine surgery in the United States. METHODS This study evaluated elective spine surgical procedures performed from 2011 to 2016 and included in the all-payer State Inpatient Databases of 10 states that expanded Medicaid access in 2014, as well as 4 states that did not expand Medicaid access. Adult patients aged 18–64 years who underwent elective spine surgery were included. The authors used a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference design to evaluate the impact of Medicaid expansion on hospital procedure volume and payer mix, independent of time-dependent trends. Subgroup analysis was conducted that stratified results according to cervical fusion, thoracolumbar fusion, and noninstrumented surgery. RESULTS The authors identified 218,648 surgical procedures performed in 10 Medicaid expansion states and 118,693 procedures performed in 4 nonexpansion states. Medicaid expansion was associated with a 17% (95% CI 2%–35%, p = 0.03) increase in mean hospital spine surgical volume and a 23% (95% CI −0.3% to 52%, p = 0.054) increase in Medicaid volume. Privately insured surgical volumes did not change significantly (incidence rate ratio 1.13, 95% CI −5% to 34%, p = 0.18). The increase in Medicaid volume led to a shift in payer mix, with the proportion of Medicaid patients increasing by 6.0 percentage points (95% CI 4.1–7.0, p < 0.001) and the proportion of private payers decreasing by 6.7 percentage points (95% CI 4.5–8.8, p < 0.001). Although the magnitude of effects varied, these trends were similar across procedure subgroups. CONCLUSIONS Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act was associated with an economically and statistically significant increase in spine surgery volume and the proportion of surgical patients with Medicaid insurance, indicating improved access to care.

The Business Cycle and Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Bellés-Obrero ◽  
Judit Vall Castelló
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Infant Health ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
The United States ◽  
Macroeconomic Fluctuations ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
The Impact

The impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on health and mortality rates has been a highly studied topic in the field of economics. Many studies, using fixed-effects models, find that mortality is procyclical in many countries, such as the United States, Germany, Spain, France, Pacific-Asian nations, Mexico, and Canada. On the other hand, a small number of studies find that mortality decreases during economic expansion. Differences in the social insurance systems and labor market institutions across countries may explain some of the disparities found in the literature. Studies examining the effects of more recent recessions are less conclusive, finding mortality to be less procyclical, or even countercyclical. This new finding could be explained by changes over time in the mechanisms behind the association between business cycle conditions and mortality. A related strand of the literature has focused on understanding the effect of economic fluctuations on infant health at birth and/or child mortality. While infant mortality is found to be procyclical in countries like the United States and Spain, the opposite is found in developing countries. Even though the association between business cycle conditions and mortality has been extensively documented, a much stronger effort is needed to understand the mechanisms behind the relationship between business cycle conditions and health. Many studies have examined the association between macroeconomic fluctuations and smoking, drinking, weight disorders, eating habits, and physical activity, although results are rather mixed. The only well-established finding is that mental health deteriorates during economic slowdowns. An important challenge is the fact that the comparison of the main results across studies proves to be complicated due to the variety of empirical methods and time spans used. Furthermore, estimates have been found to be sensitive to the use of different levels of geographic aggregation, model specifications, and proxies of macroeconomic fluctuations.

scholarly journals US Egg Production Data Set

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samara Mendez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Egg Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Flock Size ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Impact

Tracking the capability of the egg production industry to supply the food industry with enough cage-free eggs to meet retailers' and restaurants' animal welfare commitments is important to industry groups and farm animal advocacy organizations alike. In this project, we synthesize an analysis-ready data set that tracks the supply of cage-free eggs relative to the overall supply of table eggs in the United States. The data set is based on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports published monthly from September 2016 to present, with auxiliary annual data from December 2007 to December 2015. The data set will be updated monthly as new USDA reports are released. We supplement these data with definitions and a taxonomy of egg products drawn from USDA and industry publications. The data include flock size and egg production of cage-free hens as well as all table egg laying hens in the US, collected to understand the impact of the industry's cage-free transition on hens. Initial analysis of egg production trends shows that, at the time of publication of this report, 20.3% of all table egg layers lived in cage-free systems. This figure represents an increase of 10.2 percentage points between August 2016 to June 2019, with an increase of 17.1 percentage points over the entire sample period of 2007 to June 2019.

Wrestling with 9/11: Immigrant Perceptions and Perceptions of Immigrants

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Brettell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Asian Indians ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
The Impact

Soon after 9/11 a research project to study new immigration into the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area got under way. In the questionnaire that was administered to 600 immigrants across five different immigrant populations (Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Nigerians) between 2003 and 2005 we decided to include a question about the impact of 9/11 on their lives. We asked: “How has the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 affected your position as an immigrant in the United States?” This article analyzes the responses to this question, looking at similarities and differences across different immigrant populations. It also addresses the broader issue of how 9/11 has affected both immigration policy and attitudes toward the foreign-born in the United States. 

Anne O. Krueger, Constantine Michalopoulos and Vernon W. Ruttan. Aid and Development. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1989. xiv + 386 pp.Price: U.S. $ 52.00

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-217
Author(s):  
Mir Annice Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
International Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Foreign aid has been the subject of much examination and research ever since it entered the economic armamentarium approximately 45 years ago. This was the time when the Second World War had successfully ended for the Allies in the defeat of Germany and Japan. However, a new enemy, the Soviet Union, had materialized at the end of the conflict. To counter the threat from the East, the United States undertook the implementation of the Marshal Plan, which was extremely successful in rebuilding and revitalizing a shattered Western Europe. Aid had made its impact. The book under review is by three well-known economists and is the outcome of a study sponsored by the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development. The major objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of assistance, i.e., aid, on economic development. This evaluation however, was to be based on the existing literature on the subject. The book has five major parts: Part One deals with development thought and development assistance; Part Two looks at the relationship between donors and recipients; Part Three evaluates the use of aid by sector; Part Four presents country case-studies; and Part Five synthesizes the lessons from development assistance. Part One of the book is very informative in that it summarises very concisely the theoretical underpinnings of the aid process. In the beginning, aid was thought to be the answer to underdevelopment which could be achieved by a transfer of capital from the rich to the poor. This approach, however, did not succeed as it was simplistic. Capital transfers were not sufficient in themselves to bring about development, as research in this area came to reveal. The development process is a complicated one, with inputs from all sectors of the economy. Thus, it came to be recognized that factors such as low literacy rates, poor health facilities, and lack of social infrastructure are also responsible for economic backwardness. Part One of the book, therefore, sums up appropriately the various trends in development thought. This is important because the book deals primarily with the issue of the effectiveness of aid as a catalyst to further economic development.

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