Reducing Binge Drinking? The Effect of a Ban on Late-Night Off-Premise Alcohol Sales on Alcohol-Related Hospital Stays in Germany Excessive alcohol consumption among young people is a major public health concern. On March 1, 2010, the German state of Baden-Württemberg banned the sale of alcoholic beverages between 10pm and 5am at off-premise outlets (e.g., gas stations, kiosks, supermarkets). W...

In recent decades, the prevalence of obesity in America has increased dramatically. Though it has attracted less attention, the demographic composition of the American population also changed during this period. We decompose the increase in the average body mass index of the American population over 30 years and show that demographic changes explain a statistically significant but economically ...

Heterogeneous Sports Participation and Labour Market Outcomes in England Based on a unique composite dataset measuring heterogeneous sports participation, labour market outcomes and local facilities provision, this paper examines for the first time the association between different types of sports participation on employment and earnings in England. Clear associations between labour market outc...

Cigarettes are commonly sold in packs of 20 units and therefore little is known about the potential impact of pack size on consumption. Using insights from behavioral economics, we suggest that cigarette packs smaller than the standard size may help some smokers cut back and/or quit, consistent with their long-term goals. Results from an online hypothetical purchase experiment conducted in a sa...

This paper uses the 2001 wave of National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) to assess the impact of marijuana decriminalization policy on marijuana smoking prevalence in Australia. Both parametric and non-parametric methods are used. The parametric approach postulates an endogenous probit switching model and its nested binary probit, endogenous bivariate probit and two-part models to estim...

We complement the empirical evidence on the sustainability of weight loss achieved through cash rewards and, for the fi rst time, rigorously examine the potential of cash rewards to prevent weight cycling. In a three period randomized controlled trial, about 700 obese persons were fi rst assigned to two treatment groups, which were promised cash contingent on the achievement of an individually ...

We discuss and review literature on the macroeconomic effects of epidemics pandemics since late twentieth century. First, we cover role health in driving economic growth well-being standard frameworks for assessing burden infectious diseases. Second, sketch a general theoretical framework to evaluate trade-offs policy makers must consider when addressing diseases their repercussions. In so doin...

We evaluate how the productive structure and level of specialization of a hospital affect technical efficiency by analyzing a six-year panel database (2000/2005) drawn from hospital discharge records and Ministry of Health data. We adopt a distance function approach, while measuring the technical efficiency level with stochastic frontier techniques. After controlling for environmental variables...

Most industrialized countries have increased access to abortion over the past 30 years. Economic theory predicts that abortion laws affect sexual behavior since they change the marginal cost of having risky sex. We use gonorrhea incidence as a metric of risky sexual behavior. Using a panel of 41 North American, European and Central Asian countries over the period 1980-2000, we estimate the impa...

This paper tests a model of cigarette consumption which mixes two types of intertemporal dependencies: habit-formation and learning about the health consequences of smoking. This latter is argued to result partly from the observation of health developments, both one's own and those of other smokers in the same household. Using seven waves of British Household Panel Survey data, we present resul...