Eastern Economic Journal最新文献

We use data from the Household Pulse Survey that the US Census Bureau conducted from April 2020 to February 2021 to estimate the probability of symptoms of anxiety and depression among adult Americans. Lack of viable instruments prevent ruling out exogeneity, but the magnitude and strength of association between mental disease and, both, 2019 household income and pandemic-related employment income loss warrant serious attention. Our results stress the importance of policy support to the socially vulnerable in an economic emergency, including cash transfers such as those offered by the 2020 CARES Act or the 2021 America Rescue Plan.

We investigate the effectiveness of seven government containment and policy closure interventions against the novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) pandemic in the OECD countries, at several different time horizons. Our results indicate that only school closings and public transportation closings have a persistently significant impact. Stay-at-home policies only show a significant impact after 70 days. Workplace closings, restrictions on the size of gatherings, and restrictions on internal travel show no significant impact on mortality rates. Moreover, stricter measures are not significantly associated with lower growth rates in mortality.

This study addresses a unique angle by examining an under looked determinant of entrepreneurship related to disease epidemics. In times of natural disasters, such as disease epidemics, new demands emerge that might promote entrepreneurship. Using data on a large cross section of countries, we empirically test whether and to what extent the incidence and severity of disease epidemics affect the prevalence of entrepreneurship. The results show that both the occurrence and severity of epidemics spur entrepreneurial activity. These results highlight a potentially important role served by entrepreneurs in responding to biological disasters. Our findings withstand a series of robustness checks.

We investigate the effect of standardized mathematics scores for young adults on the number of COVID-19 cases in the USA. We find that a one-grade-level increase in test scores led to a decrease in COVID-19 cases 30, 60, and 90 days after the first case in each county. Our findings suggest that if states and localities implement policies that increase the level of education and comprehension of mathematics at the K-12 level, that people may be better prepared to find and interpret information in a future public health crisis.

When a policymaker introduces a novel policy, she will not know what citizens' choices will be under the policy, and citizens themselves may have to construct new choice sets. This imparts inherent ambiguity to novel policy implementation: The policymaker does not know the probability that citizens will select actions that align with her policy. Assuming that citizens will follow a fixed approach may expose the policymaker to ambiguity neglect, which can result in unintended consequences. We provide examples and a simple formalization. Our results suggest that before implementing novel policies, policymakers should attempt to elicit preferences from citizens.

A Supreme Court decision legalizing sports betting in the US led states to legalize sports betting in order to generate new tax revenues from wagering on sports events. Most states already permit other forms of gambling and receive tax revenues from these sources. The literature analyzing consumer substitution in gambling spending contains some evidence on the impact of expansions in many types of gambling, but no evidence on the impact of expanded sports betting. This paper exploits the legalization of sports betting and timing of sports book openings in West Virginia to analyze the impact of expanded sports betting on other casino gambling. Evidence using Instrumental Variables and difference-in-differences shows that increased consumer spending on sports betting caused a significant decline in spending on video lottery terminals (VLTs) in casinos, both of which generate tax revenues. Fiscal impacts include $2.6 million in new tax revenue from sports betting and a $45.4 million decrease in VLT tax revenues caused by expanded sports betting.