Contemporary Economic Policy最新文献

This study investigates the impact of U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigations, prompted by the “Dear Colleague Letter” (DCL) in 2011, on sexual assaults in educational institutions. While previous research has primarily focused on the effects of OCR investigations on enrollments and reputation, using a potential outcome model (POM) and an event study, we analyze treatment effects across different school types, considering factors like endowments. We find the strongest treatment effect in private baccalaureate schools, underscoring the importance of school-specific factors in understanding the role played by OCR investigations in addressing sexual assaults on campuses.

Estimated marked-to-market values of guaranteeing debt ex ante for all available publicly traded US corporations from Q4 1971 to Q4 2022 reveal that the largest estimates periodically arise with a handful of large financial corporations, but significant estimates can arise for nonfinancial corporations. In real Q1 2010 US dollars, the aggregate cost of guaranteeing debt reached $983 billion in Q1 2009 and $284.78 billion in Q1 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Large observed guarantee estimates may reflect moral hazard, but also concerns about avoiding substantial increases in unemployment or maintaining the provision of essential services during national emergencies.

Type 2 Diabetes mellitus patients require regular monitoring and preventive care from healthcare professionals to avoid costly and potentially life-threatening complications. One approach for expanding access to primary care for diabetic patients is to change scope of practice laws for nurse practitioners to allow full practice authority (FPA). We find that state-level implementation of FPA reduces total health care costs for diabetics by approximately 20% in urban areas and reduces rural usage of advanced medical services for diabetics by about 10%. However, we see no effects of FPA on primary care claims, high A1c tests, or diabetic debridements.

This paper investigates how Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility affects food expenditures. A 2019 policy change in California granted SNAP eligibility to previously ineligible Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we find that after the policy change, affected SSI recipients increased their “food at home” budget share between 2.5 and 4.3 percentage points ($120 to $206 per quarter). The SNAP effect on total food expenditures is dampened by a decrease in “food away from home” which SNAP benefits cannot be spent on.

This study examines market concentration's influence on popular music. The data cover popular music from weekly Billboard Hot 100 songs from 1952 to 1989, for which song characteristic data including tempo and duration is available from the Million Song Dataset (MSD). Greater market concentration of the top four artists is found to impact song length, with longer #1 songs and shorter songs in the #2 through #10 spots on the Billboard charts. However, tests for alterations in song construction by top artists that might indicate a form of “sell-out” behavior do not reveal evidence of it.

This study examines the first implementation of the state-run retirement savings program in Oregon, known as OregonSaves, in 2017. It offers early insights into the substantial impact of this mandated program on retirement savings among previously uncovered private workers. Results from difference-in-difference models using SIPP data indicate a 12 percent increase in Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ownership among Oregon workers after the program's roll-out. Notably, the study discerns significant gains for lower-income, single, and older workers, as well as workers of small-size firms who previously lacked retirement savings plan coverage. Findings also suggest additional savings resulting from the mandate.

We examine how the emergence of optometrists as new “eye doctors” affected population eye health outcomes and optometrist earnings in the United States. Using the staggered adoption of optometrist prescription authority across states, we find suggestive evidence that optometrist scope of practice expansion reduced vision impairment and mitigated racial and ethnic disparities in eye health. We also find that the policy is associated with an increase in hourly wages among optometrists who are not self-employed. These findings imply that allowing optometrists to use medications for eye treatments effectively expanded the primary eye care workforce and therefore improved public eye health.

Chinese government introduced a package of incentives to encourage enterprise internationalization under the 2013 Belt and Road Initiative. There is regional variation of this policy incentive, based on which, we examine its impact on listed firms' outward investment. The results evident resource misallocation in firms in specific industries which received incentives; instead of utilizing them for overseas investment, the beneficiary firms were directed toward increasing domestic investment. Contrarily, firms in industries that were not incentivized (restricted industries whose domestic development is not encouraged) were inclined to engage in overseas investment. We provide possible explanations.

In 2018, Idaho became the first state to grant broad prescriptive authority to pharmacists for select medications, such as rescue inhalers (a drug to prevent and treat asthmatic symptoms) and insulin pen needles (for people with diabetes). We analyze the impact of this reform on Medicare beneficiaries' access to these time-sensitive treatments. Our findings reveal increased Medicare Part D claims, 30-day fills, and 30-day supplies of albuterol sulfate and insulin pen needles following expanded pharmacist authority. This translates to approximately three additional patients per pharmacist receiving timely care, potentially preventing costly alternatives such as emergency room visits.