Essays in Health Economics and Public Health Policy

This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first essay I study the effect of texting bans on fatal accidents on roadways. Since 2007, many states passed laws prohibiting text messaging while driving. Using vehicular fatality data from across the United States and standard difference-in-differences techniques, bans appear moderately successful at reducing single vehicle, single occupant accidents if they are universally applied and enforced as a primary offense. Bans enforced as secondary offences, however, have at best no effect on accidents. Any reduction in accidents following texting bans is short-lived, however, with accidents returning to near former levels within a few months. This is suggestive of drivers reacting to the announcement of the legislation only to return to old habits shortly afterward. The second chapter studies the effect of homeschooling on child health. Homeschooling, which is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, has received some attention by researchers, but there has been no study of the potential health benefits. Given that homeschooled children receive more close supervision and guidance from parents, and perhaps are less exposed to communicable illnesses, a benefit is possible. By adopting different identification strategies and using the Parent and Family Involvement (PFI) data from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for 2003 and 2007, I find that homeschooled children are healthier compared with their counterparts who go to public or private school. The effect is most pronounced for children between 8 to 12 years old. Finally, in the third essay, as a note, I study the effect of school shootings in the United States on private and public school enrollment. I find that school shootings are followed by a 10%t of school shootings in the United States on private and public school enrollment. The effects are most pronounced following shootings in nonurban areas, which is consistent with their more intense media coverage

Intended and Unintended Effects of E-cigarette Taxes on Youth Tobacco Use

Over the past decade, rising youth use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has prompted aggressive regulation by state and local governments. Between 2010 and 2019, ten states and two large counties adopted ENDS taxes. Applying a continuous treatment difference-in-differences approach to data from two large national datasets (Monitoring the Future and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System), this study explores the impact of ENDS taxes on youth tobacco use. We find that ENDS taxes reduce youth e-cigarette consumption, with estimated e-cigarette tax elasticities of -0.06 to -0.21. However, we estimate sizable positive cigarette cross-tax elasticities, suggesting economic substitution between cigarettes and e-cigarettes for youth. These substitution effects are particularly large for frequent cigarette smoking. We conclude that the unintended effects of ENDS taxation may more than fully offset any public health gains

Essays in Health Economics and Public Health Policy

This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first essay I study the effect of texting bans on fatal accidents on roadways. Since 2007, many states passed laws prohibiting text messaging while driving. Using vehicular fatality data from across the United States and standard difference-in-differences techniques, bans appear moderately successful at reducing single vehicle, single occupant accidents if they are universally applied and enforced as a primary offense. Bans enforced as secondary offences, however, have at best no effect on accidents. Any reduction in accidents following texting bans is short-lived, however, with accidents returning to near former levels within a few months. This is suggestive of drivers reacting to the announcement of the legislation only to return to old habits shortly afterward. The second chapter studies the effect of homeschooling on child health. Homeschooling, which is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, has received some attention by researchers, but there has been no study of the potential health benefits. Given that homeschooled children receive more close supervision and guidance from parents, and perhaps are less exposed to communicable illnesses, a benefit is possible. By adopting different identification strategies and using the Parent and Family Involvement (PFI) data from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for 2003 and 2007, I find that homeschooled children are healthier compared with their counterparts who go to public or private school. The effect is most pronounced for children between 8 to 12 years old. Finally, in the third essay, as a note, I study the effect of school shootings in the United States on private and public school enrollment. I find that school shootings are followed by a 10%t of school shootings in the United States on private and public school enrollment. The effects are most pronounced following shootings in nonurban areas, which is consistent with their more intense media coverage

The Immediate Effect of COVID-19 Policies on Social Distancing Behavior in the United States

Anecdotal evidence points to the effectiveness of COVID-19 social distancing policies, however, their effectiveness vis-a-vis what is driven by public awareness and voluntary actions have not been studied. Policy variations across US states create a natural experiment to study the causal impact of each policy. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, location-based mobility, and daily state-level data on COVID-19 tests and confirmed cases, we rank policies based on their effectiveness. We show that statewide stay-at-home orders had the strongest causal impact on reducing social interactions. In contrast, most of the expected impact of more lenient policies were already reaped from non-policy mechanisms. Moreover, stay-at-home policy results in a steady decline in confirmed cases, starting from ten days after implementation and reaching a 37% decrease after fifteen days, consistent with the testing practices and incubation period of the disease.</jats:p