The intended and unintended effects of opioid policies on prescription opioids and crime

In response to the opioid crisis, US states have implemented policies to reduce the dispensing of opioids and curb drug mortality. Exploiting a long panel of county-level data, we analyse the combination of demand- and supply-side state opioid policies and evaluate their effect on opioids per capita dispensed and their unintended fallouts on drug-related crime. We demonstrate that only laws targeting the supply for opioids reduce the volume of prescribed drugs, while demand-side policies are less effective. We also emphasize that within supply-side state regulations, Pain Management Clinics Laws are the most successful in reducing the dispensation of prescription opioids. Remarkably, the drop in opioids distributed due to supply-side regulations is accompanied by negative externalities in the local market for illicit drugs

The Effect of EU ETS Indirect Cost Compensation on Firms Outcomes

This report evaluates the impact of the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) indirect cost compensation on firms economic performance and competitiveness, seeking to assess potential competition distortions and carbon leakage risks produced by the policy. The analysis is run on the sample of businesses operating in any of the sectors eligible to compensation and on the aluminium sector alone. The data employed in the evaluation is at the firm level and comes from the records on the beneficiaries of indirect cost compensation provided by DG COMP and from the Orbis Bureau Van Dijk database. Competition distortion is measured in terms of the effects of the intervention on per worker measures of turnover and value of total assets. The risk of carbon leakage is evaluated on the basis of firm-level indicators of turnover, value of total assets and number of employees. The results suggest that receiving compensation for indirect costs does not have a statistically significant impact on labour productivity of firms in comparison to those that do not receive funding. Conversely, the evidence points to a negative effect on performance measured in terms of turnover, value of total assets and employment. This might be due to a multitude of factors that affect firms’ economic performance, for instance differences in energy costs across countries that do not provide compensation compared to MS that foresee this type of aid. As far as the analysis on aid intensity is concerned, which only contemplates a more homogeneous pool of firms operating in aiding countries, higher compensation amounts do not seem to generate competition distortion. At the same time, a higher level of subsidies appears to marginally reduce the risk of carbon leakage, as performance measured in terms of turnover, value of total assets and number of employees improves. Estimated coefficients suggest that, for each 1% increase in the amount of the subsidy received (i.e. around 1,000 EUR), firms expand their turnover and their assets value by 0.01%, and their workforce by 0.07%. The report also provides some suggestions on future data collection and reporting provisions, aimed at reducing cost, facilitating data management and increasing the quality and level of accuracy of future evaluations.JRC.I.1-Monitoring, Indicators & Impact Evaluatio

On Immigration, Geographic and Labour Market Mobility

This thesis consists of three chapters. The first one is an empirical assessment of the consequences of post-2004 temporary restrictions to welfare access for some European immigrants in the UK in terms of their benefits take-up and their labour supply. I provide evidence that when access to benefits is restricted, immigrants compensate for the foregone income by working more. This is particularly true for females. Nevertheless, even in the absence of any restrictions, immigrants are less reliant on welfare and work more than their native counterparts. The second chapter focuses on the determinants of geographical mobility of British labour market entrants over the period 1991-2008, with an emphasis on the role of education. Given the absence of an appropriate index for mobility in the data, I compute a continuous measure of distance that is then matched to the individual information. Results suggest that having a degree has a positive impact on the mobility of young adults and, hence, on their labour market opportunities. Moreover, an important role is played by previous mobility experience and some other environmental factors. In the third chapter of this dissertation I evaluate the long-term effects of undergoing job turnover during a woman’s early career on her demand for children. In doing so, I make a distinction between voluntary and involuntary job separations. The empirical analysis is made on a sample of British women who have left education in the years 1959-1986, for which I construct job experience and family formation variables on the basis of retrospective information. The findings imply that women with stronger preferences for children might self-select into more rewarding career paths, possibly in pursuance of better labour market conditions that can guarantee a more adequate child rearing

The Intended and Unintended Effects of Opioid Policies on Prescription Opioids and Crime

Abstract In response to the opioid crisis, US states have implemented policies to reduce the dispensing of opioids and curb drug mortality. Exploiting a long panel of county-level data, we analyse the combination of demand- and supply-side state opioid policies and evaluate their effect on opioids per capita dispensed and their unintended fallouts on drug-related crime. We demonstrate that only laws targeting the supply for opioids reduce the volume of prescribed drugs, while demand-side policies are less effective. We also emphasize that within supply-side state regulations, Pain Management Clinics Laws are the most successful in reducing the dispensation of prescription opioids. Remarkably, the drop in opioids distributed due to supply-side regulations is accompanied by negative externalities in the local market for illicit drugs

The US Opidemic: Prescription Opioids, Labour Market Conditions and Crime

In response to the recent opioid crisis, US states have implemented several policies to reduce the dispensing of opioids and contain drug mortality. We analyse the effectiveness of these laws and their unintended fallouts on labour participation and crime at the local level. Using multiple data sources and a difference-in-difference set-up, we show that the laws targeting the supply for opioids yield larger reductions in prescribed drugs compared to the demand-side policies, particularly in the absence of cross-bordering effects. We observe an improvement in labour market participation and higher crime rates following the enforcement of some of the policies considered

Hang up on stereotypes: Domestic violence and an anti‐abuse helpline campaign

We estimate the effectiveness of a government-led anti-domestic-abuse campaign launched in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic on the number of calls to the Italian domestic violence helpline. In the week after the start of the campaign, we document a sharp increase in the number of calls. By exploiting geographical variation in the exposure to the campaign ads aired on public TV networks, we find that greater exposure is associated with an increase in the number of calls after the launch of the campaign. However, the effectiveness of the media campaign is hindered in areas where gender stereotypes are stronger

Impact of interventions regulating Endocrine Disruptors on trade dynamics for EU Member States

The report aims at shedding light on the unintended consequences on trade dynamics brought about by the implementation of regulatory interventions tackling the presence of dangerous chemicals in certain products. In particular, the analysis explores the possibility that these interventions could have hampered European Union capacity to export.JRC.I.1-Monitoring, Indicators & Impact Evaluatio

Spatial abilities and the gender gap in mathematics (Matabì)

Learning mathematics is a general problem in Italy, but it is more relevant for females. Male students typically outperform their female classmates in maths test scores from the earliest years of schooling, and the gap worsens as school grades progress. The different experiences and expectations about potential abilities of boys and girls are key to understanding the possible causes of the observed relative differences in education performance. Early life experiences are essential for developing a child’s cognitive capacities, and environmentally induced gender differences may arise when children are exposed to heterogeneous sources of development opportunities. One of the sources of gender inequalities in mathematics is related to differences in the acquisition of visuospatial abilities between girls and boys from a very young age. Existing works find that playing with specific toys facilitates learning in maths and science. Boys usually gain more experience than girls because of different parental and educators’ beliefs and behaviour regarding the gender-specific suitability of toys. Moreover, self-confidence and anxiety are not gender-neutral and can affect educational outcomes. The Matabì project aims to enhance spatial abilities and reduce the gender gap via construction play (i.e., by using building toys and Lego Duplo brick sets). Using the bricks should help students process abstract concepts, while the playful approach should reduce maths anxiety. Girls should benefit more from Matabì than males, who are (on average) able to develop these skills early on in life. The project started in October 2022, so we would present the overall structure and what has been accomplished so far. This should be engaging in three respects: the teachers' reinforcement of their spatial abilities, the instruments used to collect the outcomes, and the impact evaluation design conducted with Randomized Control Trial (RCT). Teachers’ training includes a pre- and post-standardised test, the mental rotation section of the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test. The RCT involves around 60 classes in five schools in Torino (60 teachers and 1200 third and fourth grade pupils). Within each school, we randomly assigned a third of the teachers to the control group and two-thirds to the treatment group. The study will provide evidence of the effects of teaching methods exploiting construction play. The primary research questions are: 1- What is the impact on the spatial abilities of teachers? 2- What is the impact on the spatial abilities of pupils? 3- How does the impact differ by gender? 4- How does the treatment affect the gender gap in mathematics

Cost Effectiveness Analysis: Methodology for the Food Chain Area

This report provides a methodological guidance on cost-effectiveness analysis in the view of future evaluations of the EU interventions currently funded under the Common Financial Framework of the food chain area (CFF, Regulation (EU) No 652/2014). The report was commissioned by DG SANTE. Under the CFF, the EU is either funding or co-funding eligible costs faced by Member States when implementing phytosanitary and veterinary programmes, official control activities, and veterinary and phytosanitary emergency measures. These interventions aim at contributing to a high level of health for humans, animals and plants along the food chain, by preventing and eradicating diseases and pests and by ensuring a high level of protection for consumers and the environment, while enhancing the competitiveness of the Union food and feed industry. This report presents a methodology on how to address relevant policy questions such as: “Should more funding be awarded to prevention measures or to control measures to reduce the risk of outbreaks of classical swine fever in pigs?” or “is the introduction of new e-learning tools for official staff more effective in increasing the quality of the official controls compared to workshops?” This report provides evaluation methods to answer this type of questions and illustrates the methodology introduced for specific CFF related policy questions. These methods are based on disaggregated data and regression techniques. Economic evaluation is a systematic analysis tool to assess and quantify whether the interventions produce the expected effects, and to help draw conclusions on the cost-effectiveness of the different EU funded programmes. Thus, economic evaluation is a funding allocation tool that allows decision makers with a budget constraint to make informed choices on which interventions to allocate funding to. When performing economic evaluation, three main challenges need to be addressed; (i) how to measure the costs, (ii) how to quantify the effects, and (iii) how to identify the causal impact of the intervention under evaluation.JRC.I.1-Monitoring, Indicators & Impact Evaluatio