Market Structure and Communicable Diseases

Communicable diseases pose a formidable challenge for public policy. Using numerical simulations, we show under which scenarios a monopolist’s price and prevalence paths converge to a nonzero steady-state. In contrast, a planner typically eradicates the disease. If eradication is impossible, the planner subsidizes treatments as long as the prevalence can be controlled. Drug resistance exacerbates the welfare difference between monopoly and first best outcomes. Nevertheless, because the negative externalities from resistance compete with the positive externalities of treatment, a mixed competition/monopoly regime may perform better than competition alone. This result has important implications for the design of many drug patents.communicable disease, resistance, epidemiology, patent

The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a Modern Fiscal Analysis

In 1306, at the peak of a severe financial and monetary crisis, Philippe the Fair expelled the Jews from his kingdom, declared himself creditor of their debts, seized their property and auctioned it off. Was this a clever move, financially speaking? Did Philippe gain more, by killing the goose that laid the golden egg, than by securing a steady flow of taxes? Taking discounting into account, conservative bounds on the sum collected through the seizures over the years that followed the expulsion challenge the traditional view that it was a bad deal. Still, the windfall brought by the relative success of the operation was short-lived.Expulsion; Philipe le Bel; Jews; 1306;

Risky Sexual Behavior, Testing and New HIV Treatments

This paper studies the impact of new HIV therapies (HAART) on HIV testing and risky sexual behavior. I use data collected in San Francisco among a high-risk population from 1994 to 2002. The evidence supports the hypothesis of a causal link between the introduction of HAART in late 1996 and the sharp increase in risky sexual behavior that ensued. Further, following HAART, testers take more risks while non-testers take fewer risks. The proportion of testers remains stable, which was ambiguous a priori, and HAART does not alter the composition of the testing and non-testing groups.HAART, ARV, HIV, AIDS, Testing, drug, treatment, UAI, Risk, Partners, contacts, prevalence

The External Effects of Black-Male Incarceration on Black Females

We examine how the rising incarceration of Black men and the sex ratio imbalance it induces shapes young Black women’s behavior during their late teens and early twenties. Combining data from the BJS and the CPS to match incarceration rates with individual observations, we show that Black male incarceration lowers the odds of non-marital teenage fertility and increases single Black women’s school attainment and early employment. We do not find consistent evidence that high Black male incarceration rates decrease the likelihood of getting married for young Black women. These results are robust to using sentencing changes and prison capacity expansions as instruments for incarceration.incarceration, prison, prison capacity, sentencing laws, teenage fertility, education, school, labor force participation

Comportements sexuels risques et incitations : l'impact des nouveaux traitements sur la prevention du VIH

This article studies the interaction between two individual decisions in the context of sexually transmitted diseases: on the one hand, the choice the of risk level, on the other hand, the decision to get tested. Our angle here is economic epidemiology, which aims at identifying the essential arbitrages that involve private decisions. Since testing opens access to treatments for a disease, it reduces the private cost of risk taking, all the more so when available treatments are more efficacious. From this, it stems that improvements in treatmentds can spur an increase in the risk level, by diminishing the cost associated with risk for those individuals who have opted for testing. An empirical analysis based on data from the San Francisco Stop Aids Project confirms this theoretical prediction. The apparition, during the year 1996, of new treatments against HIV coincided with an increaese in risky behavior within the tested population (test group) but not within the population that had not undertaken testing (control group).HIV; AIDS; Testing; Risk; Sex; Protected

The External Effects of Black Male Incarceration on Black Females

This paper examines how the increase in the incarceration of Black men and the sex ratio imbalance it induces shape the behavior of young Black women. Combining data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Current Population Survey to match male incarceration rates with individual observations over two decades, the author shows that Black male incarceration lowers the odds of Black non-marital teenage fertility while increasing young Black women\u27s school attainment and early employment. These results can account for the sharp bridging of the racial gap over the 1990s for a range of socio-economic outcomes among females

The External Effects of Black Male Incarceration onBlack Females

This article examines how the increase in the incarceration ofblack men and the sex ratio imbalance it induces shape the behaviorof young black women. Combining data from the Bureau of Justice Statisticsand the Current Population Survey to match male incarceration rateswith individual observations over two decades, I show that black maleincarceration lowers the odds of black nonmarital teenage fertilitywhile increasing young black women's school attainment and earlyemployment. These results can account for the sharp bridging of theracial gap over the 1990s for a range of socioeconomic outcomes amongfemales. (c) 2011 by The University of Chicago. Allrights reserved..

HIV Testing: a Trojan Horse?

The consequences of HIV testing are unclear. Some infected individuals, assuming they behave selfishly, would tend to increase their number of partners. Meanwhile, non-infected ones or those ignorant of their status would decrease theirs, the result of which, on the equilibrium level of infection, is uncertain. Simulations from a simple dynamic model show how to generate the Philipson-Posner conjecture, i.e., that disclosure of HIV status may result in higher disease prevalence. In this benchmark case, testing would also lower welfare. Those results, however, appear to be fragile. In particular, very little altruism seems needed for testing to become beneficial, and the public health literature tells us that a large proportion of individuals behave altruistically when tested positive and appropriately counseled. Beyond the mere availability of testing, the findings further suggest combining existing prevention measures with universal or mandatory testing to help eradicate the disease.

L’expulsion des Juifs de France en 1306 : proposition d’analyse contemporaine sous l’angle fiscal

I. Problématique et contexte En 1306, Philippe IV de France, dit Philippe le Bel, expulse tous les Juifs de son royaume. Il se proclame détenteur de leurs créances, fait saisir leurs biens puis les vend à l’encan. Il ne pouvait pas ignorer qu’en agissant de la sorte, il se privait d’une source de revenus, en l’occurrence de recettes fiscales. Économiquement parlant, fut-il bien avisé de tuer la poule aux œufs d’or ? Une étude attentive de l’économie française au XIVe siècle, associée à une an..

Divorce Laws and the Structure of the American Family

This paper investigates the impact of no-fault divorce laws on marriage and divorce in the United States. I propose a theory that captures the key stylized facts of the rising then declining divorce rates and the apparent convergence of divorce rates across the different divorce regimes. The empirical results suggest that a shift from fault to no-fault divorce increased the odds of divorcing for those couples who married before the shift. The analysis further suggests that those couples who marry after the shift to a no-fault regime, in turn, sort themselves better upon marriage, which offsets the direct effect of the law on divorce rates. Consistent with that selectivity argument, after a switch to a no-fault divorce regime, women get married later in life. These results hold for the law that governs property division and spousal support. The law that governs divorce grounds does not seem to matter significantly.