Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Development economists have long sought the answers as to why new innovations do or do not get implemented in developing countries. Giliches (1957) found that hybrid corn adoption has an S-shaped function over time. Other studies have found that an individual’s social network is the primary determinant of technology adoption. If your friends try out…
One of the biggest news stories this year is the collapse of the subprime mortgage lending market. Why did this happen? How much do we really know about subprime lending? A working paper by William Adams, Liran Einav and Jonathan Levin examines the subprime market for automobile loans. The authors find that liquidity constraints are…
It’s decision time for Medicare Part D purchasers. Seniors have until December 31st to make their Part D choice and this decision is not a painless one. The Marketplace Money radio program recently reported (‘Deciphering Part D‘) that “the most popular policies have increased their prices substantially, especially Humana and United Healthcare, the ones that…
The N.Y. Times ran an interesting pair of articles Sunday regarding how economists “got it wrong.” Conflict of Interest Ben Stein (in “The Long and Short of It at Goldman Sachs“) comments on the economic analysis conducted by economist Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs. Dr. Hatzuis concludes that the sub-prime mortgage ‘crisis’ will not only…
Where does an aspiring health economist look for journals relevant to the interdisciplinary field of health economics? Which data sets are relevant for the empirical word a health economist would conduct? If you’re looking for answers to these questions, check out the Resources page of my personal website. The Resources page has a list of…
Can a state run petroleum company be as efficient as a private sector company? The answer is a resounding, “yes but…” It is possible that state-run petroleum companies can be efficient as long as they stick to the business of producing oil. Yet Tina Rosenberg’s “The Perils of Petrocracy” article in the N.Y. Times Sunday…
The winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics are: Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin, and Roger B. Myerson. The trio won the prize for their work on Mechanism Design. See the Nobel Prize press release as well as the Scientific Background paper detailing exactly what is mechanism design. The Economist’s View website provides a…
An explanation for the recent General Motors-United Auto Workers deal is pretty simple: it is a transfer of risk. GM will set up a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) which will be controlled by the union. According to the Detroit Free Press (” UAW ratifies”) GM will place about $30 billion dollars in the account…
The N.Y. Times has an interested article titled “Exploring Ways to Shorten the Ascent to a Ph.D.” The piece speaks of the difficulty of completing a Ph.D. and wonders whether a PhD should be considered more of a training exercise or a mandate for revolutionary research. An excerpt: For those who attempt it, the doctoral…
Do students who attend better schools preform better academically? This is tautologically correct, but not very informative. What would happen if we randomly moved students from low quality schools to high quality schools? Would they do better? Using the results from Chicago Public Schools randomized lotteries of elementary studies, Julie Cullen–my dissertation adviser–attempts to answer…