Kaiser Fast Facts

The Kaiser Fast Facts website is a useful tool for any health researchers who need basic statistical information regarding medical care in the U.S.  The numerous slides filled with information-filled charts and graphs.

Are wet babies healthy babies?

Does rainfall improve health for children in developing countries? Sharon L. Maccini and Dean Yang (2008) hypothesize that higher rainfall will lead to higher incomes for rural household and higher incomes allows increased food purchases and more disposable income to be made available for health care purchases. The authors find that in Indonesia, “[w]omen with…

Congress Pushes Curbs on Doctor-Owned Hospitals

The N.Y. Times reports (“Concerned about costs…“) that Congress is trying to impose new restrictions on physician-owned, for-profit hospitals. The legislators fear that these hospitals 1) drive up costs and 2) provide poor quality. Legislators worry that when physicians own the hospital, they may have more of an incentive to order more procedures to increase…

Poverty and Health in Developing Countries

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo find that for rural households, the probability that the mother is alive is 36 percentage points higher if the family has a daily per capita expenditures (DPCE) of $6 to $10 versus a DCPE of $1 to $2.  Using a panel data set specification, the authors also find that adults…

Advice for Graduate Students

The Austrian Economists blog has a great post (“Hard Work Pays Off“) giving a bunch of advice for grad students. Below are some of my favorite quotations: Don Lavoie — “Why are you doing this? Don’t ever forget your answer to that question.” James Buchanan — “All work is work in progress. Don’t get it…

The Moral of the Story

What’s a doctor to do when a child comes in with the symptoms of vomiting, infected ears and being “clingy and cranky”?  Dr. Perri Klass assumed that this was an ear infection, but discussion with the patient’s mother revealed that the child had fallen on his head just a day earlier. Should the doctor order…

Mandatory Seat Belt laws

A recent paper in the May 2008 edition of the Journal of Health Economics by Carpentera and Stehr finds that mandatory seat belt laws save lives. “…we find consistent evidence that state mandatory seatbelt laws – particularly those permitting primary enforcement – significantly increased seatbelt use among high school age youths by 45–80%, primarily at…