Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
That is the title of a paper by Arnold and Priestley (2025). They examine whether gun purchase wait periods impact suicide rates using both variation in gun laws by state over time as well as variation in a county’s distance to the nearest state without a waiting period. First, some background on US gun purchase…
Andrew Yang, Democratic candidate for President, is running largely on a platform of the “Freedom Dividend“. The Freedom Dividend is a $1000 monthly payment to ever American adult. The goal is to reduce inequality and provide some liquidity for low-income individuals to start a business, or have more work-life flexibility. This approach–a form of Universal…
This is the key question we are left with after some startling news from a startling article from Oren et al. in JAMA. Using data from the CDC Underlying Cause of Death database between 2000 and 2017, they find that: The suicide rate at ages 15 to 19 years and 20 to 24 years increased…
Many media outlets (including this one) focus on the treatment of physical health ailments and do not devote enough time towards the treatment of mental health problems. Mental health problems can affect anyone, even the tough warriors in the U.S. military. In fact, suicide is a significant problem for war veterans. The New Jersey Star-Ledger…
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the “gold standard” for medical studies. Nevertheless, even RCTs have their problems. An NBER working paper by Ludwig, Marcotte and Norberg points highlights some of these issues. The authors examine whether or not anti-depressants reduce suicide rates (they find that anti-depressants do reduce suicide rates). Unfortunately, using data from RCTs…