Demonstrates that public supply of college slots can impact the attainment of the target population and within-individual variation in opportunity costs is an important element in determining educational attainment.
There is increasing interest in neighborhood or area effects on health and individual development. China, due to its vast regional variations in health infrastructure and geography and relative immobility of older residents, provides a rare opportunity to study such effects.
Explores why the Irish-born population in England is in worse health than both the native population and the Irish population in Ireland, a reversal of the commonly observed healthy migrant effect.
Estimates the signaling value of a high school diploma by comparing the earnings of workers that barely passed and barely failed high school exit exams.
Payment reform affects market entry and exit, which in turn may affect market structure, access to care, quality and cost of care, and patient outcomes.
We present the first causal estimates of the effect of Social Security Disability Insurance benefit receipt on labor supply using all program applicants.
Although recent emergencies or disasters have underscored the vital role of nongovernmental (NGO) resources, they remain not well understood or leveraged.
Evidence-based decision-making is critical to informing policy in global health interventions and programs.
Morbid obesity rates in the United States continue to rise rapidly. The relative rate of increase is similar across population subgroups, even though the prevalence at every point in time differs across groups.
We analyze published evidence on strategies to optimize the management and allocation of scarce resources across a wide range of mass casualty event contexts and study designs.
The authors conclude that in terms of coverage, cost, and federal payments, states would do best to expand Medicaid.
Disparities in prison and diversion to drug treatment among drug-involved offenders affect hundreds of thousands of citizens and might reinforce imbalances in criminal justice and health outcomes.
This study examines the effect of a price reduction for healthy food items on household grocery shopping behavior among members of South Africa's largest health plan.
With Medicare spending projected to increase to 24 percent of all federal spending and to equal 6 percent of the gross domestic product by 2037, policy makers are again considering ways to curb the program's spending growth.
Participating in insurgency is physically risky. Why do people do so?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established nationwide eligibility for young adults 19 to 25 years of age to retain coverage under their parents' private health plans. We conducted a study to determine how the implementation of this provision changed rates of insurance coverage for young adults seeking medical care for major emergencies.
Self-insurance rates will increase among small firms only under the hypothetical situation that generous stop-loss policies are available to them after implementation of the ACA. Even if many small firms choose to self insure under this situation, it will not increase the premiums charged in the insurance exchanges by more than a few tenths of a percent.
With the exception of office visits, prices for most common health services don't differ between consumer-directed health plans and traditional plans.
This article explores the differences between transnational and domestic terrorism, further differentiating by private versus government targets, to estimate the effect of exogenous catastrophic shocks on a country's level of domestic and transnational terrorism.
Increases in obesity rates based on self-reported height and weight are likely to reflect actual weight increases and are not inflated by changes in reporting accuracy.
Testimony presented before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on February 26, 2014.
This article examines the impacts of summer instruction and test-based grade retention in New York City.
Studies have reported relationships between urban sprawl, physical activity, and obesity, but – to date – no studies have considered the relationship between sprawl and coronary heart disease (CHD) endpoints.
Screening for asymptomatic diseases can reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality in all population groups.
The authors investigate the salmon-bias hypothesis, which posits that Mexicans in the U.S. return to Mexico due to poor health, as an explanation for the Hispanic health paradox.
The presence of food outlets near home is not associated with dietary intake or BMI. In general, shopping patterns are weakly related, if at all, to neighborhoods, perhaps because of easy access to cars.
Using qualitative methods, we explored the implementation of California's 2007 influenza immunization requirements of hospital-based health care personnel (HCP).
PepsiCo's comprehensive health and wellness program increased medical costs for participants in the first year, but reduced costs in the following years.
Producing natural gas from shale generates air pollutant emissions. RAND researchers provided a first-order estimate of air emissions, and the monetary value of the associated damages, from the extraction of shale gas in Pennsylvania.
Investigates the impact of small and moderate disasters on childhood morbidity, physical growth, and immunizations by combining household data from the Indian National Family and Health Survey with an international database of natural disasters.
Examines whether reducing prices for healthy food purchases leads to changes in self-reported measures of food consumption and weight status.
The paper provides a comprehensive view of chain restaurant menu nutrition prior to nationwide labeling laws. It offers baseline data to evaluate how restaurants respond after laws are implemented.
The average physician spends nearly 11 percent of an assumed forty-year career with an unresolved, open malpractice claim. The long time it takes for a case is resolved is distressing for both doctor and patient.
In this paper, we model gender differences in cognitive ability in China using a new sample of middle-aged and older Chinese respondents.
Examines geographic mobility and housing downsizing at older ages in Britain and America.
The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of persons in China 45 years of age or older and their spouses, including assessments of social, economic, and health circumstances of community-residents. CHARLS examines health and economic adjustments to rapid ageing of the population in China.
Studies the association of cognitive traits and in particular numeracy of both spouses on financial outcomes of the family.
Examines the lifetime economic damages caused by childhood psychological problems.
RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND but may not have been formally edited or peer reviewed.
Explores what health-capital theory has to offer in terms of informing and directing research into health inequality.
Analyzes the financial sustainability of the non-contributory pension program for older persons in Mexico.
Studies the political economy determinants of medical marijuana laws using a new empirical classification of states' underlying views on medical marijuana.
Provides quantitative evidence on the underlying views of voters and state lawmakers about the legitimacy of medical marijuana based on voter- and legislature-adopted statutes between 1990 and 2012.
Examines the impact to injury and illness losses when small firms become subject to experience rating, the practice of insurers adjusting the premium they charge employers to reflect the loss experience of the firm.
Provides a normative and positive review of pension benefit statement design.
Analyzes the composition, dynamics, poverty patterns, and individual and family characteristics of young people not in education, employment or training in Mexico.
Demonstrates that public supply of college slots can impact the attainment of the target population and within-individual variation in opportunity costs is an important element in determining educational attainment.
Applies a model to understand how the income tax subsidy distorts optimal cost-sharing in health insurance.
Introduces an unconditional quantile regression (UQR) estimator that can be used for exogenous or endogenous treatment variables.
Analyzes the impacts of various labour market regulations on employment outcomes in low-income countries and how it varies by gender.
Reports on the outcomes of a monthly Internet survey designed to measure total household spending as the aggregate of about 40 spending components.
Analyzes the relationships between actual stock market price changes and the subjective probability of price changes, and between the subjective probability of price changes and the likelihood of engaging in stock trading.
Uses survey data to examine the role of social expectations, financial literacy and knowledge of default consequences.
Identifies moment conditions in linear panel data models with measurement error.
RAND disseminates the results of its work as broadly as possible to benefit the public good. The majority of publicly available research documents published since 1998 are available for free download through this website, or for purchase through the RAND bookstore.
In this report, the authors estimate the effects of the Affordable Care Act on health insurance enrollment and premiums for ten states (Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas) and for the nation overall, with a focus on outcomes in the nongroup and small group markets.
The organic defense acquisition workforce oversees defense acquisition programs from start to finish. RAND has been providing ongoing analysis of the workforce. This volume documents revisions to methods summarized in an earlier report, describes the workforce through fiscal year 2011, and provides a user's manual for a model for projecting workforce needs through 2021 under different assumptions about the future.
In the spring of 2013, RAND conducted an analysis assessing the budget effects of the expansion of Medicaid in Pennsylvania under the Affordable Care Act. The analysis was in part based on a specific set of assumptions regarding 1) the application of Pennsylvania's tax code, and 2) expenditures and revenue sources. This addendum examines the sensitivity of those findings to alternative assumptions.
India has joined a worldwide trend in which nations are seeking to improve the quality of their higher education systems by giving greater autonomy and accountability to higher education institutions. In this report, the authors review India's and other countries' higher education systems and suggest seven policy actions that the Indian national government and other stakeholders can take to improve higher education by linking funding to quality.
The Inspector General of the Air Force (SAF/IG) is leading an Air Force-wide effort to reduce the burden of Air Force inspection activities while also improving the quality of oversight the inspection system provides. In 2010, SAF/IG asked RAND Project AIR FORCE to join this effort. This report provides an executive summary of the full report detailing RAND's data and findings on the Air Force inspection system, as well as effective inspection and information collection practices that the Air Force might emulate.
The Inspector General of the Air Force (SAF/IG) is leading an Air Force-wide effort to reduce the burden of Air Force inspection activities while also improving the quality of oversight the inspection system provides. In 2010, SAF/IG asked RAND Project AIR FORCE to join in this effort. This report presents primary data RAND collected on the Air Force inspection system and identifies effective inspection and information collection practices that the Air Force might emulate.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has funded 108 projects implementing new service delivery or payment models that are intended to deliver lower cost through improving quality of care. This report describes a strategy for evaluating the results. Key dimensions include implementation effectiveness, program effectiveness, workforce issues, impact on priority populations, and context.
Intratheater airlift delivers critical and time-sensitive supplies to deployed forces. Traditionally, military aircraft have provided this airlift. However, in recent years, commercial carriers provided a significant amount of airlift within U.S. Central Command. The authors examine whether the use of commercial airlift was more cost-effective than using organic U.S. Air Force aircraft for these historical movements.
Panelists talked about the public health effects of Colorado and Washington state's marijuana laws and lessons learned from alcohol and tobacco regulations. Health policy professors as well as economists and behavioral scientists talked about the restrictions on the use, sale, and advertising of marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco.
Liability effects on the economic performance of the pharmaceutical industry play a prominent role in the debate about the economic effects of product liability in the United States. The author analyzes incentive effects on company decisions, implications for economic outcomes such as drug safety and effectiveness, and suggests how public policy changes could mitigate liability-based sources of inefficient decisions of pharmaceutical companies.
The Affordable Care Act is a substantial reform of the U.S. health care insurance system. Using the RAND COMPARE model, researchers assessed the act's potential economic effects on Pennsylvania, factoring in an optional expansion of Medicaid, and found the state would enjoy significant net benefits, including a growth of $3 billion in the state's GDP annually and more than 35,000 jobs.
Draws on Department of Defense guidance, the economics and defense manpower literatures, interviews with personnel at the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, and an exploratory quantitative analysis to identify the factors that affect the most cost-effective mix of military personnel, government civilians, and contractors for providing language capability in the intelligence community.
The Caruth Police Institute (CPI), funded by the Communities Foundation of Texas, was designed for the benefit of the Dallas Police Department to create staff development courses and to bring the expertise of academic experts and business leaders to bear on complex policing problems. This report presents a three-year evaluation of the CPI, covering development of its research activities, its impact, and its sustainability.
With reducing the burden of foodborne disease among its primary goals, the multidisciplinary Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) developed the Guidelines for Foodborne Outbreak Response (2009) and a companion Toolkit (2011) to improve foodborne disease outbreak detection and response at the state and local levels. This study assesses the distribution and use of the CIFOR Guidelines and Toolkit to determine whether and to what extent they are reaching their intended users and achieving their goals.
Limiting climate change will require transformation of energy and other systems. This report presents an agent-based, game theoretic model designed to compare the long-term sustainability of alternative carbon emission reduction policies. The model tracks the co-evolution of an industry sector, its technology base, and political coalitions that influence government policy. It uses robust decision making methods to compare alternative policies.
