Revisiting the Long-Term Effects of Political Violence on Human Capital Accumulation in Peru: A Replication of Leon (2012) César A. Huaroto, Fredy Gonzales and Alexander Pacheco Leon (2012) found that exposure to political violence in Peru during childhood negatively affected completed schooling using a 2 percent sample of the 1993 and 2007 censuses. When using the full sample in 1993, we find statistically significant effects of exposure pre-conception, violating the parallel pre-trends assumptions of Leon (2012). We also find that the long-run effects (measured in 2007) are smaller in magnitude using the full census. Finally, we show valid evidence of an actual adverse impact of political violence, but only for those exposed in utero.

Childhood exposure to #PoliticalViolence in Peru hurt #education — but only if you were in the womb. César A. Huaroto, Fredy Gonzales & Alexander Pacheco found the original study missed key violations. #Replication matters.
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Cash Welfare and Health Spending Jeffrey Hicks I explore the interplay between cash welfare and health-related outcomes using Canadian administrative data. Healthcare use rises sharply before a welfare application, especially for plausibly work-limiting diagnoses, then partially normalizes within three years. Using application adjudicators’ decisions as "judge IVs", I estimate that welfare receipt has limited effects on subsequent health-related outcomes. Because Canadian healthcare is free and universal, these findings are unrelated to health insurance. An exception is pharmaceuticals, which are free for welfare recipients but not for non-recipients — consistent with this, welfare receipt strongly increases pharmaceutical use, implying that incomplete insurance limits medication among those excluded from welfare.

#Welfare is more than just cash – it’s a de facto health safety net. Jeffrey Hicks’s new research shows #healthcare use spikes right before people apply for #benefits, suggesting they turn to welfare to survive temporary, work-limiting #HealthShocks.
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Smartphone Bans, Student Outcomes and Mental Health Sara Abrahamsson The rapid rise in smartphone use among youth has raised concerns about its effects on well-being and learning. Using administrative and survey data with an event-study design, I show that banning smartphones in middle schools has no average effect on education or mental health but masks important gender differences. Bans reduce psychological health care use among girls, lower bullying for both genders, and improve girls’ GPAs and academic track placement, especially among those from disadvantaged backgrounds. These results suggest smartphone bans can be a low-cost policy to improve outcomes, particularly for girls.

#SmartphoneBans in schools are a game changer! Sara Abrahamsson’s new research finds that these bans cut girls’ #MentalHealth visits by 60%, drastically reduce #bullying for all, and boost girls’ GPA and math scores.
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Teacher Perceptions, Test Scores, and Racial Disparities in the Classroom: Evidence from the US Maria Zhu This study provides new insights on the expression of bias through disparate treatment of students by race. Specifically, I examine racial discrepancies in teachers’ evaluations of student achievement, conditional on standardized test achievement. After correcting for measurement error in standardized test scores, results indicate that teachers evaluate Black students as higher achieving than White students with the same standardized test performance. This finding contrasts with previous research on Black-White teacher assessment gaps outside of the US. These results are consistent with multiple potential mechanisms, such as teachers holding lower expectations for Black students or bias embedded in standardized tests.

What if #StandardizedTests are the biased ones — not teachers? @mariabzhu.bsky.social finds teachers actually rate Black students higher than white peers with equal scores, once you correct for test measurement error.
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Birds of a Feather Earn Together: Gender and Peer Effects at the Workplace Julián Messina, Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano and Anastasia Terskaya Utilizing comprehensive administrative data from Brazil, we investigate the impact of peer effects on wages, considering both within-gender and cross-gender dynamics. Since the average productivity of both individuals and their peers is unobservable, we estimate these values using worker fixed effects while accounting for occupational and firm sorting. Our findings reveal that within-gender peer effects have approximately twice the influence of cross-gender peer effects on wages for both men and women. Furthermore, we observe a reduction in the disparity between these two types of peer effects in settings characterized by greater gender equality.

Your work besties literally make you richer. @jmessina.bsky.social, Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano, and Anastasia Terskaya find that same-gender coworkers boost your wages 2x more than opposite-gender peers. #GenderEquality at work = smaller gap.
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Search, Acute Illness, and Absenteeism Pyoungsik Kim This paper examines the economic costs of absenteeism from acute illness, which reduces labor market participation and burdens workers and firms. I extend a search, matching, and bargaining framework to incorporate medical care use, illness dynamics, health capital, and employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI). Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), I estimate the model and find that acute illness lowers productivity, raises medical expenditures, and reduces welfare. Counterfactual analyses show subsidizing health capital improves total welfare. Moreover, while both a universal ESHI mandate and a penalty-based policy expand coverage, the penalty-based approach yields greater welfare gains.

Calling in sick costs more than you think.
Pyoungsik Kim’s new study finds #AcuteIllness = $2,400/yr in lost #productivity per worker — and that’s before factoring in #psychological costs. The hidden price of the common cold is more than you may think.
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License on the Way: The Effects of Expedited Licensure for Migrant Workers Kihwan Bae Occupational licenses are not easily portable across states or national borders, creating labor market frictions for migrant workers. This study examines whether expedited licensing programs reduce these frictions for military spouses, a group of tied migrants who frequently relocate across states. I find that following the programs, the employment rate significantly increased among military spouses who recently moved across states. Consequently, military spouses in licensed occupations earned more from work and received less unemployment compensation in the year of migration. These findings highlight expedited licensure as an effective policy tool for reducing occupational licensing barriers associated with interstate migration.

#Military spouses move every 2-4 years for their partner’s career, but their licenses don’t move with them. Kihwan Bae finds that expedited licensing programs boosted their #employment rate by 17%. A simple #policy fix with a $1.2B impact.
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Integration or Isolation? The Impact of Retirement on Social Capital Kadir Atalay, Anita Staneva and Rong Zhu This paper examines the causal impact of retirement on social capital using nationally representative Australian panel data. Exploiting the eligibility age for the Age Pension, we find that retirement significantly enhances social capital by increasing social connectedness and community involvement. These gains improve physical and mental health, with effects comparable to those of physical activity. However, older individuals’ perceptions of social relationships remain unchanged. Our findings highlight a key policy tradeoff: while raising the retirement age may boost labor force participation, it may reduce opportunities for meaningful social engagement and, in turn, undermine the health of older adults.

#Retirement doesn’t mean withdrawing. Kadir Atalay, Anita Staneva, and Rong Zhu’s new study finds retirees build more social connections, volunteer more & and even boost their #MentalHealth. The real cost? Raising retirement age may quietly harm older adults.
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JHR Determinants of Mortality David Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney, Special Issue Guest Editors

4/4
Recipients reduced work hours but showed little change in overall income or spending patterns. Why the gender gap? That remains an open and crucial question. #MortalitySpecialIssue

3/4
The authors found 5.5% mortality reduction for women, driven by non-cardiovascular causes and inconclusive evidence for men due to pre-existing trends, highlighting gender differences in program impacts.

2/4
Mexico's “70 y Más” program gave ~$55/month (2024 USD) to adults 70+ in villages under 2,500 people. For recipients, this represented 32% of their average income – a substantial boost from what they had previously been receiving.

1/4
Can #CashTransfers save lives? A major pension reform in rural Mexico offers surprising answers – with stark differences between men and women.
@fmenares.bsky.social, William H. Dow, @susanwparker-mx.bsky.social, Emma Aguila, Jorge Peniche & Soomin Ryuu found surprising results.

Andrew Goodman-Bacon photo Economist, Fed Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Coeditor Journal of Human Resources Editorial Board

Welcome to our new co-editor, Andrew Goodman-Bacon! Andrew is an economist at the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and specializes in health economics, public economics, and applied econometrics.

For the immigration researchers interested in identification techniques, in our nursing home paper, we use an an IV strategy pioneered in this paper, also coincidentally just out in print this month (at the AER): www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Determinants of Mortality Special Issue

4/4
The authors found the key drivers to be #alcohol, #PhysicalActivity, and #education itself. Interventions targeting #HealthDisparities must start early – long before #ChronicDisease becomes visible. #MortalitySpecialIssue
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3/4
By age 30, #LowEducation individuals show biomarker profiles equivalent to #HighEducation people 7-14 years older. The #inequality is literally “under the skin” decades before diagnosis.

2/4
Ailun Shui, Gerard J. van den Berg, Jochen O. Mierau & Laura Viluma used 12 biomarkers from 137,000+ Dutch adults, tracking allostatic load – cumulative wear-and-tear on the body. The gaps emerge shockingly early, before #disease appears.

1/4
When do #HealthGaps between rich and poor really begin? New #biomarker research from the Netherlands reveals a surprising and troubling answer.

Does Immigration Improve Quality of Care in Nursing Homes? Delia Furtado and Francesc Ortega We explore how immigration can help mitigate nursing home staffing shortages, which are likely to worsen as baby boomers age. We show that local increases in immigration lead to fewer falls, less use of restraints, and fewer pressure ulcers among nursing home residents, as well as improvements in other measures of quality of care. Consistent with a labor market explanation, we find that immigration increases the local supply of workers in nursing fields, with the largest effect on the number of nurse aides—the workers primarily responsible for hands-on care in nursing homes.

From the current issue: #Immigration is quietly solving America’s #NursingHome crisis – @deliafurtado.bsky.social
& Francesc Ortega find that with more staff, there are fewer falls and less suffering. Immigration isn’t just an economic issue – it’s a #healthcare one.
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Determinants of Mortality David Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney, Special Issue Guest Editors

The crisis is real but likely closer to the 66% rise in suicides than the 228% jump in reported behaviors. Accurate measurement matters for effective intervention. #MortalitySpecialIssue

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.3368/jhr....

Han Choi, Adriana Corredor-Waldron, Janet Currie & @cfelton.bsky.social that #SuicidalIdeation diagnoses exploded by 459% (driven largely by reporting changes), while actual youth #suicides rose 66% – tragic, but a very different magnitude.

Between 2006-2021, reported “suicidal behaviors” surged 228%. But this includes major changes in screening guidelines, diagnostic definitions, and coding rules – not just worsening health.

1/4
#EmergencyDepartment visits may be proof of a youth #MentalHealth crisis. New research reveals that the alarming numbers tell a more complex story than headlines suggest.

🚨New paper alert!🚨

I continue to be surprised by how much heat and cold impact different groups in society differently.

We find heat deaths are way more concentrated among young manual/agricultural workers, while cold deaths are more concentrated among older non-workers. (1/5)

submission page

Did you know submitting authors are welcome to suggest a particular Coeditor best suited to handle their manuscript? Add it to your cover letter.
Submit at: jhr.msubmit.net
JHR Editorial Board: jhr.uwpress.org/content/edit...

Prescription for Disaster: The SSDI Rate, Pain, and Prescribing Practices William N. Evans and Ethan M.J. Lieber A county’s fraction of adults in 1990 on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a strong predictor of growth in local drug death rates after 2000. The part of the SSDI rate related to drug deaths is not proxying for well-known contributors to the drug crisis, e.g. OxyContin. Instead, it appears to capture the fraction of people in chronic pain. We show that in the late 1990s, physicians began prescribing opioids more aggressively to treat pain. Taken together, our estimates suggest that drug deaths rates would be 43% lower in 2015 had prescribing practices stayed at 1995 levels.

Pain pills, not just despair, fueled the #OpioidCrisis. A county’s 1990 #disability rate predicted where drug deaths would explode. William N. Evans and Ethan M.J. Lieber found 43% fewer deaths if prescribing practices stayed at 1995 levels.
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Deaths per 100,000 by Daily temperature for different sectors, primary, not employed, service sector, technical/manual, and professional/managerial

4/4
@rdbressler.bsky.social, @annapappp.bsky.social, Luis Sarmiento, Jeffrey G. Shrader & Andrew J. Wilson find that #climate vulnerability isn’t just about where you live – it’s about what you do for work. #MortalitySpecialIssue

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.3368/jhr....

3/4
Young agricultural workers (15-24) face 10x higher heat death risk than same-age professionals. Yet cold kills differently: it claims older, non-working populations.

2/4
Across decades of mortality data in Mexico, researchers find that primary sector workers face higher #HeatRisks than otherwise similar workers in other sectors.

1/4
Who’s most vulnerable to extreme heat and cold? A new study looks at the role of occupation in shaping risks to health.