Various health insurance programs, including Blue Shield, have developed arrangements whereby the physician agrees to accept the insurer's reimbursement as payment in full. Incentives facing the physician to accept an arrangement of this type are reviewed in this study. The empirical work uses...

According to conventional wisdom, the growth of health insurance is partly responsible for the rise in physicians' fees; however, to date, convincing empirical evidence is lacking. A standard model of physician fee determination yields unambiguous predictions about insurance effects on fees....

Using the first five waves of the US Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of middle-aged persons in the USA conducted between 1992 and 2000, we assessed the association between alcohol consumption and separation and divorce (combined as divorced in the analysis) for...

This study evaluates the importance of several potential determinants of observed decreases in hospital stays for patients undergoing each of 11 surgical procedures using a panel of 521 hospitals covering 1971-1981. Observed decreases in stays for these patients were substantial. If anything,...

In 1998, 46 states and the four major tobacco companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which stipulated that the tobacco companies pay states $206 billion over 25 years and take steps to reduce youth smoking. The remaining states settled separately. We sought to determine the...

Categorical assistance programs to date have provided the most common method for transterring public funds from the federal government to states and localities. This study develops a model for a representative voter-taxpayer in which income redistribution is viewed as a public good. The model...

Until recently, there have been no attempts to measure the influence of the income tax system on fringe benefits. A model is specified that links the tax system to fringe benefits. In addition, other determinants of the demand for and supply of fringe benefits are discussed. Using a time-series...