Few studies in the economics literature have linked individuals’ criminal behavior to changes in their personal circumstances. Life shocks, such as natural or personal disasters, could reduce or sever a person’s connections to his/her family, job, or community. With fewer connections, crime...

We exploit the occurrence of postpartum depression (PPD), which has a random component according to the medical community, to estimate causal effects of a salient form of mental illness on couples’ relationship status. We estimate single-equation models as well as bivariate probit models that...

We exploit an exogenous health shock the birth of a child with a severe health condition to investigate the causal effect of a life shock on homelessness. Using survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study that have been augmented with information from hospital medical...

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to estimate the effects of poor infant health, pre-pregnancy health conditions of the mother, and the father’s health status on health insurance status of urban, mostly unmarried, mothers and their one-year-old children. Virtually...

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to estimate the effects of poor infant health, pre-pregnancy health conditions of the mother, and the father’s health status on health insurance status of urban, mostly unmarried, mothers and their one-year-old children. Virtually...

Few studies in the economics literature have linked individuals’ criminal behavior to changes in their personal circumstances. Life shocks, such as natural or personal disasters, could reduce or sever a person’s connections to his/her family, job, or community. With fewer connections, crime...