This paper provides an analytical framework for evaluating the effects of individual health insurance mandates on coverage. That framework draws from three literatures — health economics, tax compliance, and behavioral economics — to identify the factors that affect people’s responses to...

This paper provides an analytical framework for evaluating the effects of individual health insurance mandates on coverage. That framework draws from the literature in three disciplines—health economics, tax compliance, and behavioral economics—to identify the factors that affect people’s...

For children in foster care who cannot be reunified with their families of origin, there is no question that adoption is preferable to “aging outâ€. Moreover, every dollar spent on adoption for a child from foster care yields three dollars in benefits. Yet, 27,854 youth aged out of...

Adoption assistance entitlements support children whose birth parents cannot care for them. The entitlements are meant to offset the extra cost to adoptive families of raising children whose early adverse experiences leave them with special needs. Unlike other Social Security Act programs,...

We consider the value of social capital that derives from membership in a church. American states with larger churchgoing populations had lower business bankruptcy rates from 1921 to 1932, and states in which the churchgoing population was concentrated in few churches had business bankruptcy...

Federal initiatives since 1996 have intensified the efforts of states to achieve adoption for children in foster care with the case goal of adoption. For many waiting children, the path to adoption is long. We offer an economic analysis of adoption from foster care, with an emphasis on the...

Adoption assistance entitlements support the adoptions of children whose birth parents’ rights have been severed after abuse or neglect. The subsidies are meant to offset the extra cost to adoptive families of raising children whose adverse experiences have left them with special physical,...