We find that alcoholism decreases labor force participation among prime age males, and therefore decreases the income of this group. The effects of alcoholism on the labor force participation of younger and older males and on the wage rates of prime age males are not significantly positive. We...

Data on health care expenditures, length of stay, utilization of health services, consumption of unhealthy commodities, etc. are typically characterized by: (a) nonnegative outcomes; (b) nontrivial fractions of zero outcomes in the population (and sample); and (c) positively-skewed distributions...

In applied econometric work, analysts are concerned often with estimation of and inferences about interaction effects, e.g. 'Does the magnitude of the effect of z1 on y depend on z2? ' This paper develops tests for and proper interpretation of various forms of interaction effects in one...

The economic costs of adverse health outcomes have typically been evaluated in a context of risk neutrality, an approach that ignores the potential welfare importance of individuals' risk preferences. This paper presents a framework that unifies the research in health capital and earnings with...

Various health-, quality-, and disability-adjusted life year or life expectancy (HALY, QALY, DALY; HALE, QALE, DALE) measures have become gold standards for defining outcomes in technology evaluation, population health monitoring, and other evaluative efforts. As such, it is critical that the...

In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the development of statistical methods for the analysis of uncertainty in cost-effectiveness analysis, with a focus on situations in which the analyst has patient-level data on the costs and health effects of alternative interventions....

In econometric risk-adjustment exercises, models estimated with one or more included endogenous explanatory variables ("risk adjusters") will generally result in biased predictions of outcomes of interest, e.g. unconditional mean healthcare expenditures. This paper shows that a first-order...

Comparing median outcomes to gauge treatment effectiveness is widespread practice in clinical and other investigations. While common, such difference-in-median characterizations of effectiveness are but one way to summarize how outcome distributions compare. This paper explores properties of...

Appreciating how propensities to be immunized against the flu depend on individual characteristics and environments is essential if policies regarding influenza control are to be sensibly formulated. Beyond epidemiology, there are some important economic issues that must be addressed if the...

Various health-, quality-, and disability-adjusted life year or life expectancy (HALY, QALY, DALY; HALE, QALE, DALE) measures have become gold standards for defining outcomes in technology evaluation, population health monitoring, and other evaluative efforts. As such, it is critical that the...