Causal inference methods are widely used in empirical research; however, there is a paucity of evidence on the properties of shared latent factor estimators in the presence of contaminated instrumental variable (IV) when a strong IV may not be available. We present a theoretical formulation to...

It is well-established that high adherence to HAART is a major determinant of virological and immunological success. Furthermore, psycho-social research has identified a wide range of adherence factors. Our objective was to assess the bi-directional relationship between adherence and response to...

Because of a rising wave of deeply challenging natural disasters and the attendant several reports of huge losses in many countries, leadership at all levels were often incoherently portrayed in terms of their singular or respective preparedness and response, and/or commitment to protect lives...

Distancing policy interventions (DPIs) were aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic, but they also likely affected economic activity. This paper estimates the effects of DPIs on selected indicators of monthly economic activity, such as industrial and manufacturing production, construction...

A key concern in policy debates over youth smoking is whether preventing children from smoking will stop them from smoking as adults or merely defer initiation into smoking. This paper estimates determinants of smoking status in late adolescence viewing smoking at age 14 as an endogenous...

Objective: Clinical studies commonly use disease-specific measures to assess patients’ health-related quality of life. However, economic evaluation often requires preference-based utility index scores to calculate cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). When utility index scores are not...

As billionaires dance in the halls of the second Trump administration, it’s haunting how well Plutarch’s two-thousand-year-old words describe the state of American politics. It’s a barren landscape of plutocratic insatiability. *** How did it get this way? *** One way to tell the story is...

Over the past decade, rising youth use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has contributed to aggressive regulation by state and local governments. Between 2010 and mid-2019, ten states and two large counties adopted ENDS taxes. We use two large national surveys...

We provide new evidence on the extent to which the demand for cigarettes is derived from the demand for weight control (i.e. weight loss or avoidance of weight gain). We utilize nationally representative data that provide the most direct evidence to date on this question: individuals are...

Objectives. To calculate the burden of smoking-related disease and evaluate the potential economic and health impact of tax-induced cigarette price increase in Peru. Materials and methods. A microsimulation model was used to estimate smoking-attributable impact on mortality, quality of life, and...