Using insurance claims data from nine large self-insured employers offering 26 alternative health benefit plans, we examine empirically how the composition and utilization for the treatment of depression vary under alternative organizational forms of insurance (indemnity, preferred provider...

While Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansions are typically associated with improvements in maternal mental health, little is known about the mechanisms through which the program affects this outcome. The EITC could affect mental health through direct tax credit, changes in labor supply and...

Adolescent mental health is a worsening crisis in the United States. Adding to the problem is the ability of parents and caregivers to find timely and affordable mental healthcare services for this population, one that is vulnerable to suicide, substance abuse and other devastating outcomes due...

This article is the second, and most important, installment in a three-part series that presents a comprehensive challenge to lingering legal distinctions between physical and mental illness. The basic impetus for this historical, medical, and legal project is a belief that there exists no...

This paper identifies a critical failure in U.S. mental-health insurance regulation, and proposes a solution. The 2008 federal Mental Health Parity law required “parity” in coverage for mental health benefits. But, it permitted insurers to opt out of providing any mental health insurance...

This paper is concerned with the economics of mental health. We argue that mental health economics is like health economics only more so: uncertainty and variation in treatments are greater; the assumption of patient self-interested behavior is more dubious; response to financial incentives such...