The opioid crisis generates broader societal harms beyond direct health and economic effects, impacting non-users through adverse spillovers on children, families, and communities. We study the spillover effects of a supply-side policy aimed at reducing the over-prescribing of opioids on women's...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence experienced by women, and imposes adverse health consequences for victims and their children. The annual economic burden of IPV amounts to over $4.1 trillion, a substantial share of which is borne by the public sector. Despite...

This paper uses data on juvenile offenders released from correctional facilities in Florida to explore the effects of facility management type (private for-profit, private nonprofit, public state-operated, and public county-operated) on recidivism outcomes and costs. The data provide detailed...

Using a nationally-representative panel data set of U.S. high school students (AddHealth data) that contains a relatively large sample of siblings and twins, the paper investigates the impacts of gun availability at home and individual drug use on robbery, burglary, theft and damaging property...

Gun violence is an important problem across the United States. However, the impact of government policies on the frequency and location of gunfire has been difficult to test due to limited data. The data that do exist suffer from broad and non-random underreporting. This paper uses a new, more...

We develop a theoretical model to explain both the high level and persistence in gun violence for black males ages 15-24 consistent with the empirical literature. A person may carry a gun for instrumental (i.e., criminal) reasons or for its perceived protective benefit. Discerning underlying...

A 1994 federal law bans possession of handguns by persons under 18 years old. Also in 1994, 11 states passed their own juvenile gun possession bans, and 18 states had previously passed bans, 15 between 1975 and 1993. These laws were intended to reduce homicides, but arguments can be made that...