We investigate how changes in federal and state minimum wages affect body mass index and the probability of obesity using data from the 1990 through 2008 waves of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. After controlling for unobserved trends at the state level we find that, in contrast...

For those looking to design policies that mitigate the deleterious consequences of alcohol abuse, understanding how consumer demand for alcohol responds to changes in the local economic conditions is of great importance. We use high-frequency purchase data from a large panel of U.S. households...

We use the Nielsen Consumer Panel to investigate the impact of tobacco control policies on purchases of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), cigarettes, and smoking cessation products. We measure product quantity, product type, nicotine content, and liquid volume of e-cigarettes, and product...

We analyze the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel to estimate the effects of tobacco policies on tobacco-related purchases using within-household variation. We also match purchases to cigarette contents from NHANES. Higher cigarette taxes reduce cigarette purchases and increase smoking cessation...

Introduction: E-cigarette taxes have been enacted by 30 states through April 2020. E-cigarette tax schema vary, in contrast to cigarette taxes in the United States that are levied almost exclusively as excise taxes per pack. Some states use excise taxes on liquid and containers, others ad...

In this paper, we investigate to what extent and in what ways conditions related to the recession of 2007-2008 reduced fatal crashes. We hypothesize that the reduction in fatal automobile accidents operates through both the quantity of driving and changes in behaviors associated with driving....