Drinking-and-driving remains a leading cause of preventable mortality and morbidity in the United States, yet reliable estimates of its prevalence and the increased risk it imposes on other road users remain elusive. The tendency of respondents to under-report illicit and socially stigmatized...

We investigate how risky health behaviors and self - reported health vary with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and during stock market crashes. Because stock market indices are leading indicators of economic performance, this research contributes to our understanding of the macroeconomic...

In this study, we examine how the probability of driving after a binge - drinking episode varies with the location of consumption and type of alcohol consumed. We also investigate the relationship between the location of alcohol purchase and the number of alcohol-related fatal motor vehicle...

We present evidence from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System that shows increased seat-belt use following the enactment of stricter BAC thresholds in states where seat-belt laws are primarily enforced. This suggests that inebriated drivers may...

"Soft drink consumption has been hypothesized as one of the major factors in the growing rates of obesity in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of all states currently tax soft drinks using excise taxes, sales taxes, or special exceptions to food exemptions from sales taxes to reduce...

Childhood and adolescent obesity is associated with serious adverse lifetime health consequences and its prevalence has increased rapidly. Soft drink consumption has also expanded rapidly, so much so that soft drinks are currently the largest single contributors to energy intake. In this paper,...

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the relationship between business cycles and mental health. It is one of the first applications in the economics literature to incorporate data on web searches from Google Insights for Search, and these unique data allow the opportunity to...

Recent clinical research has studied weight responses to varying diet composition, but the contribution of changes in macronutrient intake and physical activity to rising population weight remains controversial. Research on the economics of obesity typically assumes a “calories in, calories...