Highlighted Publications




 

Chan and Chen (2025) examine how the productivity of nurse practitioners compares to physicians in emergency departments. They study 1.1 million patient visits from Veterans Health Administration emergency departments, using quasi-random assignment of patients to providers. They find that nurse practitioners use more resources, increasing length of stay by about 11 percent and costs by 7 percent. They also raise 30-day preventable hospitalizations by roughly 20 percent, with

Bhai and Hughes (2026) ask whether individuals who enroll in Medicare Advantage at age 65 are systematically different, especially in health, from those who do not. They use administrative claims data (2007–2017) tracking commercially insured individuals transitioning into Medicare, leveraging the age-65 eligibility cutoff. They find strong advantageous selection: healthier individuals are more likely to enroll in Medicare Advantage. For example, having diabetes without compl

Hofmann and Huang (2024) ask whether changes to Medicare Part D—specifically closing the coverage gap—affect drug prices and consumer behavior. They analyze detailed claims data from a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries from 2006–2018, covering about 1.9 billion prescription drug purchases. They find that closing the gap increased drug use, with beneficiaries 5 percentage points less likely to skip prescriptions. However, manufacturers responded by raising prices: highly ex

Cordova-Ramos et al. (2026) examine how U.S. preterm birth rates vary over time by household income and whether racial and ethnic disparities persist across income groups. They analyze nationally representative Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data covering 411,469 mother–infant dyads from 2011–2021. They find that preterm birth rates increased among households below 200% of the federal poverty level but remained stable among higher-income households. Overa

Lin et al. (2026) examine whether state-level flavored e-cigarette sales bans are associated with changes in e-cigarette initiation. They ask if living in a state with a comprehensive flavor ban reduces the likelihood that never-users begin using e-cigarettes. They analyze data from Waves 4–7 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study (2017–2023), focusing on adolescents, young adults, and adults who had never used e-cigarettes at baseline. They find that

Singh, Zhou, Curtis, Maher, and Dumuid (2026) examined how after-school social media use is associated with adolescent well-being across development. They asked whether the relationship is nonlinear and whether it differs by age and sex. The study analyzed data from the South Australian Wellbeing and Engagement Collection, including 100,991 students (173,533 observations) from grades 4–12 between 2020 and 2022. They found a U-shaped pattern: moderate users generally showed th

Wheldon, Tallapragada, and Thompson (2025) examine whether political ideology is associated with trust in scientists as sources of cancer information in the United States. They analyze cross-sectional data from the 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey, a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults. They find that overall trust in scientists is high (86%), but it declines as respondents become more politically conservative. Each one-point shift toward conservatis

Ebinger et al. (2025) investigated how the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires affected local residents’ health. They asked whether emergency department encounters for specific illnesses increased during and after the fires. The study analyzed Cedars-Sinai emergency encounter data from 39 affected or adjacent zip codes, comparing the 90 days post-fire with the same calendar periods in 2018–2024 using interrupted time series models. They found significant excesses in acute pulm

Wilk, Deza, Hodge, and Danagoulian (2026) ask whether recreational marijuana laws change adults’ eating habits and physical activity. They examine grocery purchase data from the NielsenIQ Consumer Panel, self-reported exercise from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and time-use data from the American Time Use Survey. They find that recreational marijuana laws increase spending on junk food by about 1.8 percent and raise the likelihood that a grocery trip include

Shekhar, Leder-Luis, and Akoglu (2026) ask whether unsupervised, explainable machine learning can effectively identify hospitals engaging in potentially fraudulent Medicare billing. They analyze millions of Medicare inpatient claims from 2017, combined with patients’ prior medical histories and hospital characteristics, covering over 2,200 hospitals. Using anomaly-detection algorithms, they rank hospitals based on suspicious coding and spending patterns. The authors find that

Cowell et al. (2025) ask whether there are specific weeks during pregnancy when exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) has the strongest association with birth weight. They analyze data from 16,868 full-term singleton births in the U.S. Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohort, using weekly, address-level PM2.5 exposure estimates derived from machine-learning models. They find that higher prenatal PM2.5 exposure is associated with lower birt

Kahleova et al. (2025) asked whether adopting a low-fat vegan diet reduces greenhouse gas emissions and cumulative energy demand. They analyzed 16-week dietary records from overweight adults who were randomly assigned to either a vegan group or a control group. They linked each participant’s food intake to environmental impact databases to estimate emissions and energy use. They found that the vegan group reduced emissions by about 1313 g CO2-eq per person per day, while the

McBain et al. (2025) ask how often U.S. adolescents and young adults use generative AI for mental health advice and how helpful they find it. They analyze nationally representative survey data from 1,058 youths ages 12–21. They find that 13.1 percent reported using generative AI for advice when sad, angry, or nervous, and usage rose to 22.2 percent among those ages 18–21. Among users, 65.5 percent sought advice at least monthly and 92.7 percent rated it somewhat or very helpf

Allcott et al. (2024) ask whether deactivating Facebook or Instagram improves users’ emotional well-being during the 2020 U.S. election period. They analyze survey data from more than 30,000 adult users who were randomly assigned to deactivate for six weeks (treatment) or one week (control). They find that Facebook deactivation increased an emotional state index by about 0.060 standard deviations, while Instagram increased it by about 0.041 standard deviations. They report th

Fadlon, Fugleholm, and Nielsen (2025) ask whether income losses after a spouse’s death worsen survivors’ mental health. They use Danish administrative data from 1995–2018, including death records, prescription drug purchases, and household income information for the full population. They find that survivors sharply increase their use of mental-health medications after the death, with take-up doubling in the first month (about +10.5 percentage points) and remaining about 10 pe

Papanicolas et al. (2025) study how premature mortality varies by race across U.S. states and what that implies for unrealized Medicare benefits. They ask whether Black and White adults differ in mortality before age 65. They use CDC Vital Statistics and CDC WONDER population data linked with Medicare Beneficiary Summary Files for 2012 and 2022. They find that premature mortality rose 27.2% overall (243 to 309 deaths per 100,000). Black adults had higher rates in both years,

Dragan (2026) examines whether improving housing quality reduces health care use and spending among low-income residents. She asks whether a large New York City housing remediation policy—the Alternative Enforcement Program—led to changes in health care utilization. Using Medicaid enrollment and claims data from 2007–2019 linked to building-level housing violation records, she applies a regression discontinuity design around the program’s eligibility cutoff. She finds no evid

Uzzi et al. (2025) examine whether neighborhood conditions shaped by past redlining and present-day racialized economic segregation are associated with fatal opioid overdose deaths. They analyze census-tract–level data from Chicago, combining Cook County Medical Examiner overdose records with historical redlining maps and contemporary census data from 2017–2019 and 2020–2022. They find that neighborhoods experiencing high levels of disadvantage in the past and/or present had

Schneider and Harknett (2026) examine whether state and local paid sick leave laws affect workers who are not legally covered through spillovers within large, multi-state firms. They ask whether firm-level exposure to paid sick leave mandates leads companies to extend paid sick leave to workers in non-mandate locations. They analyze linked employer–employee survey data from the Shift Project, combined with administrative data on firm locations and mandate coverage. They find

The study asks whether ransomware attacks on hospitals disrupt care and harm patients. Using a linked dataset of 74 hospital ransomware attacks (2016–2021) combined with Medicare claims, the authors examine changes in hospital operations and patient outcomes during the attacks. They find that hospital volume drops sharply in the first week: ER, inpatient, and outpatient visits fall by 17–24%, and Medicare revenue declines by 19–39%. Most importantly, patients already admitted