New paper! Good vision is essential for learning. Evidence shows that targeted follow-up after failed vision screenings can connect more students to eye care, addressing a common but often overlooked barrier to academic success. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/734326
#HumanCapital #ChildHealth
🏆 Congratulations to David Zimmer @wkuhilltoppers.bsky.social, winner of the 2025 American Journal of Health Economics Referee of the Year Award.
The award recognizes a reviewer whose reports have been exceptionally insightful, comprehensive, and timely. Thank you for the invaluable service to AJHE!
New! Using Japanese long-term care (LTC) data & RD design, Iizuka & Sugawara find higher care-level certification raises preventive LTC spending but doesn't improve future care needs, health, or later costs, raising questions about preventive LTC design. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/742369
New! Gehrsitz & Williams examine effects of education on health. Exploiting a raising of school age (ROSLA) reform, they find that education reduces hospitalizations. Health improvements are strongest for life-style related conditions and among men. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/741687
The latest issue of American Journal of Health Economics (AJHE) is now available on the University of Chicago Press Journals website! journals.uchicago.edu/toc/ajhe/cur...
And... the Best Paper Award goes to "The Effect of Hospital Maternity Ward Closures on Maternal and Infant Health" by Emily Battaglia (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/727738)!
Wards close,
C-sections fall for low-risk moms --
babies just as healthy still.
New paper! @mikepesko.bsky.social & @rachelylfung.bsky.social find no meaningful evidence that e-cigs crowd out NRT sales, cessation prescriptions, quitline calls,or smoking quit attempts, suggesting e-cigs reach smokers not interested in quitting otherwise. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
New! Price transparency was meant to lower costs. In a large NY RCT, it instead raised charges ~1% (driven by lower-priced providers with few out-of-network patients) with no change in patient behavior -- likely helping providers benchmark, not consumers shop. journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
New! @nicolesiegal.bsky.social examines the relationship between early exposure to the opioid epidemic and US voting behavior. State policies tied to greater opioid exposure were followed by lasting shifts in presidential voting toward the GOP. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/742007
In Print! Can clean water in early life shape longevity decades later? Using water filtration programs in 25 cities, @hamidnb.bsky.social & @jasonmfletcher.bsky.social find that childhood exposure to filtered water increased male longevity by 3 months. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/734081
