This study focuses on network effects' in the utilization of publicly funded prenatal care using Vital Statistics data from California for 1989 to 2000. Networks are defined using 5-digit zipcodes and a woman's racial or ethnic group. Like others, we find evidence that the use of public programs...

Most Americans are now in some form of managed care plan that restricts access to services in order to reduce costs. It is difficult to determine whether these restrictions affect health because individuals and firms self-select into managed care. We investigate the effect of managed care using...

Poor and uneducated patients may not know what health care is desirable and, if fully insured, have little incentive to minimize the costs of their care. Partly in response to these concerns, most states have moved a substantial portion of their Medicaid caseloads out of traditional competitive...

Recent work shows that peers affect student achievement, but the mechanisms are not well understood. I show that peer behavior is an important mechanism, perhaps more so than ability, by exploiting exogenous timing in diagnosis/treatment of ADD among peers that improves peer behavior while...

Notes that Florida's Medicaid managed care program continues to face many of the same issues as it has historically: demands of litigation diverted agency resources and slowed progress in enhancing oversight and education. The joint use of HMOs and PCCM components, combined with other issues,...

This case study of the evolution of Medicare managed care in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, is one of four in a series being prepared by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., for the Kaiser Family Foundation to examine the growth and impact of Medicare managed care. The Medicare risk (HMO) program...

Reviews TennCare's behavioral health carve-out program, as well as how TennCare's structure affects the disabled and chronically ill, noting the importance of establishing a system for tracking quality and access from the start.

Over 130,000 juveniles are detained in the US each year with 70,000 in detention on any given day, yet little is known whether such a penalty deters future crime or interrupts social and human capital formation in a way that increases the likelihood of later criminal behavior. This paper uses...

Notes that Florida's Medicaid managed care program continues to face many of the same issues as it has historically: demands of litigation diverted agency resources and slowed progress in enhancing oversight and education. The joint use of HMOs and PCCM components, combined with other issues,...