Every year in the United States, millions of college students travel for spring break, spending billions of dollars. We examine a potential adverse consequence of spring break that has received little attention in the literature – traffic safety. In particular, we estimate the impact of spring...

Several studies have demonstrated that universal helmet laws (UHLs) and other motor vehicle policies are effective in reducing fatal and non-fatal motorcycle injuries. Although state policies can improve traffic safety overall, very little is known about how they affect different segments of...

The effects of business cycles on health outcomes in general, and on traffic fatalities in particular, have received much attention recently. In this paper, we focus on motorcycle safety and examine the impact of changing levels of economic activity on fatal crashes by motorcyclists in the...

Numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of alcohol and traffic policies in reducing automobile crashes and fatalities, but only a few have analyzed the impact of state-specific policies on motorcycle safety. Given the growing popularity and inherent safety risks of motorcycle riding,...

Between 1996 and 2003, a series of amendments were made to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that gradually increased the tax credit for health insurance purchases by the self- employed from 25 to 100 percent. We study how these changes have in uenced the likelihood that a self-employed person has...

We investigate the role of health insurance coverage in explaining transitions in and out of entrepreneurship in the U.S. We first consider the effect of individual coverage, along with that from a spouse, on the likelihood of entry and exit. Next, we examine the tax deductions granted to the...

This paper develops a dynamic programming model of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application timing decision. We estimate the time to application from the point at which a health condition first begins to affect the kind or amount of work that a currently employed person can...

Between 1996 and 2003, a series of amendments were made to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that gradually increased the tax deduction for health insurance purchases by the self-employed from 25 to 100 percent. We study how these changes have influenced the likelihood that a self-employed person has...

This paper analyzes the importance of policy variables in the context of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application timing decision. Previously, we explicitly modeled the optimal timing of SSDI application using dynamic structural models. We estimated these models using data from...