We investigate how changes in federal and state minimum wages affect body mass index and the probability of obesity using data from the 1990 through 2008 waves of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. After controlling for unobserved trends at the state level we find that, in contrast...

A motivation for increasing health insurance coverage is to improve health outcomes for impacted populations. However, health insurance coverage may alternatively increase risky health behaviors due to ex ante moral hazard, and past research on this issue has led to mixed conclusions. This paper...

We analyze the Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel to estimate the effects of tobacco policies on tobacco-related purchases using within-household variation. We also match purchases to cigarette contents from NHANES. Higher cigarette taxes reduce cigarette purchases and increase smoking cessation...