The prohibition of certain psychoactive drugs and the consequent police repression result in thousands of deaths from violent actions in Brazil each year. In this work, we quantify the magnitude of this problem based on some economic and public health indicators. Taking 2017 as a reference, we...

This review discusses the methodology and some findings underlying four types of biological measures used by economic historians: mortality rates, stature, body mass index, and skeletal remains. Economic historians examine a variety of sources to learn when, why, and where modern industrial...

Health is a key component of the human development index. This paper looks at how health is measured, how the level of health across countries is converging, and which countries are outliers to this global trend. We argue that conceptually health measures should account for illness as well as...

We present results on the mortality statistics of the COVID-19 epidemic in a number of countries. Our data analysis suggests classifying countries in five groups, 1) Western countries, 2) East Block , 3) developed South East Asian countries, 4) Northern Hemisphere developing countries and 5)...

The prohibition of certain psychoactive drugs and the consequent police repression result in thousands of deaths from violent actions in Brazil each year. In this work, we quantify the magnitude of this problem based on some economic and public health indicators. Taking 2017 as a reference, we...

In this paper, I propose a life cycle model of painkiller consumption that combines the theory of health deficit accumulation with the theory of addiction. Chronic pain is conceptualized as a persistent negative shock to lifetime utility that can be treated by pain relief medication. Individuals...

How can public pension systems be reformed to ensure fiscal stability in the face of increasing life expectancy? To address this pressing open question in public finance, we estimate a life-cycle model in which the optimal employment, retirement and consumption decisions of forward-looking...

How can public pension systems be reformed to ensure fiscal stability in the face of increasing life expectancy? To address this pressing open question in public finance, we estimate a life-cycle model in which the optimal employment, retirement and consumption decisions of forward-looking...