Research

Publications

Wolfe, Barbara and Tefft, Nathan. (2006) “Childhood Interventions that May Lead to Increased Economic Growth.” La Follette Policy Report 16(2): 1-14. (pdf)

Working Papers

"Mental Health and Employment: The SAD Story," (Job Market Paper). (pdf) Abstract: I explore the short term effects of mental health symptoms on employment outcomes. To address potential simultaneity bias, I propose a new instrument related to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that depends only on latitude and day of year. For unmarried individuals, an additional day of poor overall mental health (of the last thirty days) decreases the probability of employment by over five percentage points and increases the probability of unemployment by under five percentage points. Results from the first and second stage suggest that low-income, uninsured individuals experience more adverse mental health and employment effects. Relative to instrumental variable models, ordinary least squares models underestimate the transition from employment to unemployment and out of the labor force due to mental health problems.

"Can Soft Drink Taxes Reduce Population Weight?" with Jason Fletcher and David Frisvold. Abstract: Soft drink consumption has been hypothesized as one of the major factors in the growing rates of obesity in the US. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of changes in state soft drink taxes on body mass index (BMI). Our results suggest that soft drink taxes modestly reduced BMI and that this impact varies across demographic groups. If the soft drink tax was as large as the current tax on cigarettes, extrapolation of our results suggests that the proportion of obese adults would decrease by nearly one percentage point.

"Mental and Physical Health Capital." (pdf) Abstract: The standard treatment of health capital takes it to be a single, uniform stock. I present a model that "splits" health capital into two stocks, namely mental and physical health capital. This categorization is of interest both because of current institutional structures in the delivery of health care, but also because the distinction is widely recognized to be substantive. I estimate reduced form representations of some of the model's predictions in order to gain an understanding of the characteristics of mental and physical health, the demand for health care, and their interactions. An estimation of own and cross price responses of mental and physical health care reveal a mixed set of interactive relationships, and I find little supporting evidence that the two forms of health are complementary in the utility or income functions (in other words, that there is a positive cross partial relationship). Due to the predictions of the theoretical model, however, I cannot rule out these relationships. Also, an examination of the lifetime paths of health status and health care demand suggest that they have an inverse relationship for each form of health, but the paths themselves differ greatly between the two forms of health. Policy makers and health care providers may be able to more effectively deliver care if they have a richer understanding of the effects that changing legislation or practices targeted towards one form of health has on the other form.

The Effects of a Soft Drink Tax on Household Expenditures." (pdf) Abstract: Over the past 20 years, many states have enacted legislation addressing the taxation of specific food items, including sales taxes on snack foods and beverages. It has been proposed that these taxes may be used to reduce consumption and raise revenue to fund nutrition and health education programs. I use a nationally representative diary survey of expenditures to examine the effects of changes in soft drink sales taxes on household soft drink expenditure over the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The exogenous variation in sales tax rates allows for an unbiased estimate of the tax elasticity of expenditure on soft drinks and an inferred price elasticity of demand. A one percentage point increase in the effective tax rate induces an insignificant change in expenditure, a small but significant decrease in the probability of any expenditure, and an insignificant demand response after controlling for state and year fixed effects and other demographic variables. These results imply increased revenues for nutrition education programs and are consistent with modestly reduced consumption.

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