Donor registries, first-person consent legislation, and the supply of deceased organ donors.

In this paper, we exploit the varied timing in state adoption of organ donor registries and first-person consent (FPC) legislation to examine corresponding changes in the supply of deceased organ donors. Results indicate that the establishment of a state organ donor registry leads to an increase in donation rates of approximately 8%, while the adoption of FPC legislation has no effect on the supply of organ donors. These results reinforce the need to encourage individuals to communicate their donation preferences, either explicitly via a registry or by discussing them with family.

Employer Reactions to the Affordable Care Act.

Although the implementation of parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was delayed until 2015, many firms had already made changes to their health insurance plans and their business practices. This article reports results from a survey administered to western Michigan firms in October 2013 requesting information on any changes they made in response to ACA. The authors found that although 89% of employers planned to offer health insurance in 2014, that number dropped to 66% in 2015.