Estimating Causal Effects of Particulate Matter Regulation on Mortality.

Background: Estimating the causal effect of pollution on human health is integral for evaluating returns to pollution regulation, yet separating out confounding factors remains a perennial challenge.

Methods: We use a quasi-experimental design to investigate the causal relationship between regulation of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrograms per cubic meter (PM2.

Maybe Next Month? Temperature Shocks and Dynamic Adjustments in Birth Rates.

We estimate the effects of temperature shocks on birth rates in the United States between 1931 and 2010. We find that days with a mean temperature above 80°F cause a large decline in birth rates 8 to 10 months later. Unlike prior studies, we demonstrate that the initial decline is followed by a partial rebound in births over the next few months, implying that populations mitigate some of the fertility cost by shifting conception month.

A pint for a pound? Minimum drinking age laws and birth outcomes.

Minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws are known to reduce alcohol consumption among young adults. One additional benefit of higher MLDAs may be that they improve health outcomes among infants born to young mothers. We estimate the impact of MLDAs on infant health in the USA by comparing birth outcomes among 14-20 year old mothers who were exposed to different MLDAs because of when and where they gave birth.

Absolute humidity, temperature, and influenza mortality: 30 years of county-level evidence from the United States.

Recent research exploring associations between environmental factors and influenza outcomes has devoted substantial attention to the role of absolute humidity. However, the existing literature provides very little quantitative epidemiologic evidence on the relations between absolute humidity and other weather variables and influenza outcomes in human populations. In the present study, the authors helped fill this gap by analyzing longitudinal weather and influenza mortality data, observed every month between January 1973 and December 2002, for each of 359 urban US counties.

Saving babies? Revisiting the effect of very low birth weight classification.

We reconsider the effect of very low birth weight classification on infant mortality. We demonstrate that the estimates are highly sensitive to the exclusion of observations in the immediate vicinity of the 1,500-g threshold, weakening the confidence in the results originally reported in Almond, Doyle, Kowalski, and Williams (2010).

Climate change, humidity, and mortality in the United States.

This paper estimates the effects of humidity and temperature on mortality rates in the United States (c. 1973-2002) in order to provide an insight into the potential health impacts of climate change. I find that humidity, like temperature, is an important determinant of mortality.