Understanding Covid-19 Mobility Through Human Capital: A Unified Causal Framework.

This paper seeks to identify the causal impact of educational human capital on social distancing behavior at workplace in Turkey using district-level data for the period of April 2020 - February 2021. We adopt a unified causal framework, predicated on domain knowledge, theory-justified constraints anda data-driven causal structure discovery using causal graphs. We answer our causal query by employing machine learning prediction algorithms; instrumental variables in the presence of latent confounding and Heckman's model in the presence of selection bias.

Effects of Vaccination and the Spatio-Temporal Diffusion of Covid-19 Incidence in Turkey.

This study assesses the spatio-temporal impact of vaccination efforts on Covid-19 incidence growth in Turkey. Incorporating geographical features of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, we adopt a spatial Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model that serves as a guide of our empirical specification. Using provincial weekly panel data, we estimate a dynamic spatial autoregressive (SAR) model to elucidate the short- and the long-run impact of vaccination on Covid-19 incidence growth after controlling for temporal and spatio-temporal diffusion, testing capacity, social distancing behavior and unobserved space-varying confounders.

Spatial distribution of inequalities in end-stage renal disease in the United States.

This paper assesses the locally varying effects of socioeconomic, racial and morbidity-related geographic heterogeneity on end-stage renal disease prevalence in the contiguous United States. Employing an exploratory spatial data analysis and a geographically weighted Poisson regression that takes into account spatial nonstationarity, spatial autocorrelation and the nature of count data, findings indicate a striking continental divide in the United States not only in terms of ESRD burden but also in terms of all of its risk factors whose effects significantly vary over space. A deepening of socioeconomic heterogeneity has the strongest ESRD prevalence-increasing-effects in counties of the southeastern states.

Self-rated health and endogenous selection into primary care.

This study assesses the causal effects of primary care utilization on subjective health status in Turkey using individual-level data from the 2012 Health Research Survey. Employing recursive bivariate ordered models that take into account the possibility that selection into healthcare might be correlated with the respondent's self-reported health status, we find that selection into primary care is endogenously determined and that the utilization of primary care significantly improves self-rated health after controlling for sociodemographics, socioeconomic status, health behaviors and risk factors, and access to healthcare. We show that the causal association between healthcare utilization and health status is robust to the use of objective measures of health and specific types of care, suggesting that the use of a single-item question on self-rated health and binary measures of preventive care utilization is valid.

Financial incentives for kidney donation: A comparative case study using synthetic controls.

Although many commentators called for increased efforts to incentivize organ donations, theorists and some evidence suggest these efforts will be ineffective. Studies examining the impact of tax incentives generally report zero/negative coefficients, but these studies incorrectly define their tax variables and rely on difference-in-differences despite likely failures of the parallel trends assumption. We identify the causal effect of tax legislation to serve as an organ donor on living kidney donation rates in the U.

The effectiveness of transplant legislation, procedures and management: cross-country evidence.

This article investigates the impact of legal determinants of cadaveric and living donor organ transplantation rates using panel data on legislative, procedural and managerial aspects of organ transplantation and procurement, government health expenditures, enrollment rates, religious beliefs, legal systems and civil rights and liberties for 62 countries over a 2-year period. Under living donor organ transplantation, we found that guaranteeing traceability of organs by law or performing psychiatric evaluation to living donors has a sizeable, negative impact on living transplant rates once the remaining determinants of living transplantation have been controlled for. Under cadaveric transplantation, our findings do not suggest an unequivocal and positive association between presumed consent, donor registries and cadaveric transplant rates.

The impact of presumed consent laws and institutions on deceased organ donation.

This article purports to advance the literature on the impact of presumed consent laws on deceased donation rates by examining the interactions between a presumed consent legal regime and other customs and institutions, using data on health expenditure, death rates caused by cerebro vascular diseases, motor vehicle accidents and homicides, legislation, legal systems, family consent, civil rights and liberties and donor registry systems, for 24 countries over a 14-year period. Countries in which presumed consent is enacted exhibit significantly higher donation rates only if family consent is routinely sought and a combined registry is maintained or neither practice is administered. Otherwise, presumed consent legislation does not have a sizeable impact on deceased donation rates.