Drink and drive? Understanding the dynamics of youth risk-taking.

We exploit a reduction in the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in New Zealand from 20 to 18 to study the dynamics of youth risk-taking. Using the universe of road accidents over 15 years and an event history approach, we find no evidence that lowering the drinking age increased alcohol-related accidents among teens. Complementary results of a cohort analysis suggest that reducing the drinking age even led to a short-term decline in risky driving among youths directly affected by the MLDA change but had no longer-run impacts on youth risky driving and drinking behaviors.

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 mass testing in South Tyrol using a semi-parametric growth model.

Mass antigen testing has been proposed as a possible cost-effective tool to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. We test the impact of a voluntary mass testing campaign implemented in the Italian region of South Tyrol on the spread of the virus in the following months. We do so by using an innovative empirical approach which embeds a semi-parametric growth model-where COVID-19 transmission dynamics are allowed to vary across regions and to be impacted by the implementation of the mass testing campaign-into a synthetic control framework which creates an appropriate control group of other Italian regions.

Communities and testing for COVID-19.

The response to the COVID-19 epidemic requires people to undertake actions such as mask-wearing or vaccination that also confer benefits to the whole community, and therefore, are akin to public good contributions. This is the case also for participation to the mass testing that took place between November 18th and 25th, 2020 in the South Tyrol region of Italy, where 361,781 out of 500,607 (72.3%) eligible residents volunteered to take a COVID-19 rapid antigen test.

Maternal stress and birth outcomes: Evidence from an unexpected earthquake swarm.

We examine the impact of a major earthquake that unexpectedly affected the Canterbury region of New Zealand on a wide-range of birth outcomes, including birth weight, gestational age, and an indicator of general newborn health. We control for observed and unobserved differences between pregnant women in the area affected by the earthquake and other pregnant women by including mother fixed effects in all of our regression models. We extend the previous literature by comparing the impact of the initial unexpected earthquake to the impacts of thousands of aftershocks that occurred in the same region over the 18 months following the initial earthquake.

Aircraft noise, health, and residential sorting: evidence from two quasi-experiments.

We explore two unexpected changes in flight regulations to estimate the causal effect of aircraft noise on health. Detailed measures of noise are linked with longitudinal data on individual health outcomes based on the exact address information. Controlling for individual heterogeneity and spatial sorting into different neighborhoods, we find that aircraft noise significantly increases sleeping problems and headaches.

Natural experiment evidence on the effect of migration on blood pressure and hypertension.

Over 200 million people worldwide live outside their country of birth and typically experience large gains in material well-being by moving to where wages are higher. But, the effect of this migration on other dimensions of well-being such as health are less clear and existing evidence is ambiguous because of potential for self-selection bias. In this paper, we use a natural experiment, comparing successful and unsuccessful applicants to a migration lottery to experimentally estimate the impact of migration on measured blood pressure and hypertension.

The impact of immigration on child health: experimental evidence from a migration lottery program.

This paper uses a unique survey designed by the authors to compare migrant children who enter New Zealand through a random ballot with children in the home country of Tonga whose families were unsuccessful participants in the same ballots. We find that migration increases height and reduces stunting of infants and toddlers, but also increases BMI and obesity among 3- to 5-yr-olds. These impacts are quite large even though the average migrant household has been in New Zealand for less than 1 yr.

The determinants of GP visits in New Zealand.

Objective: To identify the characteristics of New Zealanders who utilised primary healthcare services prior to the implementation of the New Zealand Primary Healthcare Strategy (PHCS).

Methods: This paper uses data from the 1996/97 and 2002/03 waves of the nationally representative New Zealand Health Survey to examine the relationship between individual, household and community characteristics and the utilisation of healthcare services by New Zealanders. Multivariate regression models are used to examine the correlation between particular characteristics and whether an individual visited a GP in the previous 12 months, the number of visits made to a GP in the previous 12 months, whether they reported needing to see a GP in the previous 12 months, but failed to do so, and whether they visited a secondary practitioner in the previous 12 months.

Migration and mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment.

People migrate to improve their well-being. Yet a large literature suggests that migration can be a stressful process, with potentially negative impacts on mental health. However, to truly understand the effect of migration one must compare the mental health of migrants to what their mental health would be had they stayed in their home country.

Health and nutrition in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union during the decade of transition: a review of the literature.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was the most important historical event at the close of the 20th century. The jarring nature of this transition has resulted in large fluctuations in household resources and increased uncertainty in all facets of life for the individuals concerned. Much academic research and popular writing has explored the socioeconomic and political ramifications of bringing these countries into mainstream capitalism.