The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on the Health and Labor Supply of Older Adults: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

Older adults are at elevated risk of reducing labor supply due to poor health, partly because of high rates of symptoms that may be alleviated by medical marijuana. Yet, surprisingly little is known about how this group responds to medical marijuana laws (MMLs). We quantify the effects of state medical marijuana laws on the health and labor supply of adults age 51 and older, focusing on the 55 percent with one or more medical conditions with symptoms that may respond to medical marijuana. We use longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate event study and differences‐in‐differences regression models. Three principle findings emerge from our analysis. First, active state medical marijuana laws lead to lower pain and better self‐assessed health among older adults. Second, state medical marijuana laws lead to increases in older adult labor supply, with effects concentrated on the intensive margin. Third, the effects of MMLs are largest among older adults with a health condition that would qualify for legal medical marijuana use under current state laws. Findings highlight the role of health policy in supporting work among older adults and the importance of including older adults in assessments of state medical marijuana laws.     

The Political Consequences of Self-Insurance: Evidence from Central-Eastern Europe,the Caucasus and Central Asia

Political Behavior - Does self-insurance, such as access to savings or assets, affect support for government? While existing research recognizes that households’ ability to privately manage...     

Of ordinariness and citizenship processes

This paper explores the relations between ordinariness and citizenship processes along two different lines. It first aims at empirically exploring certain uses of ordinariness as a political category. While it is often used as a depoliticisation tool, the two case studies analysed here underline on the contrary its politicising potential. In a second, briefer, part, it proposes a discussion of the gains to be obtained in citizenship studies, from using ordinariness as a category of analysis. Approaching citizenship processes ‘from the ordinary’ is a fruitful perspective from which the political dimensions of usually unseen or unheard practices and sites can be grasped. What connects the two discussions presented here is the complex and paradoxical relationship the two categories of ordinariness and politics entertain, both empirically and analytically.     

Mental and physical health symptoms of family court intimate partner violence petitioners

This paper explores the impact of intimate partner violence on victim health and proposes interdisciplinary coordination between legal and mental health services as a means to assist victims. Data was collected from 95 female petitioners at an upstate New York Domestic Violence Intensive Intervention Court (DVIIC). Study participants completed surveys on physical health, mental health, and social functioning. Survey results demonstrated decreased mental health and social functioning as well as a strong willingness to utilize court-based mental health services if offered. Findings from this study support court-based settings as appropriate sites for addressing mental health needs through collaborative efforts between legal and mental health professionals.     

Encryption and the loss of patient data

Fast‐paced IT advances have made it increasingly possible and useful for firms to collect data on their customers on an unprecedented scale. One downside of this is that firms can experience negative publicity and financial damage if their data are breached. This is particularly the case in the medical sector, where we find empirical evidence that increased digitization of patient data is associated with more data breaches. The encryption of customer data is often presented as a potential solution, because encryption acts as a disincentive for potential malicious hackers, and can minimize the risk of breached data being put to malicious use. However, encryption both requires careful data management policies to be successful and does not ward off the insider threat. Indeed, we find no empirical evidence of a decrease in publicized instances of data loss associated with the use of encryption. Instead, there are actually increases in the cases of publicized data loss due to internal fraud or loss of computer equipment. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Assessing the Capacity to Deliver – The BER Experience

This article uses the education sector to explore the ability of successive Commonwealth governments to more directly intervene and engage in areas traditionally the responsibility of state and territory jurisdictions. The APS continues to battle against a lack of street‐level knowledge to help structure delivery, including effective feedback and sense‐making mechanisms. While the overall thrust of policy intent might be achievable and even laudable, the potential for success is undermined by structural imbalances, suspicion and information and power asymmetry. BER exemplifies a growing problem in the capacity of the APS to act as a system manager, able to strategically conceptualise and leverage actors, resources and processes to achieve political outcomes. APS capacity to deliver Commonwealth policy intent reliant on inter‐jurisdictional delivery remains a dilemma for advisory capacity and confounds the interventionist ambitions of Commonwealth ministers and exposes them to serious criticisms about their administrative competence.     

Long- and short-term determinants of party preferences: Inter-generational differences in Western and East Central Europe

In this paper we study differences between generations in the degree to which long-term and short-term factors affect party preferences in established and consolidating European democracies. Scholarly literature has shown that younger cohorts in Western Europe are less likely to be guided by social class, religion and left/right than older cohorts. Little is known, however, about the extent to which such differences exist for the effects of short-term factors. Similarly, inter-generational differences in the effects of long- and short-term factors in post-communist countries have remained largely unexplored. Based on the European Election Study 2009, we show differences between generations that are compatible with de-alignment of younger generations along traditional cleavages. Yet, we also see an increased importance of attitudes towards immigration among the younger generations, which could signal a form of re-alignment.     

2009 H1N1 Fatalities: The New Mexico Experience

Abstract: Histopathologic features of New Mexico 2009 H1N1 fatalities have not been representative of those reported nationwide. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of all New Mexico 2009 pandemic influenza A (pH1N1) fatalities (n = 50). In cases in which autopsy was performed (n = 12), histologic sections and culture results were examined. In contrast to previously published studies, the majority of our fatalities did not have diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) (2/12; 16.7%). Common findings included pulmonary interstitial inflammation and edema, tracheobronchitis, and pneumonia. Two cases had significant extra‐pulmonary manifestations: myocarditis and cerebral edema with herniation. The majority had a rapid disease course: range from 1 to 12 days (median, 2 days), and Native Americans were disproportionately represented among fatalities. These findings suggest that New Mexico H1N1 fatalities generally did not survive long enough to develop the classic picture of DAD. Pathologists should be aware that H1N1 may cause extra‐pulmonary pathology and perform postmortem cultures and histologic sampling accordingly.     

College Women’s Experiences of Dating Violence in Casual and Exclusive Relationships

Using a sample of female college students involved in a current dating relationship, we investigate the nature of violence in these intimate relationships to better understand the concept of violence mutuality. To do so we explore womens’ experiences with violence as both perpetrators and victims and examine the prevalence, chronicity, and severity of violence experienced by young women. We also examine whether there are differences in experiences of violence for women in casual versus exclusive dating relationships. Our findings suggest that when violence is present in a dating relationship it is likely to occur within a mutually violent relationship where women are both victims and perpetrators of violence. More importantly, within these mutually violent relationships, women reported being more likely to perpetrate violence at higher rates than they experience as victims. We find no notable differences in experiences with violence among those in casual versus exclusive relationships. The methodological limitations and policy implications of our findings are discussed.