Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Jie Chen and coauthors C. D. Meyerhoefer and L. Peng use data from the 2000-2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to study the effects of the introduction of paid sick leave (PSL) on absenteeism and medical care utilization. In the US over 30% of all private-sector workers, mostly amongst low-wage and part-time employees, do not have PSL benefit.

There is very little causal evidence to date on how e-cigarette use impacts smoking cessation among adults. In a paper published in June, 2020, Georgia Tech economist Daniel Dench probed the role that price plays in choosing whether to vape or smoke.  E-cigarettes provide nicotine in a vapor form, which is considered less harmful than the smoke from combustible tobacco because it d

The cost of water and sewer services is rising three times faster than inflation in the USA, and that expense hits low-income households disproportionately. Research by Georgia Tech economist Casey Wichman reveals that, for one in seven households, the monthly water bill comprises more than 4.5 percent of monthly household income---a threshold commonly used for determining water affordability---and that rises, on average, to 8.1 percent of monthly income for the poorest one-tenth of households.

Georgia Tech School of Economics Prof. Olga Shemyakina is a pioneer in the field of health-related effects of war.  Her most recent study, Political Violence and Child Health: Results from Zimbabwe, is in the very same field that led to a Nobel Peace Prize being given to the World Food Programme on October 9, 2020. The Nobel Committee emphasized the link between armed conflict, hunger and the poor health of children in war-torn countries.  

Professor Tibor Besedeš and his co-authors Tristan Kohl (University of Groningen) and James Lake (Southern Methodist University) examine in their latest project how international trade between members of a trade agreement grows after the agreement enters into force. Their forthcoming paper in the Journal of International Economics, “Phase Out Tariffs, Phase In Trade?,” examines how the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) increased U.S. imports from Mexico and Canada.