Christopher J. Ruhm | |
---|---|
Born | United States |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Economist, academic and author |
Academic background | |
Education | B.A. M.A. PhD |
Alma mater | University of California, Davis University of California, Berkeley |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Virginia University of North Carolina Greensboro Boston University |
Christopher J. Ruhm is an American economist,academic and author. He is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia and is a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. [1]
Ruhm is most known for his works on the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and health as well as issues related to work-family balance,particularly the effects of parental and family leave policies. His research has been published in leading academic journals,including the American Economic Review , Quarterly Journal of Economics , Journal of Health Economics and Handbook of Health Economics. [2]
Ruhm is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, [3] and a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics. [4]
Ruhm earned his B.A. from the University of California,Davis,in 1978. Following that,he completed his M.A. in 1981 and PhD in 1984 from the University of California,Berkeley. [1]
Ruhm joined Boston University as assistant professor from 1984 to 1991. In 1991,he became part of the faculty at the University of North Carolina,Greensboro,where he served as associate professor of economics from 1991 to 1994,professor of economics from 1994 to 1997,and Jefferson-Pilot Excellence Professor of Economics from 1997 to 2010. He has held the title of professor emeritus in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina,Greensboro since 2011. Moreover,he has been a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia since 2011,where he also served as associate dean for academic affairs at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy from 2013 to 2015. [1]
From 1996 to 1997,Ruhm was a Senior Economist on President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers,where his main responsibilities were in the areas of health policy and aging. At the Southern Economic Association,he served on the board of trustees from 2004 to 2008,vice president from 2009 to 2011,and president elect,president,and past president from 2016 to 2021. [5]
Since 1994,Ruhm has served as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. [3] Moreover,since 2002 he has held the position of a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor. [6]
Ruhm's work has been cited in media and news outlets,including Wall Street Journal, [7] The Economist, [8] and The New York Times. [9] [10] He also appeared in an interview on National Public Radio,where he proposed a reevaluation of the societal emphasis on work. He suggested that an excessive focus on employment may have adverse health effects,emphasizing that economic contractions,while resulting in multiple negative consequences,also reduce most types of mortality rates. [11]
Ruhm's research has focused on the impact of parental leave policies,mandated employment benefits,job displacements,retirement transitions,and a broad range of topics in health economics and policy.
Ruhm showed that retirements of U.S. workers frequently occurred gradually and often involved periods in bridge jobs. [12] [13] Analyzing parental leave mandates in nine European countries over the 1969 to 1993 period,his 1998 study revealed that while paid leave boosted female employment,if too lengthy,they resulted in reductions in women's relative wages. [14] In later work,he focused on paid and unpaid parental leave in the United States,with most of that research examining state-level mandates,since there is no paid leave entitlement at the federal level. [15] [16] [17]
On the same subject,Ruhm co-authored the book titled Time Off With Baby:The Case for Paid Care Leave,in which he advocated for the implementation of paid care leave in the United States. The book presented a case based on its positive impact on babies,families,and society. Additionally,it offered an analysis of international examples and proposed a national leave policy. While reviewing the book,Kathleen McCarthey,said "In this important volume,Ed Zigler,Susan Muenchow and Christopher Ruhm make the strong case that U.S. family policies have not kept pace with the 'profound social transitions' accompanying the dramatic increases in maternal employment. Because the first years of life provide a foundation for healthy development –social,emotional,cognitive,linguistic,and physical –it is critical that we build public will to support young children and their families,as most European countries do." She further suggested that the United States is an outlier in its approach to family policies compared to other nations,prompting readers to question whether this decision aligns with principles of social justice,education,health,or economic perspectives. [18] In later work Ruhm refined his proposals for a national paid leave policy. [19] Additionally,from 2017 to 2020,he was a member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Paid Family and Medical Leave,which explored bipartisan approaches to providing these leaves. [20]
Ruhm has also studied the role of policies related to early childhood care and education. In his exploration of the influence of preschool participation on school readiness,his collaborative work with Katherine A. Magnuson and others revealed that children,especially those in disadvantaged groups,attending such programs exhibit enhanced early reading and math skills,emphasizing the potential for policies promoting preschool enrollment to address readiness disparities. [21] In related research,he examined the impact of prekindergarten programs on school readiness,indicating that although they enhance reading and math skills at entry,they also result in increased behavior problems,particularly for disadvantaged children,persisting into first grade;however,public school-based pre kindergartens showed no adverse behavioral effects. [22]
In his health economics research,Ruhm's 2000 study indicated that most types of mortality,with the exception of suicides,decline when the economy weakens,with potential roles for reductions in driving,obesity,and smoking. [23] Later,in related analysis,he examined the patterns for non-fatal health conditions. He further studied the roles of risky behaviors,such as smoking,obesity,drinking,and physical activity,and investigated to what extent these patterns have changed over time. [24] [25] [26] He has also explored other risky behaviors. He has studied the economic causes and consequences of rising obesity,including the inter-relationship of biological and economic factors,as well as the potential for government policies to address the problem. Moreover,he stressed the need for comprehensive interventions targeting factors like information gaps,addictive behavior,and the obesogenic environment. [27] [28] [29] [30] In a related vein,he has developed methods to forecast the future prevalence of obesity and severe obesity. [31] With John Cawley,he co-authored a chapter on the economics of risky behaviors in the Handbook of Health Economics. [32]
Ruhm's more recent health-related work has centered on two areas. First,he has studied the measurement and causes of the fatal drug epidemic in the U.S.,developing methods to better determine the types of drugs involved in deadly overdoses,that correct for incomplete reporting on death certificates, [33] [34] as well as providing evidence that supply-side factors are the primary cause of increased drug deaths during the 21st century. He has also been active in efforts to offer an equitable approach for distributing opioid abatement settlement funds among localities in Virginia,Texas and other states. [35] and in examining whether federal opioid grant funding is targeted to the states with the greatest need. [36] Secondly,he assessed the impact of COVID-19 on excess mortality,quantifying the number and distribution of these deaths during the first and second years of the pandemic. He emphasized disparities in these deaths related to age,race/ethnicity,and cause. [37] [38]
Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's weight divided by the square of the person's height—is over 30 kg/m2; the range 25–30 kg/m2 is defined as overweight. Some East Asian countries use lower values to calculate obesity. Obesity is a major cause of disability and is correlated with various diseases and conditions, particularly cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.
Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare. Health economics is important in determining how to improve health outcomes and lifestyle patterns through interactions between individuals, healthcare providers and clinical settings. In broad terms, health economists study the functioning of healthcare systems and health-affecting behaviors such as smoking, diabetes, and obesity.
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave" to describe separate family leave available to either parent to care for small children. In some countries and jurisdictions, "family leave" also includes leave provided to care for ill family members. Often, the minimum benefits and eligibility requirements are stipulated by law.
Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, is the application of healthcare measures to prevent diseases. Disease and disability are affected by environmental factors, genetic predisposition, disease agents, and lifestyle choices, and are dynamic processes that begin before individuals realize they are affected. Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions that can be categorized as primal, primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
California's Paid Family Leave (PFL) insurance program, which is also known as the Family Temporary Disability Insurance (FTDI) program, is a law enacted in 2002 that extends unemployment disability compensation to cover individuals who take time off work to care for a seriously ill family member or bond with a new minor child. If eligible, you can receive benefit payments for up to eight weeks. Payments are about 60 to 70 percent of your weekly wages earned 5 to 18 months before your claim start date. You will receive payments by debit card or check. Benefits equal approximately 70% of earnings and have a maximum per week, for a total of up to six weeks.
Nutrition transition is the shift in dietary consumption and energy expenditure that coincides with economic, demographic, and epidemiological changes. Specifically the term is used for the transition of developing countries from traditional diets high in cereal and fiber to more Western-pattern diets high in sugars, fat, and animal-source food.
According to 2007 statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), Australia has the third-highest prevalence of overweight adults in the English-speaking world. Obesity in Australia is an "epidemic" with "increasing frequency." The Medical Journal of Australia found that obesity in Australia more than doubled in the two decades preceding 2003, and the unprecedented rise in obesity has been compared to the same health crisis in America. The rise in obesity has been attributed to poor eating habits in the country closely related to the availability of fast food since the 1970s, sedentary lifestyles and a decrease in the labour workforce.
Darius Lakdawalla is an economist. He is the Quintiles Chair in Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Innovation at the School of Pharmacy at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Precision Health Economics, a health care consulting firm. Dr. Lakdawalla also serves as the Executive Director of the "Innovation and Value Initiative" (IVI), a multi-stakeholder scientific initiative that aims to improve the way value is measured and rewarded in the healthcare marketplace.
The motherhood penalty is a term coined by sociologists, that in the workplace, working mothers encounter disadvantages in pay, perceived competence, and benefits relative to childless women. Specifically, women may suffer a per-child wage penalty, resulting in a pay gap between non-mothers and mothers that is larger than the gap between men and women. Mothers may also suffer worse job-site evaluations indicating that they are less committed to their jobs, less dependable, and less authoritative than non-mothers. Thus, mothers may experience disadvantages in terms of hiring, pay, and daily job experience. The motherhood penalty is not limited to one simple cause but can rather be linked to many theories and societal perceptions. However, one prominent theory that can be consistently linked to this penalty is the work-effort theory. It is also based on the mother's intersectionality. There are many effects developed from the motherhood penalty including wage, hiring, and promotion penalties. These effects are not limited to the United States and have been documented in over a dozen other industrialized nations including Japan, South Korea, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Poland, and Australia. The penalty has not shown any signs of declining over time.
Parental leave is regulated in the United States by US labor law and state law. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for parents of newborn or newly adopted children if they work for a company with 50 or more employees. As of October 1, 2020, the same policy has been extended to caregivers of sick family members, or a partner in direct relation to the birth of the child therefore responsible for the care of the mother. Although 12 weeks are allowed to them, on average American fathers only take 10 days off, due to financial need. Beginning in 2020, California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island required paid parental leave to employees, including those a part of 50 or less employees. There is no paid paternity leave in the United States currently.
The maternal wall is a term referring to stereotypes and various forms of discrimination encountered by working mothers and mothers seeking employment. Women hit the maternal wall when they encounter workplace discrimination because of past, present, or future pregnancies or because they have taken one or more maternity leaves. Women may also be discriminated against when they opt for part-time or flexible work schedules. Maternal wall discrimination is not limited to childcare responsibilities. Both men and women with caregiving responsibilities, such as taking care of a sick parents or spouse, may also result in maternal wall discrimination. As such, maternal wall discrimination is also described as family responsibilities discrimination. Research suggests that the maternal wall is cemented by employer stereotypes and gender expectations.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development provides data about OECD countries related to paid parental leave length, average pay rate and full-rate equivalent. Not all countries provide mothers with a pay rate equal to what they would have received if the absence had not occurred.
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn is an American developmental psychologist and professor. She is currently the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Lisa Cameron is an Australian economist currently working as a Professional Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne.
Yuting Zhang is a professor of health economics at the University of Melbourne, and an expert on economic evaluations of health policy and healthcare reforms. She is a journal editor, award recipient, and has written numerous articles in influential journals in her field.
Nicolas Robert Ziebarth is a university professor at the University of Mannheim and the ZEW- the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research. Since 2022, he is head of their Research Unit "Labour Markets and Social Insurance." Since its founding in 2021, he served as a tenured Associate Professor in Cornell's Brooks School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor (2011-2017) and then tenured Associate Professor (2017-2021) in Cornell's Department of Policy Analysis and Management.
James R. Langabeer II is an American decision scientist, academic, and entrepreneur known for his theories on strategy and decision-making. He is the Robert H. Graham Professor of Entrepreneurial Biomedical Informatics and Bioengineering at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and maintains faculty appointments in the department of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry.
Richard Michael Scheffler is an American health economist whose career has focused on applying health economics to public policy both nationally and globally. He is a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley in the Graduate School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy. He is the Founding Director of the campus-affiliated, research-driven Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare.
Maya Rossin-Slater is an American health economist currently serving as Associate Professor of Health Policy in the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research examines the causal effects of social policies and events in utero on the well-being of families and children in the United States. In 2023 Rossin-Slater received the Elaine Bennett Research Prize, awarded annually by the American Economic Association to the best female economist not more than ten years beyond her PhD. She is also the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.