Attila Cseh and Tamás Forgács
This paper investigates the effects of state level parity
legislation on mental health care utilization. Using HCUP NIS data we
find that for privately insured patients parity increased the average
length of hospital stays by about 3/5 and 3/4 of a day for patients
with bipolar disorders and schizophrenia respectively while parity had
no effect on the length of stay for patients with major depressive
disorders. At the same time parity decreased charges of hospitalization
by about 8.5% for bipolar disorders and by 22% for major depressive
disorders. We did not find any effects on hospitalization charges
for schizophrenia. Our results could be downward biased due to the
potential miscategorization of patients who are not subject to
parity.
Michael J. Hicks
Racinos are mixed venue gaming and racing activities that have
recently enjoyed considerable scrutiny among policy makers. This
interest motivates this analysis of gambling. In this study I
construct a regional model, employing fixed effects with time space
recursive estimates of the presence of a racino on employment, wages,
industrial composition and macroeconomic stability in each of West
Virginia’s counties and bordering counties in adjacent states from 1978
through 2004. I found that the entrance of a racino (from an
existing racing facility) results in a one time, non-transient increase
in employment of as much as 1.18 percent which is accompanied by
decrease in mean wages by as much as 2.9 percent. This suggests
that new employees receive annual salaries of roughly $14,000 or half
the existing annual wage. Additionally, while there is no impact
on the industrial composition that meets minimum levels of statistical
significance, the region which experiences a new racino activity sees a
roughly 8/10’s of a percent increase in 3 year net changes to income –
the regions are less stable. These findings suggest little in the
way of activist efforts to attract or retain new racino firms.
David G. Surdam
The New York Yankees’ and Philadelphia Phillies’ financial records
provide gate receipts for several seasons. From this data, I estimate
non-price determinants of demand for individual games. The day of the
week, quality of the opposition, and special events were the key
determinants of demand. Fans in the 1930s preferred absolute to
relative quality in the visiting team. Although this approach does not
allow for estimation of the price elasticity of demand, the approach
enables us to consider the stability of demand factors.
Michael Devaney
Researchers have attributed the significant decline in the
volatility of real GDP growth among maturing nations over the last
thirty years to a decrease in the influence of destabilizing
factors. It is hypothesized that many of the same macro factors
have had a similar decreasing impact on the long-run equity risk
premium (ERP) as the U.S. economy has matured. A model developed
by Perron (1989) and Perron and Vogelsang (1992) is used to identify a
1954 break in the ERP. ARCH and GARCH effects found in the
1870-2002 ERP disappear in pre and post break estimates of the model as
do the significance of macro variables. The results lend partial
support to the hypothesis that broad market factors such as money
supply, productivity and population change imparted greater influence
on the ERP during the first half of the 20th century.