ABSTRACT
States tightly regulate access to alcohol and other substances. During the pandemic and related state of emergency, state and federal governments adopted a variety of regulations affecting this access. State shelter-in-place orders included decisions about whether liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries are essential businesses. Decisions about telehealth access to medical marijuana or treatments for substance use disorders were made at the state and federal levels. This article examines the political economy behind these decisions, focusing on deviations from the norm including Pennsylvania's decision to close state-run liquor stores. Interest groups and other political considerations help explain state and federal policy changes affecting access to alcohol and other substances.
ABSTRACT
Using U.S. Natality data for 1996 through 2009 and an event analysis specification, we investigate the dynamics of the effects of state insurance contraceptive mandates on births and measures of parental investment: prenatal visits, non-marital childbearing, and risky behaviors during pregnancy. We analyze outcomes separately by age, race, and ethnicity. Among young Hispanic women, we find a 4% decline in the birth rate. There is evidence of a decrease in births to single mothers, consistent with increased wantedness. We also find evidence of selection into motherhood, which could explain the lack of a significant effect on birth outcomes.
Subject(s)
Birth Rate/trends , Contraception/economics , Insurance Coverage/legislation & jurisprudence , Insurance, Health/legislation & jurisprudence , Pregnancy Outcome/economics , Adolescent , Adult , Black or African American/statistics & numerical data , Age Distribution , Birth Rate/ethnology , Contraception/methods , Contraception/statistics & numerical data , Female , Hispanic or Latino/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Illegitimacy/economics , Illegitimacy/ethnology , Illegitimacy/legislation & jurisprudence , Illegitimacy/trends , Insurance Coverage/economics , Insurance, Health/economics , Mandatory Programs , Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/standards , Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/statistics & numerical data , Pregnancy , Pregnancy Outcome/ethnology , Pregnancy, Unplanned/ethnology , Pregnancy, Unplanned/psychology , State Government , United States/epidemiology , White People/statistics & numerical data , Women's Health/economics , Women's Health/ethnology , Women's Health/trends , Young AdultABSTRACT
Social host laws for minors aim to reduce teenage alcohol consumption by imposing liability on adults who host parties. Parents cite safety reasons as part of their motivation for hosting parties, preferring their teens and their teens' friends to drink in a supervised and safe locale. Both sides predict an effect of social host liability for minors on alcohol-related traffic accident rates for under-aged drinkers; the effects, however, work in opposite directions. This paper finds that, among 18-20 year olds, social host liability for minors reduced the drunk-driving fatality rate by 9%. I find no effect on sober traffic fatalities. Survey data on drinking and drunk driving suggest the declines resulted mostly from reductions in drunk driving and not reductions in drinking.
