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The substance use includes alcohol and drugs are positively associated with adolescent sexual behaviors such as early initiation of sexual intercourse, multiple sexual partners and others. The different models are presented to determine the causality from substance use to risky sexual behaviors and their findings are described.

Welfare reform is found to have had little effect on single mothers, and less on their children.

The impact of alcohol taxes and consumption of alcohol on labor market is analyzed. Additional information on the effects of alcohol consumption on employment, wages and work hours is included.

Objectives. This study analyzed changes in the financing of prenatal care and delivery, the use of prenatal care, and birth outcomes among foreign-born vs US-born Latino women following enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in August 1996. Methods. We used a pre-post design with a comparison group. The sample consisted of resident Latinas in California, New York City, and Texas who delivered a live infant in 1995 or 1998. Results. The proportion of births to Latinas that initiated prenatal care in the first 4 months of pregnancy increased for all foreign-born Latinas in California, New York City, and Texas between 1995 and 1998 (P Conclusions. There are little evidence from vital statistics in California, New York City, and Texas that PRWORA had any substantive impact on the perinatal health and health care utilization of foreign-born relative to US-born Latinas. (Am J Public Health. 2001;91:1857-1864)

Objective. Between 1989 and 1995, expansions in Medicaid eligibility provided publicly financed health insurance to an additional 7 million poor and near-poor children. It is not known whether these expansions affected children's insurance coverage, use of health care services, or health status differently, depending on their race/ethnicity. The objective of this study was to examine, by race/ethnicity, the impact of the recent Medicaid expansions on levels of uninsured individuals, health care service utilization, and health status of the targeted groups of children. Methods. Using a stratified set of longitudinal data from the National Health Interview Surveys of 1989 and 1995, we compared changes in measures of health insurance coverage, health services utilization, and health status for poor white, black, and Hispanic 1- to 12-year-old children. To control for underlying trends over time, we subtracted 1989 to 1995 changes in these outcomes among nonpoor children from changes among the poor children for each race/ethnicity group. Measures of coverage included uninsured rates and Medicaid rates. Utilization measures included annual probability of visiting a doctor, annual number of doctor visits, and annual probability of hospitalization. Health status measures included self-reported health status and number of restricted-activity days in the 2 weeks before the interview. Differences in means were analyzed with the use of Student's t tests accounting for the clustering sample design of the National Health Interview Surveys. Results. Among poor children between 1989 and 1995, uninsured rates declined by 4 percentage points for whites, 11 percentage points for blacks, and 19 percentage points for Hispanics. Medicaid rates for these groups increased by 16 percentage points, 22 percentage points, and 23 percentage points, respectively. With respect to utilization, the annual probability of seeing a physician increased 7 percentage points among poor blacks and Hispanics but only 1 percentage point among poor whites (not significant) for children in good, fair, or poor health. Among those in excellent or very good health, the respective increases were 1 percentage point for poor whites (not significant), 7 percentage points for poor blacks, and 3 percentage points for poor Hispanics (not significant). Significant increases in numbers of doctor visits per year were recorded only for poor Hispanics who were in excellent or very good health, whereas significant decreases in hospitalizations were recorded for Hispanics who were in good fair or poor health. Measures of health status remained unchanged for poor children over time. The recorded decreases in uninsured rates and increases in Medicaid coverage remained robust to adjustments for underlying trends for all 3 race/ ethnicity groups. With respect to adjusted measures of utilization and health status, the only significant differences found were among poor blacks who were in good, fair, or poor health and who registered increases in the likelihood of hospitalization and in poor Hispanics who were in excellent or very good health and who registered decreases in the numbers of restricted-activity days. Conclusions. Recent expansions in the Medicaid program from 1989 to 1995 produced greater reductions in uninsured rates among poor minority children than among poor white children. Regardless of race/ethnicity, poor children did not seem to experience significant changes during the period of the expansions in either their level of health service utilization or their health status. Pediatrics 2001;108:1135-1142; Medicaid, health insurance, health status, health services., ABBREVIATIONS. FPL, federal poverty level; NHIS, National Health Interview Surveys; AFDC, Aid to Families With Dependent Children. Expansions in the Medicaid program enacted by Congress during the past decade increased [...]

An analysis of the impact of medical malpractice premiums on utilization of prenatal care services is offered. Additional information on the effect of malpractice liability pressure on infant health and prenatal services offered by obstetricians is included.

Several methods were used to examine data on female welfare recipients to project their employment prospects. Multiple regression analysis, adjustment for unmeasured differences and econometric approaches projected high levels of yearly labor force participation for female welfare recipients.

This study presents new evidence on the relationship between dividend announcements and stock price responses, and provides a more comprehensive empirical analysis than that previously found in the literature. We simultaneously test several competing theories regarding the information content of dividends using two types of announcements: dividend initiations and specially designated dividends. The results of our analyses provide strong support for the single signal, cash-flow signalling hypothesis and only weak support for the John and Lang (1991) and multiple signal, cash-flow signalling model. Supporting evidence is also presented for the predictions of the free-cash flow hypothesis. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

In this paper, I outline the economic theory pertinent to the analysis of the effect of drug use on labor market outcomes. I argue that the complex behavioral links that underlie the relationship between drug use and labor market outcomes make it necessary to explicitly model the process that determines both of these outcomes. Only then can effective empirical strategies be developed that will yield credible estimates of the causal effect of drug use on labor market outcomes. Economic theory is well suited to this task since at its core it is a behavioral model of individual choice. I also discuss some methodological strategies that can be used to address the empirical problems associated with estimating such a structural model.

This article examines the relationship between illicit drug use and marital status. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experiences, the article presents both cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates of the effect of marijuana and cocaine use on marital status the length of am until first marriage, and the duration of first marriage. The results indicate dot among non-Black young adults, drug users are more likely to be unmarried due to a delay in the age at first marriage, and shorter marriage durations. In contrast, drug use has no effect on marital choices of Black young adults., The family plays a vital role in our society and is an important economic and social institution. Indeed, a substantial amount of our national output is produced in the home. [...]

A study was conducted on the effect of laws that require minors to notify or obtain consent from a parent before having an abortion on the likelihood that a pregnancy will be terminated. The results indicate that South Carolina's parent consent statute is associated with a decline of 10 percentage points in the probability of abortion among non-black minors of 16 years of age. Therefore, the impact of parental involvement laws on the pregnancy resolution of minors is minimal.

We develop a method to correct for non-random measurement error in a binary indicator of illicit drugs. Our results suggest that estimates of the effect of self-reported prenatal drug use on birth weight are biased upwards by measurement error - finding contrary to predictions of a model of random measurement error. More accurate estimates of the true effect of drug use on birth weight can be obtained by using the predicted probability of falsely reporting drug use. Thus out-of-sample information on drug use may improve estimates of the effect of reported drug use in other settings., I. INTRODUCTION The adverse consequences of maternal drug use on birth outcomes is a serious public health issue. Clinical data have clearly established that use of illicit drugs during pregnancy [...]

Insiders take their companies private to exploit their knowledge of the true value of the firms. Proof of this motivation is the pattern of abnormal net-buying engaged by insiders of companies taken private by management before the decision to go private is announced. This activity does not occur in companies taken private by a third party. Another proof is the inconsistency of the relationship between insider trading and the level of free cash as well as past tax liabilities.