Chris Ruhm

2/ Also, I’m trying to get the MCS (mental component summary score) through 2022 but it is only listed as being available through 2016. (AI says it should be available in later years although without full comparability to the pre-2016 data.) Any help available on this?

#healtheconomics #economics

1/ I’m trying to extract a variable in MEPS for self-assessed mental health (poor, fair, good, very good, excellent) but I can’t find it on IPUMs. According to AI the name should be MNHLTH. Is it there and I’m missing it, under some other name, or not there?

Opinion | This Problem Is Easy to Solve

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/o...

7/ I'd love to hear any thoughts on this work, as well as ideas for future research.

6/Finally, in the primary specifications, deteriorating mental health accounts for an estimated 9% to 29% of the rise in mortality rates among prime-age Whites in recent years.

5/Fourth, heterogeneity in how worsening mental distress affects mortality—rather than in mental health trends themselves—is more important in explaining Black-White disparities in its overall impact.

4/Third, while these correlations lend some support to the broader idea of “deaths of despair,” the specific causes comprising them appear to be both more expansive and different from those previously emphasized.

3/ First, mental health deteriorated from 1993-2019 for all population groups examined. Second, these declines are associated with higher predicted death rates and help explain worsening mortality trends for prime-age non-Hispanic Whites and, to a lesser extent, non-Hispanic Blacks from 1999-2019.

2/The main takeaway is that while declining psychological health has likely contributed to adverse mortality trends—especially among prime-age non-Hispanic Whites—its overall impact is limited and not well captured by standard definitions of “deaths of despair.”
Five findings support this conclusion

1/ My article "Mental Health and Mortality Trends in the United States" has just been published by the Journal of Health Economics. You can access it for free (for a while) using the link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lCV0c7LGG...

This is a revised & renamed version of NBER Working paper no. 32978.

My expertise is broader than I realized!

"I believe you would serve as an excellent reviewer of the manuscript, "The Use of Metaphors in Paremiological Units of English, Russian, and Kazakh Languages: A Study Based on the Thematic Group "Labor-Idleness," submitted to Forum for Linguistic Studies."

No! Leave out the roadmap paragraph. It’s a waste of space.

Lots of great point here. I particularly agree with the idea of being upfront about the weaknesses in your approach/results. I think readers will be a lot more forgiving if you are. Also the point about revising, although it take me at least 10 drafts to get anything decent.

It's good to know the extent of my economic expertise!

4/

8. Leaving the planet a better place for my children and grandchildren.

Of course, many of these are human values, rather than anything particularly masculine or feminine.

3/

5. Recognizing the advantages I have received as a result of the circumstances of my life. And understanding that others may not have received those advantages.
6. Respecting women, LGBTQ individuals – basically everyone.
7. Protecting the environment.

2/

2. Showing emotions to those around us as appropriate and having the maturity to not show anger or frustration when not appropriate to do so.
3. Being thoughtful.
4. Not being overconfident. And the flip side, trying to recognize and appreciate other points of view.

1/ There has been lots of talk about the ideas of (toxic) masculinity coming out of those currently in power. Here is some of what masculinity means to me:

1. Protecting and supporting those who are less powerful or in need.

Opinion | A Day of American Infamy A dreadful moment for Ukraine, for the free world, for the legacy of an America that once stood for the principles of the Atlantic Charter.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/o...

I will not be buying anything today!

Today was the last straw. I just cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post.

Me too!

Me too!

Can anyone explain the logic behind the idea that the Trump administration will treat VAT's in other countries as tariffs? These certainly are a tax but one that doesn't affect imports differently than domestic production. Am I missing something? Or is this just an excuse for raising US tariffs?

And it doesn't end there! The CPS is down as well.

I've just learned that the Census Bureau has taken all the (formerly) public food security files down from its website. What a world! I grew up hearing about how third world, authoritarian, and communist countries would censor, conceal, and modify data. I never thought I would live in such a place!

"Borrow $338 million to pay themselves a dividend" is a really hallucinatory concept, like how do you diagram that out to distinguish it from plain old embezzlement

Here’s trillions in federal waste the DOGE bros could actually target Because what's more wasteful than giant tax breaks for people who don't need them?

A good article on how the government could actually reduce the debt.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Outstanding piece! Well worth a read.

OK, I just deactivated the X-tweetie🐦 account. Slightly traumatic, but I feel good to have done it.