Luke Sibieta write for the ESRC's blog about a collaboration between Lambeth Council and researchers from the IFS which proved informative for policymakers and of value to researchers.
This article examines the long-term impacts on health and healthy behaviour of two of the oldest and most widely cited US early childhood interventions evaluated by the method of randomisation with long-term follow-up.
This study compares twins, where one has suffered a health shock and the other has not, investigating how the family evens out the outcomes for the children.
Alcohol consumption is associated with costs to society due to its impact on crime and health. Tax can lead consumers to internalise these externalities.
The UK should follow Ontario and reactivate its treasure trove of dormant trials to generate new science through linkage with administrative data. Many groups stand to benefit. For example, drug regulators could encourage linkage of dormant and new trials to administrative data to monitor long term safety of drugs.
Governments have long used taxation to correct for the socially costly overconsumption of alcohol, but as the external cost of overconsumption varies across drinkers, a single tax rate is not optimal. This column argues that variation in preferences for different products and in price responsiveness across heavy and light drinkers provides scope to improve welfare by varying tax rates across alcohol products. The proposed framework is well suited to addressing other sources of external costs, such as obesity.
