Urban Institute

About: Urban Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicaid & Population. The organization has 927 authors who have published 2330 publications receiving 86426 citations.

Worker Decisions to Purchase Health Insurance

Abstract: Studying worker health insurance choices is usually limited by the absence of price data for workers who decline their employer?s offer. This paper uses a new Medical Expenditure Panel Survey file which links household and employer survey respondents, supplying data for both employer insurance takers and decliners. We test for whether out-of-pocket or total premium better explains worker behavior, estimate price elasticities with observed prices and with imputed prices, and test for worker sorting among jobs with and without health insurance. We find that out-of-pocket price dominates, that there is some upward bias from estimating elasticities with imputed premiums rather than observed premiums, and that workers do sort among jobs but this does not affect elasticity estimates appreciably. Like earlier studies with less representative worker samples, we find worker price elasticity of demand to be quite low. This suggests that any premium subsidies must be large to elicit much change in worker take-up behavior. (Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics 2001 September/December; 1(3/4): 305-325).

Modeling Income in the Near Term: Revised Projections of Retirement Income Through 2020 for the 1931-1960 Birth Cohorts: Final Report

Abstract: This report details the development of a third version of MINT (Modeling Income in the Near Term), a tool for simulating the retirement incomes of members of the Baby Boom and neighboring cohorts. MINT3 can produce projections of economic and demographic characteristics in the year 2020, at the time of retirement, and for other years and ages. It can be used both to construct a baseline using alternative economic and demographic assumptions and to analyze the distributional consequences of a variety of Social Security policy changes.

Marital Dissolution, Early Motherhood and Early Marriage

Abstract: The age at which a young woman marries appears to be related strongly to the probability that the marriage remains intact: older couples tend to make more stable pairings than those who wed while quite young. But youthful marriages are often accompanied by youthful childbearing. The effects of the age at which the woman 1st wed and the age at which she bore her 1st child on the likelihood that the marriage dissolved during this period were assessed net of each other and of other circumstances and characteristics of the woman. It was found that among young wives teenage parenthood did not appear to increase the risk of divorce or separation whereas teenage marriage significantly raised the probability of disruption. When the analysis was performed separately by race this pattern held among white wives; however for black wives a 1st birth before age 20 was found to increase instability more than a 1st marriage before that age. The finding that age at 1st marriage but not age at 1st birth is significantly related to the probability of marital dissolution appears robust in the total sample: among subsamples of wives all married at about the same age the age at which they had their 1st birth did not influence stability of marriages. Data were drawn from the US National Longitudinal Study of the Labor Market Experiences of Young Women which sampled over 5000 women aged 18-24 in 1968 with reinterviews each following year up to 1972. (authors modified)

Drug Courts: A Conceptual Framework:

Abstract: Structural and process characteristics of drug courts may have a major influence on offender outcomes. However, despite the existence of dozens of outcome evaluations in the drug court literature, ...

Factors influencing first intercourse for teenage men

Abstract: Analyses of a nationally representative survey of 1,880 15- to 19-year-old men were conducted to examine factors associated with (a) the age when first sexual intercourse occurred and (b) whether a condom or other contraceptive method was used at first intercourse. Discrete time-event history models assessed factors influencing their age until first intercourse. Black males began sexual activity significantly earlier than white or Hispanic males. Males who had been held back in school also began sexual activity earlier. If a respondent's mother had been a teenager when she first gave birth, or if his mother was employed during his childhood, he was more likely to initiate intercourse early. A variety of combinations of AIDS and sex education topics were examined for their association with one's age at the time of first intercourse: two topics were associated with earlier intercourse, and one was associated with delays in first intercourse. Logistic regression models examined correlates of using a condom or any effective male or female method of contraception at first intercourse: having received education about birth control was marginally associated with increased probability of using a condom or any effective male or female contraceptive method at first intercourse. These findings indicate the relevance of integrated approaches to school-based sex and AIDS education in delaying intercourse and promoting use of contraceptive methods.