
Asst Prof of Economics @Trinity_U | health insurance, health policy, & health disparities. Abundance bro. Past: @vanderbiltecon @LGBTPolicyLabVU and @aysps
San Antonio, TX
Joined May 2008
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Ben Harrell 🌐 retweeted
Very happy to share that our paper with Rafael Di Tella and Ramiro Gálvez (@RamiroHGalvez) has recently landed in JEBO!
In this paper, we study whether varying access to Twitter/X during a presidential debate affects political polarization.
Ben Harrell 🌐 retweeted
Officially Conditional Accept (Data) at the American Economic Review!🎉
I'm very grateful to the editor and referees for making the paper better and to everyone who supported me throughout.
Domestic violence research is back in the AER, 16 years after Aizer (2010)!
Paper in a nutshell: When the husband profits from his wife’s labor, physically hurting her costs him. After a coffee mill opening, women in the mill catchment areas are less likely to self-report domestic violence relative to the year before. Within the year, hospitals in the mill catchment areas are less likely to have a domestic violence patient in the peak harvest months, when the mills operate and that cost is likely to be highest. The results align with Becker’s (1968) economic model of crime: There is a cost. There is a benefit. If the cost outweighs the benefit, violence falls.
Brad is right in this thread that a big part of the reason many people increase educ attainment is to get a higher income, but it's not the only reason! For example, educ changes how you think and make decisions. (Cutler and Lleras-Muney, 2006) 1/4
nber.org/system/files/workin…
Replying to @elben
It’s cool that you are thinking about this empirically, but as an economist what’s your prior on the percentage of current enrollees that would continue to pay 100s of thousands per year if they explicitly and deterministically are not going to earn more than a high school diploma holder after graduation? Assume it’s been long enough since this change that the cultural knowledge/expectation has had time to update
That's kind of esoteric, what does it mean? In the follow-up (C&L-M,2006), authors estimate that only a 3rd of the income/health gradient is attributable to income. Most is attributable to measurably different health behaviors. Something about education changes you! 3/4
Howdy, y'all. I'll be reading (and writing about) new NBER WPs in health, labor, and public economics every week in an effort to keep myself up to date. Follow along if you like. For my first post, I re-re-visit "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?" 1/6
equimarginalprinciples.subst…
What are its limitations? Post-2009, estimates are extraordinarily noisy. As a model, it's not particularly explanatory of aggregate mortality trends. I don't usually recommend looking at the R^2, but for a model like this I think you want to, and the R^2=0.05. 5/6
It is a special joy for a professor to see their students thrive. Check out this interesting analysis by my thesis advisee Ben Kim (and old Vandy friend Tucker Smith).
dallasfed.org/research/econo…
Two problems w/ this article from my old Twitter frenemy Unlearning Economics:
1) Price controls in imperfectly competitive markets (eg oligopolistic) can improve welfare.
2) That doesn’t mean rent control as it is currently proposed will do so. Depends on lots of things!
an economist explains how rent control is actually fine and good
currentaffairs.org/news/rent…
A few more spots to fill! If you're interested in being a discussant or chair of a session in health equity at ASHEcon 2026 pls shoot me a DM!
Ben Harrell 🌐 retweeted
you’re telling me all the same people who championed the anti trans panic now openly want to overturn gay marriage? you mean gay and trans struggles were inseparable this whole time?
🚨EXCLUSIVE:
A broad coalition of pro-family groups is organizing to overturn Obergefell.
The campaign declares that children are "Greater Than" so-called "Equality."
Marriage and family law should prioritize the needs of children, not the predilections of adults.
Here's the powerful video with @albertmohler, @LilaGraceRose, @Advo_Katy, @conservmillen, @JBStonestreet, @michaeljknowles, @FocusFamily's Jim Daly, @DelanoSquires, @tperkins, & @josh_hammer.
The coalition includes: @AmericanFamAssc, @ColsonCenter, @FRCdc, Focus on the Family, @ThemBeforeUs, @CatholicVote, @LiveAction, @AbbyJohnson, @SteveDeaceShow, @RuthInstitute, @RonColeman, @CBMWorg, @sgruber91, @CCVPolicy, @AKFamilyCouncil, @indianafamily, @theFAMiLYLEADER, @MarylandFamily, @MAFamilyInst, @ncfamilypolicy, @txvalues & more
dailysignal.com/2026/01/28/e…
Ben Harrell 🌐 retweeted
One last (sobering) update on the #EconJobMarket before the winter holidays; data as of 2025-12-14. In terms of # of job listings on JOE, this is the worst job mkt in recent yrs for PhD Economists. # jobs down 20% from last yr, even 18.9% lower than during COVID (2020).
















