PUBPOL 5281

The Economics and Regulation of Risky Health Behaviors

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Risky health behaviors such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, risky sex, poor diet, physical inactivity, and self-harm are responsible for hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and impose billions of dollars in medical care costs each year in the United States. This course teaches the economic approach to studying risky health behaviors. The research literature on the economic causes and correlates of risky health behaviors will be studied. Numerous policies to modify risky health behaviors, such as the minimum legal drinking age and recreational marijuana laws, will be debated in class. Students will also participate in a policy wargame on the subject of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: PUBPOL 5210 (or equivalent).

Distribution Category (SBA-HE)

• Employ the economic perspective to explain risky health behaviors; in particular: a. Distinguish the economic way of thinking from other viewpoints b. Apply economics and other perspectives to understand why people engage in risky health behaviors, and assess the merits of each. c. Define and describe the economic rationale for government intervention – to fix market failures – to evaluate the justification for, and design of, public policies.
• Recognize and analyze how economic research is conducted, in particular, differentiate the methods used by economists to estimate the effect of one variable on another. These methods include randomized experiments, the method of instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, and difference-in-differences models. Accurately interpret the results of these methods.
• Demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to compose clear and testable statements, critically examine arguments, fairly assess evidence, and conclude.
• Explain and interpret the basic facts about risky health behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, obesity, risky sex, and suicide.

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