Search results

As a strategy for combating physical inactivity, obesity, and other health conditions, the apperception of greenspace and importance of human-nature relationships have increased in recent decades. With this raised awareness in greenspace, the development of park auditing tools has been positioned primarily in the material conditions (e.g., physical environmental conditions) of parks. An examination of existing park auditing tools has shown that by focusing on particular material conditions, built environment and active living scholars have set aside other characteristics, namely, those that consider the user (e.g., the active human), as a separate concern from the focus of these tools. We have sought to engage with these tools to examine how they can be more effective in analyzing both the physical and human elements of parks and other natural environments.

Having first reached epidemic proportions in coastal metropolitan areas, COVID-19 has spread 4 around the country. Reported case rates vary across counties from zero to 125 per thousand 5 population (around a state prison in the rural county of Trousdale, Tennessee). Overall, rural 6 counties are underrepresented relative to their share of the population, but a growing proportion 7 of all daily cases and deaths have been reported in rural counties. This analysis uses daily 8 reports for all counties to present the trends and distribution of COVID-19 cases and deaths in 9 rural counties, from late March to May 16, 2020. I describe the relationship between population 10 density and case rates in rural and non-rural counties. Then I focus on noteworthy outbreaks 11 linked to prisons, meat and poultry plants, and nursing homes, many of which are linked to 12 high concentrations of Hispanic, American Indian, and Black populations. The growing 13 epidemic in rural counties is apparently driven by outbreaks concentrated in these institutional 14 settings, which are conducive to transmission. The impact of the epidemic in rural areas may 15 be heightened due to their weaker health infrastructure and more vulnerable populations, 16 especially due to age, socioeconomic status, and health conditions. As a result, the epidemic 17 may contribute to the ongoing decline of health, economic, and social conditions in rural areas.

COVID impact on areas of high particulate concentrations is greater

Will continue work on models for tracking and responding to the pandemic

We study how consumers make brand choices when they have limited information. In a market of experience goods with frequent product entry and exit, consumers face two types of information problems: first, they have limited information about a product’s existence; second, even if they know a product exists, they do not have full information about its quality until they purchase and consume it. In this chapter, we incorporate purchase experience and brand advertising as two sources of information and examine how consumers use them in a dynamic process. The model is estimated using the Nielsen Homescan data in Los Angeles, which consist of grocery shopping history for 1,402 households over 6 years. Taking ready-to-eat cereal as an example, we find that consumers learn about new products quickly and form strong habits. More specifically, advertising has a significant effect in informing consumers of a product’s existence and signaling product quality. However, advertising’s prestige effect is not significant. We also find that incorporating limited information about a product’s existence leads to larger estimates of the price elasticity. Based on the structural estimates, we simulate consumer choices under three counterfactual experiments to evaluate brand marketing strategies and a policy on banning children-oriented cereal advertising. Simulation suggests that the advertising ban encourages consumers to consume less sugar and more fiber, but their expenditures are also higher because they switch to family and adult brands, which are more expensive.

Because consumer reviews leverage the wisdom of the crowd, the way in which they are aggregated is a central decision faced by platforms. We explore this "rating aggregation problem" and offer a structural approach to solving it, allowing for (1) reviewers to vary in stringency and accuracy, (2) reviewers to be influenced by existing reviews, and (3) product quality to change over time. Applying this to restaurant reviews from Yelp.com, we construct an adjusted average rating and show that even a simple algorithm can lead to large information efficiency gains relative to the arithmetic average.

Unstable and Unpredictable Work Schedules: Effects on Wellbeing and What to Do About It

Examining the Association Between Abortion and Mental Health: The (Mis)use of Science in Policy

Racial Disparities in Health: Physician Bias and Veterans’ Pensions

Natalie Slopen and colleagues published a new study exploring the health implications of intimate partner violence on children