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Chris Ruhm

@chrisruhm.bsky.social
1.6K followers 2.2K following 67 posts

Economics from the head and the heart.

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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
2/ Also, I’m trying to get the MCS (mental component summary score) through 2022 but it is only listed as being available through 2016. (AI says it should be available in later years although without full comparability to the pre-2016 data.) Any help available on this?
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
#healtheconomics #economics 1/ I’m trying to extract a variable in MEPS for self-assessed mental health (poor, fair, good, very good, excellent) but I can’t find it on IPUMs. According to AI the name should be MNHLTH. Is it there and I’m missing it, under some other name, or not there?
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | This Problem Is Easy to Solve
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
7/ I'd love to hear any thoughts on this work, as well as ideas for future research.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
6/Finally, in the primary specifications, deteriorating mental health accounts for an estimated 9% to 29% of the rise in mortality rates among prime-age Whites in recent years.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
5/Fourth, heterogeneity in how worsening mental distress affects mortality—rather than in mental health trends themselves—is more important in explaining Black-White disparities in its overall impact.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
4/Third, while these correlations lend some support to the broader idea of “deaths of despair,” the specific causes comprising them appear to be both more expansive and different from those previously emphasized.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
3/ First, mental health deteriorated from 1993-2019 for all population groups examined. Second, these declines are associated with higher predicted death rates and help explain worsening mortality trends for prime-age non-Hispanic Whites and, to a lesser extent, non-Hispanic Blacks from 1999-2019.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
2/The main takeaway is that while declining psychological health has likely contributed to adverse mortality trends—especially among prime-age non-Hispanic Whites—its overall impact is limited and not well captured by standard definitions of “deaths of despair.” Five findings support this conclusion
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
1/ My article "Mental Health and Mortality Trends in the United States" has just been published by the Journal of Health Economics. You can access it for free (for a while) using the link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lCV0c7LGG... This is a revised & renamed version of NBER Working paper no. 32978.
authors.elsevier.com
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
My expertise is broader than I realized! "I believe you would serve as an excellent reviewer of the manuscript, "The Use of Metaphors in Paremiological Units of English, Russian, and Kazakh Languages: A Study Based on the Thematic Group "Labor-Idleness," submitted to Forum for Linguistic Studies."
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
No! Leave out the roadmap paragraph. It’s a waste of space.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Lots of great point here. I particularly agree with the idea of being upfront about the weaknesses in your approach/results. I think readers will be a lot more forgiving if you are. Also the point about revising, although it take me at least 10 drafts to get anything decent.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
It's good to know the extent of my economic expertise!
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
4/ 8. Leaving the planet a better place for my children and grandchildren. Of course, many of these are human values, rather than anything particularly masculine or feminine.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
3/ 5. Recognizing the advantages I have received as a result of the circumstances of my life. And understanding that others may not have received those advantages. 6. Respecting women, LGBTQ individuals – basically everyone. 7. Protecting the environment.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
2/ 2. Showing emotions to those around us as appropriate and having the maturity to not show anger or frustration when not appropriate to do so. 3. Being thoughtful. 4. Not being overconfident. And the flip side, trying to recognize and appreciate other points of view.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
1/ There has been lots of talk about the ideas of (toxic) masculinity coming out of those currently in power. Here is some of what masculinity means to me: 1. Protecting and supporting those who are less powerful or in need.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | A Day of American Infamy
A dreadful moment for Ukraine, for the free world, for the legacy of an America that once stood for the principles of the Atlantic Charter.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
I will not be buying anything today!
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Today was the last straw. I just cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Me too!
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Me too!
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Can anyone explain the logic behind the idea that the Trump administration will treat VAT's in other countries as tariffs? These certainly are a tax but one that doesn't affect imports differently than domestic production. Am I missing something? Or is this just an excuse for raising US tariffs?
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
And it doesn't end there! The CPS is down as well.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
I've just learned that the Census Bureau has taken all the (formerly) public food security files down from its website. What a world! I grew up hearing about how third world, authoritarian, and communist countries would censor, conceal, and modify data. I never thought I would live in such a place!
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Reposted by Chris Ruhm
Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
"Borrow $338 million to pay themselves a dividend" is a really hallucinatory concept, like how do you diagram that out to distinguish it from plain old embezzlement
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
A good article on how the government could actually reduce the debt. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Here’s trillions in federal waste the DOGE bros could actually target
Because what's more wasteful than giant tax breaks for people who don't need them?
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Outstanding piece! Well worth a read.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
OK, I just deactivated the X-tweetie🐦 account. Slightly traumatic, but I feel good to have done it.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/10/2024
In 2016 and 2020, economists organized to oppose Donald Trump's candidacy for president. It is now time for the economics profession to make the case against Trump once again. If you would like to become a signatory, please complete the form at the following location: forms.gle/DUoLUkZdMQUW....
forms.gle
Economists Letter 2024
Instructions: Fill in your full name, exactly as you would like it to appear in the letter. Use the following order: first middle (optional) last. Add an institutional affiliation (e.g. University of ...
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 23/09/2024
My newest research. www.nber.org/papers/w32978 #econsky
nber.org
"Despair" and Death in the United States
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 19/09/2024
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,138,081!
A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,138,081, Chris Ruhm ‪@chrisruhm.bsky.social‬, joined on Sep 20, 2023"
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/07/2024
4/ there would have been 271 and 447 thousand fewer deaths than if all states had restrictions similar to the 10 least restrictive states. Behavior changes probably played an important explanatory role.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/07/2024
3/ restrictions, covering: activity limitations, mask requirements or prohibitions, & vaccine requirement or prohibitions. Key findings are that if all states had adopted restrictions similar to the 10 most restrictive states, there would have been 271 and 447 thousand fewer deaths
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/07/2024
2/ months of the pandemic are not included because there was little policy variation at that point and infection/death rates were largely determined by idiosyncratic factors (see the paper for evidence). The primary analysis looks at “packages” of weak versus strong restrictions, covering:
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/07/2024
1/ I thought I’d summarize results of my new study “US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths” published today in JAMA Health Forum (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.2006). The study looks at excess deaths from 7/20-6/22. The first months of the pandemic are not included because
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 26/04/2024
The police actions shown here are outrageous. Who authorized this?
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 10/01/2024
For prior research, I have used SEER race-age-sex-specific population data as the denominator for calculating mortality rates. However, these data have not been updated past 2020 and it appears that there is no plan to do so. Ideas for alternative sources for recent years? (State level only is OK).
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 03/12/2023
Whatever your views on the Israeli-Gaza situation, can someone explain to me the rationale for the US giving massive amounts of aid to Israel given that they have the 11th highest GDP per capita in the world?
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 02/12/2023
If you are interested in understanding how excess deaths in the US evolved during the first two-years of the COVID-19 pandemic, you can get that information (for free) here: academic.oup.com/aje/article/...
academic.oup.com
The Evolution of Excess Deaths in the United States During the First 2 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemi...
Abstract. Understanding consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic requires information on the excess mortality resulting from it. Multiple studies have examined exc
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 08/11/2023
3/ I think the country is ready for younger, more dynamic leadership & Biden, for all his many virtues, is not that. For the good of the country he should withdraw & hopefully reduce the risk of electing a candidate who will work to destroy rather than rebuild our democracy.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 08/11/2023
2/ too old, too ineffectual etc. to serve a second term. 2. It seems unlikely this perception will change in the next year. 3. This means he could well lose to Trump, a truly awful candidate. (& if the R's somehow nominate someone else, they would almost certainly beat Biden)
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 08/11/2023
1/ In my view Biden has been a good, albeit imperfect, President, with some tangible achievements. (His initial embrace of the invasion of Gaza by Israel is not one of them.) However, he should not run again for President in 2024. Why not? 1. Whether true or not, he is perceived as being
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
16/ in hopes that the referee will not read the entire resubmission. I don’t do this and don’t like it. It makes the letters incredibly long and, as a referee, I always want to see the new material in context. But others will probably disagree.
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
15/  your response. In some case, you may not be able to fulfill the referee’s request, but state what you have done (which at a minimum will be some language addressing the issue). I know that some authors put the entire relevant text from the paper in their response letter, sometimes explicitly
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
14/ respond to the referee’s comments if you want to get your paper published. It’s another part of what we do.   When you resubmit the paper, let the referee (& editor) exactly how you have responded to the suggestions. This should be in a letter giving point-by-point guidance as to
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
13/ the case.) Moreover, if the referee misunderstands, the reader, who will be going through the published paper even more quickly, almost certainly will as well. Being a referee is a thankless job, done for little or no pay. So cut the complaining and get on with it. In any case, you have to
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
12/ are dramatic. In others they are modest. I don’t think I’ve ever had my paper become worse as a result of the comments. Also, if the referee misunderstands something in my paper, I assume that I have not communicated clearly. (And if two referees have the same misunderstanding that’s certainly
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Chris Ruhm @chrisruhm.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
11/ But try to remember that before desk rejections were so common, the editorial process would often take 6 months or more, with the same result. Academics complain about referees all the time. However, my attitude is that referees almost always improve the paper. In some cases the improvements
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