News by Subject Social & Behavior

The total harm caused by excessive alcohol consumption is a staggering $2.05 per drink in the United States, and, of this, the government ends up paying about $0.80 per drink. However, the federal government and states only bring in about $0.21 per drink on average in alcohol taxes, according to new research. This leaves the majority of the cost of alcohol's harms borne by those who don't drink excessively or who don't drink at all.

Global efforts to give millions of people missing key paper documents such as a birth certificates a digital identity could leave them vulnerable to persecution or discrimination, a new study warns.

A comparative analysis has shown that 'indirect' instruments, such as excise taxes on motor fuel and other energy taxes, did not yield any lesser impact than their 'direct' counterparts, and, over time, were even more effective. This is the conclusion drawn by Ilya Stepanov, researcher at the Higher School of Economics, in his article, 'Taxes in the Energy Sector and Their Role in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions'.

New research from the University of South Australia finds that Australian businesses are ill-prepared for mandatory modern slavery reporting, with more than two-thirds of ASX 100 companies unable to produce a disclosure statement about potentially exploitative labour practices.

In an era of rising inequality and aging populations in the US, the effect of the minimum wage on the labor market for older workers is increasingly important, says new research from Mark Borgschulte, a professor of economics at Illinois.

A move by the White House in 2017 -- decried by many health policy analysts as an attempt to undercut the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- had unanticipated consequences that improved the affordability of health insurance for Marketplace enrollees. The findings show that the Trump Administration's cut of the ACA's cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers caused insurance providers to compensate by changing the distribution of premiums in ways that increase federal government subsidies to Marketplace enrollees.

One year after Philadelphia passed its beverage tax, sales of sugary and artificially sweetened beverages dropped by 38% in chain food retailers, according to Penn Medicine researchers who conducted one of the largest studies examining the impacts of a beverage tax. The results, published this week in JAMA, translate to almost one billion fewer ounces of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages -- about 83 million cans of soda -- purchased in the Philadelphia area.

Companies with fewer levels of management such as legal, accountancy and investment banking firms could be up to five times more susceptible to corruption than similar sized organizations with a taller structure such as those in manufacturing, a new study by the University of Sussex and Imperial College has revealed.

New research finds Airbnb is taking an increasing share of business away from the hotel industry.