@atheendar.bsky.social was recently quoted in the @nytimes.com on infant mortality rates - a critical public health issue that had been improving for decades but recently stalled. Check out what he says this could be attributed to: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/h...

Public preschools facilitate early diagnoses and treatment of behavioral and developmental conditions that can hinder learning, from Maya Rossin-Slater, Adrienne Sabety, and Aileen Wu www.nber.org/papers/w34677

Happy New Year from all of us at Opportunity for Health! There's a lot coming from us in 2026, including: -Redesigned website with research summaries -Findings from the first ever Stuckness in America Survey -Results from the IGNITE Study of Concentrated Investment in Low-Income Neighborhoods

The first antibiotics reduced childhood pneumonia, boosting adult human capital and income. However, discriminatory institutions curtailed long-run gains from a healthy start, from Sonia R. Bhalotra, Damian Clarke, and Atheendar Venkataramani www.nber.org/papers/w34606

The 1975 Voting Rights Act extension lowered mortality for most nonwhite groups but raised it for white adults and older nonwhite men, patterns consistent with status threat, from Atheendar Venkataramani, Rourke O'Brien, Elizabeth F. Bair, and Christopher A. Lowenstein www.nber.org/papers/w34421

Political institutions determine who governs -- and who lives. We find that enfranchising marginalized groups improved their health. We also find that redistribution of power led to relative increases in mortality for non-targeted groups--despite material circumstances improving for all groups.

📩 Are you interested in health policy, health care delivery, and population health? Sign up for our newsletters for the latest research from @upenn.edu experts, a wide range of events, and more! https://ldi.upenn.edu/about-us/newsletters/

1/ New paper w/ @rourkeobrien.bsky.social, @clowenstein.bsky.social, and Elizabeth Bair showing how the Voting Rights Act had starkly different effects on #mortality by race and age -- and the potential importance of #status #threat in explaining these findings. www.nber.org/papers/w34421

Surveying the evidence on intergenerational mobility studies that use alternative measures with a focus on health, consumption and life satisfaction, from Jonathan Davis, Nathan Deutscher, and @bhashmazumder.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w34407

Check out this special RESEARCH edition of the PENN POPULATION STUDIES NEWSLETTER featuring new pubs by 30+ @pennaging.bsky.social & @pennpsc.bsky.social researchers, including @oppforhealthlab.bsky.social, @pfomby.bsky.social, & @drdmgriffith.bsky.social READ IT HERE: bit.ly/3Wg0QeL

It was exciting to see OfH Lab members sharing their work at this week’s CHIBE Retreat! @pennchibe.bsky.social Our PM Hilu presented qualitative findings from the IGNITE study, and pre-doc Ritikaa presented on “Understanding the recent decline in US life expectancy” during the poster session. 👏🏼

Can economic opportunity lower mortality? Exploiting the fracking boom: job growth lowered medically treatable deaths (e.g. cardiovascular), likely via increased insurance coverage, but had no effect on external causes such as Deaths of Despair. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

1/ Opportunity for Health (@oppforhealthlab.bsky.social) is 5 years old today! I can't think of a better way to kick off our anniversary than embarking on this multi-year study on #job #reskilling and #health with a fantastic Philly based partner, The Skills Initiative.

The Opportunity for Health Lab is thrilled to be partnering with The Skills Initiative on WORKS - a new study exploring the powerful connection between economic opportunity and health. #OpportunityForHealth #SkillsInitiative #ResearchCollaboration

In @nejm.org, Atheendar Venkataramani (@pennmehp.bsky.social) & co discuss how public policies, by way of the social narratives they reinforce, can affect health by mechanisms that are independent of any effects on resources & opportunities @oppforhealthlab.bsky.social www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...

🚨 New paper 🚨 In the latter half of the 20th c, states in the US passed massive suites of “tough-on-crime” sentencing policies. In this paper, we investigated how (& why) these policies shaped pop health, esp racialized patterns of birth outcomes in the US. track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

The Opportunity for Health Lab is thrilled to be partnering with The Skills Initiative on WORKS - a new study exploring the powerful connection between economic opportunity and health. #OpportunityForHealth #SkillsInitiative #ResearchCollaboration

#Policies can affect our #health by shaping and transmitting social narratives and affect people's #beliefs about their current and future status -- independent of any impacts they have on people's material circumstances. See our new #paper in @nejm.org: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

#Policies can affect our #health by shaping and transmitting social narratives and affect people's #beliefs about their current and future status -- independent of any impacts they have on people's material circumstances. See our new #paper in @nejm.org: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

In @nejm.org, LDI Fellow Atheendar Venkataramani and colleagues explore how the discussion surrounding public policies—regardless of whether the policy is enacted or not—impacts population health, particularly for marginalized groups. Learn more: ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/res...

Constructing new population-level linked administrative data to study households' access to credit in the US, from Trevor J. Bakker, Stefanie DeLuca, Eric A. English, James S. Fogel, Nathaniel Hendren, and Daniel Herbst https://www.nber.org/papers/w34053

New op-ed in @crainsnewyork.bsky.social! @mihirkakara.bsky.social examines NY’s proposal to end subminimum wages for disabled workers under Section 14(c) - a policy that still allows people with disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage. Read here: www.crainsnewyork.com/op-ed/op-ed-...

Providing the first causal evidence on how occupational wage inequality undermines the labor movement, using three complementary research designs, from Barbara Biasi, Zoë B. Cullen, Julia H. Gilman, and Nina Roussille https://www.nber.org/papers/w33978

Today at Noon EST (5pm BST) with PARC Research Associate Julia Lynch @jlynch13.bsky.social Join LSE Health for "Unhealthy Divides? Perspectives on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health": Register: bit.ly/4jWYavW An interdisciplinary panel moderated by @emiliecourtin.bsky.social

CUNY's ACE program raised BA completion. An analysis finds ACE yields $48K in net social benefits per participant—rising to $130K when intergenerational benefits are included, from Scott-Clayton, Garfinkel, Ananat, Collyer, Hartley, Koutavas, Wang, and Wimer https://www.nber.org/papers/w33956

New working paper alert! Posted at @equitablegrowth.bsky.social, it investigates the economic geography of social transfer programs and financial income--with implications for the Medicaid and SNAP cuts proposed in the reconciliation bill 👀 equitablegrowth.org/working-pape...

IAPHS Conference Registration is now open! Visit iaphs.org/conference/r... to learn more

SER Café☕︎ Join us for an online conversation with author @robertmanduca.bsky.social on his article, “Should social insurance programs count as wealth? Augmented wealth in research and policy.” 📅Friday, June 27th, 8AM PDT / 11AM EDT / 5PM CET via Zoom. Register here: umich.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Not Even Wealth is Saving Americans from Dying at Rates Seen among Some of the Poorest Europeans in NBC News by Atheendar Venkataramani (PARC Research Associate) www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

How can we as researchers do a better job of making our work accessible and engaging to the public? Dr. Atheendar Venkataramani was recently interviewed by @ryansuk.bsky.social to discuss the importance of public engagement by scientists. Check out the full interview here 👇🏽

For 40 years, Americans have lived shorter lives than people in other rich countries. For 10 years, that's been rapidly getting worse. New research: in 2022-2023, there were 1.5 million "missing Americans," who died--but wouldn't have, if America didn't have such uniquely high death rates.

ICYMI: The second keynote of @pennchibe.bsky.social’s Spring Research Seminar Series, the event featuring Harvard Professor Raj Chetty and co-hosted by @katymilkman.bsky.social & Atheendar Venkataramani is now available on our YouTube channel! Watch it here: bit.ly/4kgDjnE

It's publication day for Getting Better! policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/getting-better It has been, once again, an absolute joy to work with @profkatsmith.bsky.social and @profbambra.bsky.social on this book.

CBO projects that House reconciliation bill will cause 1.38 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries to lose Medicaid coverage We estimate that this will lead to over 18,000 avoidable deaths per year stemming from loss of drug subsidies Link to our memo led by @pennldi.bsky.social: bit.ly/4mwfcDA

Read this new paper in SSM - Population Health co-authored by PARC Research Associate Atheendar Venkataramani w/ R O'Brien, M Schechtl, R Manduca Local Government Expenditure Centralization & Spatial Variation in Working-Age Mortality READ THE PAPER: doi.org/10.1016/j.ss... NIA @rccn-aging.org

"The experimental selection correction estimator: Using experiments to remove biases in observational estimates" Athey, Chetty, & Imbens www.nber.org/papers/w33817

The latest pub. from Rourke O'Brien, @schechtlm.bsky.social, our own @robertmanduca.bsky.social, & Atheendar Venkataramani suggests that local government spending may reduce mortality, esp. for people with lower incomes. Read more in SSM – Population Health: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

For the latest demography & population aging research news & events, don't miss a single issue of the PENN POPULATION STUDIES NEWSLETTER. READ IT HERE: mailchi.mp/pop/populati... In this issue: Dorothy Roberts in @inquirer.com Atheedar Venkataramani in @nbcnews.com and much more!

Join us this Friday, May 2 for a virtual seminar exploring how health systems can improve community well-being by addressing economic disparities. This event is free and open to the public! Register today: ldi.upenn.edu/events/boost...

Don’t forget to register for tomorrow’s virtual seminar led by OfH Director Atheen Venkataramani! Registration link: upenn.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🎓 Meet Our Pre-Doctoral Fellow: Ritikaa Khanna! Ritikaa joined the lab last year as part of our new Mentorship Pipeline Program, launched in 2024 to support emerging researchers. To help you get to know her better, we asked Ritikaa a few questions:

What if we could harness the complexity of the real world to guide clinical questions? Atheen Venkataramani and Lizzie Bair explore this in their new paper by diving into how real-world shocks and policy changes could help answer the Q: Does this treatment work? evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Essential reading for clinicians and clinicians' research partners. From @oppforhealthlab.bsky.social evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Prediction with Differential Covariate Classification: Illustrated by Racial/Ethnic Classification in Medical Risk Assessment @nber.org WP By Charles F. Manski, John Mullahy & PARC Research Associate Atheendar Venkataramani @atheendar.bsky.social @johnmullahy.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w33350

The Blue Zones Project claims to unlock the secrets to longevity, but does its approach hold up to scrutiny? Dr. Atheendar Venkatarmani isn’t conviced: “I think any new intervention that’s trying to scale and is touted as promising should put it to the test”. newrepublic.com/article/1883...

Don't forget to register!! "Boosting Health Through Economic Policy: Tax and Labor Policies to Improve Population Health," hosted by @pennldi.bsky.social and moderated by OfH Director Dr. Atheendar Venkataramani. 🗓️ March 28, 2025 ⏰ 12-1pm EST Register here: ldi.upenn.edu/events/boost...

Don't forget to register!! "Boosting Health Through Economic Policy: Tax and Labor Policies to Improve Population Health," hosted by @pennldi.bsky.social and moderated by OfH Director Dr. Atheendar Venkataramani. 🗓️ March 28, 2025 ⏰ 12-1pm EST Register here: ldi.upenn.edu/events/boost...

Why is #social and #economic #opportunity so critical for our nation's #health? Read one of our early pieces for more on the underlying theory and some correlations in the data that support it! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... A teaser here:

🆕 New Research from OfH Lab member @mihirkakara.bsky.social! A recent study in @annalsofim.bsky.social finds that patients with disabilities experience disrespect and exclusion from medical decision-making at higher rates than other patients. 🔗 to article: www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7...

Thrilled to see this paper out! This is part of a larger research agenda documenting that: 1) A variety of (often understudied) factors affect the quality of colleges students choose, and 2) College choice and quality matter for longer-run outcomes like graduation and earnings.