December 19, 2019 – An analysis by a Vanderbilt economist whose research focuses on fatality risks finds that the post-9/11 wars may have resulted in more than twice as many indirect deaths back home as were lost in battle. These indirect deaths are due to the diversion of war costs from the U.S. economy and […]
Vanderbilt University
Current sexual harassment penalties are too low: Study
March 15, 2019 – The current federal cap on monetary damages for workplace sexual harassment is far too low to incentivize firms to take stronger measures to prevent the behavior, writes Vanderbilt economist Joni Hersch in Valuing the Risk of Workplace Sexual Harassment, published in the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. Hersch is the Cornelius […]
They call it puppy love, but what is it really? Animals teach humans a lot about love. (VIDEO)
Feb. 13, 2019 – Humans just love seeing animals demonstrate love: cuddly chimps grooming each other, say, or penguin pairs carefully passing their egg in the driving snow. Videos of cows joining dog packs or cats and birds becoming friends dot our social media feeds, shared hundreds of thousands of times. Those animal relationships are […]
Focusing on mental illness won’t solve gun violence: Vanderbilt expert
Nov. 8, 2018 – Mass shootings are unpredictable, but focusing on mental health is not going to solve the problem, says Jonathan Metzl, a Vanderbilt psychiatrist, sociologist and director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society. His research, “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms,” published in the American Journal of Public Health, analyzed data and […]
Expert: Mental Illness Is the Wrong Scapegoat after Mass Shootings
Oct. 2, 2017 – Jonathan Metzl, director of Center for Medicine, Health and Society, psychiatrist and sociologist Metzl is an expert on gun violence and mental illness. He has research that specifically addresses issues surrounding mental illness, mass shootings and treatment. In the article,“Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms,” Metzl analyzed data and […]
Analysis: History Is Repeating Itself. The Impacts of Senate Health Care Proposal on Medicaid
July 17, 2017 – Andrew Goodman-Bacon, a Vanderbilt University economist who studies the long-term effects of public safety net programs including Medicaid, says… The bill enacts steep and growing cuts to federal Medicaid funding. After 2025, the bill indexes the growth of federal Medicaid spending to general inflation instead of healthcare inflation, effectively cutting it […]
White Supremacist Activity on Internet Spikes When Trump Talks Anti-Immigration
Oct. 27 2016 – The presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has coincided with a large spike in white supremacist activity on the Internet, with Jewish journalists targeted in particular, according to a Vanderbilt professor. “The Trump campaign has given the white nationalist movement a long-awaited opportunity to spread its message to a […]
New fossil evidence supports theory that first mass extinction engineered by early animals
July 31, 2016 – Newly discovered fossil evidence from Namibia strengthens the proposition that the world’s first mass extinction was caused by “ecosystem engineers” – newly evolved biological organisms that altered the environment so radically it drove older species to extinction. The event, known as the end-Ediacaran extinction, took place 540 million years ago. The earliest […]