This paper analyzes the role health status plays in household portfolio decisions using data from the Health and Retirement Study. The results indicate that health is a significant predictor of both the probability of owning different types of financial assets and the share of financial wealth held in each asset category. Households in poor health are less likely to hold risky financial assets, other things (including the level of total wealth) being the same. Poor health is associated with a smaller share of financial wealth held in risky assets and a larger share in safe assets. We find no evidence that the relationship between health status and portfolio allocation is driven by “third variables” that simultaneously affect health and financial decisions. Further, the relationship between health status and portfolio choice does not appear to operate through the effect of poor health on individuals’ attitudes toward risk, their planning horizons, or their health insurance status.

This paper uses Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to study life satisfaction and mental health across the geography of the United States. The analysis draws on a sample of 1.3 million citizens. Initially we control for people's personal characteristics (though not income). There is no correlation between states' regression-adjusted well-being and their GDP per capita. States like Louisiana, plus Washington, D.C., have high psychological well-being levels; California and West Virginia have low well-being. When we control for incomes, satisfaction with life is lower in richer states, just as compensating-differentials theory would predict. Nevertheless, some puzzles remain.

The search for talent is of particular interest to economists; in fact, nothing unites academic economists’ interest like speculation about the causes of two key measures of success in their profession: completion of the doctorate and success in publishing. We assess both outcomes by using a rich set of pre-graduate school characteristics to forecast both success in the Ph.D. program and professional achievement. Using information contained in application files to a top 5 economics Ph.D. program in 1989, we predict the determinants of doctoral degree completion and research productivity 17 years later. The results suggest that several variables consistently predict degree completion and long run research productivity: quantitative GRE scores, having a foreign undergraduate degree, and the quality of the individuals who write letters of reference.