An Endpoint

In recent decades, death rates from poisonings, suicides, and alcoholic liver disease have dramatically increased in the United States. We show that these “deaths of despair” began to increase relative to trend in the early 1990s, that this increase was preceded by a decline in religious participation, and that both trends were driven by middle-aged white Americans. Using repeals of blue laws as a shock to religiosity, we confirm that religious practice has significant effects on these mortality rates. Our findings show that social factors such as organized religion can play an important role in understanding deaths of despair. (paper)

***

Estimates vary widely, but some put the underground economy at 11% to 12% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). In the third quarter of 2022, U.S. GDP was estimated at $25.7 trillion, which puts the underground economy at more than $2.8 trillion.

***

Our findings suggest that shifting child care from the home to the market increases labor force participation and improves child outcomes.
That is from a new NBER working paper by Jonathan Gruber, Thomas Kosonen, and Kristina Huttunen. Note that the results may irritate both some social conservatives and some proponents of extremely generous maternal leave arrangements.

***

An Endpoint

The Turkish government's top religious authority under Erdoğan, Diyanet, is giving permission for adoptive parents to marry, and consummate the marriage with, the adopted children who survived the earthquake.

Most recently, in November, Turkey heard that a prominent Islamic sheik, the leader of a religious order fiercely devoted to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had married off his six-year-old daughter to a 29-year-old disciple.


It will be interesting to see how those adults, eager to educate young children in American schools about sexuality, react to this most definitive realization of their wishes.