This week in research #112

Here's what caught my eye in research over the past week:

• Mati et al. find that the Russia-Ukraine war resulted in an immediate 21 percent reduction in the daily growth rate of the Euro-Ruble exchange rate, and that the steady-state effect translates to a 26 percent reduction in growth
• Masuhara and Hosoya review the COVID-19-related performance of OECD countries as well as Singapore and Taiwan in terms of deaths, vaccination status, production, consumption, and mobility from the early part of the pandemic to the end of 2022, and conclude that Norway was the most successful in terms of balancing deaths, production, and consumption
• Neprash, McGlave, and Nikpay (with ungated earlier version here) quantify the effects of ransomware attacks on hospital operations and patient outcomes, finding that attacks decrease hospital volume by 17-24 percent during the initial attack week, with recovery occurring within 3 weeks, and that among patients already admitted to the hospital when a ransomware attack begins, in-hospital mortality increases by 34-38 percent
• Tsivanidis (with ungated earlier version here) studies the world’s largest Bus Rapid Transit system in Bogotá, Colombia, and finds that low-cost "feeder" bus systems that complement mass rapid transit by providing last-mile connections to terminals yield high returns, but that welfare gains would have been about 36 percent larger under a more accommodative zoning policy
• Janssen finds that the 2023 Bud Light boycott led to a large drop in Bud Light volume (34-37 percent), partial switching into other beer, and a net decline in total ethanol purchases of roughly 5.5-7.5 percent of pre-boycott intake
• Krishnatri and Vellakkal (with ungated earlier version here) find that alcohol prohibition in Bihar, India, led to significant increases in caloric, protein, and fat intake from healthy food sources, as well as a decline in fat intake from unhealthy food sources
• Geruso and Spears (open access) document the worldwide fall in birth rates, and the unlikely prospects of a reversal to higher fertility in the future