Author Archives: Brendan Saloner

About Brendan Saloner

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program. I completed a PhD in health policy at Harvard in 2012. My current research focuses on children's health, public programs, racial/ethnic disparities, and mental health. I am also interested in justice and health care.

Conference Announcement: Complex Systems, Health Disparities & Population Health: Building Bridges

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

Conference on Complex Systems, Health Disparities & Population Health: Building Bridges February 24-25, 2014 Natcher Conference Center NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD Presented by the University of Michigan Network on Inequality, Complexity and Health Improving population health and eliminating health disparities is … Continue reading →

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The Immense Benefit of Applying to One More College – A Natural Experiment

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

A college degree is more than a wall ornament – it represents immense financial benefits for graduates. These rewards have become even more apparent during the long financial downturn, which have seen widening wage and employment gaps between college graduates … Continue reading →

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Marriage and Parental Investment in Children

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

Marriage ain’t what it used to be. Consider that: In 1950, almost half of all women were married by age 20 and for men the age was 23. By 2010, the median age of first marriage had increased to about … Continue reading →

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Income Mobility and Geography: Important New Research

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

Some new research by Raj Chetty, Emmanuel Saez, Nathaniel Hendren, and Patrick Kline finds that the likelihood of poor children moving up the income ladder in early adulthood varies dramatically by metro area in the United States. In places like … Continue reading →

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U.S. Health Disadvantage is Not Inevitable

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

Two major research studies in the last year compare health indicators in the United States with other major upper-income countries. Both exhaustively review government statistics and published articles. The first study, from the Institute of Medicine, draws on a panel … Continue reading →

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The Asian American Paradox: “Model Minorities” and Outsiders

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

Asian Americans are among the fastest growing demographics in the United States, yet they receive little attention in the study of racial inequality. This is especially surprising because Asian Americans occupy a paradoxical position in American society — simultaneously successful … Continue reading →

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Has Income Inequality Really Ballooned Since the 1970s?

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

One of the most influential lines of research on income inequality come from Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez’s study of income tax records in the United States and elsewhere. Summarizing this work in Slate, Timothy Noah states: “The share of … Continue reading →

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Learning About Inequality Increases Concern, But Not Necessarily Support for Redistribution

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

A puzzle: income inequality between the top 1% and the rest has surged in the last few years, yet support for redistribution among the general public has actually declined (see figure below). Do people not care about inequality, or do … Continue reading →

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Social Factors and the Evaluation of Mental Disorders

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

The American Psychiatric Association is set to release the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) this month. These new guidelines will have a profound effect on how clinicians diagnose mental disorders, how health insurers … Continue reading →

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Immigration reform without public benefits

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Brendan Saloner

Any viable immigration reform proposal in the United States senate has to pass through Florida Republican Marcio Rubio. That’s why it was big news when Rubio announced his support for a bipartisan plan on the Sunday news shows, stressing that … Continue reading →

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