arXiv subjects

Maysam Rabbani

Publications and source records attributed to Maysam Rabbani.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Raising Rivals' Costs on Hybrid Platforms: The Complementarity of Fees and Self-Preferencing

Hybrid platforms disadvantage third-party sellers through the platform fee and self-preferencing, and regulators have worried that constraining either instrument may intensify the other. We model a platform that chooses both instruments and find the opposite: single-instrument regulation is effective because the instruments are strategic complements, and regulating either instrument curbs the other. We also find that the two instruments achieve what monopolization achieves, higher prices and reduced consumer welfare, while passing every conventional antitrust test.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2026

Price Cap vs. Per-Unit Subsidies: Selection, Pricing, and Cross Subsidization

We evaluate subsidy mechanisms in the FCC's Rural Health Care program using administrative data covering the full population of participants. The original price-cap mechanism removes cost-containment incentives for health care providers. An ad valorem mechanism introduced in 2014 addresses this flaw by making providers bear 35% of costs. However, allowing consortium applications creates a new distortion: cross-subsidization from eligible to ineligible members. We develop theoretical models predicting these effects and estimate treatment effects using an extension of the two-way fixed effects framework with continuous treatments. We find that the ad valorem mechanism substantially reduces program spending relative to the price cap, while the consortium option significantly inflates it. Enforcement records and an inverted U-shaped relationship between cross-subsidization intensity and ineligible member share corroborate the findings.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2025

Birthweight Declined During the Pandemic and It Is Falling Further Post-pandemic

Recent literature reports mixed evidence on whether birthweight has decreased during the pandemic. In this paper, we use New York's hospital inpatient discharge data and contribute to this ongoing debate in multiple ways. First, we corroborate that birthweight has declined during the pandemic by 7g (grams). Second, we provide the first empirical evidence that, after the pandemic, not only birthweight has not reverted to the pre-pandemic levels, but it has fallen lower, 17g below the pre-pandemic levels. Third, in the post-pandemic years, mothers who are hospitalized to give birth are 27% more likely to be at a higher mortality risk and 8% more likely to have a higher severity of illness. Disruptions to birthweight could have far-reaching consequences for the health, longevity, and well-being of the population. Therefore, understanding the full scope of COVID-19's influence on birthweight is a vital and timely practice. Future research is needed to test whether our results are driven by true underlying changes in birthweight and complications or by healthcare providers being induced (financially or otherwise) to report birthweight differently.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2025

Falling Birthrate and Rising C-section: Post-Pandemic Evidence from New York

The literature documents the effects of the pandemic on birthrate, birthweight, and pregnancy complications. This study contributes to this growing body of research by examining multiple facets of the phenomenon. Using the 2012-2022 hospital inpatient discharge data of New York, we implemented fixed-effects regression models and reported three key findings. First, birthrate was declining pre-pandemic by 1.11% annually. Second, we documented an additional 7.61% decline in birthrate with the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Notably, birthrate did not return to the pre-pandemic trajectory in subsequent years, indicating a persistent decline. Third, this post-pandemic decline was greater in vaginal delivery, with weak evidence of a drop in C-section. In our sample, C-section generates 61% more revenue than vaginal delivery. This raises the possibility that, in response to declining birthrate, healthcare providers have increased C-section rates to make up for lost revenues. While this hinted at upselling in the delivery room, further research is needed to draw definitive conclusions.

econ.GN↗