Therapeutic area being studied as well as number and types of clinical procedures involved were the key drivers of direct costs in Phase 1 through Phase 3 studies. Research shows that strategies exist for reducing the price tag of some of these major direct cost components. Therefore, to increase clinical trial efficiency and reduce costs, gaining a better understanding of the key direct cost drivers is an important step.

Worldwide, the leading causes of death could be avoided with health behaviors that are low-cost but also difficult to adopt. We show that exogenous health shocks could facilitate the adoption of these behaviors and provide long-lasting effects on health outcomes. Specifically, we exploit the spatial and temporal variation of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in Mexico and show that areas with a higher incidence of H1N1 experienced larger reductions in diarrhea-related cases among young children. These reductions continue even three years after the shock ended. Health improvements and evidence of information seeking via Google searches were consistent with changes in hand washing behaviors. Several robustness checks validate our findings and mechanism.

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This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR1719Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2017 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark. Cover photo by Staff Sgt. Joe Armas/U.S. Army iii PrefaceThis report documents one of the primary tasks of a research project titled "Facilitating AC-to-RC and AC-to-Civilian Transitions." The overall purpose of the project was to assess the level and importance of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform in Army military occupational specialties (MOSs) to develop improved crosswalks between military and civilian occupations and to make other recommendations to improve the transition process for soldiers leaving the Regular Army.In this report, we discuss the results of occupation surveys administered to soldiers in ten of the most populous Army MOSs, including the knowledge, skills, and abilities rated most important by soldiers in those MOSs, the best-matching civilian occupations, and comparisons with other military-civilian occupation crosswalks.

In May 2013, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1296, requiring the Texas Education Agency to distribute information to public school students about higher education institutions and workforce needs in the state. Specifically, the bill calls for comparisons on higher education institutions in terms of tuition costs, student debt, retention and graduation rates, and employment outcomes. The bill also requires disseminating the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) projections of future occupational demands and annual wages for the jobs in highest demand.The bill further requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), in conjunction with TWC, to prepare a report on Texas's future workforce needs that would help inform decisions to develop or expand postsecondary education programs. This portion of the bill is the motivation for the present report.Educators and policymakers in Texas and elsewhere have a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative workforce information available for planning degree and certificate programs in colleges and universities. To help guide use of such resources, The College for All Texans Foundation, which works to further the objectives of THECB, asked RAND Education, a unit of the RAND Corporation, to conduct this study. It examines the quantitative and qualitative sources of information on workforce needs. It reviews common techniques for quantitative modeling using workforce data, as well as how institutions and states may use these data to inform decisions about degree programs.It also develops some data tools and recommends ways to use workforce information in degree program planning.This study was made possible by the generosity of the Houston Endowment.