Theodore L. Caputi

Theodore L. Caputi

Economics & Health Researcher

MIT Economics

About Me

My name is Theodore Caputi. I study health behaviors and health care as a thesis writer in the Ph.D. in Economics program at MIT. I am a National Science Graduate Research Fellowship Program recipient a 2023-2025 Pre-Doctoral Fellow in Aging and Health at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Before beginning the Ph.D., I received a Masters Degree in Public Health from the University of Cork as a Mitchell Scholar and a Masters Degree in Health Sciences from the University of York as a Marshall Scholar. I was also a research fellow for Professor Amanda Pallais at Harvard Economics and the National Bureau of Economic Research. I received a B.S. in Economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Working Papers

Dying or Lying? For-Profit Hospices and End of Life Care

Gruber, J., Howard, D.H., Leder-Luis, J., Caputi, T.L. (2023). Dying or Lying? For-Profit Hospices and End of Life Care. Conditionally Accepted at American Economic Review. (NBER Working Paper 31035)

Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries and Fatal Car Crashes

Caputi, T. (2022). Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries and Fatal Car Crashes. MIT Dept. of Economics Graduate Student Research Papers Series.

Featured Publications

The need for federal regulation of marijuana marketing

Ayers, J. W., Caputi, T. L., & Leas, E. C. (2019). The Need for Federal Regulation of Marijuana Marketing. JAMA, 321(22), 2163. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.4432

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Suicide risk behaviors among sexual minority adolescents in the United States, 2015.

Caputi, T. L., Smith, D., & Ayers, J. W. (2017). Suicide Risk Behaviors Among Sexual Minority Adolescents in the United States, 2015. JAMA, 318(23), 2349. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.16908

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Recent Publications

Re: Observed Impact of Long-Term Consumption of Oral Cannabidiol on Liver Function in Healthy Adults and a Recent Announcement of a New Cannabidiol Safety Study

Caputi, T. L. (2022). Re: Observed Impact of Long-Term Consumption of Oral Cannabidiol on Liver Function in Healthy Adults and a Recent Announcement of a New Cannabidiol Safety Study. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, 7(6), 896897. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2022.0191
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Characterizing Help-Seeking Searches for Substance Use Treatment From Google Trends and Assessing Their Use for Infoveillance: Longitudinal Descriptive and Validation Statistical Analysis

Patton, T., Abramovitz, D., Johnson, D., Leas, E., Nobles, A., Caputi, T., Ayers, J., Strathdee, S., & Brquez, A. (2022). Characterizing Help-Seeking Searches for Substance Use Treatment From Google Trends and Assessing Their Use for Infoveillance: Longitudinal Descriptive and Validation Statistical Analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(12), e41527. https://doi.org/10.2196/41527
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The Use of Academic Research in Medical Cannabis Marketing: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Company Websites

Caputi, T. L. (2022). The Use of Academic Research in Medical Cannabis Marketing: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Company Websites. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 83(1), 517. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2022.83.5
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Proportion of U.S. Clinics Offering LGBT-Tailored Mental Health Services Decreased Over Time: A Panel Study of the National Mental Health Services Survey

Chen, D., Watson, R. J., Caputi, T. L., & Shover, C. L. (2021). Proportion of U.S. Clinics Offering LGBT-Tailored Mental Health Services Decreased Over Time: A Panel Study of the National Mental Health Services Survey. Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health, 2(3), 174184. https://doi.org/10.1891/lgbtq-2020-0071
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What Cannabis Can Learn from Covid: Hydroxychloroquine Research Suggests the Next Step for Medical Cannabis Research.

Caputi, T. L. (2021). What cannabis can learn from Covid: Hydroxychloroquine research suggests the next step for medical cannabis research. International Journal of Drug Policy, 93, 103133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103133
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What Cannabis Can Learn from Covid: Hydroxychloroquine Research Suggests the Next Step for Medical Cannabis Research.
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Media

Months After #MeToo, Millions Still Searching Online For Help Against Sexual Violence

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John W. Ayers, PhD, MA Vice Chief of Innovation | Assoc. Professor Div. Infectious Disease & Global Public Health University of California San Diego Vice Chief of Innovation | Assoc. Professor Div. Infectious Disease & Global Public Health University of California San Diego MedicalResearch.com: What is the...
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Months After #MeToo, Millions Still Searching Online For Help Against Sexual Violence

Trump Says He Has Been Taking Hydroxychloroquine "Every Day"

No description available President Donald Trump has claimed that he's been taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine every day in an effort to avoid contracting coronavirus. But last month, the Food and Drug Administration warned against the use of the medication for COVID-19, saying that it's linked to serious heart problems....
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Trump Says He Has Been Taking Hydroxychloroquine "Every Day"

Covid-19: When the President Speaks, People Listen, and Google Answers

When presidents and other leaders or experts speak, people listen. Worse, they sometimes act as in the case of a man in Arizona who drank fish tank cleaner that contained chloroquine after President Donald Trump called the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin “one of the biggest game changers in the...
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Covid-19: When the President Speaks, People Listen, and Google Answers

HCQ, the Immune System, and COVID-19: Unanswered Questions

Using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat COVID-19 has been surrounded by more hype than data, with too little known about how the virus affects the immune system, investigators said. "[T]he known and potent immunomodulatory effects of [HCQ and its close cousin chloroquine] which support their use in the treatment of autoimmune...
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HCQ, the Immune System, and COVID-19: Unanswered Questions

High-profile coronavirus drug speculation fires up internet searches

Internet searches for purchasing hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria, jumped 1,389 percent after high-profile claims were made that it could fight COVID-19, a new study shows. The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine , examined internet searchers originating from the U.S. that included certain search terms, including...
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High-profile coronavirus drug speculation fires up internet searches
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Background

 
 
 
 
 

Ph.D. in Economics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sep 2020 – Present Cambridge, MA, USA
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship; MIT Graduate Fellowship; NBER Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Aging and Health
 
 
 
 
 

M.Sc. by Research in Health Sciences

University of York

Sep 2019 – Sep 2020 York, England
Marshall Scholarship
 
 
 
 
 

M.P.H. in Advanced Epidemiology

University College Cork

Sep 2017 – Jul 2018 Cork, Ireland
Mitchell Scholarship; Highest marks and dissertation score (1/63)
 
 
 
 
 

B.S. in Economics

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Sep 2013 – Jun 2017 Philadelphia, PA. USA
Phi Beta Kappa; summa cum laude

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