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This study analyzes web traffic trends for 44 Spanish contract cheating websites from 2019 to 2024, focusing on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of generative AI tools. It finds that organic traffic to these sites surged during the pandemic, likely due to increased remote assessments, but declined from 2023 as GenAI tools became more prevalent, potentially reducing reliance on paid services. Despite a smaller volume, paid traffic showed stronger engagement, indicating effective targeted acquisition. The study highlights that some sites still benefit from search advertising despite bans on promoting academic cheating, and it contributes to academic integrity research by using web analytics to track changes in commercial cheating behaviors.

The study assessed the impact of increased telemedicine use on health expenditures and outcomes in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a quasi-experimental design with a population of 126 million. Prefectures with higher pre-pandemic telemedicine rates saw a threefold increase in telemedicine use post-2020, leading to a 1.0% relative decrease in total health expenditure and a 1.1% decrease in inpatient expenditure, while outpatient expenditures remained unchanged. Importantly, there were no significant changes in health outcomes such as all-cause mortality and key health indicators. The findings suggest that expanding telemedicine can reduce healthcare costs without negatively affecting health outcomes.