Digital Commons Network^™

Are Income Tax Breaks For Seniors Good For State Economic Growth?, Ben Brewer, Karen S. Conway, Jon Rork

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this brief, authors Ben Brewer, Karen Conway, and Jon Rork discuss the findings of their recently published study that investigates, directly, the impact on state economic growth of expanding income tax breaks for seniors. All state income tax systems contain provisions that reduce the state income tax burden for elderly households, and most modest-income elderly households owe little in state income taxes. Each year state legislatures consider expansions to these tax provisions, which tend to benefit primarily upper-income elderly households, with advocates suggesting such changes will be “good” for the state, in part by retaining and attracting elderly residents. …

Employment Income Drops In More Low-Income Than High-Income Households In All States, Michael P. Ettlinger, Jordan Hensley

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Low-wage workers are being hit much harder in the COVID-19 economic crisis than higher wage workers. This is evident in the much greater job loss in lower wage industries than higher wage industries.

Cdfis Can Make The Sba Ppp Loan Program Work For Smaller, Minority-Owned, And Women-Owned, Small Businesses, Eric Hangen, Michael E. Swack

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

As currently being implemented by the Small Business Administration (SBA), the loans made available through the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), part of the CARES Act recently enacted to address the COVID-19 crisis, are likely to significantly bypass smaller small businesses and those that are minority- or women-owned. In this brief, authors Eric Hangen and Michael Swack discuss a simple policy solution to increase the effectiveness of the SBA PPP. Allowing certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to disburse SBA PPP loans would enable CDFIs to serve community-oriented small businesses, helping them to continue to employ thousands of people—something …

Are Child Care Worker Wages Impacted By The Forces Of Supply And Demand? An Examination Of State-Level Data, Carolyn Arcand

Political Science

No abstract provided.

Scaling U.S. Community Investing The Investor-Product Interface, Michael E. Swack, Eric Hangen

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Scaling U.S. Community Investing: The Investor-Product Interface, an in-depth landscape study of the U.S. Community Investing (USCI) field. The full report includes a detailed analysis of the major types of USCI products, parameters that different investors use to evaluate investment opportunities, and the barriers and opportunities to increasing investment.

Do Footprint-Based Cafe Standards Make Car Models Bigger?, Brianna Marie Jean

Economics

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards have historically been set equal across all manufacturer fleets of the same type. Concerns about varying costs across firms and safety implications of standards that are set homogeneously across firms and models resulted in a policy shift towards footprint-based standards. Under this type of standard, individual car models face targets based on the size of the area between the wheelbase and wheel track, so that larger models face less stringent standards, and manufacturers who make, on average, larger cars will face a lighter fleet standard. Theoretical models have shown that this type of policy …

Migration Trends Shifted In 2014: Also Record Deaths And Continuing Low Fertility, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this fact sheet, author Ken Johnson reports on new Census Bureau data released on March 26, 2015. The data provide further evidence that the recession’s influence on domestic migration is diminishing. Migration patterns are reverting to those commonly seen before the recession. Suburban counties of large metropolitan areas are receiving more domestic migrants, while large metropolitan core counties are seeing more domestic migration losses. Domestic migration losses also continue in rural areas. There is no evidence in these new Census data of any recovery in fertility. Births remain near 15-year lows, and there were a record number of deaths …

Husbands’ Job Loss And Wives’ Labor Force Participation During Economic Downturns: Are All Recessions The Same?, Kristin Smith, Marybeth J. Mattingly

Sociology

Earlier research showed an added-worker effect for wives when their husbands stopped working during the Great Recession (December 2007–June 2009) but not when husbands stopped working in recent years of prosperity (2004–2005). By including one recession per decade for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, this article builds upon that research by using Current Population Survey data to compare wives’ labor force responses to their husbands stopping work across three recessions to determine whether wives’ employment responses during the Great Recession differed from those during earlier recessions. Additionally, we hypothesize motivations for wives entering the labor force and consider the occupations …

Capital Markets For Community Development Lenders: Q & A., Michael E. Swack

Economics

No abstract provided.

Cdfi Industry Analysis: Summary Report, 508 Compliant Version, Michael E. Swack, Jack Northrup, Eric Hangen

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

The Carsey Institute, under contract to NeighborWorks® America and the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, conducted a detailed analysis of a large sample of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) on issues of capitalization, liquidity and portfolio, and risk management by CDFIs from 2005 to 2010. This work is part of the CDFI Fund's Capacity Building Initiative. The purpose of the report is to explore issues of capitalization, liquidity, and portfolio and risk management by CDFIs.

Cdfi Industry Analysis: Summary Report, Michael E. Swack, Jack Northrup, Eric Hangen

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

The Carsey Institute, under contract to NeighborWorks® America and the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, conducted a detailed analysis of a large sample of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) on issues of capitalization, liquidity and portfolio, and risk management by CDFIs from 2005 to 2010. This work is part of the CDFI Fund's Capacity Building Initiative. The purpose of the report is to explore issues of capitalization, liquidity, and portfolio and risk management by CDFIs.

The New Hampshire Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Fund: Year 3 (July 2011-June 2012) Evaluation, Matthew Magnusson, Cameron P. Wake

The Sustainability Institute Publications

The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Fund (GHGERF) was created by the New Hampshire legislature in 2008 and has been administered by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The purpose of the Fund was to support energy efficiency, energy conservation, and demand response programs to reduce New Hampshire’s greenhouse gas emissions. Funding was derived from the State’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cooperative effort by nine northeastern states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the electric power sector via a cap and trade program. As of June 2012, RGGI auctions have resulted in revenues to New …

Consumer Rights Screening Tool For Domestic Violence Advocates And Lawyers, Leah A. Plunkett, Erica A. Sussman

Law Faculty Scholarship

The information is this document is intended for use by advocates and attorneys working with survivors of domestic violence in understanding the common types of consumer problems faced by the survivors. The document provides an overview of the common consumer issues faced by survivors and offers solid guidance on how advocates and attorneys can identify these issues when working the survivors. The report begins with an overview of the role of economic abuse in cases of domestic violence. This is followed by a brief look at common consumer issues faced by survivors that include managing household income and expenses, credit …

Counterfeits, Copying And Class, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Consumers who want to express themselves by wearing contemporary clothing styles should not have to choose between expensive brands and counterfeit products. There should be a clear distinction in trademark law between illegal, counterfeit goods and perfectly legal (at least with respect to trademark law) "knockoffs," in which aesthetically functional design attributes have been copied but trademarks have not. Toward that end, as a normative matter, the aesthetic features of products should not be registrable or protectable as trademarks or trade dress, regardless of whether they have secondary meaning, just as functional attributes of a utilitarian nature are not eligible …

Poor Women With Sexually Transmitted Infections: Providers’ Perspectives On Diagnoses, Genevieve R. Cox

Sociology

This article presents results from a study of health care providers, mainly nurses and nurse practitioners, who routinely diagnose sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in rural low-income populations in West Virginia (WV). A qualitative analysis of eighteen semi-structured interviews reveals that providers who consistently work with low-income populations believe patients undergo a negative change in self-image in response to a chronic STD diagnosis. Providers express concerns about a number of issues related to low-income, rural women’s access to sexual health care and see the need for more sexuality education, more funding for free and reduced cost clinics, and more available health …

Will Work': The Role Of Intellectual Property In Transitional Economies -- From Coal To Content, Megan M. Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

The development and exploitation of intellectual property, and participation in the global information economy, are not dependent upon geography. It can take place from anywhere, from the inside of an empty factory in Detroit, to a small country road, nestled between the rhododendron and the river. From the R&D lab at a university, to a barren plain in New Mexico. To move from coal to content, we must foster a dynamic and profitable environment for entrepreneurship, through a supportive and robust university community, through state legislation and institutional support and through effective utilization of intellectual property laws. Intellectual property and …

Capital Markets, Cdfis, And Organizational Credit Risk, Charles Tansey, Michael E. Swack, Michael Tansey, Vicky Stein

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

Can Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) get unlimited amounts of low cost, unsecured, short- and long-term funding from the capital markets based on their organizational credit risk? Can they get pricing, flexibility, and procedural parity with for-profit corporations of equivalent credit risk? One of the key objectives of this book is to explain the reasons why the answer to the two questions above remains “no.” The other two key objectives are to show the inner workings of what has been done to date to overcome the obstacles so that we don’t have to retrace the same steps and recommend additional …

Modeling The Effects Of Peremptory Challenges On Jury Selection And Jury Verdicts, Roger Allen Ford

Law Faculty Scholarship

Although proponents argue that peremptory challenges make juries more impartial by eliminating “extreme” jurors, studies testing this theory are rare and inconclusive. For this article, two formal models of jury selection are constructed, and various selection procedures are tested, assuming that attorneys act rationally rather than discriminate based on animus. The models demonstrate that even when used rationally, peremptory challenges can distort jury decision making and undermine verdict reliability. Peremptory challenges systematically shift jurors toward the majority view of the population by favoring median jurors over extreme jurors. If the population of potential jurors is skewed in favor of conviction …

Smes, Open Innovation And Ip Management: Advancing Global Development, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (abbreviated herein henceforth as “SMEs”) are global drivers of technological innovation and economic development. Perhaps their importance has been somewhat eclipsed by the mega-multinational corporate entities. However, whereas the corporations might be conceptualized as towering sequoia trees, SMEs represent the deep, broad, fertile forest floor that nourishes, sustains and regenerates the global economic ecosystem.

[. . .]

Broadly recognized as engines of economic and global development, SMEs account for a substantial proportion of entrepreneurial activity in both industrialized and developing countries. Indeed, their role as dynamos for technological and economic progress in developing countries is critical and …

Crop Bioengineering: Enormous Potential For Catalyzing International Development, Peter Gregory, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] Bioengineering provides unique and dramatic opportunities for crop improvement. It can be used to develop crop varieties that would otherwise be unavailable and can facilitate much faster and more precise ways of developing improved varieties. It can help to increase yields and reliability and thus reduce food costs for the consumer while helping to control input costs for farmers through reduced applications of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizer.

The extent to which this will be achieved depends on how effectively the global scientific community – including both the public and private sectors – can cooperate in harnessing the power of …

Expanding Philanthropy’S Reach, Michael E. Swack

Economics

When New York’s F.B. Heron Foundation, a private, grant-making institution, was created, it had a mandate to invest assets and donate 5 percent of returns annually to help low-income people and communities to help themselves.1 The year was 1992, the cusp of one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. But as Heron’s asset base swelled, 5 percent for community work began to look insufficient to help the many Americans who were missing out on the boom. In a 1996 meeting, directors realized they were spending too much time reviewing a particular investment manager’s performance and too little time …

Loco Labels And Marketing Madness: Improving How Consumers Interpret Information In The American Food Economy, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

America's current food labeling scheme, as illustrated by the example of salt, is flawed when examined from the consumer and public health perspective. While the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has sound scientific standards, those standards as currently applied to labels do not efficiently signal health information to consumers. Without better information on labels, consumers will continue to make poor choices at the grocery store. However, there are promising new ways to label. Both the United Kingdom and the domestic supermarket chain Hannaford’s have implemented simple health labeling on food packaging or grocery shelves to improve the amount and location …

Caring For America’S Aging Population: A Profile Of The Direct-Care Workforce, Kristin E. Smith, Reagan A. Baughman

Sociology

Direct-care workers constitute a low-wage, high-turnover workforce with low levels of health insurance; taking these characteristics into account guides the challenge of how to deal with the growing demand for long-term care by an aging U.S. population.

Reaffirmation Of “Ritual Cosmos”: Tibetan Perceptions Of Landscape And Socio-Economic Development In Southwest China, Tyler Denison

Inquiry Journal 2006

No abstract provided.

It’S Not About The Money: The Role Of Preferences, Cognitive Biases And Heuristics Among Professional Athletes, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

Professional athletes are often regarded as selfish, greedy, and out-of-touch with regular people. They hire agents who are vilified for negotiating employment contracts that occasionally yield compensation in excess of national gross domestic products. Professional athletes are thus commonly assumed to most value economic remuneration, rather than the love of the game or some other intangible, romanticized inclination.

Lending credibility to this intuition is the rational actor model, a law and economic precept which presupposes that when individuals are presented with a set of choices, they rationally weigh costs and benefits, and select the course of action that maximizes their …

"No Dogs Or Chinese Allowed": Globalization And China, Lawrence C. Reardon

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Investor Skepticism V. Investor Confidence: Why The New Research Analyst Reforms Will Harm Investors, John L. Orcutt

Law Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Article provides an overview of research analysts and their basic functions, including a discussion of sell-side analysts' role in the market's recent boom and bust. Part II examines the conflicts of interest that have plagued sell-side research, and Part III reviews the Regulatory Actions that are meant to address these conflicts. In Part IV, the author will make the case for encouraging, rather than lessening, investor skepticism in sell-side research and will explain why the Regulatory Actions are not likely to improve the performance of sell-side analysts. Finally, Part V will offer a simpler proposal to …