Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Wagner-Peyser Act And U.S. Employment Service: Seventy-Five Years Of Matching Job Seekers And Employers, Christopher J. O'Leary, Randall W. Eberts

Reports

This paper provides an overview of the public labor exchange system in the United States, how it came to be, and where it is going. The paper begins by offering a brief history of the development of the U.S. Employment Service, emphasizing the federal-state partnership that has evolved over time and highlighting the differing priorities Congress has placed on the services funded under Wagner-Peyser Act. It then examines the ways workers search for jobs and employers recruit employees. It also shows the role the ES plays in this job matching process. The complementarity between ES services and the broader workforce …

Socio-Economic And Cost Of Living Indicators Among Foreign And Domestic-Born Latino Nationalities In The New York Metropolitan Area, 2005, Howard Caro-López

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report focuses on comparing socio-economic conditions between foreign born and domestic born populations among the major Latino national groups in the New York City metropolitan area as of 2005.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: New York City Latinos lag considerably behind all other groups in terms of total family income. While median family income for non-Hispanic white residents far …

Changes In The Distribution Of Income Among Single Mother Families: Murphy Brown Meets Inequality, Christopher Bollinger, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

We document the demographic and economic forces underlying changes in income inequality among single mother families over the past three decades in the United States. Using decomposable measures of after-tax income-to-needs inequality, we examine within- and between-group inequality based on education attainment, age, past marital status, race, and employment status. We also conduct income factor decompositions to quantify the relative contributions of earnings, transfers, other income, and taxes to inequality. Our results from the March Current Population Survey show that income-to-needs inequality rose nearly 30 percent between 1979 and 2005. The demographic decompositions indicate that most of the change in …

Where Do Latinos Work? Occupational Structure And Mobility Within New York City’S Latino Population, 1990 - 2006, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines the difference in occupational changes across racial and ethnic groups in New York City as well as across Latino origin groups from 1990 to 2006.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates. All figures pertain to individuals 16 years of age or older.

Results: While there has been an overall increase in employment gains in the management sector, which includes …

Washington Heights/Inwood Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations 1990 – 2005 With A Special Focus On The Dominican Population, Laird Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning New York City based Latinos in Washington Heights and Inwood – particularly Dominicans.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Since the 1980s the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights/Inwood has been transformed by the immigration of a large Latino population of whom Dominicans have been the most prominent national group. Latinos made up …

Maximum Likelihood And Gaussian Estimation Of Continuous Time Models In Finance, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper overviews maximum likelihood and Gaussian methods of estimating continuous time models used in finance. Since the exact likelihood can be constructed only in special cases, much attention has been devoted to the development of methods designed to approximate the likelihood. These approaches range from crude Euler-type approximations and higher order stochastic Taylor series expansions to more complex polynomial-based expansions and infill approximations to the likelihood based on a continuous time data record. The methods are discussed, their properties are outlined and their relative finite sample performance compared in a simulation experiment with the nonlinear CIR diffusion model, which …

Washington Pension System Review, Peter S. Barth, Heather Grob, Henry George Harder, H. Allan Hunt, Michael Silverstein

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

The purpose of this study is to analyze the incidence of Total Permanent Disability (TPD) pensions in Washington State's workers' compensation program. Concerns exist at both the legislature and in the Department of Labor and Industries as there appears to have been a sharp upturn in the number of pensions awarded since late in the 1990s. This report examines the factors that may be causally related to any upsurge in such awards. Our task is to evaluate pension incidence for both the state fund and the self-insured populations, with a view towards identifying causes of the trend in both sectors, …

The Remittance Environment In Nigeria, A. Englama

CBN Occasional Papers

This preliminary study is on the remittance environment in Nigeria which became compelling because of low availability of information and empirical research on the subject. The need to obtain evidence-based information to drive policy formulation on remittances inflow which grew from US$1.4 billion in 2002 to US$17.9 billion in 2007 and tap its potentials to promote economic growth in Nigeria were the rationale for the study. An understanding of the drivers, inhibitors, characteristics, cost of transaction and channels of the flows would promote policy formulation to improve the remittance environment. The objectives of the survey were to examine current trend …

The Taxation Of Private Equity Carried Interests: Estimating The Revenue Effects Of Taxing Profit Interests As Ordinary Income, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I estimate the tax revenue effects of taxing private equity carried interests as ordinary income rather than as long-term capital gain as under current law. Under reasonable assumptions, I conclude that the expected present value of additional tax collections would be between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of capital invested in private equity funds, or between $2 billion and $3 billion a year. That estimate, however, makes no allowance for changes in the structure of such funds or the composition of the partnerships, which might substantially reduce tax revenues below those estimates.

Greenspan’S Monetary Policy In Retrospect: Discretion Or Rules?, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, David R. Henderson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fits & Starts: The Difficult Path For Working Single Parents, Rebecca Loya, Ruth J. Liberman, Randy Albelda, Elisabeth Babcock

Center for Social Policy Publications

With dramatic shifts in the economy in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for families to move into or stay in the middle class without access to higher education and skills training. Government-sponsored work supports help by providing direct assistance to working families to meet basic needs, such as child care, food, and housing. Yet, many supports do not reach low-wage working families in Massachusetts because of low eligibility thresholds, inadequate funding, limited availability, limited awareness, and numerous barriers to accessing such supports. Even for low-wage workers who do receive key work supports, such as subsidized child care and …

What Explains The Increased Utilization Of Powder River Basin Coal In Electric Power Generation?, Shelby Gerking, Stephen F. Hamilton

Economics

This article examines possible explanations for increased utilization of Powder River Basin (PRB) coal in electric power generation that occurred over the last two decades. Did more stringent environmental policy motivate electric power plants to switch to less polluting fuels? Or, did greater use of PRB coal occur because relative price changes altered input markets in favor of this fuel. A key finding is that factors other than environmental policy such as the decline in railroad freight rates together with elastic demand by power plants were major contributors to the increased utilization of this fuel.

Distributing Discipline: Race, Politics, And Punishment At The Frontlines Of Welfare Reform, Richard Fording, Joe Soss, Sanford F. Schram

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Numerous studies have confirmed that race plays an important role in shaping public preferences toward both redistribution and punishment. Likewise, studies suggest that punitive policy tools tend to be adopted by state governments in a pattern that tracks with the racial composition of state populations. Such evidence testifies to the enduring power of race in American politics, yet it has limited value for understanding how disciplinary policies get applied to individuals in implementation settings. To illuminate the relationship between race and the application of punitive policy tools, we analyze sanction patterns in the TANF program. Drawing on a model of …

Slippery Slope? Assessing The Economic Impact Of The 2002 Winter Olympic Games In Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert Baade, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

This paper provides an empirical examination of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our analysis of taxable sales in the counties in which Olympic events took place finds that some sectors such as hotels and restaurants prospered while other retailers such as general merchandisers and department stores suffered. Overall the gains in the hospitality industry are lower than the losses experienced by other sectors in the economy. Given the experience of Utah, potential Olympic hosts should exercise caution before proceeding down the slippery slope of bidding for this event.

Aristotle's Difficult Relationship With Modern Economic Theory, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper reviews Aristotle's problematic relationship with modern economic theory. It argues that in terms of value and income distribution theory, Aristotle should probably be seen as a precursor to neither classical nor neoclassical economic thought. Indeed, there are strong arguments to be made that Aristotle's views are completely at odds with all modern economic theory, since, among other things, he was not necessarily concerned with flexible market prices, opposed the use of money to acquire more money, and did not think that the unintended consequences of human activity were generally beneficial. The paper argues however, that this interpretation goes …

Borderplex Economic Outlook: 2008-2010, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr.

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Estimation And Model Selection Of Semiparametric Multivariate Survival Functions Under General Censorship, Xiaohong Chen, Yanqin Fan, Demian Pouzo, Zhiliang Ying

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Many models of semiparametric multivariate survival functions are characterized by nonparametric marginal survival functions and parametric copula functions, where different copulas imply different dependence structures. This paper considers estimation and model selection for these semiparametric multivariate survival functions, allowing for misspecified parametric copulas and data subject to general censoring. We first establish convergence of the two-step estimator of the copula parameter to the pseudo-true value defined as the value of the parameter that minimizes the KLIC between the parametric copula induced multivariate density and the unknown true density. We then derive its root–n asymptotically normal distribution and provide a simple …

Managing Strategic Buyers, Johannes Hörner, Larry Samuelson

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the problem of a monopolist with an object to sell before some deadline, facing n buyers with independent private values. The monopolist posts prices but has no commitment power. We show that the monopolist can always secure at least the larger of the static monopoly profit and the revenue from a Dutch auction with a zero reserve price. When there are only a few buyers, her profits are higher than this bound, and she essentially posts unacceptable prices up to the very end, at which point prices collapse to a “reservation price” that exceeds marginal cost. When there …

Venture Capital And Sequential Investments, Dirk Bergemann, Ulrich Hege, Liang Peng

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We present a dynamic model of venture capital financing, described as a sequential investment problem with uncertain outcome. Each venture has a critical, but unknown threshold beyond which it cannot progress. If the threshold is reached before the completion of the project, then the project fails, otherwise it succeeds. The investors decide sequentially about the speed of the investment and the optimal path of staged investments. We derive the dynamically optimal funding policy in response to the arrival of information during the development of the venture. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions …

Venture Capital And Sequential Investments, Dirk Bergemann, Ulrich Hege, Liang Peng

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We analyze sequential investment decisions in an innovative project that depend on the investor’s information about the project failure risk and its potential final value. We consider the feedback effects between learning about the project parameters and the continuous adjustment of the investment strategy. Investors decide sequentially about the speed of investment and the optimal degree of involvement. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions in a large sample of venture capital investment in the U.S. for the period of 1987-2002. First, the investment flow starts cautiously if the failure risk is high …

Venture Capital And Sequential Investments, Dirk Bergemann, Ulrich Hege, Liang Peng

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We present a dynamic model of venture capital financing, described as a sequential investment problem with uncertain outcome. Each venture has a critical, but unknown threshold beyond which it cannot progress. If the threshold is reached before the completion of the project, then the project fails, otherwise it succeeds. The investors decide sequentially about the speed of the investment and the optimal path of staged investments. We derive the dynamically optimal funding policy in response to the arrival of information during the development of the venture. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions …

Managing Strategic Buyers, Johannes Hörner, Larry Samuelson

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider the problem of a monopolist who must sell her inventory before some deadline, facing n buyers with independent private values. The monopolist posts prices but has no commitment power. The seller faces a basic trade-off between imperfect price discrimination and maintaining an effective reserve price. When there is only one unit and only a few buyers, the seller essentially posts unacceptable prices up to the very end, at which point prices collapse in a series of jumps to a “reserve price” that exceeds marginal cost. When there are many buyers, the seller abandons this reserve price in order …

Future Fiscal And Budgetary Shocks, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the effects of future tax and budgetary shocks in a non-monetary and possibly non-Ricardian economy. An (unanticipated) temporary labor tax cut to be effective on a given future date—a delayed “debt bomb”—causes at once a drop in the (unit) value placed on the firms' business asset, the customer, with the result that share prices, the hourly wage, and employment drop in tandem. This paradox of reduced activity through announcement of future “stimulus” does not hinge on an upward jump of long interest rates. A future tax-rate cut lacking a “sunset” provision has the same negative effects.

Directed Altruism And Enforced Reciprocity In Social Networks, Stephen Leider, Markus M. Mobius, Tanya S. Rosenblat, Quoc-Anh Do

Research Collection School Of Economics

We conducted online field experiments in large real-world social networks in order to decompose prosocial giving into three components: (1) baseline altruism toward randomly selected strangers, (2) directed altruism that favors friends over random strangers, and (3) giving motivated by the prospect of future interaction. Directed altruism increases giving to friends by 52% relative to random strangers, whereas future interaction effects increase giving by an additional 24% when giving is socially efficient. This finding suggests that future interaction affects giving through a repeated game mechanism where agents can be rewarded for granting efficiency-enhancing favors. We also find that subjects with …

The Effect Of Managed And Traditional Care Insurance Plans On Horizontal Inequity In Access To Health Care In The United States, Frank Puffer, Elizabeth Pitney Seidler

Economics Department Working Papers

This study examines income inequity in access to health care in the United States. Given the predominant and growing presence of managed care organizations as a source of medical insurance and care in both the private and public settings, replacing traditional indemnity plans as a lower cost prophylactic alternative, we speculate that the presence of Managed Care Organizations would reduce, if not eliminate, any pro wealthy bias in access to health care for the insured population in the U.S. We rely on previously developed methodology from the EcuityII project, incorporating the health inequity index (HIWV), to estimate income inequity in …

The Revitalization Of Older Industrial Cities: A Review Essay Of Retooling For Growth, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This review essay debates the policy issues raised by the book Retooling for Growth: Building a 21st Century Economy in America's Older Industrial Areas, edited by Richard M. McGahey and Jennifer S. Vey (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). I argue that the main rationale for adopting policies to revitalize older industrial cities is to improve the per capita earnings of urban residents. Therefore, urban economic development policy should be seen as urban labor market policy. Increasing city residents' earnings requires progress on two fronts: increasing metropolitan labor demand; increasing the quantity and quality of the effective labor supply of city residents …

Can A Representative Agent Model Represent A Heterogeneous Agent Economy?, Sungbae An, Yongsung Chang, Sun-Bin Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

Accounting for observed fluctuations in aggregate employment, consumption, and real wage using the optimality conditions of a representative household requires preferences that are incompatible with economic priors. In order to reconcile theory with data, we construct a model with heterogeneous agents whose decisions are difficult to aggregate because of incomplete capital markets and the indivisible nature of labor supply. If we were to explain the model-generated aggregate time series using decisions of a stand-in household, such a household must have a nonconcave or unstable utility as is often found with the aggregate US data.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index — November 2008, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Northeast Ohio Central Cities In The Regional Economy, 2000-2007, Ziona Austrian, Candice Clouse, Eric J. Mundy, Frank Akpadock, Thomas Jr. Finnerty, John R. Bralich

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report examines the four central cities in Northeast Ohio – Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Youngstown — in the context of their metropolitan areas. A central city is the largest or most important city of a metropolitan area. A metropolitan area combines a large city with adjacent urbanized areas and peripheral areas that are closely bound to the center with strong ties to commuting, commerce, and a common labor market.

Testing For Parameter Stability In Quantile Regression Models, Liangjun Su, Zhijie Xiao

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a test for structural change of conditional distribution in dynamic regression models. The test is constructed based on time series regression quantile estimates and complements conventional parameter instability tests in least-square type regression models. Asymptotic distribution for our test under the null hypothesis is derived.