Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do Lawyers Inhibit Economic Growth? New Evidence From The 50 U.S. States, James V. Koch, Richard J. Cebula

Economics Faculty Publications

Whether the activities of lawyers might hamper economic growth has been hotly contested over the past three decades. Contradictory conclusions have flowed from evidence that typically has focused on the impact of lawyers on the growth rates of countries. Disputes over definitions and samples that vary among countries have colored portions of these debates. We surmount many of these issues by adopting a 50-state panel covering the period 2005-2018 for the United States and by utilizing widely accepted variables regarding economic activity and who is considered a lawyer. Further, we utilize two distinct measures of the activity of lawyers and …

Covid-19 And The Us Safety Net, Robert A. Moffitt, James P. Ziliak

Economics Faculty Publications

We examine trends in employment, earnings and incomes over the last two decades in the United States, and how the safety net has responded to changing fortunes, including the shutdown of the economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US safety net is a patchwork of different programmes providing in-kind as well as cash benefits, and it had many holes prior to the pandemic. In addition, few of the programmes are designed explicitly as automatic stabilisers. We show that the safety net response to employment losses in the COVID-19 pandemic largely consists only of increased support from unemployment insurance …

Congenital Chagas Disease In The United States: The Effect Of Commercially Priced Benznidazole On Costs And Benefits Of Maternal Screening, Victoria Perez-Zetune, Stephanie R. Bialek, Susan P. Montgomery, Eileen Stillwaggon

Economics Faculty Publications

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted by insect vectors, and through transfusions, transplants, insect feces in food, and mother to child during gestation. An estimated 30% of infected persons will develop lifelong, potentially fatal cardiac or digestive complications. Treatment of infants with benznidazole is highly efficacious in eliminating infection. This work evaluates the costs of maternal screening and infant testing and treatment for Chagas disease in the United States, including the cost of commercially available benznidazole. We compare costs of testing and treatment for mothers and infants with the lifetime societal costs without testing and consequent morbidity and …

Did Dr-Cafta Affect The Exports Of The Dominican Republic To The United States?, Maria Ivanova Reyes Peguero, Asger V. Hansen

Economics Faculty Publications

This article evaluates the impact the Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) had on the exports of the Dominican Republic (DR) to the United States. We estimate a gravity model for the DR exports to the 109 trade partners of the country from 1990 to 2014. This model quantifies the effect of the DR-CAFTA since 2007, when the agreement was ratified, and finds that the DR-CAFTA negatively affected DR exports to the US. We conduct further analysis of factors that could explain the decline in exports, in spite of the ratification of the agreement. We find that …

Medicaid Managed Care And The Health Care Utilization Of Foster Children, Makayla Palmer, James Marton, Aaron Yelowitz, Jeffery Talbert

Economics Faculty Publications

A recent trend in state Medicaid programs is the transition of vulnerable populations into Medicaid managed care (MMC) who were initially carved out of such coverage, such as foster children or those with disabilities. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the impact of the transition of foster children from fee-for-service Medicaid coverage to MMC coverage on outpatient health care utilization. There is very little empirical evidence on the impact of managed care on the health care utilization of foster children because of the recent timing of these transitions as well as challenges associated with finding data sets large …

The Hall Memorial Lectures, Lewis Karstensson

Economics Faculty Publications

This publication is a record of the Hall Memorial Lectures in Economics delivered at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the 1980s.

Contents include:

Wallace C. Peterson, "Contemporary Macroeconomics: A House Divided" (Dec. 1, 1983)

Wallace C. Peterson, "Economic Stabilization and Inflation" (May 8, 1984)

Murray N. Rothbard, "The Five Faces of Reaganomics" (Nov. 27, 1984)

Murray N. Rothbard, "The Terrible Simplifiers: The Case Against the Flat Tax" (May 7, 1985)

Larry D. Singell, "Youth Unemployment: An American Crisis" (May 14, 1986)

Murray N. Rothbard, "Is There Life After Reaganomics?" (Oct. 22, 1987)

Murray N. Rothbard, "Deficits and Taxes: …

Costs Of Defending Against Rising Sea Levels And Flooding In Mid-Atlantic Metropolitan Coastal Areas: The Basic Issues, James V. Koch

Economics Faculty Publications

Rising ocean levels have resulted in increasingly severe flooding in numerous metropolitan coastal areas. What would it cost to minimize or eliminate such damage? Relatively little economic work has been done to provide an answer, at least partially because some authorities believe attempts to deal with flooding ultimately are futile. Further, discussions of funding always involve massive welfare transfers from the non-flooded to the flooded. The cost of erecting a single mile of new sea wall exceeds $35 million in 2009 dollars and annual maintenance costs range between 5 and 10 percent.

A Soft Landing, Steady Growth, And Accelerating Farm Income, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Nick Hernandez, Bruce Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson, Keith Turner

Economics Faculty Publications

After years of accelerating growth, the U.S. economy achieved a soft landing in 2006. The rate of economic growth remained positive but slowed sufficiently to reduce inflation pressures and the need for further interest rate increases. At the same time the economy remained strong enough to continue the current expansion which has been in place since late 2001. Such a soft landing is vital because it should allow the economy to continue to expand for years to come, but with moderate inflation.