Business Commons^™

Developing A Holistic Approach For Tackling Undeclared Work: Background Paper, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Environment, Equity And Economic Development Goals: Understanding Differences In Local Economic Development Strategies, Xue Zhang, George C. Homsy

George Homsy

What role do local governments play in promoting sustainable economic development? This article uses a 2014 national survey to analyze the relationship between local environment and social equity motivations and the kinds of economic development strategies local governments pursue (business incentives or community economic development policies). Municipalities that pay more attention to environmental sustainability and social equity use higher levels of community economic development tools and lower levels of business incentives. These places are also more likely to have written economic development plans, and involve more participants in the economic development process. By contrast, communities that employ higher levels of …

Restructuring Social Security: How Will Retirement Ages Respond?, Gary S. Fields, Olivia S. Mitchell

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Budgetary pressures on the Social Security system have increased in recent years, prompting a variety of proposals to restructure the U.S. retirement income program. Most of these proposals ignore the possibility that the retirement patterns of older workers are likely to respond to changes in the incentives to retire. This chapter presents two important pieces of information for policymakers. First, we provide previously unavailable evidence on how changes in the structure of Social Security benefits would alter the economic incentives to retire at different ages. Second, we compute how retirement patterns would change in response to altered incentives to …

Rewards For Continued Work: The Economic Incentives For Postponing Retirement, Olivia S. Mitchell, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This chapter develops empirical measures of the economic incentives for deferred retirement among older workers. Using a new data file on pay and pensions, we construct intertemporal budget sets reflecting income available to workers at alternative retirement ages. The analysis explores how continued labor force attachment is rewarded in terms of net earnings, Social Security benefits, and private pension income.

The Effects Of Social Security Reforms On Retirement Ages And Retirement Incomes, Gary S. Fields, Olivia S. Mitchell

Gary S Fields

Recent changes legislated in the U.S. Social Security system have altered the economic incentives to work and retire. Some older workers will respond to these new incentives by retiring at different ages. This paper evaluates the signs and magnitudes of these responses. Four specific changes in the structure of Social Security benefits are examined: raising the normal retirement age, delaying the cost-of-living adjustment, lowering early retirement benefits, and increasing late retirement payments. Behavioral parameters are estimated using an ordered logit model of retirement ages; these are used to predict how retirement behavior might respond to each of the four reforms. …

Exploring Public Values Implications Of The I-Corps Program, Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

"Use" Valuation Under The 1976 Tax Reform Act: Problems And Implications, Michael D. Boehlje, Neil E. Harl

Neil E. Harl

With the rapid rise in farmland*values during recent years, farmers and farm organizations have argued that land values have little relationship to agricultural productivity. The fact that farmers have been the dominant purchasers in the farm real estate market during this period of time would seem to discredit this argument to some degree, but public officials have been sympathetic to the farmers' arguments. Some state legislatures, particularly in areas o f the country where urban expansion has placed upward pressures on land values, have adopted procedures to value farmland based on its agricultural productivity for purposes of assessing property tax.

Multilevel Marketing Diffusion And The Risk Of Pyramid Scheme Activity: The Case Of Fortune Hi‐Tech Marketing In Montana, Stacie A. Bosley, Kim Mckeage

Stacie Bosley

While statisticians have simulated the expected rate of growth in pyramid schemes, this research examines actual data on the spread of an alleged pyramid scheme in Montana. Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (FHTM) was a multilevel marketing firm, sued by six states and the Federal Trade Commission and permanently shut down in 2014. Data from a settlement with the State of Montana provide a population of participants in a geographic region with definable markets and offer unique insights into local contagion. The authors analyze the pattern of FHTM adoption within a diffusion-of-innovation framework. The findings confirm that nearly all adoption results from …

A Meta-Analysis Of Crew Resource Management/Incident Command Systems Implementation Studies In The Fire And Emergency Services, John C. Griffith, Donna L. Roberts, Ronald T. Wakeham Ph.D.

John Griffith

This research is a meta-analysis of studies on Crew Resource Management (CRM)/Incident Command System implementation in the fire and emergency services. After a thorough literature review, four sets of results were analyzed to determine if CRM training was effective. An aggregate total of 283 test scores were evaluated. The data indicated that CRM training was effective in all studies analyzed. Fixed and random effects models indicated significance as well. The studies had a high degree of heterogeneity probably due to different training and testing procedures used. The data support the use of CRM training in the fire and emergency services. …