Economics Commons^™

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2006, Kenneth R. Troske, John Garen, Devanathan Sudharshan, Roy A. Sigafus

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Unreimbursed Emergency Department Costs Incurred By Hispanic Workers And Their Dependents In Central Kentucky, Sandra L. Senft

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Health care costs in the United States are a concern to policy makers, healthcare providers, and the population using medical services. Because fewer individuals have health insurance, as costs continue to rise, so have the levels of charity care provided through the Emergency Departments at many hospitals. Hispanics are a growing population thought to be receiving an increasing portion of this care. The Hispanic population in Kentucky has seen a significant increase in recent years, in large part because of the demand for agricultural workers. It has been established that a sizeable part of the Hispanic migrant worker community is …

Poverty And Fertility In The American South, Leonard M. Lopoo

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This project first reports descriptive evidence of the characteristics of mothers in the American South and compares them to mothers in other regions of the country. Women in the South (and West) tend to have their children at younger ages than those in the Midwest and Northeast. Mothers in the South (and West) also have much lower levels of education and are more likely to be African American or Hispanic compared to women in the Midwest and Northeast. Next, this paper attempts to link the characteristics of the mothers in the American South to the high rates of poverty there. …

Poverty, Race And The Contexts Of Achievement: Examining Educational Experiences Of Children In The American South, Maryah Stella Fram, Julie Miller-Cribbs, Lee Van Horn

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper reports findings of a study examining child-, classroom-, and school-level factors that effect academic achievement among public school children in the South. Using ECLS-K data, we compare and contrast the learning environments in high/low minority and high/low poverty schools. A sizeable minority of Southern children attend schools that are race and/or class segregated; on multiple dimensions these schools are less desirable than are schools attended by more privileged children, and children attending these schools have lower levels of academic achievement. Results from 3-level random intercepts models show that a range of child and family factors, as well as …

Fiscal Policy And Local Economic Development, William Hoyt, John Garen

CBER Research Report

No abstract provided.

Fiscal Policy And Property Values, William Hoyt, John Garen

CBER Research Report

Excerpt from the executive summary:

The purpose of this study is to inform on the current state of knowledge of the economics profession of the impacts of state and local taxes on property values. Our goal is also to suggest how to interpret some of the findings of this literature as well as to provide some conceptual background to assist in interpreting these findings.

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2005, John Garen, William H. Hoyt, Glenn C. Blomquist, Devanathan Sudharshan, Roy A. Sigafus

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Poverty Rates Of Refugees And Immigrants, Christopher R. Bollinger, Paul Hagstrom

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

No abstract.

Measurement And Assessment Of Efficiency And Productivity In Kentucky State Government Services, William H. Hoyt

CBER Research Report

Excerpt from the executive summary:

This report examines the provision of a variety of government services within Kentucky. The provision of these public services, specifically the cost of providing these services is examined for the years 1992, 1997, and 2002. In addition, employment and salaries in government services are also examined. In addition to comparing costs within Kentucky during this period, the costs of providing public services are also compared to costs of the same government services by its neighboring states (Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia).

Does Regional Variation In Multiple Measures Of Health Status Differ Across Income Levels?, Janet M. Bronstein, Shailender Swaminathan, Joshua Klapow

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This study examines whether regional variations in health status measures are consistent across the income gradient, or whether they are more pronounced at the lowest income levels. We use data from the Community Tracking Survey, a large randomized telephone survey of residents in 60 U.S. communities. Controlling for individual risk factors and county level income inequality, lowest income individuals have poorer scores on counts of chronic diseases, global health ratings, and the physical and mental components of the SF-12. Residents of the South have poorer scores on chronic disease counts, global health and physical health than residents of the Northeast, …

Relative Prices And Substitution Across Wage, Welfare, And Disability Income, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

In this paper I exploit the fact that the social and economic reforms over the past two decades differentially affected the opportunity costs of non-participation in work, welfare, and disability programs for single mothers across different birth-year and education cohorts. This cohort variation in after-tax wages and transfer benefits is used to identify own- and cross-price elasticities of demand for and substitution across wage, welfare, and disability income over 1979 to 2001 in the Current Population Survey. To estimate these key parameters I model household preferences with a conditional Almost Ideal Demand System that admits corner solutions, nonseparability, endogenous wages …

"Competing Conceptions Of Globalization" Revisited: Relocating The Tension Between World-Systems Analysis And Globalization Analysis, Thomas Clayton

Linguistics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The New Promised Land: Black-White Convergence In The American South, 1940-2000, Jacob L. Vigdor

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The black-white earnings gap has historically been larger in the South than in other regions of the United States. This paper shows that this regional gap has closed over time, and in fact reversed during the last decades of the twentieth century. Three proposed explanations for this trend focus on changing patterns of selective migration, reduced discrimination in Southern labor markets, and lower levels of school segregation and school resource disparities in the modern South relative to the North. Evidence suggests that reductions in Southern labor market discrimination explain rapid regional convergence in racial wage gaps between 1960 and 1980. …

The Rise Of Low-Skill Immigration In The South, George J. Borjas

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The 1990s witnessed a significant geographic redistribution of immigration away from the traditional immigrant-receiving states, mainly California, and towards other parts of the country, mainly the Southern states that have not historically been immigrant-receiving states. This paper documents the impact of this change in immigrant settlement patterns on the skill endowment of the workforce in Southern states. The empirical analysis indicates that the recent change in immigrant settlement patterns led to the rise of a sizable foreign-born low-skill workforce in the South, particularly outside Florida and Texas. This workforce developed both as a result of increased settlement of many newly …

Food Stamp Program Participation Of Refugees And Immigrants, Christopher Bollinger, Paul Hagstrom

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

No abstract.

Rethinking Politics, Scholarship, And Economics: Disclosure Interviews David F. Ruccio, Tina Mangieri, Matt Mccourt, Natalia Ruiz-Junco, Jeff West

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Prospects Of Agricultural Entrepreneurship Among Resource Limited Farmers In The Central Appalachian Tobacco Belt, M’Kiaira Kimathi Miriti, Eric Scorsone

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Agricultural entrepreneurship is receiving heightened attention as a potential means for economic revitalization of communities adversely affected by changes in the agricultural sector. In particular, resource limited farmers in the Appalachian region of the United States have been hit by major changes in the tobacco industry. Very little is known about resource limited farmers respond to changing industry conditions and policy attempts to remedy structural change. Recently, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has attempted to assist farmers in adopting new farmbased enterprises to expand their income base. However, it is unclear about the factors that drive entrepreneurial or diversification activities among …

Trends And Comparisons In Higher Education Economics: How Has Kentucky Fared?, William Hoyt

CBER Research Report

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2004, Eric C. Thompson, Glenn C. Blomquist, Devanathan Sudharshan, Roy A. Sigafus

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Filling The Poverty Gap, Then And Now, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The extent to which means-tested transfers, social insurance, and tax credits fill the gap between a family’s private resources and the poverty threshold is a periodic barometer of the social safety net. Using data on families from the Current Population Survey I examine how the level and composition of before- and after-tax and after-transfer poverty gaps changed in response to changes in the policy and economic landscapes over the past two decades. The estimates presented here indicate not only dramatic changes in the level and sources of income maintenance programs filling the poverty gap, but also dramatic changes in which …

Measuring Underemployment At The County Level, Mark C. Berger, Christopher Bollinger, Paul Coomes

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

As labor markets tightened in the last half of the nineties, economic development and community leaders sought to identify more locally available workers than were indicated by published statistics. Using results from commissioned surveys, they pointed to large numbers of part-time workers who desired full-time work, and to full-time workers who were qualified for better jobs. These statistics were often used to negate low official unemployment rates that deterred firms, concerned by the ostensible shortage of workers, from locating in their counties. We have conducted a larger, statewide, survey of underemployment and linked it to the detailed demographic and labor …

Exit Routes From Welfare: Examining Barriers To Employment, Demographic And Human Capital Factors, Colleen Heflin

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper investigates how barriers to employment, human capital, and demographic characteristics affect women’s exit routes off welfare. Specifically, I address two questions. First, what are the avenues through which women leave welfare? Second, are mental and physical health problems, domestic violence, and lack of access to transportation, characteristics that have been ignored in other studies of welfare dynamics, associated with different welfare exit routes? Using multinomial logistic regression and data from the Women’s Employment Survey, this project examines the specific exit route chosen in detail and goes beyond general dynamics associated with welfare exit in order to capture the …

Lower Class Mobilization And State Welfare Policy In The Era Of Welfare Reform, James M. Avery, Mark Peffley

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The 1990s played host to the most significant changes in the American welfare system in the last fifty years— in particular, states were granted much wider latitude in deciding who is eligible to receive welfare. Taking advantage of these changes, we examine the linkage between lower class turnout and state adoption of restrictive welfare eligibility requirements after the passage of the historic welfare reform legislation of 1996. We find that in states where lower class turnout was relatively high, lawmakers were much less likely to pass a range of “get tough” welfare rules. Our findings provide novel support for the …

Poverty And Macroeconomic Performance Across Space, Race, And Family Structure, Craig Gundersen, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Understanding the link between poverty and economic growth is of long-standing interest, but heretofore it has not received much attention within the context of the dramatic changes in recent business-cycle conditions and social policies. In this paper we use state-level panel data from the 1981–2000 waves of the Current Population Survey to examine the impacts of the macroeconomy and welfare reform on family poverty. We estimate models of before-tax and after-tax poverty rates and squared poverty gaps for all families, by family structure, and by race. Our results indicate that a strong macroeconomy at both the state and national levels …

The Impact Of Welfare Programs On Poverty Rates: Evidence From The American States, Richard Fording, William D. Berry

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

There is spirited debate between those who maintain that public assistance to the poor decreases poverty by raising their incomes (an income enhancement effect) and those who contend that welfare increases poverty by discouraging the poor from working (a work disincentive effect). Extant studies have been inconclusive because they have focused on the effect of welfare benefits on the poverty rate, but have not employed designs that allow researchers to sort out distinct income enhancement and work disincentive effects. We develop a model of poverty rates in the American states that permits estimation of these distinct effects ñ based on …

Obesity And The Development Of Complications Across The Life Span: Is There A Relationship Between Obesity And Poverty, Mildred D. Fennal

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between the development of obesity in children ages five to ten years, and poverty (the socio-economic status of the family). Because of the associated complications of obesity such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension, this research aimed to determine if obesity, a precursor of these diseases, was related to poverty.

The rate of the development of hypertension and diabetes in children and young adults has been steadily increasing over the past ten years (Hines, Fishman, Green, 1999). Therefore, there is an urgent need for continued investigation exploring the multiple …

The Role Of Food Stamps In Consumption Stabilization, Craig Gundersen, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

The Food Stamp Program provides assistance to households with incomes and assets below fixed thresholds. Although it is the largest entitlement program in the social safety net, little is known about the effect of food stamps on stabilizing fluctuations in household income and consumption. To estimate the volatility of income and the attendant reduction in volatility due to food stamps we use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics over 1980-1999 along with a model of income that admits permanent and transitory components as well as random growth rate heterogeneity. We then specify a model relating income changes to …

Improving The Well Being Of At-Risk Families: Exploring Clients’ Perceptions Of Preventative Services, Lenore M. Mcwey

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Low income and working poor families are exposed to tremendous stressors, which in turn can impede their ability to care for their children (Dyk, 2004). In 2000, reports of abuse and/or neglect of over five million children were made to Child Protective Services (CPS) Agencies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). These families are often termed “at-risk” because of the possibility that the children could be placed in foster care. One prevention strategy used to help at-risk families is in-home family therapy. The Young Investigator Award through the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR) enabled me …

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2003, Mark C. Berger, Eric C. Thompson, Glenn C. Blomquist, Richard W. Furst, Roy A. Sigafus

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Labor Supply And Demand Surveys, Mark C. Berger, Paul A. Coomes, Christopher Bollinger, Bruce Gale, Ronald E. Langley, Barry Kornstein, Jonathan M. Roenker, John Perry, Roy Sigafus, Eric C. Thompson

CBER Research Report

Excerpt from the executive summary:

The Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky (CBER), along with its partners, the Survey Research Center at the University of Kentucky (UK-SRC), the Survey Research Center in the Urban Studies Institute at the University of Louisville (UL-SRC), and the Department of Economics at the University of Louisville, is pleased to present this final report on the findings of the Kentucky labor supply and demand surveys sponsored by the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development. The two universities have put together a consortium including some of the best scholars in the region …