Income Distribution Commons^™

Searching For Social Capital In U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs, Nancy C. Jurik, Gray Cavender, Julie Cozogill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper focuses on the claims and efforts of U.S. microenterprise development programs (MDPs) to build social capital among poor and low income entrepreneurs. MDPs offer business training and lending services to individuals operating very small businesses (with five or fewer employees and less than $20,000 in start-up capital). Advocates suggest that MDPs help promote economic development by building social capital defined as networks among small entrepreneurs and between entrepreneurs and their larger community. We begin our paper with a short review of the varied definitions and claims about the role of social capital in promoting civic and economic empowerment. …

Credit Card Interest Rates: Does Race And Gender Matter?, Brian Hecht

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the consumer credit card market in theUnited Statesto determine what factors, race and gender specifically, influence interest rates available to consumers. Data from the 2001 Survey of Consumer Finances is used to model the credit card market and answer the questions: All else being equal do women have higher credit card interest rates than men? Do blacks or Hispanics, all else being equal, have higher credit card interest rates than whites?

The paper provides background on the credit card market and its growing importance, reviews key literature on the role that discrimination can play in different lending …

Life Insurance As A Source Of Long-Term Savings In Nigeria: Regulator's Perspective., O. E. Chukwulozie

Bullion

Life insurance is an insurance contract in which the insured transfers, and the insurer assumes, the risk of death for a specified period of time. As in other insurance businesses, the insured transfers the risk to the insurer, and receives a life insurance policy, upon payment of a premium. The paper outlines the intrinsic benefits of life insurance, assess its performance in the Nigeria situation and examine what a regulator could do to facilitate its development. The paper reveals that, It was observed that there is an ongoing recapitalisation and consolidation programme which would boost the paid up share capital …

Does Space Matter To The Employment Of Tanf Recipients? Evidence From A Dynamic Discrete Choice Model With Unobserved Effects, Shiferaw Gurmu, Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, William J. Smith

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

We study the factors affecting the employment probability of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients using recent quarterly panel data from Atlanta, Georgia. A central focus of our study is to determine whether the TANF recipient’s proximity to job opportunity and the availability of childcare affect her probability of full-time employment. Both static and dynamic models of employment choice are estimated that control for unobserved individual effects. We estimate models separately for a sub-sample of TANF recipients living in public housing, whose residential locations can be considered exogenously determined. We find substantial evidence that individual and family characteristics (such …

The Effects Of Maternal Welfare Receipt On Children’S Development, Nikolay O. Doskov

Gettysburg Economic Review

Over the past 25 years, welfare and other public policies for families living below the poverty line have developed a primary objective of promoting parents’ self-sufficiency. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), passed in 1996, was a milestone in this effort, limiting the number of years that families can receive federal cash welfare assistance and requiring most of them to participate in work-related activities to be eligible for such assistance. This new emphasis on work was one of the main reasons for the dramatic decline in welfare dependency during the late 1990s. The new legislation, however, also …

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 1, Spring 2006

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Economic Impact Of The 6th Annual Bikes, Blues, And Bbq Festival On The City Of Fayetteville, Jeffery T. Collins

Publications and Presentations

This report presents the results of the surveys used to develop estimates of the economic impact of the Bikes, Blues and BBQ (BBBBQ) festival on the city of Fayetteville in 2005. In order to fully estimate the economic impact of the festival, its influence was assessed on three different constituent groups: Fayetteville residents, local businesses, and BBBBQ visitors.

The visitor survey was developed by the Center for Business and Economic Research and was administered September 28-October 1, 2005 by University of Arkansas students who were hired and trained by the Center for Business and Economic Research. The resident and local …

The Impact Of The Introduction Of Premiums Into A Schip Program, James Marton

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper examines the introduction of premiums into the SCHIP program in Kentucky. Kentucky introduced a $20 monthly premium for SCHIP coverage for children with family incomes between 151% and 200% of the federal poverty level in December 2003. Administrative data between 2001 and 2004 is used to estimate a Cox proportional hazard model that predicts enrollment duration in this premium-paying category. The results suggest that a premium reduces the length of enrollment and that the effect is much stronger in the first two months after the introduction of the premium. Similar results are not found for the non-premium category.

Devolution, Discretion, And Local Variation In Tanf Sanctioning, Richard Fording, Sanford F. Schram, Joe Soss

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

No abstract.

Does Food Stamp Receipt Mediate The Relationship Between Food Insufficiency And Mental Health?, Colleen Heflin, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Although the Food Stamp Program is the largest entitlement program remaining in the social safety net, comparatively little is known about the potential benefits that the program may confer on recipients. In this paper we examine an important dimension of well being, mental health, and the extent to which participation in the Food Stamp Program may attenuate the effect of food insufficiency on levels of emotional distress. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of families in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) we model emotional distress as a function of food insufficiency and other known risk factors …

Measuring Global Poverty Right: Mission Impossible?, M. G. Quibria

Research Collection School Of Economics

The international community is committed to millennium development goals which postulate a vision of global development that makes eliminating poverty and sustaining development the overriding objective of global development efforts. In the hierarchy of the MDGs, the first and foremost goal is to reduce by half, between 1990–2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day (a widely used yardstick to measure extreme poverty). However, estimating such poverty across developing countries and globally is by no means a simple exercise nor has it yielded unambiguous results. This article provides a brief summary of the state …

An Evaluation Of The Renaissance Zone Programs Of Michigan, Yuanlei Zhu

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes whether the Renaissance Zone (RZ) programs in the state of Michigan are effective in helping distressed urban areas. The unique ES202 data permits us to use both establishment level data and aggregated zip level data to examine the impact of RZ programs on the establishment number and the firms' employment, real wage, and life duration. Based upon the presumption that different firms are sensitive to the tax incentives in different ways, this study examines the impact on all firms, on new firms, dead firms, and existing firms, on manufacturing and service firms, and on large and small …

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 …

Examining The Impact Of Parental Involvement In A Dual Language Program: Implications For Children And Schools - Ollas Report No. 2, J. F. Casas

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

This study focuses on a dual language (Spanish-English) program in the Omaha Public Schools. Dual language programs are programs in which children develop proficiency in two languages simultaneously. These programs are currently seen as the gold standard second language education because of the large amount of empirical support they have received with respect to children’s academic gains. All of the dual language classrooms are comprised of half native English speakers and half Spanish speakers.

Parental involvement has received much empirical attention with respect to traditional school programs; however, little is known about the role of parental involvement in dual language …

The Effect Of Minimum Wages On The Employment And Earnings Of South Africa's Domestic Service Workers, Tom Hertz

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Minimum wages have been in place for South Africa's one million domestic service workers since November of 2002. Using data from seven waves of the Labour Force Survey, this paper documents that the real wages, average monthly earnings, and total earnings of all employed domestic workers have risen since the regulations came into effect, while hours of work per week and employment have fallen. Each of these outcomes can be linked econometrically to the arrival of the minimum wage regulations. The overall estimated elasticities suggest that the regulations should have reduced poverty somewhat for domestic workers, although this last conclusion …

Movement Of Economics Professors Among Top Research Universities In The Us, Benjamin E. Resnick

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract not Included

The College Football Gambling Market An Empirical Approach, Brian Mcneil

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study tests the efficiency of the college football gambling market and whether the market allows for profitable wagering. Operating upon the theoretical framework that, at any given time, prices fully reflect all information available in a particular market, I test for the existence of residual information that is not currently incorporated into the market, thus rendering it inefficient. This project expands upon several previous studies performed on sports betting – most notably that of Zuber, Gandar, and Bowers (1985), which examined the gambling market efficiency for National Football League games. The findings prove to be consistent with the conclusions …

Educational Achievement And The Successful Integration Of Latinos In Nebraska: A Statistical Profile To Inform Policies And Programs - Ollas Report No. 1, Lourdes Gouveia, Mary Ann Powell

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

The unprecedented and continuous growth of the Latino population in Nebraka compels us to engage in institutional changes, comprehensive policy reforms, and innovative programs that enhance the productive integration of this population into our state. As an abundant body of research and informed practices make clear, education is the bedrock of successful integration for current and future generations of Latinos. No longer can a job, obtained without a high school or college education, provide the opportunities it may have once provided to older generations of Americans or, for that matter, first-generation immigrants. The latter tend to measure their socioeconomic success …

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

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

No abstract.

Determinants Of Aggregate R&D, Role Of Fiscal Policy, And The Effects Of Government R&D On Economic Growth, Ashraf Galal Mohamed Eid

Dissertations

This dissertation contains three essays on research and development (R&D): determinants, the role of fiscal policy, and the effects of government R&D on economic growth. The first essay is an attempt to study the determinants of aggregate R&D expenditure in both emerging and developed countries with special attention to patent rights protection and technology transfer. The main findings are: (1) patent protection helps R&D but overly burdensome protection can limit access to new innovations and thus slow down the rate of research and development, and (2) technology transfer, through imports and FDI, has a positive and significant effect only if …

The Development Of Mexican Nonproliferation Export Controls Cits Special Report, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

This report by OLLAS assistant director Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado is part of a developing research and outreach project with the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia. It involved working with Mexican government officials to design and implement national responses to international agreements and obligations to ensure command and control of critical nuclear, biological, and chemical materials in Mexico. Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado conducted a comprehensive survey, which he administered in Argentina and Cuba previously, later in 2005 to assess Mexican export controls.

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 …

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.

Biotechnology And The Law: A Consideration Of Intellectual Property Rights And Related Social Issues, Michael D. Mehta

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Recent advances in biotechnology are expected by many to improve crop yield, reduce reliance on agricultural inputs like pesticides and herbicides, alleviate world hunger, improve the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals, assist in the discovery of genes that trigger diseases like cancer, and make more efficient our legal institutions through DNA testing. Clearly, innovations in biotechnology are a powerful force for social change, and they pose unique challenges and opportunities for legal scholars and institutions. This section of the Pierce Law Review focuses on the interface between law and technology by examining how innovations in biotechnology accelerate debates about …

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 …

Sraffa Paper Notes, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Cozzi, T., & Marchionatti, R. (Eds.). (2001). Piero Sraffa's political economy: A centenary estimate. Routledge. [Unpublished — contents listed as title and author only: "Monetary analysis in Sraffa's writings," Carlo Panico; "Interest rate and distribution," Riccardo Bellofiore]
• Shaikh, A. (2004, October 28). [Handwritten annotation on title page of Piero Sraffa's political economy: A centenary estimate]. Unpublished manuscript note. New School for Social Research.
• Shaikh, A. (2004, October 28). [Handwritten marginal annotation on text pages regarding Sraffa's claim that i → r, with i determined by the Bank or Stock Exchange, and notation "Sraffa on i …