Economic Policy Commons^™

Did A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? The Nih Budget And Pediatric Research Portfolio, Daniel P. Gitterman, Robert S. Greenwood, Keith C. Kocis, Rick Mayes, Aaron N. Mckethan

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper examines National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research spending in absolute terms and relative to the doubling of the NIH overall budget between fiscal years 1998 and 2003. Pediatric spending increased by an average annual rate of 12.8 percent during the doubling period (almost on par with the NIH average annual growth rate of 14.7 percent). However, the proportion of the total NIH budget devoted to the pediatric portfolio declined from 12.3 to 11.3 percent. We offer recommendations for implementing existing commitments to strengthen the pediatric research portfolio and to protect the gains of the doubling period.

The Economic Challenges For The New Chinese Leadership, Yue Ma, Ping Wang

CAPS Working Paper Series

"The Impact of China's Accession to the WTO" 中國入世後的初步分析

This paper will first review the early concerns about China's entry to the WTO. Then we will evaluate the preliminary impact of the WTO membership on the Chinese economy, which turned out to be better than expected. We also discuss the current international debate on the Chinese currency renminbi revaluation and suggest that a gradual improvement of the current Chinese rigid exchange rate system will be inevitable.

Finally we will explore the potential problems and challenges to both economies of mainland China and Hong Kong in the future. We argue that …

Models In Social Science: A Review Of Law And Public Policy: A Socioeconomic Approach, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Political Barriers And The Transmission Of Monetary Policy Across States: The New England Antebellum Banking Market, Andrew J. Economopoulos

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

The New England antebellum banking market was examined to understand the interaction of political ideology and economic forces. With each state controlling bank entry, hence the money supply, political ideology could impede the supply of money within a state. However, the monetary forces from neighboring states may have influenced the degree to which parties held true to their political ideology. The results indicate that political ideology was an effective barrier in two of the six states, while three states were responsive to neighbor states' monetary policy regardless of political ideology. These states responded by creating new banks, raising existing capital …

Growing Disparities Among Greater Boston Communities During The 1990s, David Terkla

Economics Faculty Publication Series

During the 1990s, rich communities in the Greater Boston area got richer, and the richest made gains that were proportionally greater than the gains made by those communities only slightly less rich. At the same time, the poorest communities stayed poor, and in fact became more poor in comparison with communities slightly less poor. This dynamic is even more striking when the ten poorest communities are compared and contrasted with the ten wealthiest communities. Census figures show a rapidly expanding differential between the communities of the Greater Boston area. As a commonwealth, we should be considering policies designed to ameliorate …

Cost Recovery Plans: Are They Being Used As A Financial Planning Tool In Parks And Recreation Departments?, Billie M. Bastian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For several years tax dollars have gradually diminished, causing parks and recreation managers to become more entrepreneurial in developing financial strategies for delivering high quality and cost efficient recreational services to the citizens. One financial tool, under much discussion, is for parks and recreation managers to establish formal cost recovery plans for their departments. This paper presents the results of a study in which local Nevada governmental parks and recreation departments were surveyed and evaluated to determine if they are using formal cost recovery plans and if cost efficiencies have been improved. The research focused on identifying factors associated with …

Growing Inequities Among Women In Massachusetts: Income, Employment, Education And Skills, Erika Kates

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Massachusetts women compare very favorably to women in other states in earnings, education, and employment. However, these general trends mask a substantial and growing divide between women in these areas.

Social Security's Earnings Test Penalty And The Employment Rates Of Elderly Men Aged 65 To 69, Stephen Rubb

WCBT Faculty Publications

Social Security provides retirement income to eligible elderly individuals who reach age 62 and apply for benefits. Beyond this age, some recipients continue to work on a full- or part-time basis. The Social Security Administration reduces the annual level of benefits for those recipients who have earnings above a specified amount known as the earnings test threshold. Effective in 1990, the earnings test penalty for a person aged 65 to 69 was reduced from 50 cents to 33 cents for every dollar earned in excess of the annually adjusted threshold. The labor supply response to the 1990 reduction in the …

Taiwan: The Commercial State, Arthur I. Cyr

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Perverse Financial Liberalization: Examples From The Asian Crisis, Nancy Neiman Auerbach, Thomas D. Willett

Scripps Faculty Publications and Research

Debates continue to rage about the causes of recent currency and financial crises around the globe and their implications for the desirability of domestic and international financial liberalization. Beneath the heated exchanges of the most vocal disputants, a quiet consensus is beginning to emerge among serious scholars and policy officials. The big lesson from these crises is that while financial liberalization is still a desirable goal, it must be approached very carefully. It’s not just that without the proper pre-conditions liberalization will not provide full benefits. The results can sometimes be disastrous. What was once considered to be an arcane …

The East Asian Model Of Economic Development And Developing Countries, Jong H. Park

Faculty Articles

This paper examines the debate on the East Asian model of economic development in light of the different approaches undertaken by different groups of countries (economies) in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia. The common strengths and weaknesses shared by the East Asian countries (economies) have helped to reinforce the misconception that there is a single East Asian model of economic development. There are, however, significant differences in economic structures as well as development experiences among the East Asian economies, especially between the economic development paradigms of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Nonetheless, one single common thread underlies the differences in …

Us Social Security Rules In The 1990s: A Natural Experiment In Myopic And Farsighted Behaviour, Stephen D. Rubb

WCBT Faculty Publications

During the 1990s changes in the earnings test threshold and the delayed retirement credit had the potential to impact the labour supply of 65 to 69-year-olds. These changes in Social Security rules are used to examine whether labour supply behaviour of elderly men and women is 'myopic' or 'farsighted'. Men are found to be more farsighted than previously realized, perhaps due to increases in life expectancy.

Education, Social Security, And The Welfare State: Alternative Policy Choices In The United States And Germany, Karl G. Hokenmaier

Dissertations

Western welfare states have not all followed the same path in their social policy development. Still, certain similarities have been identified in the types and combinations of social insurance supported by specific groupings of these states. Titmuss (1974) described "three contrasting models or functions of social policy." Heclo (1985) argued "three broad groups of nations can be distinguished” with different models of social welfare policy. Esping-Andersen (1990) identified "three worlds of welfare capitalism," each with a unique social policy agenda and distinctive social insurance system. Education is typically not included with other social programs in depicting the policy profiles of …

Active Labor Market Programs: Conceptual Framework, Christopher J. O'Leary

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Decades: Changes In Work And Earnings In Massachusetts, 1979–1999, Randy Albelda, Marlene Kim

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Over the past twenty years, Massachusetts has replaced the mantle of old-style manufacturing with a robust “new economy.” Our economic vitality has never been better. But not all individuals benefited from the 1990s boom as they had from the one a decade earlier. Some of our residents are worse off than they were before.

Do China And Hong Kong Constitute An Optimum Currency Area?, Yue Ma, Shu Ki Tsang

CAPS Working Paper Series

After the political unification of Hong Kong with China, Hong Kong is supposed to function as a separate economic entity under the framework of "one country, two systems". However, the increasingly close ties between the two economices have raised the possibility of full economic integration, and even of monetary union as the Chinese currency progresses towards full convertibility. This paper employs the theory of optimum currency area (OCA) and adopts recently developed techniques to test whether China and Hong Kong constitute an OCA. The empirical findings based on disaggregated historical data are overwhelmingly negative. Other considerations also point to a …

A Positive Political Model Of Supreme Court Economic Decisions, Tony Caporale, Harold Winter

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

We develop a positive political model of the U.S. Supreme Court. Looking at the Court's economic cases for the period 1953-1993, we find a significant larger fraction of conservative decisions under Republican presidents and more conservative leadership of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Conservative decisions are also found to be positively correlated with the fraction of the Court appointed by Republican presidents and the rate of price inflation. We argue that our findings cast serious doubt on the common view of the Supreme Court as a completely independent, apolitical institution.

Forecasting Municipal Budgets, Gary A. Webb

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Role Of Government In Managing Corporate Distress After The 1997 Financial Crisis : Theories And Case Studies Of Selected Malaysian Corporations, Sook Ching Wong

Student Works (2000-2009)

The 1997 Asian financial crisis reversed over two decades of unprecedented and amazing economic growth in the eight High-Performing Asian Economies (HPAEs) including Malaysia. The interwoven relationship of banks and corporations have created a symbiosis that can be extreme in its effects. Given the circumstances facing these corporations, it may be imperative and therefore justifiable for some appropriate government intervention to check and reverse problems of insolvency, bankruptcy and declining real output. There are numerous means of assisting financially distressed corporations, some more effective than others, often depending on circumstances. "Success" or "failure" depends on the magnitude of assistance, how …

Estimation Of The Equilibrium Exchange Rate In Malaysia, Ying Foong Yoong

Student Works (2000-2009)

In this study, we examine the long-nm relationships of the exchange rate of ringgit Malaysia through three difference methods. Firstly, we estimate the ringgit Malaysia with a simple Big Mac index. The results show that the ringgit Malaysia is undervalued since 1993. Secondly, we used the co-integrating techniques to examine the long-run relationship of the exchange rate of ringgit Malaysia against United States dollar vis-a-vis other Asian currencies, namely Japanese yen and Singapore dollar against United States dollar. The short-term impact of these variables are also estimated by an error-correction model. Our results show that the Purchasing Power Parity does …

Left Behind: The Persistence Of Poverty Through The 1990s, Randy Albelda, Donna H. Friedman

Economics Faculty Publication Series

The Commonwealth’s economic growth over the past decade has led to more jobs and an increasing median income, but the rising tide has not lifted the boats at the bottom. The bottom 20 percent of the Commonwealth’s families with children have not found relief. Growth in earnings has been almost completely offset by the loss of public support, which in turn has strained the private sector’s emergency support system. Poverty rates for families have dropped only slightly, child poverty rates and the percentage of families who are very poor have increased, and the need for emergency housing and food services …

Hybrid Organizations And The Alignment Of Interests: The Case Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

This article explores the political influence of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Using Congress's overhaul of the regulatory infrastructure for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a case study, the article presents two principal findings: (1) The characteristics that distinguish government-sponsored enterprises from traditional government agencies and private companies endow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with unique political resources; and (2) the alignment of interest groups around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is subject to strategic manipulation by the GSEs. A triangular model of this alignment is proposed and employed to analyze the legislative outcome. The case has implications for students of …

Reflections On Market Reform In Post-War, Post-Embargo Vietnam, Lan Cao

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Have 401(K)S Raised Household Savings? Evidence From The Health And Retirement Study, Gary V. Engelhart

Center for Policy Research

The most popular tax subsidy to household saving in the United States is the 401(k)-type pension arrangement, which subsidizes saving through income-tax deferral on wages and salary dedicated to retirement saving and through investment accrual at the pre-tax interest rate. Although enabled by legislation in 1978, 401(k) plans effectively were not adopted until the Internal Revenue Service issued clarifying rules in 1981. Since then, they have grown remarkably and become the primary vehicle for retirement saving. In 1996, 33 percent of all private pension assets, 33 percent of all pension plans, and 45 percent of all active pension participants were …

Pre-Retirement Lump-Sum Pension Distributions And Retirement Income Security: Evidence From The Health And Retirement Study, Gary V. Engelhart

Center for Policy Research

This paper uses data from the 1992 and 1998 Waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the extent of retirement wealth erosion from pre-retirement lump-sum distributions. There is little evidence that spent distributions have resulted in significant pension leakage. If spent distributions had been rolled over into a tax-qualified plan instead, they would have represented in present value between 5 and 11 percent of pension and Social Security wealth for the median household that spent a distribution. However, one-quarter of the households that spent distributions—which is 2.25 percent of all households age 51 to 61—could have increased …

The Reforms Of China's State Enterprises, The Bank System And The Relationship Between Them, Zheng Li

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China's economic reform is now at a critical stage ofrestructuring the financial sector and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Although refonns have accomplished much over the past two decades, many problems still exist in these two sectors. Chinese banks and enterprises influence and interweave with each other. The banks can't operate fuJly as commercial banks until the principal borrowers are fully reformed. SOEs cannot become profitable unless the banking system is commercialized and stops making poHcy loans to the money-losing enterprises. How can China reform its banking system and SOEs to achieve sustained long-term growth? This study focuses on the reform of …

The Reforms Of China's State Enterprises, The Bank System And The Relationship Between Them, Zheng Li

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China's economic reform is now at a critical stage ofrestructuring the financial sector and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Although reforms have accomplished much over the past two decades, many problems still exist in these two sectors. Chinese banks and enterprises influence and interweave with each other. The banks can't operate fully as commercial banks until the principal borrowers are fully reformed. SOEs cannot become profitable unless the banking system is commercialized and stops making policy loans to the money-losing enterprises. How can China reform its banking system and SOEs to achieve sustained long-term growth? This study focuses on the reform of …

The Role Of Microsimulation In Longitudinal Data Analysis, Douglas A. Wolf

Center for Policy Research

The term “microsimulation” has been linked to a range of tools and techniques that are finding growing use in empirical social science applications. This paper considers one such area, namely the potential for microsimulation to serve the needs of the data analyst, in contrast to the more common use of microsimulation by the model user. Furthermore, the focus is on longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data analysis. The paper identifies several types of longitudinal data modeling approaches in which microsimulation is particularly relevant, suggesting algorithms with which to conduct such microsimulations. Microsimulation can be used to extend the range of inferences …

Domestic Public Debt In Egypt: Magnitude, Structure, And Consequences, Gouda Abdel-Khalek

Faculty Book Chapters

[abstract not provided]

The Impact Of Food Subsidy Policy On Low Income People And The Poor In Egypt, Karima Korayem

Faculty Book Chapters

[abstract not provided]