Economic Policy Commons^™

Greening The Cement Industry In Egypt: Exploring Decarbonisation Policies For The Cement Industry, Saleh Elghamrawi

Theses and Dissertations

The cement industry is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 7% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Cement is the most consumed material on earth, second only to water, and its demand is fueled by continuous urbanization and the lack of alternative materials. In Egypt, the cement sector is responsible for 14% of CO2 emissions, emitting over 800 kilograms of CO2 per ton of cement, surpassing the global average of 600. In 2016, Egypt ratified the Paris agreement to address climate change and has committed in its National Determined Contributions (NDC) to reduce CO2 emissions. However, …

Congressional Briefing: Support America’S Circular Economy By Upcycling Bourbon & Brewing Wastes In Reauthorizing The Farm Bill, Samuel Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Following state level development of a new spent grain incentive system, leading to KY House Bill 627 in 2022, CPC’s Congressional Summit dialogue considered initial components and possibilities for designing an incentive to upcycle “keystone” organic wastes in regional economies across the US. For member offices, a set of general recommendations are provided for a national spent-grain upcycling incentive pilot program. It is suggested that staff of the Bourbon caucus consult with the references in this briefing and USDA Rural Development to consider further development of an incentive program in the reauthorization of the Farm Bill.

It is further urged …

The Covid-19 Pandemic And Work From Home, 2019-2021, Maryam Raja, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents data from the American Community Survey (ACS) Report, “Home Based Workers and the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected commuting patterns and workplace systems. The data examine how the pandemic shifted norms in work culture and conditions in Mountain West states and metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).

Road Maintenance Challenges: The Greatest Obstacle To Sustainable Development In South Sudan, Gai Chol Paul

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Road infrastructure plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of any nation. It connects communities, facilitates trade, and enables essential service delivery. However, road maintenance is one of the most significant challenges hindering sustainable development in South Sudan. The poor roads hinder economic growth, access to essential services, and social cohesion and are in dire need of repair and upkeep. Thus, I developed this qualitative multiple-case study to explore challenges that hinder road maintenance in South Sudan. I collected data through document review and semi-structured interviews with four road engineers, and then thematically analyzed the gathered data. Three themes …

Distribution Of Federal Expenditures And Receipts In The Mountain West, 2019-2021, Isabelle G. Graham, Emily J. Daclan, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet presents data on state and federal fiscal relations from 2019 to 2021 in five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The original report from The Rockefeller Institute of Government is published each fiscal year and includes information on state and federal government expenditures and the net difference between state and federal spending for all 50 states. The original report sources data from the “Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2023.”

Review Of Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, Ava L. Corey-Gruenes

Feminist Pedagogy

Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, by Hilda Lloréns, highlights Black Puerto Rican women’s efforts to create equitable futures for their communities in the face of capitalism, racism, colonization, and ecological collapse. This review covers key concepts in Making Livable Worlds, including matriarchal dispossession, decolonizing ethnography, the myth of a homogenous Puerto Rico, and myths of inherent economic self-interest. Analyses of these concepts through an absence lens are suggested to enrich formal and informal feminist learning spaces.

Gross Domestic Product (Gdp) In Mountain West Metros, 2022, Ayda Atici, Eshaan Vakil, Saha Salahi, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Cities & Metros

This fact sheet examines the rankings of large Mountain West metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022, as well as population rank in 2020. The original report, published by Visual Capitalist, collated information from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Kenan Institute to provide these data.

The Top 1% Of Earners In The Mountain West, Ivan Sun, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines data from the Smart Asset report, “America’s Top 1% Is Different in Each State: From a $370k to $950k Income,” which examines the thresholds of the top 1% of earners and the tax rates associated with those earners. The original report contains the income threshold, national rankings, and tax rates for the top 1% of earners in all 50 states. This fact sheet focuses on the data for the top 1% of earners in the Mountain West: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Intentional Conversations: Co-Creating Global Family, School, And Community Engagement Research, Emily Markovich Morris

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presents a lecture titled "Intentional Conversations: Co-Creating Global Family, School, and Community Engagement Research" by Brookings fellow in global economy and development, Emily Markovich Morris. The more that families, schools, and communities work in partnership, the more students and schools have the support needed to thrive. This lecture explores a school and community-based research study representing education institutions in 14 countries across 6 continents. The project identifies beliefs held by families, educators, and students on the purpose of school, and global barriers to family, school, and community engagement. Surveys …

Late-Life Gender Disparities In Economic Security: Evidence From The 2022 Elder Index, Jan E. Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Yan-Jhu Su

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Estimates from the 2022 Elder Index illustrate the elevated risk of economic insecurity experienced by older women, especially those living alone. We use the Elder Index to calculate the percentage of older adults living in one- and two-person households with annual incomes that do not support economic security. National averages suggest that half of older women living alone, along with 42% of older men living alone, have annual incomes below the Elder Index. In addition, 21% of older couples have annual incomes below the Elder Index. Women in same-sex couples experience greater levels of disadvantage than men in same-sex couples …

U.S. Trade And Investment Restrictions: Laudable But Costly Goals, Christine Mcdaniel

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo’s recent visit to China resulted in the announcement of a new “export control enforcement information exchange” between the United States and China. The laudable goal is to prevent China from using U.S. technology for military purposes against the United States or our allies. An information exchange may be a way to explain things to each other, but the fact remains that the export controls are indeed in place. China represents large revenue streams for three of the largest US chip producers—about 20% for Nvidia, 60% for Qualcomm, and 20-30% for Intel. If these U.S. companies cannot …

U.S. Trade And Investment Restrictions: Laudable But Costly Goals, Christine Mcdaniel

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo’s recent visit to China resulted in the announcement of a new “export control enforcement information exchange” between the United States and China. The laudable goal is to prevent China from using U.S. technology for military purposes against the United States or our allies. An information exchange may be a way to explain things to each other, but the fact remains that the export controls are indeed in place. China represents large revenue streams for three of the largest US chip producers—about 20% for Nvidia, 60% for Qualcomm, and 20-30% for Intel. If these U.S. companies cannot …

Smart Growth Strategies: Mountain West Metros, Issac Hernandez-Alcaraz, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines data on smart growth strategies provided by the Brookings Institution’s Smart Growth Tool and includes data on the economic and industry overview of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in five Mountain West states (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah). The Smart Growth Tool identifies high-impact economic and workforce development strategies that may help states and MSAs achieve inclusive and sustainable growth.

The Mundlak Spatial Estimator, Badi H. Baltagi

Center for Policy Research

The spatial Mundlak model first considered by Debarsy (2012) is an alternative to fixed effects and random effects estimation for spatial panel data models. Mundlak modelled the correlated random individual effects as a linear combination of the averaged regressors over time plus a random time-invariant error. This paper shows that if spatial correlation is present whether spatial lag or spatial error or both, the standard Mundlak result in panel data does not hold and random effects does not reduce to its fixed effects counterpart. However, using maximum likelihood one can still estimate these spatial Mundlak models and test the correlated …

Covid-19 Has Strengthened The Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption And Domestic Violence, Monica Deza, Aaron Chalfin, Shooshan Danagoulian

Center for Policy Research

A large body of evidence documents a link between alcohol consumption and violence involving intimate partners and close family members. Recent scholarship suggests that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders, there has been a marked increase in domestic violence. This research considers an important mechanism behind the increase in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: an increase in the riskiness of alcohol consumption. We combine 911 call data with newly available high-resolution microdata on visits to bars and liquor stores in Detroit, MI and find that the strength of the relationship between visits to alcohol …

Unemployment, Alcohol, And Tobacco Use: Separating State Dependence From Unobserved Heterogeneity, Monica Deza

Center for Policy Research

Previous literature presents mixed evidence on the effect of alcohol consumption on labor market outcomes. On one hand, heavy alcohol consumption has been shown to have detrimental effects on labor market outcomes. On the other hand, moderate consumption is positively associated with wages and employment. Despite substantial reduced form evidence, previous literature has not been able to separately identify the causal pathways linking moderate versus heavy alcohol use to labor market performance due to the lack of natural experiments that only target moderate versus heavy drinking, as well as limitations of available structural methods that model state dependence and unobserved …

Treatment For Mental Health And Substance Use: Spillovers To Police Safety, Monica Deza

Center for Policy Research

We study the effect of community access to mental health and substance use treatment on police officer safety, which we proxy with on-duty assaults on officers. Police officers often serve as first-responders to people experiencing mental health and substance use crises, which can place police officers at risk. Combining agency-level data on police officer on-duty assaults and county-level data on the number of treatment centers that offer mental health and substance use care, we estimate two-way fixed-effects regressions and find that an additional four centers per county (the average annual increase observed in our data) leads to a 1.3% reduction …

Geographic Distance And State's Grip: Information Asymmetry, State Inattention, And Firm Implementation Of State Policy, Xiyi Yang, Heli Wang, Xiaoyu Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this study, we develop the argument that geographic distance between the state and local governments undermines the state's capacity to influence the implementation of state policies by local organizations. Drawing from information economics and the attention-based view, we propose that physical distance reduces the state's monitoring effectiveness through two interrelated mechanisms: information asymmetry and state leaders' inattention to distant issues. Using data of Chinese public firms' implementation of environmental activities between 2008 and 2016, we find that firms conduct fewer environmental activities required by the state when they are regulated by local governments that are more geographically distant to …

The State Of The Unions 2023: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

This report released by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, State of the Unions 2023: A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, is a part of an annual publication series, documents recent trends in unionization patterns. The overall level of unionization in both the City and State has been roughly double the national rate over the past two decades. But recently, union density has fallen more in New York City and New York State than in the United States as a whole. In the mid-2010s, both the City and …

Child Care Costs In The Mountain West, 2021, Mohit Pande, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines data on child care costs in five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, from the Child Care Aware of America’s (CCAoA) report “Price of Care: 2021 Child Care Affordability.” The original report includes data on the cost of child care and the percent of yearly income allocated to child care for married and single parents. The report analyzes single family respondents and the impact of child care on work schedules. The report also provides information on the state of the child care workforce, including annual incomes of child care workers and the …