Economic Policy Commons^™

From Himalayan Catastrophe To National Resilience: Lessons From The 2026 Bhote Koshi And Trishuli River Floods In Nepal, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

On the morning of 26 August 2026, the mountains above Nepal’s northern frontier delivered a disaster of almost unimaginable speed and scale. A massive mass of ice, rock, and sediment detached in the high Himalayan terrain near the Nepal–Tibet border, descended roughly 1,200 metres, interacted with the Lhende Khola system, and generated a debris-rich flood that surged through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river corridors, destroying settlements, markets, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities, and an international border crossing and transforming them into fields of mud, boulders, and wreckage within minutes (ICIMOD, 2026b; Reuters, 2026a). Satellite analysis indicates that a substantial section …

Utahns' Views On Data Centers - Statewide Sample Descriptive Report, Jessica Schad, Gina Gilson, Stacia Ryder, Elizabeth Long-Meek, Alexandrea Sherman

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

As data center development accelerates in the western U.S, there are growing concerns about impacts to land, water, and air. This is especially true in rural communities, where development is rapidly increasing and communities have fewer resources. Broadly, data centers increasingly face vocal opposition from siting communities, who are concerned about water use, energy demand, and air quality. However, the impacts of data centers are highly context specific and localized, depending on regional energy availability, cooling technologies, and, increasingly, state-specific regulations.

Over the last year, Utah policymakers have increased efforts to monitor data centers and mitigate their impacts. However, such …

Religion And Economics: The Economic Views Of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia Ii Of Georgia, Giuli Giguashvili

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The paper examines the impact of religion on a country’s economic development, analyzing how religious values and institutions influence economic behavior. The research employs a qualitative, comparative, and historical approach based on the systematic analysis of primary and secondary sources. Religion can promote economic growth by strengthening work ethics, education, and social order. Still, it may also hinder development through inefficient resource allocation and regulatory influence. In the context of the 1700th anniversary of Christianity in Georgia, the study highlights the relationship between Orthodox teaching and economic thought. Drawing on the epistles and sermons of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, …

Middle Class Affordability In The Mountain West, 2023, Kian Parikh, Krish Sharma, Mohit Pande, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents 2023 data on the share of middle-class households that can afford basic necessities in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The Brookings Institution report, “In every corner of the country, the middle class struggles with affordability,” provides metropolitan-level estimates across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. This fact sheet focuses on middle class affordability data for the largest metro area in each Mountain West state and, where available, explores middle class affordability by race and ethnicity.

The Mundlak Estimator In A Panel Data Model With Serially Correlated Error Component Disturbances, Badi H. Baltagi, Long Liu

Center for Policy Research

This paper shows that the classic Mundlak (1978) result where the random effects estimator reduces to the fixed effects estimator when the regressors are all correlated with the individual effects, may not hold if the remainder disturbances have a general serial correlation variance-covariance matrix. This includes the popular AR(1), MA(1) and ARMA(p, q) processes for serial correlation. This is illustrated with an empirical example for the AR(1) case.

Can The Safety Net Support Families Through Childbirth?, Hyojeong Kim, Colleen Heflin, Taryn Morrissey

Center for Policy Research

Childbirth is a life event that often disrupts maternal employment and household earnings just as family expenses increase. In the United States, families do not have access to a national paid parental leave program and must rely on a patchwork of safety net programs that were not designed specifically to support households during pregnancy and the immediate postpartum period. This brief uses linked administrative data from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (2016–2021) to describe changes in household earnings and social welfare benefits before and after childbirth among low-income mothers receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for …

Gross Metropolitan Product (Gmp) And Gross State Product (Gsp) In The Mountain West, 2024, Devin Streuter, Phillip Seo, Zafeen Boulware, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents 2024 Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP) and Gross State Product (GSP) data for five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, and selected metros in these states. The data are derived from a report by the United States Conference of Mayors titled, “U.S. Metro Economies Annual Report and Forecast June 2025."

Economic Development Corporations In Small Communities, Mary L. Bullock

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

This study evaluates the effectiveness of Type A and Type B Economic Development Corporations (EDCs) in supporting economic growth in small Texas communities. Using key indicators such as population trends, employment, infrastructure, housing, and legal frameworks, this paper compares how each EDC structure addresses these issues. While both Type A and Type B Economic Development Corporations contribute to economic growth, Type B EDCs are generally more effective in small Texas communities due to their broad ability to fund housing projects, create critical infrastructure, and shape quality-of-life community development projects that have a more immediate and measurable impact on unemployment, population …

The Economic Benefits And Costs Of State And Local Incentives For Clean Energy Projects, Timothy J. Bartik, Gerrit Anderson, Brian J. Asquith, Kathleen Bolter, Kyle Huisman, Iryna V. Lendel, Jeremy Morris, Sevrin Williams

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Do Universities Underpay Professors? Yes, Especially Women, Zhanhan Yu, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Strong Job Markets Don’T Just Raise Pay, They Improve Job Quality, Brad J. Hershbein, Katherine Lim, Douglas Webber, Mike Zabek

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

State Investments In Childcare In The Mountain West, 2026, Sophia Booth, Yiselle Olivas Ruiz, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents data on state investments in childcare and preschool programs in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. BabyCenter’s 2026 analysis, “These are the best and worst states for childcare,” includes state-level data on childcare accessibility, affordability, public investment, and overall childcare rankings for all 50 states. This fact sheet focuses on childcare spaces per child, income spent on childcare, and state investment per child.

How Incentive Design Affects The Benefit-Cost Ratio Of Clean Energy Projects, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Should We Flee? The Mortality And Economic Impacts Of Hurricane Evacuation Orders, Lucas Kaplan

Center for Policy Research

I estimate the mortality and county-level regional economic impacts of hurricane evacuation orders using a novel instrumental variables framework. Relative to similarly affected but non-evacuated areas, evacuated counties experience fewer deaths but lower personal income, employment, and business establishments into the second year following the storm, likely stemming from delayed returns in wealthier neighborhoods. I then develop a threshold decision rule that balances the mortality benefits against these persistent economic costs and apply this framework to orders issued from 2016–2022. Incorporating these persistent economic costs alters policy evaluation: the largest orders generate net benefits that dwarf their costs, but the …

Work From Home In The Public And Private Sector, Harley Frazis

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Working from home has remained a prominent part of the labor market after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in January 2025 President Trump issued an executive order restricting the use of work from home (WFH) in the federal government. This paper examines trends in WFH by class of worker: private for-profit, private not-for-profit, federal, state, and local government. It evaluates how WFH evolved across different classes after accounting for differences in occupation and education, with a focus on trends for WFH in the federal government, relative to the for-profit class, before and after the restriction in federal WFH. Overall, “hybrid” WFH—working …

Strong Job Markets Don’T Just Raise Pay, They Improve Job Quality, Brad J. Hershbein, Katherine Lim, Douglas Webber, Mike Zabek

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Retention Threat On Student Learning Gains: Evidence From Ohio, Sarah Souders, Robert Bifulco

Center for Policy Research

Grade retention policies create incentives for students to make adequate progress ahead of evaluation. The threat of retention thus has the potential to affect all students’ academic outcomes, increasing achievement especially among students with test scores near the retention policy’s threshold. By using unique data from Ohio which allows us to implement a regression discontinuity design, we find that students exposed to the threat of retention in Grade 3 experience larger learning gains than students who are not under retention threat. Gains in Grade 3 English Language Arts (ELA) are 0.077 SD and although effects partially fade over time, positive …

How Migrants Fleeing The Mexican Drug War Changed American Labor Markets, Mark Borgschulte, Yuci Chen, Eduardo Medina-Cortina

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Climate Hazards On Employment And Earnings By Hazard Type, Industry, Race, And Ethnicity, Dania V. Francis, Keren M. Horn

Sustainable Solutions Lab

We examine the relationship between climate-related disasters and subsequent county-level aggregate employment and earnings. We combine earnings and employment data from 2000 to 2023 with data on disasters to estimate local projection impulse response functions relating extreme disaster events to cumulative percent changes in employment and earnings. On average, disasters appear to reduce employment growth three to five years post disaster. There are small positive impacts on earnings. These results are largely driven by responses to hurricanes and tropical storms. Key rebuilding industries such as construction see short-term gains in employment that turn to losses in the longer-term that are …

Infrastruktur, Kelembagaan Tani, Kemandirian Ekonomi Desa: Geografi Dan Paradoks Kepemimpinan Di Indonesia, Tri Wahyu Cahyono

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

This study examines determinants of village economic independence (PADes) in Indonesia, focusing on infrastructure, social capital, and leadership. Using 2024 PODES census data (N=84,240) and clustered logistic regression, results show road infrastructure as the strongest factor (OR: 2.27). A “leadership paradox” emerges, where higher education of village heads negatively correlates with PADes formation. Geographic analysis reveals infrastructure effectiveness depends on topography, with lowland areas gaining the greatest structural advantage. Findings highlight the need for topography-based policy differentiation to strengthen fiscal independence in rural Indonesia.