2024-03-29T08:06:26Z
http://surface.syr.edu/do/oai/
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1000
2021-02-25T19:09:44Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Our Grandparents, Our Parents, Our Future Selves: Optimizing Function in Old Age.
Gill, Thomas Michael
<p>Most of my research at Yale University School of Medicine over the past several years has focused on identifying older adults at risk of functional decline and disability, identifying events that may precipitate the transition from functional independence to disability, and developing strategies to postpone or reduce frailty and disability. As a result of the Precipitating Events Project (PEP) and other research conducted by the Yale Center on Aging/Pepper Center, we now realize that age is only a proxy for other factors that lead to disability, and that some of these factors can be modified to reduce the risk of disability. In fact, disability rates have been steadily declining among older adults for decades.</p>
Policy Brief
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
geriatrics
aging
gerontology
disability
functional decline
exercise
physical activity
falls
Yale PREHAB study
lifestyle interventions
independence
elders
FICSIT trial
frailty
Syracuse Seminar Series on Aging
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/1
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1001
2021-02-25T19:10:17Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Universal Health Insurance Coverage: Progress and Issues.
Gruber, Jonathan
<p>Jonathan Gruber was a key architect of Massachusetts’ ambitious health reform effort, and in 2006 became an inaugural member of the Health Connector Board, the main implementing body for that effort. He delivered this lecture on October 2, 2009, and his references are to Congressional bills that were under consideration on that date. He laid out the universal coverage debate that’s gone on for a long time in the United States; described a new solution that he think they found for Massachusetts; described how the Massachusetts reform works; and how it can be extended nationally. Finally he spent time on the key issues that Congress is facing in fall 2009 trying to take this model to the national level.</p>
Policy Brief
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Twenty-first Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health care reform
universal coverage
employer-sponsored insurance benefits
single payer
Health Policy
<p>Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Center for Policy Research. No. 41/2009</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/2
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1002
2021-02-25T19:10:51Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Physician Sovereignty: The Dangerous Persistence of an Obsolete Idea
Lawrence, David M.
<p>The heart of the model is this: to quote Pogo, "We have met the enemy and it is us." We doctors are the problem, not because we are venal or self-serving or insulated from reality. Far from it. Most of us are hard-working, dedicated professionals. We are the problem, though, because of the way our profession developed in the 20th century. This model is no longer appropriate for what lies ahead. The notion of the sovereign physician comes from Paul Starr's 1982 work, "The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry.: Starr argues that the rise of the sovereign profession we know today was neither inevitable nor foreordained. It was instead the result of a long struggle to establish the modern medical profession in the face of other competitors and forces. Sovereignty is neither good nor bad in and of itself. It is its manifestations in medical practice, and its suitability for the future, that is of concern.</p>
Policy Brief
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
health care
chronic disease
medical care
medical technology
health reform
physicians
Medicine and Health
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/3
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1003
2021-02-25T19:11:21Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
International Technology Transfer for Climate Policy
Popp, David
<p>While the developed world is starting to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, emissions from the developing world are increasing as a result of economic growth. Reducing these emissions while still enabling developing countries to grow requires the use of new technologies. In most cases, these technologies are first created in high-income countries. Thus, the challenge for climate policy is to encourage the transfer of these climate-friendly technologies to the developing world. This policy brief reviews the economic literature on environmental technology transfer. It then discusses the implications of this literature for climate policy, focusing on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. It concludes by asking whether the current structure of the CDM provides sufficient incentives for technology transfer. Are CDM projects providing real emissions reductions, or are developed countries simply receiving credit for reductions that developing countries could have achieved on their own? What lessons can we learn from recent experience that may guide the development of the CDM (or other similar policy tools) during the next round of international climate policy negotiations?</p>
Policy Brief
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Kyoto Protocol
greenhouse gases
global warming
clean development mechanism
carbon dioxide
GHG emissions
sustainability
Environmental Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/4
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1004
2021-02-25T19:11:53Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Do We Want to Measure the Quality of Care for Vulnerable Older People? The ACOVE Approach.
Wenger, Neil S.
<p>There's limited information available about measuring the quality of medical care that is targeted to the needs of older patients. And there's very limited pressure on the system to provide high quality geriatric care. Why is that? Because the quality measures haven't been adequately developed and implemented, and it's more difficult to measure care for an older sample. Measuring care for ill older adults is complex, because they tend to have multiple medical conditions, and they demonstrate substantial variation in goals for care (Wenger and colleagues 2007). The Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) project began in 1998 as a collaboration between RAND Health and Pfizer Inc to develop and apply quality indicators (QIs) for assessment and treatment targeted at vulnerable older persons. The project involved defining and identifying the target population, identifying health conditions that cover much of the medical care provided to this population, developing quality-of-care indicators to measure how well those conditions are being addressed, and applying those indicators to determine the actual quality of care received by older adults.</p>
Policy Brief
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Syracuse Seminar on Aging
geriatrics
gerontology
health care
medical care
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/5
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1025
2021-02-26T14:30:26Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Health Promotion for Older Adults: What Is the Potential?
Fried, Linda P.
<p>As a greater number of people reach old age, medicine is challenged to develop new approaches to this population. Health promotion, not just treatment of disease but improving the quality of life for older persons, must play a role. What happens to individuals in terms of health status as they get older, and what are the implications for health care needs? Where should we focus to get the biggest benefits in terms of health promotion? Overall, we have learned a tremendous amount over the last 25 years about the components of health as people get older, and what modifies their health. We know, for example, that the health status of older adults is a composite of the chronic diseases that they may have, of how many chronic diseases are present, and of underlying physiological changes of aging, such as a decline in muscle strength, that appear to be an intrinsic part of the aging process. Disability can result from chronic disease. In addition, people are more susceptible to acute illnesses and injuries as they get older.</p>
Policy Brief
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
11th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
geriatrics
health promotion
chronic diseases
aging
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/26
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1020
2021-02-25T19:34:21Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
How Does Dipping into Your Pension Affect Your Retirement Wealth?
Engelhardt, Gary V.
<p>Although pensions, both public and private, are intended to provide income during retirement, a growing number of American workers receive part or all their employer-provided pensions in the form of a cash settlement, called a lump-sum distribution, when they change jobs. They have many choices of what to do with that money: for example, they can roll it over into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), spend the money or pay or debt, transfer it to the pension plan of a new employer, or even leave the money with the old employer's pension plan. Policymakers are concerned that workers who spend their pension distributions on current consumption are depriving themselves of the financial resources they will need for retirement. This policy brief describes some results from an ongoing study on the long-term economic consequences of lump-sum pension distributions. The study uses detailed information on employment histories, pensions, and wealth from Wave 1 (1992) of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative survey of individuals between the ages of 41 and 61.</p>
Policy Brief
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Retirement security
pension funds
public pensions
private pensions
Retirement Security Law
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/21
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1032
2021-02-26T14:35:14Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Financing Higher Standards in Public Education: The Importance of Accounting for Educational Costs
Duncombe, William
Yinger, John
<p>Performance standards have been at the center of recent debates on educational reform. Many states have implemented new performance standards, often based on student test scores, and a district's state aid is sometimes linked to its success in meeting the standards. This focus on performance is designed primarily to promote better student achievement by holding schools accountable. However, a school's performance is influence not only by the actions of its administrators and teachers but also by factors outside its control, such as the nature of its student body. Thus, a focus on performance is inevitably unfair, especially to cities, unless it accounts for the impact on performance of factors outside the control of school officials. To be fair, school report cards and performance-based state aid systems must distinguish between poor performance based on external factors and on school inefficiency. Many state aid systems have taken one step in this direction by compensating districts with low wealth, a factor over which they have no control. However, school district performance is also influenced by the cost of education, which varies widely from district to district based on local wage rates, student characteristics, and other external factors. Existing state aid formulas either ignore these factors altogether or else use ad hoc corrections, such as "weighted pupil" counts, that account for them partially at best. In this policy brief, we explain why a performance focus and educational cost indexes must go hand in hand, discuss alternative methods for estimating educational cost indexes, and show how these cost indexes can be incorporated into a performance-based state aid program. We show, using data from New York State, that controlling for costs in the design of school aid formulas is crucial to enable central cities to reach educational adequacy standards.</p>
Policy Brief
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
public education policy
public education finance
education performance standards
Education Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/33
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1034
2022-03-14T13:23:27Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
The Changing Economic Circumstances of the Elderly: Income, Wealth, and Social Security
Smith, James P.
<p>How is the economic status of the elderly changing and what are their prospects for the future? My portrait tells us how well off they are on average, but also about the vast disparities that exist among them. This description includes an often neglected measure of their economic well-being--the amount of wealth they control. Amazingly little is known about how much personal wealth older people have and how and what determines its distribution. But the conventional definition of household wealth ignores two critical components of wealth: the expected income flows from pensions and Social Security. For some elderly households, Social Security represents the largest part of their wealth. I conclude with some thoughts on one of the most sensitive and critical public policy issues--the necessity of reforming Social Security.</p>
Policy Brief
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Geriatrics
economic status of the elderly
Social Security
pensions
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/35
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1005
2021-02-25T19:12:36Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Our Troubled Health Care System: Why Is It So Hard to Fix?
Feder, Judy
<p>This brief draws heavily on Judith Feder, 2004, "Crowd-Out and the Politics of Health Reform," The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 32(3): 461-464. We all know that affordable health care is now back on the political agenda, and it's about time! Because all of us--families, businesses, and governments--are struggling with the ever-increasing costs of care. Every year about a million people are added to the rolls of the uninsured. In 2006, it was even more, over 2 million. The number of people without health insurance coverage has reached more than 47 million. People *with* insurance are seeing their benefits dwindle and their health care costs consume their wages. Even people with health insurance find themselves unable to pay their medical bills and going without needed care. The bottom line is that, increasingly, our health insurance system fails to protect us when we get sick.</p>
Policy Brief
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
health insurance
cost of medical care
Nineteenth Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/6
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1007
2021-02-25T19:14:09Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Is It Time to Redesign Hospice? End-of-Life Care at the User Interface
Casarett, David J.
<p>Hospice is a system of end-of-life care that’s not used to its full potential. That is, hospice is not used in the way that would benefit patients and families as much as it could. My argument is that this is an issue of usability, or ergonomics—the science of design. I illustrate how to take what we have learned from the science of usability to make hospice more accessible and approachable, and to increase hospice use among those who would benefit from it. Underneath this discussion, though, there is a more fundamental question: Can we make hospice more usable or do we need to think about redesigning hospice entirely?</p>
Policy Brief
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Syracuse Seminar on Aging
nursing home
Medicare
Medicaid
long-term care
elderly
social welfare.
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/8
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1012
2021-02-25T19:17:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Spending Health Care Dollars Wisely: Can Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Help?
Weinstein, Milton C.
<p>Are we getting the most health improvement possible for our money. In other words, are all the things that we do in medicine really worth it? That is where cost-effectiveness comes in. As a nation, we have been unwilling, at least publicly, to look explicitly at the value, in terms of improved health outcome, that we get for our health care dollars. With advances in medical technology putting unsustainable pressure on health care costs, our historical reluctance to measure value for health care may have to change. I start this brief by describing cost-effectiveness analysis as a method of determining the value, measured in Quality-Adjusted Life Years, of medical technologies as they are applied to treat, diagnose, or prevent various conditions. Based on this information, I then argue that some highly beneficial, low-cost procedures are significantly under-utilized, and that other medical technologies may be over-utilized based on the amount of health benefit they yield in relation to their cost. Next, I give examples from current research, my own and that of colleagues, illustrating how cost-effectiveness analysis can be used to guide the use of new diagnostic testing technologies (such as DNA or RNA typing of infectious agents or identification of genomic or proteomic markers in cancer patients).</p>
Policy Brief
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
16th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
Quality-Adjusted Life Years
healthcare
medical care
health policy
public health
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/13
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1014
2021-02-25T19:31:13Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Education Finance Reform in New York: Calculating the Cost of a 'Sound Basic Education' in New York City
Duncombe, William
Yinger, John
<p>In June 2003 the New York State Court of Appeals altered the education-finance landscape with its ruling in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. New York. This ruling called for “[r]eforms to the current system of financing school funding” designed to ensure “that every school in New York City would have the resources necessary for providing the opportunity for a sound basic education.” This ruling addressed a wide range of issues, but also declared that “the funding level necessary to provide City students with the opportunity for a sound basic education is an ascertainable starting point.” This policy brief addresses the question: How can this funding level be determined? Any calculation of the cost of a “sound basic education” must begin with a definition of this term, that is, with a decision about the educational standard every district is supposed to reach. This is a decision to be made by lawmakers, with input from the Court of Appeals. We begin with an overview of the issues that arise in making this decision, and then turn to the main concern of this policy brief, namely, how to calculate the cost of a sound basic education once it has been defined by lawmakers.</p>
Policy Brief
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
educational finance
education policy
New York City public schools
Urban Education
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/15
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1015
2021-02-25T19:31:39Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Are the Benefits of Medicine Worth What We Pay for It?
Cutler, David M.
<p>Is medical care worth it? Conventional wisdom says no, but my answer is emphatically yes. The benefits that we have received from medical advance are enormously greater than the costs. I suggest that public policy far outweighs the importance of cost containment relative to coverage expansion; we could in fact spend more and get a lot more for our health care dollars. In what follows, I talk about the costs and benefits of medical advance, focusing on two areas where I have done the most work: improvements in cardiovascular disease care and care for low birth weight infants. In each case, I present evidence that the benefits justify the costs, and discuss what that implies for public policy. I note at the outside that I shall be summarizing a large volume of research that I and others have done. I have compiled my views into a book, YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE (2004, Oxford University Press), that the interested reader should consult.</p>
Policy Brief
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
15th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health policy
medical care
cardiovascular disease care
low birth weight infant care
medical advancement costs
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/16
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1022
2021-02-25T19:35:18Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Medicaid, Managed Care, and Kids. 12th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
Freund, Deborah A.
<p>This policy brief talks about what managed care for Medicaid is, how it influences kids, and how it relates to the State Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It focuses on what we have learned over the last 20 years through research about cost, use, and quality. It also discusses some of the expectations we had for children covered by Medicaid managed care. Finally, it talks about the future of Medicaid managed care and the implications for CHIP.</p>
Policy Brief
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
public health policy
Medicaid
State Child Health Insurance Program
child health
12th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/23
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1023
2021-02-26T14:28:53Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Workplace Safety Policy: Past, Present, and Future
Kniesner, Thomas J.
Leeth, John D.
<p>With an annual budget of about $400 million, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is about 5 percent the size of the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency created by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, the "Year of the Environment." Nearly all workers in the United States come under OSHA's jurisdiction, with some notable exceptions, including miners, transportation workers, many public employees, and people who are self-employed. OSHA is currently responsible for projecting over 100 million workers at 6 million work sites with the help of only about 2,000 workplace health and safety inspectors. Nevertheless, suppers of OSHA argue that it has significantly improved worker safety over the last 30 years and that a beefed-up enforcement effort would produce even greater improvements. We examine the available evidence and find little support to the notion that OSHA has effectively reduced accidents and diseases in the workplace or that a more vigorous enforcement campaign would be likely to do so. Other policy instruments--tort laws, state Workers' Compensation insurance programs, and research and public education on the causes and consequences of work hazards--now keep workplace deaths and injuries low and can reduce them even more. The wage premiums, estimated at $210 billion per year, that workers receive for accepting job-related health hazards give employers a stronger economic incentive to eliminate workplace health and safety hazards than the $132 million per year in fines imposed by OSHA and its state counterparts for violations of workplace safety standards. Because of the heterogeneity of workers and firms, we argue that public policy should expand the economic incentives for workplace safety while allowing firms and workers freedom to discover on their own the best ways to improve workplace safety.</p>
Policy Brief
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
Labor and Employment Law
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
workplace safety
Workers' Compensation insurance
work hazards
environmental health
Labor and Employment Law
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/24
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1029
2021-02-26T14:33:09Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Patients as Consumers: Making the Health Care System Our Own.
Lansky, David J.
<p>I ask you to think about our health care system. Think beyond the issues that are in front of us today: the anxiety we have about managed care, obtaining our own health care and paying for it, the survival of Medicare, and the unpredictable impact of government regulations. Think about our *health*, what we want from our health care system, what we're spending all this money for, and what we care about for ourselves and for our families. The challenge we face in the next five, ten, or fifteen years is to place the American health care system under the control of the people who pay for it, who receive the care, and who care the most about the health of the people in our communities.</p>
Policy Brief
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
9th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
public health policy
health production
Medicare
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/30
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1030
2021-02-26T14:33:53Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
The Hidden Age Revolution: Emergent Integration of All Ages
Riley, Matilda White
<p>Over the past 30 years my colleagues and I have been focusing on conceptual and empirical work (the aging and society paradigm) that does not create policies, but can inform them. The most immediate phase of this long cumulative history is leading us now to hidden changes in people's lives and social institutions that herald a new phenomenon world-wide--a phenomenon that may have momentous implications for the policies of the future. We call it "age integration" because it *integrates* older people with others of every age. When I come to the end of my lecture, I hope you will see the potential for age integration to transform the basis for policy in the 21st century. But before considering policy, I want to share with you my excitement about the age integration that would greatly affect it. Of course, we already know that lives have changed; they have become longer and healthier. But what many of us do not yet recognize is that two revolutionary changes, though still hidden, are beginning to emerge: (1) human lives are subtly extending so far that they create a new *age continuum*; (2) a silent metamorphosis in social structures is opening unexpected *opportunities for people of every age*. These hidden changes, and the pressures generated by the tensions between them, portend a virtual breakdown of the age barriers that once segregated the "three boxes"; retirement and leisure for the old, work and family for the middle aged, and education for the young. With the barriers removed, older people could participate together with younger people in work, life-long education, community, religion, and many other structures--that is, they could become "age integrated."</p>
Policy Brief
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
Geriatrics
age integration
aging
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/31
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1026
2021-02-26T14:31:11Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Social Security Reform: Improving Benefit Adequacy and Economic Security for Women
Smeeding, Timothy M.
<p>This policy brief is designed to raise awareness of the current and future economic circumstances of older women, and the ways in which Social Security reform can help alleviate their unmet needs. It considers the gaps in benefit adequacy and economic security that are not addressed by current Social Security reform proposals and then suggests a series of modest, low-cost reforms to help close these gaps. If our proposals are adopted, Social Security reform will not only close the long-run financial deficit, but it will also greatly reduce the future poverty status of older women, particularly those who live alone. This is an opportunity for progressive reform as well as for budgetary balance. The Social Security program was designed over 60 years ago for a world in which mothers worked at home, raised children, and were widowed young, but not divorced; where fathers worked in industrial settings; and where both men and women had much shorter life expectancies at older ages than those of succeeding generations. Back in 1935 the founders of Social Security did not anticipate that women would become the major beneficiaries of the program. Increasingly, women rely on Social Security as the major source of their economic security at older ages, much more so than do men. Therefore, women are the group with the most to gain or lose from reform of the Social Security system and modification of its benefit formulae. Future women beneficiaries will be different. Women's lives are changing rapidly in many ways. More women work outside the home today, and about half of all marriages end in divorce.</p>
Policy Brief
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
Social Security reform
Women's studies
geriatric women
social welfare
Women's Studies
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/27
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1027
2021-02-26T14:31:42Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
The Evolving Practice of Medicine: A View from the Front Line
Corwin, Robert M.
Dennison, Thomas H.
Franklin, Patricia B.
Ginsburg, Paul B.
<p>The health care system in the United States has been experiencing rapid change for decades. Beginning after World War II, the health care system grew and expanded. Change was driven by advances in technology, shifting demographics, and increases in the supply of physicians and hospitals, all fueled by supportive public policy and governmental funding. While change continues today, new dynamics drive the direction of change. These new dynamics generally share a common theme of cost containment. The purchasing power of buyers, both industry and government, has overshadowed the historical power of providers. Managed care financing mechanisms have changed provider behavior by introduction of utilization management mechanisms and shifted incentives through assumption of insurance risk by providers. The role of patients has also changed as the consumer has become more knowledgeable and empowered. There are large and growing numbers of uninsured Americans. There is growing discontent around the quality of care being provided by the health care system. All these factors, and more, drive today's changes in the organization, delivery, and financing of health care in the United States. However, the change we see in each community varies in terms of its pace and in how the parts of the health care delivery and financing system have organized and reorganized. There appears to be no clearly articulated public policy that is shaping the structure and function of the health care system of the future. This symposium explores the issues behind the variability of the change observed in the health care system from community to community, and particularly to place Syracuse, New York, in the context of these changes.</p>
Policy Brief
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
10th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Symposium on Health Policy
health care system
United States of America
health policy
uninsured Americans
medical technology
Medicine and Health Sciences
<p>G.</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/28
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1033
2021-02-26T14:36:06Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Pro-Work Policy Proposals for Older Americans in the 21st Century
Burkhauser, Richard V.
Quinn, Joseph F.
<p>Reports that the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted sometime in the early part of the next century reinforce the need to make retirement policy in the United States more accommodating for those who want to work. While there is general agreement that disincentives to work at older ages in both Social Security and employer pension plans played an important role in the dramatic drop in retirement age from 1945 through 1985, skepticism exists over the ability of policy changes to both stop this trend and increase work at older ages. In this policy brief we summarize how government policy has influenced retirement since the end of World War II, show that reductions in some of the anti-work aspects of our retirement system in the 1980s appear to have ended the trend toward earlier and earlier retirement, and offer five pro-work policies which would increase work for twenty-first century older Americans.</p>
Policy Brief
1997-01-01T08:00:00Z
Geriatrics
retirement security
Social Security Trust Fund
Social Security policy
Retirement Security Law
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/34
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1035
2021-02-26T14:38:53Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
American Longevity: Past, Present, and Future
Preston, Samuel H.
<p>How long we live, and how long members of our families and social groups live, is extraordinarily important to us. It's not a subject of daily discussion, but it would be if we were threatened with a return to earlier conditions. Unfortunately, the subject of longevity falls between the cracks of academe and has received far less attention than it warrants. We are all aware, at least dimly, that people are living longer than they used to. The numbers are impressive: at the turn of the century, life expectancy at birth in the United States was 48 years; it's now 76 years. Since life expectancy during the Stone Age was in the range of 20 to 30 years, it is clear that a majority of the cumulative advances have taken place in the short span of the 20th century. Without the improvements during this century, half of us would not e here: a quarter of the present U.S. population would have been born and died, and another quarter would never have been born because of the pre-reproductive death of a mother, grandmother, or great grandmother. In developing countries, nearly all of the improvements in longevity have occurred in this century. How these gains were achieved has important implications for public policy; how large future gains will be is the single most important area of uncertainty affecting the fiscal viability of our "old age welfare state." These are the two related issues that I focus on in this policy brief.</p>
Policy Brief
1996-01-01T08:00:00Z
American Longevity
life expectancy
social welfare
aging
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/36
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1036
2021-02-26T14:39:24Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Health Care: Public Good or Private Enterprise?
Lawrence, David M.
<p>I start with the premise that the success of our efforts in health care is best measured by our ability to impact the health status of our citizens in the most affordable way possible. This brief provides an overview of the history of organized health care systems, then discusses several of the conundrums that are posted by knowledge of that history.</p>
Policy Brief
1996-01-01T08:00:00Z
7th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health care
socialized medicine
privatized health care
health care systems
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/37
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1038
2021-02-26T14:41:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
The Rhetoric and the Reality of Health Care Reform Legislation
Moon, Marilyn
<p>A plethora of political autopsies have been performed on the Clinton Administration's failed health care reform of 1994--it was too much; it was too late; there was too much pandering; there was too little pandering. Such critiques of this complex undertaking are at least partially correct. It was probably hubris to believe that such a comprehensive health care reform package could be proposed and passed in a single year. But much of the instant analysis of its failure has repeated the rhetoric of the debate rather than stepping back and placing the events of 1994 in perspective. Here I focus on five areas where rhetoric confused the debate, and compare them with the underlying realities of health care reform: (1) Financing. Proponents of the Administration proposal argued that universal coverage could be achieved primarily by redirecting existing revenue flows. It offered almost no new revenue sources--aside from a "sin tax" on tobacco. The reality is that to achieve universal coverage, we all have to pay for it, either directly or indirectly. And indirect payments can cause serious problems. (2) Controlling Costs. In an attempt to make cost containment efforts seem less onerous on individuals, the rhetoric offered two somewhat contradictory strategies of imposing *price controls* on health care providers and introducing market reforms, called *managed competition*. Presumably, managed competition would also automatically eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse, and in some unspecified way painlessly discipline the market for health care. The reality is that people must face difficult choices if we are to control the costs of health care. Cost containment is a much more controversial issue than the Administration admitted. Many persons are nervous about the impacts of such controls. (3) Choice. The Administration went out of its way to promise choice, often in ways that complicated the plan. Opponents countered that the Administration's plan would actually limit choice. But what did they mean by choice? If they meant choice of doctors and hospitals, or choice of insurance plans, the Administration's plan stacked up very well. But the right to choose any kind of health care at any time would have been restricted under the Clinton proposal. Moreover, choice has long been eroding for most Americans as employers and insurance companies have imposed more control on insurance. In this case, the rhetoric of the opponents won out over the reality of what is already happening in our health care system. (4) Incremental Reform. Opponents of the Administration's proposal claimed that successful health care reform could be achieved by "tinkering around the edges," keeping what was right about the health care system and getting rid of what was wrong. The reality is that changes in one area of health care provision affect other areas, in ways that are not always understood or anticipated, and there is little consensus on what should be kept and what should be changed under an incremental approach. (5) Nostalgia. Many of those who opposed health care reform altogether expressed a longing to return to a health care system that they remember and think still exists, but that probably hasn't been in place for the last decade. Their warning that we should not surrender what we have for something less was given more credence than the Administration and other reformers realized. The reality is that health care has already changed rapidly and will continue to change with or without health care reform legislation. The Clinton Administration assumed that Americans understood the current status of national health care, including its flaws, and assumed this meant they had a mandate for change.</p>
Policy Brief
1995-01-01T08:00:00Z
Health care reform legislation
6th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health education
public health policy
Health Policy
<p>Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Center for Policy Research. No 4/1995</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/39
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1039
2021-02-26T14:41:37Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Opening Doors: How to Cut Discrimination by Supporting Neighborhood Integration
Yinger, John
<p>The last few years have witnessed a quantum leap in the enforcement of fair housing and fair lending legislation. The 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act gave new enforcement powers to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice. For example, HUD can how initiate complaints against housing agents who discriminate. Moreover, several events, including release of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, which show wide disparities in loan acceptance rates between whites on the one hand and blacks and Hispanics on the other, have led financial regulatory agencies such as the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to increase their anti-discrimination enforcement. These commendable enforcement efforts may fall short of the mark, however, because they are likely to have little impact on one of the principal sources of discrimination by real estate brokers and landlords, namely residential segregation. This policy brief argues that: (1) residential segregation, the physical separation of racial or ethnic groups, is a principal cause of continuing discrimination in housing; (2) enforcement efforts directed toward people who commit discriminatory acts are unlikely to have much effect on segregation; and (3) the federal government needs programs to attack segregation directly, that is, to support integration, as part of its anti-discrimination arsenal. The brief concludes by proposing the Stable Neighborhood Initiatives Program (SNIP), a nondiscriminatory federal program to support community integration efforts, which is designed to fill the current policy void.</p>
Policy Brief
1995-01-01T08:00:00Z
1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
demographic economics
mortgages
economics of minorities and races
non-labor discrimination
Housing Law
<p>Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Center for Policy Research. No 3/1995</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/40
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1010
2021-02-25T19:15:59Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Changing Economic Incentives in Long-Term Care
Konetzka, R. Tamara
<p>Just as managed care has changed utilization and incentives in other parts of health care, there is a whole set of incentives built around long-term care that really matter. For example, if nursing homes have a financial incentive to hospitalize people with certain health conditions, then in the long run they are not going to develop the programs and invest in the resources to treat those people in the facility. Instead they're going to use those resources to stay in business or to provide other types of care. And while we can assume that policymakers do not create regulations that they expect will lead to poor quality, efforts to increase access or efficiency sometimes have the unintended consequence of reducing quality. Health care sectors in which spending is rising particularly rapidly or in which access seems to be problematic may be prone to regulations that fail to take into account potential effects on quality. There's a lot of money spent on nursing homes; there's certainly a lot of interest from public funders in nursing homes; and nursing homes have a long history of quality-of-care problems. Not surprisingly, then, some of the most interesting sets of bad incentives for quality can be found in nursing homes.</p>
Policy Brief
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
nursing home
Medicare
Medicaid
long-term care
social welfare
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/11
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1011
2021-02-25T19:16:31Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Allocating Resources within a Big City School District: New York City after Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. New York
Rubenstein, Ross
Miller, Lawrence
<p>In this brief we take a closer look at the mechanisms used to distribute resources across public schools. We first present what we know about the current distribution of educational resources within New York City and other large city districts. Then we discuss current efforts to promote greater equity in the distribution of resources and improve student performance. We conclude with lessons and policy implications for New York State as it implements the CFE decision in New York City. These findings also apply to other large districts in the state, such as Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. Our focus in this brief is on vertical equity--ensuring that schools serving students with different levels of need receive appropriately different levels of resources--rather than adequacy. But the two concepts are closely related. If we ensure that students with a variety of needs have ample resources to achieve agreed upon educational goals, we will achieve both school-level adequacy and vertical equity.</p>
Policy Brief
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
intra-district resource allocation
inter-district resource allocation
vertical equity
across-school disparities
school-based funding
weighted student funding.
Urban Education
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/12
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1016
2021-02-25T19:32:06Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
The Changing American Hospital in the Twenty-first Century
Muller, Ralph W.
<p>One is always hesitant to speak about the future. A famous philosopher from New York, Yogi Berra, said "Making predictions is difficult, especially about the future," and I have some trepidation about doing so now. There is also the difficulty of understanding what really has happened in the past. I recall the Bolshevik general in 1917 who said "The future is clear, but the past is very murky." We anticipate the future with more clarity than is justified, even as we disagree on what is happening right now or what happened before. In that vein, I will describe the role of the American hospital in our health care system, and the challenges it must meet, reviewing first the murky past by summarizing trends that have made hospitals what they are today.</p>
Policy Brief
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
14th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
medical care
hospitals
health care
health policy
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/17
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1019
2021-02-25T19:33:36Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Pharmaceuticals: Access, Cost, Pricing, and Directions for the Future
Danzon, Patricia M.
Soumerai, Stephen B.
<p>Prescription drug expenditures make up less than 10 percent of total personal health care expenditures in the United States, but over the last decade the amount that Americans spend on prescription drugs has grown much faster than any other component of personal health care. For example, between 1999 and 2000, hospital care costs rose about 5 percent, physicians and clinical services 6 percent, while prescription drug expenditures climbed more than 17 percent. In dollar amounts, prescription drug expenditures doubled, from $61 billion to $122 billion, between 1995 and 2000. Is this an unwarranted expense that needs to be controlled, or does it represent increased value, as pharmaceuticals substitute for older, most costly treatments? What is the prevalence of health insurance coverage for prescription drugs, and how does this affect specific populations who have limited or no drug benefits? What are the components of drug prices? And what do we need to consider when we design health care policy? Stephen Soumerai and Patricia Danzon look at several aspects of pharmaceutical drug usage and pricing in the United States, illustrating their observations with their published research findings. They then briefly review recent legislative proposals to broaden public insurance coverage for prescription drugs and make their own policy recommendations.</p>
Policy Brief
2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
13th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
analysis of health care markets
health production
public health policy
medical care access
Pharmacy Administration, Policy and Regulation
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/20
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1024
2021-02-26T14:29:49Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Are We Understating the Impact of Economic Conditions on Welfare Rolls?
Black, Dan A.
McKinnish, Terra G.
Sanders, Seth G.
<p>In this brief we argue that welfare participation is more sensitive to economic conditions than previously believed. Why? Prior research focused on short-term economic fluctuations and ignored differences between high- and low-skilled workers. As welfare is long-term (i.e., permanent) it makes more sense to make comparisons with long-term economic trends. Also, since low-skilled workers are more likely to end up on welfare, it is proper to focus on their economic opportunities. Thus, we focus on the long-term impact of economic conditions on welfare participation, and we concentrate our analysis on low-skilled workers. Specifically, we analyze long-term changes in the supply of high-paying jobs for coal and steel workers as they affect certain heavy coal- and steel-producing regions of the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Our findings indicate that welfare participation in these regions closely mirrors the long-term local availability of high-paying jobs for low-skilled workers. This has serious policy implications for the long-term success of welfare reform.</p>
Policy Brief
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
welfare
welfare participation
welfare reform
Social Welfare
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/25
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1040
2021-02-26T14:42:06Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Social Security Reform: A Budget Neutral Approach to Reducing Older Women's Disproportional Risk of Poverty
Burkhauser, Richard V.
Smeeding, Timothy M.
<p>Perhaps the single greatest achievement of social policy in the United States over the last three decades has been reducing poverty in old age. The transition from work to retirement is no longer economically perilous for the vast majority of older American workers. For most married couples, the risk of falling into poverty even several years after retirement is small. But when one partner of the marriage dies, the survivor faces another much more risky economic transition. The single greatest risk of falling into poverty in old age now comes after the death of a spouse, as the survivor faces life after marriage. And this risk disproportionately affects older women, who are nearly three times as likely as older men to be widowed (49 percent to 14 percent) and can expect to remain widowed an average of 17 years. Here we document the disproportionate risk of poverty faced by such survivors and show that the Social Security system in the United States has been much less successful in protecting single older people from poverty, especially single older women, than government-administered social security systems in other post-industrialized countries. We argue that this lack of success stems in part from the failure of the Social Security program to transform the basis for its payout rules from a "traditional" one-earner family model to a model more consistent with today's families in which both the husband and wife work. We then offer a budget neutral plan to redistribute some of the benefits a married couple receive over their lifetime from the years they are both alive to the years following the death of a spouse, which we argue would substantially reduce the risk of poverty faced by older women.</p>
Policy Brief
1994-01-01T08:00:00Z
Women's studies
geriatric women
Social Security Reform
economics of gender
economics of the elderly
non-labor discrimination
public pensions
provision and effects of welfare programs
Geriatrics
<p>Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Center for Policy Research. No 2/1994</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/41
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1041
2021-02-26T14:42:35Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Pursuing Health-Care Reform: The Promise and the Pitfalls
Iglehart, John K.
<p>In developing health care reform proposals, it is important to recognize that our health care system has evolved over a long period of time and reflects values in which Americans believe deeply--values like pluralism and entrepreneurialism, consumer choice, limited government, and low taxation. Any major reforms will assault, or at least do some violence to, these values. Nevertheless there's a gathering consensus that reform of the fractured health care system to which Americans have grown accustomed is necessary, based on two overriding concerns: an uninsured population of approximately 35 million people, more than half of whom are adults holding full-time jobs; and medical care costs that continue to rise more than twice as rapidly as the consumer price index. These problems have festered for over a decade. The obvious change in the equation is a restive middle class, concerned about the uncertainty of its health insurance arrangements, and a new President who has staked his political future on making these arrangements more secure. President Clinton brings to this task a strong belief that federal policy should create a framework that encompasses all health insurance arrangements, not just those that are sponsored by government and financed through taxation. This represents a fundamental change in national health policy. During twelve years of Republican rule, the federal government defined its responsibility in the health care field only as far as the publicly financed programs, largely Medicare and Medicaid, without any responsibility to create a framework under which the whole system would operate. Clearly there is a direct link between public and private financing of health care through cost-shifting, which has increased over the years. The President proposes to transform the system that is today dominated by private decision-making and financing to one that places the federal and state governments in far more central regulatory roles in relation to how resources are allocated and how the system functions.</p>
Policy Brief
1994-01-01T08:00:00Z
5th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health care reform
uninsured Americans
Clinton administration
Health Policy
<p>Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Center for Policy Research. No 1/1994</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/42
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1006
2021-02-25T19:13:32Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
The Truth about Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection.
Pauly, Mark V.
<p>This brief is actually going to have two levels. One level will go with the advertised title, and I’ll tell you my current views on the truth about moral hazard and adverse selection. Adverse selection will serve as somewhat of a handmaid of moral hazard, as you will see. That’s one level. The other level, though, which continues to surprise me, is that these two topics—they’re two buzzwords from insurance theory—have generated an enormous amount of policy interest and, yes, passion. Some people passionately believe some things about moral hazard that others passionately disbelieve. And so as part of this second level I will draw back a bit from the actual subject matter to ask a kind of positive public policy question: Why is it that some people can get so passionate about a subject that seems fairly esoteric?</p>
Policy Brief
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Eighteenth Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health insurance
adverse selection
moral hazard
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/7
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1008
2021-02-25T19:14:40Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Variations Among Regions and Hospitals in Managing Chronic Illness: How Much Care Is Enough?
Wennberg, John E.
<p>Classic epidemiology looks at what happens to people who live in a defined region over time. For example, birth rate, the number of births that occur among populations over a year, is a common statistics that we're all familiar with. Since the early 1990s we have conducted research at Dartmouth Medical School to convert that classic epidemiologic perspective into looking at what is happening in terms of the health care system itself. We ask how much care people are getting in different regions of the country. We want to know the patterns of that care. And we want to get into the causes of so-called unwarranted variation, that is, differences that cannot be explained on the basis of patient illness, the dictates of scientific medicine, or the preferences of patients. Those three key words--illness, preference, and science--ultimately don't explain very much of the variation we see. We began the Dartmouth Atlas Project in 1993 as a study of health care markets in the United States, measuring variations in health care resources and their utilization among geographic areas. In recent years, we have expanded our research agenda to include the resources and utilization among patients at specific hospitals. We use very large claims databases from the Medicare program and other sources to define where people go for medical care, what kind of care they receive, and whether increasing investments in health care resources and their use result in better health outcomes.</p>
Policy Brief
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
Seventeenth Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
nursing home
Medicare
Medicaid
long-term care
elderly
social welfare.
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/9
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1009
2021-02-25T19:15:24Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
How Will Declining Rates of Marriage Reshape Eligibility for Social Security?
Meyer, Madonna Harrington
Wolf, Douglas A.
Himes, Christine L.
<p>For most older people in the United States, Social Security is the major source of income: nine out of ten people age 65 or older receive benefits, which represent an average of 41 percent of their income. Largely as a result of Social Security, poverty rates for the elderly are at an all-time low, just 10 percent. But pockets of poverty persist: older unmarried persons, blacks, and Hispanics experience poverty rates in excess of 20 percent, and over 40 percent of all older single black women live in poverty. People quality for Social Security based either on their work record or their marital status. Most older women receive noncontributory Social Security spouse of widow benefits on the basis of their marital history. For these women, marital status is more important than employment status in shaping old-age financial security. However, the trend to marry and stay married has declined over time in the United States, particularly among black women. This, we hypothesize, means that fewer women will qualify for spouse and widow benefits in coming decades. As a result, Social Security benefits will shrink among the very population that currently reports higher poverty rates, older single women, particularly black women. In this policy brief, we ask: Compared to earlier cohorts, what proportion of white, black, and Hispanic women born in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s will enter old age without a marriage that qualifies them for Social Security spouse and widow benefits? We find that the proportion who will reach age 62 without a qualifying marriage, and thus be ineligible for Social Security spouse and widow benefits, is increasing modestly for whites and Hispanics but dramatically for African Americans. Most of these women will be eligible for retired worker benefits under Social Security, but those benefits are not likely to be as large as the benefits they would have received as spouses and widows, had they been eligible. We then discuss a range of policy alternatives, including the possibility of a minimum benefit.</p>
Policy Brief
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
Social Security
spousal benefits
widow benefits
social welfare
income security
Social Welfare
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/10
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1013
2021-02-25T19:30:40Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Social Integration of Older Immigrants in 21st Century America
Wilmoth, Janet
<p>There are various reasons for the burgeoning interest in detailed research into the determinants of social well-being among older immigrants in this country. As a result of shifting federal government policies, the total volume of immigrants has increased significantly, the countries from which they migrate have changed, and more immigrant families have brought their parents into the United States than ever before. Consequently, the older adult population is becoming more diverse due in part to the aging-in-place of younger immigrants and an increasing number of immigrants who are older upon arrival in the United States. These trends create challenges for social service providers, who are encountering language and cultural differences among their clients for which they are unprepared. This report provides an overview of research about older adult immigrants in the United States that my colleagues and I have conducted over the past few years. Various demographic and cultural aspects of today's immigrants that differ from the past are described. The importance of social integration to older immigrants' well-being is considered. Then some intriguing research about the "new immigrants" is summarized and additional areas for future research are suggested.</p>
Policy Brief
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
social welfare
demographic economics
immigrants
geriatrics
social integration
language barriers
Geriatrics
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/14
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1017
2021-02-25T19:32:39Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally: Public Policy Issues of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship Program and the Lottery for Education
Rubenstein, Ross
<p>The HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally_ scholarship program, which began in 1993, is one of the most popular public policies ever enacted in the state of Georgia. This lottery-funded program pays for tuition, fees, and books at any public college or university in the state for any Georgia student who graduates from high school with a B or better grade point average (GPA). To keep the scholarship, students must maintain the B or better GPA in college. The program's popularity has spread well beyond Georgia's borders; at least a dozen other states have instituted similar broad-based merit scholarship programs, and most state legislatures have considered legislation to start similar programs. The federal HOPE tax credit, established in 1997, took its name from Georgia's program, though the originally-proposed merit-based component of the program was not enacted. In light of its popularity, HOPE raises a number of important policy questions regarding both the program itself and its funding source, the Georgia Lottery for Education: (1) What effect has the HOPE Scholarship program had on student performance in high school? (2) What effect has the HOPE Scholarship program had on student performance in college: (3) Who pays for and who benefits from the Georgia lottery and the programs it funds? (4) Has the scholarship program caused inflation in the cost of higher education in Georgia? This policy brief describes the HOPE Scholarship program and the Georgia Lottery for Education, summarizes a series of studies examining the program, offers recommendations for the design of merit-based financial aid programs, and suggests topics for further research.</p>
Policy Brief
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
education analysis
education finance
education policy
government education policy
Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally Scholarship Program
Education Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/18
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1018
2021-02-25T19:33:06Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Looking the Other Way: A Critique of the Fair-Lending Enforcement System and a Plan to Fix It
Ross, Stephen L.
Yinger, John
<p>In 2001, the homeownership rate in the United States reached 67.8 percent--an all-time high. The benefits of homeownership were not evenly spread across ethnic groups, however. In fact, the homeownership rate was 74.3 percent for non-Hispanic whites, 48.4 percent for non-Hispanic blacks, and 47.3 percent for Hispanics (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2002, Table 29). These homeownership gaps undoubtedly have many causes, but one of the key suspects is discrimination in mortgage lending. The vast majority of households cannot buy a house without a mortgage loan, and discriminatory barriers to obtaining a mortgage could have a dramatic impact on homeownership. A hint about the possible role of discrimination in mortgage lending comes from data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which records the ethnicity of the applicant and the disposition of the application for virtually all the mortgage applications filed in the United States. In 2000, black applicants were twice as likely as white applicants to be turned down for a loan, and Hispanic applicants were 41 percent more likely to be turned down (FFIEC 2001b). These loan-approved disparities do not prove that blacks and Hispanics face discrimination in mortgage lending, because they do not account for possible differences in loan features or borrower creditworthiness across groups. Nevertheless, the differences are so dramatic that they focus attention on the possibility that this type of discrimination might exist. The purpose of this policy brief is to explore the possibility that mortgage lending discrimination contributes to ethnic disparities in homeownership, to evaluate the current fair-lending enforcement system, and to propose reforms in that system to make it more effective in uncovering--and, ultimately, eliminating--mortgage lending discrimination.</p>
Policy Brief
2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
Fair-Lending Enforcement System
economics of minorities and races
non-labor discrimination
demographic economics public policy
mortgages
homeownership
Banking and Finance Law
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/19
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1021
2021-02-25T19:34:51Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Fixing New York's State Education Aid Dinosaur: A Proposal
Yinger, John
<p>New York State provides aid to local schools through a confusing maze of aid programs that are, according to many commentators, unfair to the neediest school districts, often defined as those with many students who are poor or otherwise "at risk." For example, New York City, which, by any measure, is one of the neediest districts, currently receives less aid per pupil than the average district in the state. On January 9, 2001, in the case of Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs. State of New York (719 N.Y.S2d 475, 150 Ed. Law Rep. 834), the New York State Supreme Court brought new salience to this issue. In a strongly worded opinion, Justice Leland DeGrasse ruled that the current educational aid system violates the state's constitutional requirement to provide a "sound basic education" and needs to be reformed. Among other things, Justice DeGrasse labeled the failure to account for the needs of at-risk students "one of the great failings of the State school financing system" and declared that "New York City does not receive State aid commensurate with the needs of its students." This policy brief proposes a new formula for distributing educational aid in New York State, a formula designed to direct aid to the districts that, through no fault of their own, are in the greatest need of assistance. High-need districts are those with high educational costs or low property wealth. This policy brief begins by explaining why the cost of education varies from one school district to the next. It then shows how variation in the cost of education across districts can be incorporated into a state education aid program that brings all districts up to some minimally adequate performance level. This approach is applied to New York State. Specifically, I propose a new education aid formula for Newe York State that would bring all the school districts up to an adequate performance defined with reference to the new Regents graduation standards. This policy brief also explores various ways to share the cost of this program between school districts and the state.</p>
Policy Brief
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Education policy
Education finance
New York State public schools
educational aid distribution
costs of education
Education Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/22
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1031
2021-02-26T14:34:35Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
New Conundrums: Public Policy and the Emerging Health Care Marketplace
Tallon, James R.
<p>There is a fundamentally new dynamic in American health care, one that has yet to be fully experienced but that threatens to leave a large portion of the American population without access to the quality health care they have received in the past. While the federal government has not completely abandoned the goal of assuring universal health care, a goal that dates back to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s and even earlier, the mechanisms to pursue that goal have changed. The implicit contract between government and health care providers--mostly doctors and not-for-profit hospitals--under which subsidized care was provided to those unable to pay has been broken in favor of more market-driven forces that promise a more cost-effective system, but a system that fails to protect a growing uninsured population. This new purchaser-driven system--in which costs increasingly determine the services that are provided--is likely to fall short of providing quality care to all who need it. Health care is different from other services, and unless this difference is recognized we are in danger of permanently denying quality health care to a significant minority of our population. Regulation of the emerging "free market" in health care is needed and government must assure that role.</p>
Policy Brief
1998-01-01T08:00:00Z
8th annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy
health policy
health care
Medicare
Medicaid
Health Policy
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/32
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1028
2021-02-26T14:32:45Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Helping the Working Poor: Employer- vs. Employee-Based Subsidies
Dickert-Conlin, Stacy
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas
<p>In the United States and Europe there has been renewed interest in subsidizing firms that employ disadvantaged workers as a means of addressing poverty and other social problems. In contrast, the prevailing practice is largely to provide social welfare benefits directly to individuals. Which approach is better? We re-examine the relative merits of employee- versus employer-based labor market subsidies and conclude there are good reasons to continue to rely on the direct, employee-based approach. In practice, low-wage workers are seldom either low-skill or low-income workers. Furthermore, workers who might quality for a firm-based subsidy are reluctant to so identify themselves for fear of being stigmatized or labeled as "needy." Thus, employer-based subsidy programs have lower participation rates and correspondingly higher per capita expenditures than employee-based subsidy programs.</p>
Policy Brief
1999-01-01T08:00:00Z
Social welfare
labor market subsidies
welfare and poverty
welfare programs
wage differentials
Social Welfare
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/29
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1037
2021-02-26T14:40:17Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:cpr_reports
publication:irccg
Public Policy and Entrepreneurship
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas
<p>The image of the American entrepreneur retains an enduring fascination in the minds of the public and policy makers alike. For example, testifying several years ago at a congressional hearing on "the entrepreneurial spirit in America," Wisconsin's Senator Robert Kasten said of entrepreneurs: "They create new jobs. They provide new competition to existing businesses. They help to improve product quality, help to reduce prices, add new goods and services never before thought of, advance new technologies, America's competitive stance." His statement captures the view that entrepreneurial enterprises are valuable sources of technological advance, jobs, and dynamism, a trait commonly attributed to small business as a whole. Our national affection toward entrepreneurs also manifests itself in attitudes towards small business. "Start-up," "family," and other small-scale businesses carry an important weight in discussions of national policy. This durable affection stems in part from the perception that small business is the vehicle by which entrepreneurs provide needed vigor to the economy. In the newly established democracies of Eastern Europe a widely discussed challenge is the need to regenerate a vital entrepreneurial sector. The centralized regime pushed the mass production paradigm to its limit, at times concentrating the entire production of a good in a single factory. The dismal record of poor quality products and stagnant economic growth highlights the need for the competition and vigor provided by start-up enterprises. The national focus on small business is not merely talk. Many government policies are directed toward aiding small businesses. For example, the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 (RRA93) permits the exclusion of 50 percent of capital gains on qualifying investments in start-ups and small businesses held for five or more years. This brief surveys the various notions of "small business," presents criteria that should underlie policies toward business, and reviews the case for public policies to stimulate entrepreneurship and small business. It concludes that it is surprisingly difficult to construct a case in favor of systematically favoring small businesses. Indeed, it is probably not useful to think of creating a "small business climate" through policies like targeted tax breaks, wage subsidies, loan guarantees or outright grants. Instead, policies should be devoted to developing an environment favorable to innovation, employment, and growth in the economy as a whole.</p>
Policy Brief
1995-01-01T08:00:00Z
American entrepreneurship
small businesses
Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993
public policy and entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/38
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1049
2022-03-23T13:39:40Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
A Note on the Application of EC2SLS and EC3SLS Estimators in Panel Data Models
Baltagi, Badi H.
Liu, Long
<p>Baltagi and Li (1992) showed that for estimating a single equation in a simultaneous panel data model, EC2SLS has more instruments than G2SLS. Although these extra instruments are redundant in White (1986) terminology, they may yield different estimates and standard errors in empirical studies with finite N and T. We illustrate this using the crime data of Cornwell and Trumbull (1994). We show that the standard errors of EC2SLS are smaller than those of G2SLS for this example. In general, we prove that the asymptotic variance of G2SLS differs from that of EC2SLS by a positive semi-definite matrix. Although this difference tends to zero as the sample size tends to infinity, in small samples, this difference may be different from zero and can lead to gains in small sample efficiency. This proof is extended to the system equations 3SLS counterparts.</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Instrument variable
panel data
Mathematics
<p>Working paper no. 116</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/50
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1059
2022-03-23T13:29:16Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Financial Development and Openness: Evidence from Panel Data
Baltagi, Badi H.
Demetriades, Panicos O.
Law, Siong Hook
<p>This paper addresses the empirical question of whether trade and financial openness can help explain the recent pace in financial development, as well as its variation across countries in recent years. Utilizing annual data from developing and industrialized countries and dynamic panel estimation techniques, we provide evidence which suggests that both types of openness are statistically significant determinants of banking sector development. Our findings reveal that the marginal effects of trade (financial) openness are negatively related to the degree of financial (trade) openness, indicating that relatively closed economies stand to benefit most from opening up their trade and/or capital accounts. Although these economies may be able to accomplish more by taking steps to open both their trade and capital accounts, opening up one without the other could still generate gains in terms of banking sector development. Thus, our findings provide only partial support to the well known Rajan and Zingales hypothesis, which stipulates that both types of openness are necessary for financial development to take place.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Financial development
trade openness
financial openness
financial liberalization
dynamic panel data analysis
Economics
<p>Working paper no. 107</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/60
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1064
2022-03-29T16:13:01Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Fitting Event-History Models to Uneventful Data
Wolf, Douglas A.
Gill, Thomas M.
<p>Data with which to study disability dynamics usually take the form of successive current-status measures of disability rather than a record of events or spell durations. One recent paper presented a semi-Markov model of disability dynamics in which spell durations were inferred from sequences of current-status measures taken at 12-month intervals. In that analysis, it was assumed that no unobserved disablement transitions occurred between annual interviews. We use data from a longitudinal survey in which participants' disability was measured at monthly intervals, and simulate the survival curves for remaining disabled that would be obtained with 1- and 12-month follow-up intervals. The median length of an episode of disability based on the 12-month interval data is over 22 months, while the "true" median, based on the 1-month interval data, is only one month.</p>
Working Paper
2007-12-01T08:00:00Z
Disability
semi-Markov process
duration analysis
Econometrics
<p>Working paper no. 101</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/65
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1045
2022-03-23T13:45:11Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Health Care Expenditure and Income in the OECD Reconsidered: Evidence from Panel Data
Baltagi, Badi H.
Moscone, Francesco
<p>This paper reconsiders the long-run economic relationship between health care expenditure and income using a panel of 20 OECD countries observed over the period 1971-2004. In particular, the paper studies the non-stationarity and cointegration properties between health care spending and income. This is done in a panel data context controlling for both cross-section dependence and unobserved heterogeneity. Cross-section dependence is modeled through a common factor model and through spatial dependence. Heterogeneity is handled through fixed effects in a panel homogeneous model and through a panel heterogeneous model. Our findings suggest that health care is a necessity rather than a luxury, with an elasticity much smaller than that estimated in previous studies.</p>
Working Paper
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
Health expenditure
income elasticity
cross section dependence
heterogeneous panels
factor models
Health Policy
<p>Working paper no. 120</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/46
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1046
2022-03-29T16:11:22Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
The Effective Target of the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984
Singleton, Perry Douglas
<p>A substantial portion of the rise in Social Security Disability Insurance rolls since 1984 has been attributed to the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act. Using data from the National Health Insurance Survey, I examine whom the act effectively targeted. The analysis shows that new enrollees were demonstrably taller than previous enrollees, suggesting that the act expanded eligibility to individuals in better health and socioeconomic circumstances. However, the estimated effect of increased SSDI eligibility on employment is low, suggesting that the act targeted males who would have otherwise been unemployed.</p>
Working Paper
2009-11-01T07:00:00Z
disability insurance
labor supply
Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act
Social Welfare
<p>Working paper no. 119</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/47
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1047
2022-03-23T13:42:29Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Policy Relevant Heterogeneity in the Value of Statistical Life: New Evidence from Panel Data Quantile Regressions
Kniesner, Thomas J.
Viscusi, W. Kip
<p>We examine differences in the value of statistical life (VSL) across potential wage levels in panel data using quantile regressions with intercept heterogeneity. Latent heterogeneity is econometrically important and affects the estimated VSL. Our findings indicate that a reasonable average cost per expected life saved cut-off for health and safety regulations is $7 million to $8 million per life saved, but the VSL varies considerably cross the labor force. Our results reconcile the previous discrepancies between hedonic VSL estimates and the values implied by theories linked to the coefficient of relative risk aversion. Because the VSL varies elastically with income, regulatory agencies should regularly update the VSL used in benefit assessments, increasing the VSL proportionally with changes in income over time.</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
value of statistical life
VSL
quantile regression
panel data
fixed effects
PSID
fatality risk
CFOI
Statistics and Probability
<p>Working paper no. 118</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/48
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1048
2022-03-23T13:41:34Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
The Value of Statistical Life: Pursuing the Deadliest Catch
Schnier, Kurt E.
Horrace, William C.
Felthoven, Ronald G.
<p>Observed tradeoffs between monetary returns and fatality risk identify estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL), inform public policy and quantity preferences for environmental quality, health and safety. To date, few investigations have estimated the VSL associated with tradeoffs between returns from natural resource extraction activities and the fatality risks they involve. Furthermore researchers have been unable to determine whether or not one's VSL is stable across multiple decision environments using revealed preference methods. Understanding these tradeoffs (and the VSL that they imply) may be used to inform resource management policy and safety regulations, as well as our general understanding of the value of life. By modeling a commercial fishing captain's choice to fish or not, conditional on the observed risk, this research investigates these topics using data from the Alaskan red king crab and snow crab fisheries. Using weather conditions and policy variables as instruments, our estimates of the mean VSL range from $4.00 to $4.67M (depending on the modeling assumption and fishery analyzed) and are robust to the incorporation of heterogeneous preferences. Furthermore, given the unique nature of the data we are able to conduct an intra-vessel comparison of the VSL and conclude that for roughly 92% of the fishermen observed in the data set their VSL estimates are stable across both fisheries.</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
value of statistical life (VSL)
intra-agent VSL comparison
Alaskan crab fisheries
Statistics and Probability
<p>Working paper no. 117</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/49
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1050
2022-03-23T13:38:53Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing the Fixed Effects Restrictions? A Monte Carlo Study of Chamberlain's Minimum Chi-Squared Test
Baltagi, Badi H.
Bresson, Georges
Pirotte, Alain
<p>Chamberlain (1982) showed that the fixed effects (FE) specification imposes testable restrictions on the coefficients from regressions of all leads and lags of dependent variables on all leads and lags of independent variables. Angrist and Newey (1991) suggested computing this test statistic as the degrees of freedom times the R2 from a regression of within residuals on all leads and lags of the exogenous variables. Despite the simplicity of these tests, they are not commonly used in practice. Instead, a Hausman (1978) test is used based on a contrast of the fixed and random effects specifications. We advocate the use of the Chamberlain (1982) test if the researcher wants to settle on the FE specifications, we check this test's performance using Monte Carlo experiments, and we apply it to the crime example of Cornwell and Trumbull (1994).</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
fixed effects (FE)
random effects (RE)
Chamberlain test
minimum chi-squared (MCS)
Angrist-Newey test
Mathematics
<p>Working paper no. 115</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/51
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1054
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Fixed-Effect Estimation of Highly-Mobile Production Technologies
Horrace, William Clinton
Schnier, Kurt E.
Revised from November 2006 and July 2007. We consider fixed-effect estimation of a production function where inputs and outputs vary over time, space, and cross-sectional unit. Variability in the spatial dimension allows for time-varying individual effects, without parametric assumptions on the effects. Asymptotics along the spatial dimension provide consistency and normality of the marginal products. A finite-sample example is provided: a production function for bottom-trawler fishing vessels in the flatfish fisheries of the Bering Sea. We find significant spatial variability of output (catch) which we exploit in estimation of a harvesting function.
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
time-varying individual effect
spatial econometrics
fisheries
agriculture
heteroskedasticity
Mathematics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/55
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1056
2022-03-23T13:32:24Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
The Interaction of Metropolitan Area Costs and the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit: One Size Fits All?
Fitzpatrick, Katie
Thompson, Jeffrey P.
<p>The Federal Earned Income Tax Credoit (EITC) contributed to increasing employment rates for single women during the 1990s. This paper expands on what is known about the labor supply response to the EITC by exploiting differences in the cost-of-living faced by potentially eligible recipients in different geographic areas. Using the 1993 EITC expansion, we demonstrate that the labor supply response varies considerably with metropolitan area cost-of-living. We identify an increase in labor force participation among single mothers of as much as 10 percentage points in the lowest cost metropolitan areas. There is no discernable participation response in metropolitan areas with the highest housing costs, where approximately 40 of the population lives. We find little response along the intensive margin, regardless of the costs in the metropolitan area. We conclude that the welfare-enhancing effects of the EITC are undermined by the interaction of the program's fixed national rules and geographic variation in wages and cost of living. In addition, our findings suggest that the federal EITC does little to reduce joblessness in many of the nation's largest cities.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
EITC
cost-of-living
tax reform
labor supply
Public Economics
<p>Working paper no. 110</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/57
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1058
2022-03-23T13:30:42Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing for Heteroskedasticity and Spatial Correlation in a Random Effects Panel Data Model
Baltagi, Badi H.
Song, Seuck Heun
Kwon, Jae Hyeok
<p>A panel data regression model with heteroskedastic as well as spatially correlated disturbance is considered, and a joint LM test for homoskedasticity and no spatial correlation is derived. In addition, a conditional LM test for no spatial correlation given heteroskedasticity, as well as a conditional LM test for homoskedasticity given spatial correlation, are also derived. These LM tests are compared with marginal LM tests that ignore heteroskedasticity in testing for spatial correlation, or spatial correlation in testing for homoskedasticity. Monte Carlo results show that these LM tests as well as their LR counterparts perform well even for small N and T. However, misleading inference can occur when using marginal rather than joint or conditional LM tests when spatial correlation or heteroskedasticity is present.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
heteroskedasticity
spatial correlation
Lagrange multiplier tests
random effects
Econometrics
<p>Working paper no. 108</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/59
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1060
2022-03-23T13:28:17Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Public Sentiment and Tobacco Control Policy
Singleton, Perry
<p>The well-documented correlation between cigarette excise taxes and cigarette demand may not be entirely causal if excise taxes reflect public sentiment towards smoking. I consider whether proxies for smoking sentiment--the prevalence of smoking by education and intention to quit statuses--are correlated with support for and implementation of tobacco control laws. I find that cigarette excise taxes are most sensitive to the prevalence of educated smokers who do not want to quit. Additionally, when proxies for public sentiment are included, the estimated elasticity of cigarette demand declines from -2.0 to -1.3.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Cigarette demand
excise taxes
legislative endogeneity
Taxation
<p>Working paper no. 106</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/61
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1043
2022-03-28T19:39:30Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
The Value of a Statistical Life: Evidence from Panel Data
Kniesner, Thomas J.
Viscusi, W. Kip
Woock, Christopher
<p>Our research addresses fundamental long-standing concerns in the compensating wage differentials literature and its public policy implications: the econometric properties of estimates of the value of statistical life (VSL) and the wide range of such estimates from about $0 to almost $30 million. Here we address most of the prominent econometric issues by applying panel data, a new and more accurate fatality risk measure, and systematic application of panel data estimators. Controlling for measurement error, endogeneity, latent individual heterogeneity that may be correlated with the regressors, state dependence, and sample composition yields an estimated value of a statistical life of about $7 million–$12 million, which we show can clarify greatly the cost-effectiveness of regulatory decisions. We show that probably the most important econometric issue is controlling for latent heterogeneity; less important is how one does it.</p>
Working Paper
2010-03-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
fixed effects
random effects
long-differences
PSID
Public Policy
<p>Working paper no. 122</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/44
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1044
2022-03-23T13:45:55Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Alternative Technical Efficiency Measures: Skew, Bias, and Scale
Horrace, William Clinton
Feng, Qu
<p>In the fixed-effects stochastic frontier model an efficiency measure relative to the best firm in the sample is universally employed. This paper considers a new measure relative to the worst firm in the sample. We find that estimates of this measure have smaller bias than those of the traditional measure when the sample consists of many firms near the efficient frontier. Moreover, a two-sided measure relative to both the best and the worst firms is proposed. Simulations suggest that the new measures may be preferred depending on the skewness of the inefficiency distribution and the scale of efficiency differences.</p>
Working Paper
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
Stochastic frontier model
relative efficiency measure
two-sided measure
bias
bootstrap confidence intervals
Mathematics
<p>Working paper no. 121</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/45
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1052
2022-03-23T13:37:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
A Generalized Spatial Panel Data Model with Random Effects
Baltagi, Badi H.
Egger, Peter
Pfaffermayr, Michael
<p>This paper proposes a generalized panel data model with random effects and first-order spatially auto correlated residuals that encompasses two previously suggested specifications. The first one is described in Anselin's (1988) book and the second one by Kapoor, Kelejian, and Prucha (2007). Our encompassing specification allows us to test for these models as restricted specifications. In particular, we derive three LM and LR tests that restrict out generalized model to obtain (i) the Anselin model, (ii) the Kapoor, Kelejian, and Prucha model, and (iii) the simple random effects model that ignores the spatial correlation in the residuals. For two of these three tests, we obtain closed form solutions and we derive their large sample distributions. Our Monte Carlo results show that the suggested tests are powerful in testing for these restricted specifications even in small and medium sized samples.</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
spatially auto correlated residuals
maximum-likelihood estimation
Lagrange multiplier
likelihood ratio
Economics
<p>Working paper no. 113</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/53
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1051
2022-03-23T13:37:52Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Hedonic Markets and Explicit Demands: Bid-Function Envelopes for Public Services, Neighborhood Amenities, and Commuting Costs
Yinger, John
<p>Hedonic regressions with house value as the dependent variable are widely used to study the value of public services and amenities. This paper builds on the theory of household bidding and sorting to derive a bid function envelope, which provides a form for these regressions. This approach uses a general characterization of household heterogeneity, yields estimates of the price elasticities of demands for services and amenities directly from the hedonic with no need for a Rosen two-step procedure, and provides tests of key hypotheses about household sorting. An application to data from Cleveland in 2000 yields precise estimates of price elasticities for school quality, distance from environmental hazards, and neighborhood ethnic composition. The results support the sorting hypotheses and indicate that household preferences are very heterogeneous, with some households placing a negative value on many "amenities."</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Hedonics
capitalization
bidding
sorting
Economics
<p>Working paper no. 114</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/52
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1053
2022-03-23T13:35:41Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing for Sphericity in a Fixed Effects Panel Data Model (Revised July 2009)
Baltagi, Badi H.
Feng, Qu
Kao, Chihwa
<p>This paper proposes a test for sphericity in a fixed effects panel data model. It uses the Random Matrix Theory based approach of Ledoit and Wolf (2002) to test for sphericity of the error terms in a fixed effects panel model with a large number of cross-sectional units and time series observations. Since the errors are unobservable, the residuals from the fixed effects regression are used. The limiting distribution of the proposed test statistic is derived. Additionally, its finite sample properties are examined using Monte Carlo simulations.</p>
Working Paper
2009-01-01T08:00:00Z
Sphericity
panel data
cross-sectional dependence
John test
Statistics and Probability
<p>Working paper no. 112</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/54
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1055
2022-03-23T13:34:38Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing for Heteroskedasticity and Serial Correlation in a Random Effects Panel Data Model
Baltagi, Badi H.
Jung, Byoung Cheol
Song, Seuck Heun
<p>This paper considers a panel data regression model with heteroskedastic as well as serially correlated disturbances, and derives a joint LM test for homoskedasticity and no first order serial correlation. The restricted model is the standard random individual error component model. It also derives a conditional LM test for homoskedasticity given serial correlation, as well as a conditional LM test for no first order serial correlation given heteroskedasticity, all in the context of a random effects panel data model. Monte Carlo results show that these tests, along with their likelihood ratio alternatives, have good size and power under various forms of heteroskedasticity including exponential and quadratic functional forms.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
heteroskedasticity
serial correlation
Lagrange Multiplier tests
likelihood ratio
random effects
Econometrics
<p>Working paper no. 111</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/56
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1061
2022-03-23T13:26:40Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Semiparametric Deconvolution with Unknown Error Variance
Horrace, William C.
Parmeter, Christopher F.
<p>Deconvolution is a useful statistical technique for recovering an unknown density in the presence of measurement error. Typically, the method hinges on stringent assumptions about the nature of the measurement error, more specifically, that the distribution is *entirely* known. We relax this assumption in the context of a regression error component model and develop an estimator for the unknown density. We show semi-uniform consistency of the estimator and provide Monte Carlo evidence that demonstrates the merits of the method.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
semi-uniform consistency
error component
semiparametric deconvolution
Mathematics
<p>Working paper no. 104</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/62
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1063
2022-03-23T13:24:48Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing for Random Effects and Spatial Lag Dependence in Panel Data Models
Baltagi, Badi H.
Liu, Long
<p>This paper derives a joint Lagrande Multiplier (LM) test which simultaneously tests for the absence of spatial lag dependence and random individual effects in a panel data regression model. It turns out that this LM statistic is the sum of two standard LM statistics. The first one tests for the absence of spatial lag dependence ignoring the random individual effects, and the second one tests for the absence of random individual effects ignoring the spatial lag dependence. This paper also derives two conditional LM tests. The first one tests for the absence of random individual effects without ignoring the possible presence of spatial lag dependence. The second one tests for the absence of spatial lag dependence without ignoring the possible presence of random individual effects.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
spatial lag dependence
Lagrange Multiplier tests
random effects
Econometrics
<p>Working paper no. 102</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/64
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1062
2022-03-23T13:25:40Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
New Evidence on the Dynamic Wage Curve for Western Germany: 1980-2004
Baltagi, Badi H.
Blien, Uwe
Wolf, Katja
<p>Blanchflower and Oswald (1994) reported that they have found an 'empirical law of economics'--the Wage Curve. Our paper reconsiders the western German Wage Curve using disaggregated regional data and is based on almost one million employees drawn from the Federal Employment Services of Germany over the period 1980-2004. We find that the wage equation is highly autoregressive but far from unit root. The unemployment elasticity is significant but relatively small: only between -0.02 and -0.04. We also check the sensitivity of this elasticity for different population groups (young versus old, men versus women, less educated versus highly educated, German native versus foreigner), confirming that it is stronger the weaker the bargaining power of the particular group.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Wage curve
regional labor markets
Phillips curve
panel data
Labor Economics
<p>Working paper no. 103</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/63
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1042
2022-03-23T13:49:48Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Panel Data Inference under Spatial Dependence
Baltagi, Badi H.
Pirotte, Alain
<p>This paper focuses on inference based on the usual panel data estimators of a one-way error component regression model when the true specification is a spatial error component model. Among the estimators considered, are pooled OLS, random and fixed effects, maximum likelihood under normality, etc. The spatial effects capture the cross-section dependence, and the usual panel data estimators ignore this dependence. Two popular forms of spatial autocorrelation are considered, namely, spatial auto-regressive random effects (SAR-RE) and spatial moving average random effects (SMA-RE). We show that when the spatial coefficients are large, test of hypothesis based on the usual panel data estimators that ignore spatial dependence can lead to misleading inference.</p>
Working Paper
2010-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
Hausman test
Random effect
Spatial autocorrelation
Maximum Likelihood
Center for Policy ResearchWorking Paper No. 123
Public Policy
<p>Working paper no. 123</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/43
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1057
2022-03-23T13:31:38Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Public School Choice and Integration: Evidence from Durham, North Carolina
Bifulco, Robert
Ladd, Helen F.
Ross, Stephen
<p>Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature. Reasonable assumptions about the distribution of preferences over race, class, and school characteristics suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students. The results of our empirical analysis are consistent with these theoretical considerations. Using information on the actual schools students attend and on the schools in their assigned attendance zones, we find that schools in Durham are more segregated by race and class as a result of school choice programs than they would be if all students attended their geographically assigned schools. In addition, we find that the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race.</p>
Working Paper
2008-01-01T08:00:00Z
Racial segregation
School choice
Public Economics
<p>Working paper no. 109</p>
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/58
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1067
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
A Monte Carlo Study of Efficiency Estimates from Frontier Models
Horrace, William Clinton
Richards, Seth O.
Parametric stochastic frontier models yield firm-level conditional distributions of inefficiency that are truncated normal. Given these distributions, how should one assess and rank firm-level efficiency? This study compares the techniques of estimated (a) the conditional means of inefficiency and (b) probabilities that firms are most or least efficient. Monte Carlo experiments suggest that the efficiency probabilities are more reliable in terms of mean absolute percent error when inefficiency has large variation across firms. Along the way we tackle some interesting problems associated with simulating and assessing estimator performance in the stochastic frontier environment.
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Truncated normal
stochastic frontier
efficiency
multivariate probabilities.
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/68
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1072
2012-09-24T15:25:27Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Modelling and Testing for Structural Changes in Panel Cointegration Models with Common and Idiosyncratic Stochastic Trend
Kao, Chihwa
Trapani, Lorenzo
Urga, Giovanni
<p>In this paper, we propose an estimation and testing framework for parameter instability in cointegrated panel regressions with common and idiosyncratic trends. We develop tests for structural change for the slope parameters under the null hypothesis of no structural break against the alternative hypothesis of (at least) one common change point, which is possibly unknown. The limiting distributions of the proposed test statistics are derived. Monte Carlo simulations examine size and power of the proposed tests. We are grateful for discussions with Robert De Jong, Long-Fei Lee, Zongwu Cai, and Yupin Hu. We would also like to thank participants in the International Conferences on "Common Features in London" (Cass, 16-17 December 2004), 2006 New York Econometrics Camp and Breaks and Persistence in Econometrics (Cass, 11-12 December 2006), and econometrics seminars at Ohio State University and Academia Sinica for helpful comments. Part of this work was done while Chihwa Kao was visiting the Centre for Econometric Analysis at Cass (CEA@Cass). Financial support from City University 2005 Pump Priming Fund and CEA@Cass is gratefully acknowledged. Lorenzo Trapani acknowledges financial support from Cass Business School under the RAE Development Fund Scheme.</p>
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel cointegration
common and idiosyncratic stochastic trends
testing for structural changes
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/73
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1111
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Globalization, Inequality, and the Rich Countries of the G-20: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)
Smeeding, Timothy M.
The purpose of this study is to summarize and comment upon what we know about the determinants of both the level and trend in economic inequality over the past two decades, and to relate these findings to the progress of globalization in these nations. While the fruits of economic progress in rich nations have not been equally spread, we argue that most citizens enrich Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations have benefited from the trend toward global economic progress. We begin with a summary of the differences in overall economic inequality within the G-20 nations based on LIS (Luxembourg Income Study) data and recent work by others. Here we find that social policies, wage distributions, time worked, social and labor institutions, and demographic differences all have some influence on why there are large differences in inequality among rich nations at any point in time. In contrast, trade policy has not been shown to have any major impact on economic inequality. Next we turn to trends in inequality. We find modest and sometimes dissimilar changes in the distribution of income have taken place within most advanced nations, with most finding a higher level of inequality in the mid to late 1990s than in the 1980s. Inequality, however, has not risen markedly in some nations (e.g., Denmark, Germany, France, and Canada) over this period, while its rise has slowed in several other nations during the late 1990s. The explanations for rising inequality in rich countries are many, and no one single set of explanations is ultimately convincing. In particular, there is no evidence that we know of that trade and globalization is bad for rich countries. This suggests that rising economic inequality is not inevitable, or that it necessarily hurts low-skill, low-income families. Rather, it suggests that globalization does not force any single outcome on any country. Domestic policies and institutions still have large effects on the level and trend of inequality within rich and middle-income nations, even in a globalizing world economy.
Working Paper
2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
Globalization
Luxembourg Income Study
economic inequality
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OECD
international economics
International Economics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/112
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1065
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Copula-Based Tests for Cross-Sectional Independence in Panel Models
Kao, Chihwa
Urga, Giovanni
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Copulas
Panel data
Cross-sectional independence
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/66
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1071
2012-12-12T16:14:53Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Asymptotic Properties of Estimators for the Linear Panel Regression Model with Individual Effects and Serially Correlated Errors: The Case of Stationary and Non-Stationary Regressors and Residuals
Baltagi, Badi H.
Kao, Chihwa
Liu, Long
<p>This paper studies the asymptotic properties of standard panel data estimators in a simple panel regression model with error component disturbances. Both the regressor and the remainder disturbance term are assumed to be autoregressive and possibly non-stationary. Asymptotic distributions are derived for the standard panel data estimators including ordinary least squares, fixed effects, first-difference, and generalized least squares (GLS) estimators when both T and n are large. We show that all the estimators have asymptotic normal distributions and have different convergence rates dependent on the non-stationarity of the regressors and the remainder disturbances. We show using Monte Carlo experiments that the loss in efficiency of the OLS, FE and FD estimators relative to true GLS can be substantial.</p>
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
OLS
Fixed-effects
First-difference
GLS.
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/72
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1073
2012-09-05T15:41:38Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Forecasting with Panel Data
Baltagi, Badi H.
<p>This paper gives a brief survey of forecasting with panel data. Starting with a simple error component regression model and surveying best linear unbiased prediction under various assumptions of the disturbance term. This includes various ARMA models as well as spatial autoregressive models. The paper also surveys how these forecasts have been used in panel data applications, running horse races between heterogeneous and homogeneous panel data models using out of sample forecasts.</p>
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
forecasting
BLUP
panel data
spatial dependence
serial correlation
heterogeneous panels.
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/74
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1074
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Panel Cointegration with Global Stochastic Trends
Bai, Jushan
Kao, Chihwa
Ng, Serena
This paper studies estimation of panel cointegration models with cross-sectional dependence generated by unobserved global stochastic trends. The standard least squares estimator is, in general, inconsistent owing to the spuriousness induced by the unobservable I(1) trends. We propose two iterative procedures that jointly estimate the slope parameters and the stochastic trends. The resulting estimators are referred to respectively as CupBC (continuously updated and bias-corrected) and the CupFM (continuously updated and fully modified) estimators. We establish their consistency and derive their limiting distributions. Both are asymptotically unbiased and asymptotically normal and permit inference to be conducted using standard test statistics. The estimates are also valid when there are mixed stationary and non-stationary factors, as well as when the factors are all stationary.
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
panel cointegration models
cross-sectional dependence
global stochastic trends
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/75
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1075
2013-04-29T17:19:38Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Estimating Regional Trade Agreement Effects on FDI in an Interdependent World
Baltagi, Badi H.
Egger, Peter
Pfaffermayr, Michael
<p>Recent research on trade and multinationals highlights a novel issue with multinational firms. In particular, their integration strategies are complex and the degree of vertical integration varies in a multilateral world with many possible locations of activity. Multinationals may choose some plants to serve consumers locally only, whereas others engage in trade. Overall, this may explain the fact that a high percentage of world trade is actually controlled by multinational firms, although most of the foreign direct investment (FDI) occurs within the block of developed countries. The most important regional trade agreements (RTAs) are signed between members of the very same block of economies. This gives rise to the question asked in the present paper: what is the impact of RTAs on FDI in an interdependent world? The paper focuses on the role of the Europe Agreements between the member countries of the European Union and ten Central and Eastern European countries. In doing so, recent spatial HAC estimation techniques are applied to both estimation and testing.</p>
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Regional trade agreements
Multinational firms
Spatial econometrics
Generalized moments (GM) estimators
International Economics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/76
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1079
2012-12-11T16:11:58Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Pinning Down the Value of Statistical Life
Kniesner, Thomas J.
Viscusi, W. Kip
Woock, Christopher
Ziliak, James P.
<p>Our research addresses fundamental long-standing concerns in the compensating wage differentials literature and its public policy implications: the econometric properties of estimates of the value of statistical life (VSL) and the wide range of such estimates from about $0.5 million to about $21 million. We address most of the prominent econometric issues by applying panel data, a new and more accurate fatality risk measure, and systematic selection of panel estimator in our research. Controlling for measurement error, endogeneity, individual heterogeneity, and state dependence yields both a reasonable average level and narrow range for the estimated value of a statistical life of about $5.5-$7.5 million.</p>
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
public policy
value of statistical life
VSL
panel data
fatality risk measure
Labor Economics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/80
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1081
2012-09-05T15:42:56Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing for Cointegrating Rank via Model Selection: Evidence from 165 Data Sets
Baltagi, Badi H.
Wang, Zijun
<p>The model selection approach has been proposed as an alternative to the popular tests for cointegration such as the residual-based ADF test and the system-based trace test. Using information criteria, we conduct cointegration tests on 165 data sets used in published studies. The empirical results demonstrate the usefulness of the model selection approach for applied researchers.</p>
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
Model Selection
cointegration
residual-based tests
system-based tests
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/82
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1082
2012-09-05T15:44:01Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Rational Alcohol Addiction: Evidence from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey
Baltagi, Badi H.
Geishecker, Ingo
<p>Alcohol consumption in Russia is legendary and has been reported to be the third leading cause of death in the former Soviet Union after heart disease and cancer. Are Russian alcohol consumers rational addicts? This paper uses eight rounds of a nationally representative Russian survey spanning the period 1994-2003 to estimate a rational addiction (RA) model for alcohol consumption. This is done in a panel data setting as well as on a wave by wave basis. The profile of the Russian drinker finds a huge difference between males and females and the model is estimated by gender. We do not find support for the RA model in Russia for women. For men, although we find that some implications of the RA model are satisfied, we fail to endure the model empirically on grounds of implausible negative estimates of the discount rate.</p>
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
panel data
liquor consumption
rational addiction
Economics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/83
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1087
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Simulation-Based Two-Step Estimation with Endogenous Regressors
Kan, Kamhon
Kao, Chihwa
This paper considers models with latent/discrete endogenous regressors and presents a simulation-based two-step (STS) estimator. The endogeneity is corrected by adopting a simulation-based control function approach. The first step consists of simulating the residuals of the reduced-form equation for endogenous regressors. The second step is a regression model (linear, latent or discrete) with the simulated residual as an additional regressor. In this paper we develop the asymptotic theory for the STS estimator and its rate of convergence.
Working Paper
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
simulation-based two-step (STS) estimator
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/88
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1088
2010-10-04T13:13:20Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
On the Estimation and Inference of a Panel Cointegration Model with Cross-Sectional Dependence
Bai, Jushan
Kao, Chihwa
Most of the existing literature on panel data cointegration assumes cross-sectional independence, an assumption that is difficult to satisfy. This paper studies panel cointegration under cross-sectional dependence, which is characterized by a factor structure. We derive the limiting distribution of a fully modified estimator for the panel cointegrating coefficients. We also propose a continuous-updated fully modified (CUP-FM) estimator). Monte Carlo results show that the CUP-FM estimator has better small sample properties than the two-step FM (2S-FM) and OLS estimators.
Working Paper
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
panel data cointegration
cross-sectional independence
cross-sectional dependence
continuous updated fully modified (CUP-FM) estimator
Monte Carlo results
two-step FM (2S-FM) estimator
OLS estimator
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/89
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1095
2012-09-20T14:42:39Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Why Do Real Estate Brokers Continue to Discriminate? Evidence from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study
Zhao, Bo
Ondrich, Jan
Yinger, John
<p>This paper studies racial and ethnic discrimination in discrete choices by real estate brokers using national audit data from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study. It uses a fixed effects logit model to estimate the probability that discrimination occurs and to study the causes of discrimination. The data set makes it possible to control for auditors' actual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, along with the characteristics assigned for the purposes of the audit. The study finds that discrimination continues to be strong but also documents a downward trend in both the scope and incidence of discrimination since 1989. The estimations also identify both brokers' prejudice and white customers' prejudice as causes of discrimination.</p>
Working Paper
2005-01-01T08:00:00Z
racial discrimination
ethnic discrimination
Housing Discrimination Study
housing discrimination
Economics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/96
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1096
2013-01-29T18:19:50Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Income and the Use of Prescription Drugs by the Elderly: Evidence from the Notch Cohorts
Moran, John R.
Simon, Kosali Ilayperuma
<p>We use exogenous variation in Social Security payments created by the Social Security benefits notch to estimate how retirees' use of prescription medications responds to changes in their incomes. In contrast to estimates obtained using ordinary least squares, instrumental variables estimates based on the notch suggest that lower-income retirees exhibit considerable income sensitivity in their use of prescription drugs. Our estimates are potentially useful for thinking about the health implications of changes in transfer payments to the elderly and for evaluating the benefits of the recently enacted Medicare prescription drug benefit.</p>
Working Paper
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Social Security
prescription medication
geriatrics
Medicare
Geriatrics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/97
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1097
2012-12-12T14:31:20Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Duration Data from the National Long-Term Care Survey: Foundation for a Dynamic Multiple-Indicator Model of ADL Dependency
Laditka, James N.
Wolf, Douglas A.
<p>This report describes preparation of data from the National Long-Term Care Survey (NLTCS) fur use in a dynamic multiple-indicator model of dependency in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). The data set described makes use of all functional status information available across four NLTCS waves for six ADLs, including information from screening interviews, detailed interviews in the community, and institutional interviews. Importantly, it also captures all available information elicited from respondents about the *duration* of any impairment in these ADLs. The data was prepared as described in this report to enable the calculation of improved estimates of the probabilities that an older individual will transition from one functional status state to another in any of six ADLs. These probabilities can then be used to improve estimates of active life expectancy.</p>
Working Paper
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
National Long-Term Care Survey
NLTCS
Activities of Daily Living
ADLs
life expectancy
Geriatrics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/98
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1098
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Do We Invest Less Time in Children? Trends in Parental Time in Selected Industrialized Countries Since the 1960's
Gauthier, Anne H.
Smeeding, Timothy M.
Furstenberg, Frank F.
This paper examines trends in parental time in selected industrialized countries since the 1960s using time-use survey data. Despite the time pressures to which today’s families are confronted, parents appear to be devoting more time to children than they did some 40 years ago. Results also suggest a decrease in the differences between fathers and mothers in time devoted to children. Mothers continue to devote more time to childcare than fathers, but the gender gap has been reduced. These results are observed in several countries and therefore suggest a large global trend towards an increase in parental time investment with their children.
Working Paper
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Parenting
children
childcare
Sociology
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/99
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1102
2012-09-21T13:55:13Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
How Much More Does a Disadvantaged Student Cost?
Duncombe, William D.
Yinger, John
<p>This paper provides a guide to statistically based methods for estimating the extra costs of educating disadvantaged students, shows how these methods are related, and compares state aid programs that account for these costs in different ways. We show how pupil weights, which are included in many state programs, can be estimated from an education cost equation, which many scholars use to obtain an education cost index, and we devise a method to estimate pupil weights directly. Using data from New York, we show that the distribution of state aid is similar with statistically based pupil weights and an educational cost index. Finally, we show that large, urban school districts with a high concentration of disadvantaged students would receive far more aid (and rich suburban districts would receive far less aid) if statistically based pupil weights were used instead of the ad hoc weights in existing state aid programs.</p>
Working Paper
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Disadvantaged students
student financial aid
education cost equation
education cost index
pupil weights
Education Policy
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/103
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1104
2013-01-29T18:18:26Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Social Interaction and the Health Insurance Choices of the Elderly
Beiseitov, Eldar
Kubik, Jeffrey D.
Moran, John R.
<p>Using data from the 1998 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, we examine the effect of social interactions on the health insurance choices of the elderly. We find that having more social interactions, as measured by contacts with friends and neighbors, reduces the likelihood of enrolling in a Medicare managed care plan relative to purchasing a medigap policy or having coverage through Medicare alone. Our estimates indicate that social networks are an important determinant of the health insurance choices of the elderly and provide suggestive evidence that "word-of-mouth" information sharing may have played a role in the preference of some seniors for traditional indemnity insurance over managed care.</p>
Working Paper
2004-01-01T08:00:00Z
Demographic economics
Geriatrics
Health and Retirement Study
social interaction
Medicare
social networks
Geriatrics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/105
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1105
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Agglomeration, Labor Supply, and the Urban Rat Race
Rosenthal, Stuart S.
Strange, William C.
This paper establishes the existence of a previously overlooked relationship between agglomeration and hours worked. Among non-professionals, hours worked decrease with the density of workers in the same occupation. Among professionals, a positive relationship is found. This relationship is twice as strong for the young as for the middle-aged. Moreover, young professional hours worked are shown to be especially sensitive to the presence of rivals. We show that these patterns are consistent with the selection of hard workers into cities and the high productivity of agglomerated labor. The behavior of young professionals is also consistent with the presence of keen rivalry in larger markets, a kind of urban rat race. This evidence of a rat race is nearly unique in the literature.
Working Paper
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
human capital
occupational choice
labor productivity
labor economics
urban workforce
Labor Economics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/106
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1108
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Do Public Expenditures Improve Child Outcomes in the U.S.? A Comparison across Fifty States
Harknett, Kristen
Garfinkel, Irwin
Bainbridge, Jay
Smeeding, Timothy
Our paper utilizes variation across the 50 U.S. states to examine the relationship between public expenditures on children and child outcomes. We find that public expenditures on children are related to better child outcomes across a wide range of indicators, including measures of child mortality, elementary-school test scores, and adolescent behavioral outcomes. States that spend more on children have better child outcomes even after taking into account potential confounding influences. Our results are robust to numerous variations in model specifications and to the inclusion of proxies for unobserved characteristics of states. Our sensitivity analyses suggest that the results we present may be conservative, yet our findings show that public investments in children yield broad short-term returns in the form of improved child outcomes.
Working Paper
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
child care
children
government programs
welfare programs
child outcomes
public expenditures on children
Sociology
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/109
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1109
2012-12-12T15:12:06Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Data Mining Mining Data: MSHA Enforcement Efforts, Underground Coal Mine Safety, and New Health Policy Implications
Kniesner, Thomas J.
Leeth, John D.
<p>Studies of industrial safety regulations, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in particular, often find little effect on worker safety. Critics of the regulatory approach argue that safety standards have little to do with industrial injuries and defenders of the regulatory approach cite infrequent inspections and low fines for violating safety standards. We use recently assembled data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) concerning underground coal mine production, safety inspections, and workplace injuries to shed new light on the regulatory approach to workplace safety. Because all underground coal mines are inspected at least once per quarter, MSHA regulations will not be ineffective because of infrequent inspections. We estimate over 200 different specifications of dynamite mine safety production functions, including ones using deliberately upward biased estimators, and cherry pick the most favorable mine safety effect estimates. Although most estimates are of insignificant MSHA effects, we select the single regression specification producing the most favorable MSHA impact from the agency viewpoint, which we then use in a policy evaluation. We address the question of whether it would be cost-effective to move some of MSHA's enforcement budget into alternative programs that could also improve the health of the typical miner. Even using cherry-picked results most favorable to the agency, MSHA is not cost effective at its current levels. Even though MSHA is a small program when judged against others like OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), MSHA's targeted public health objective could be much better served (almost 700,000 life years gained on balance for miners) if a quarter of MSHA's enforcement budget were reallocated to other programs such as more heart disease screening or defibrillators at worksites.</p>
Working Paper
2003-01-01T08:00:00Z
labor economics
industrial safety regulations
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA
worker safety
Mine Safety and Health Administration
MSHA
coal mining
workplace inspections
Labor Economics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/110
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1113
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Estimating the Cost of an Adequate Education in New York
Duncombe, William
The New York State Board of Regents and Commissioner of Education have identified a set of clear performance standards for students in New York State that matches the knowledge and skills they will need to function successfully as productive citizens in the 21st century. To match these standards, the New York State Department of Education has developed new Regents Examinations, which all students will be required to pass to graduate from high school, and new examinations in 4th and 8th grades that serve as important intermediate checkpoints in assessing student progress. Justice Leland DeGrasse wrote in *Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York* (719 N.Y.S.2d 475, 150 Ed. Law Rep. 834, January 9, 2001) that "[T]he court holds that the education provided New York City students is so deficient that it falls below the constitutional floor set by the Education Article of the New York Constitution" (p. 4). He continued, "In the course of reforming the school finance system, a threshold task that must be performed by defendants is ascertaining, to the extent possible, the actual costs of providing a sound basic education in districts around the State" (p. 115). The objective of this study is to develop estimates of the costs of financing the achievement of higher standards. The key tools employed to estimate the cost of adequacy are education cost functions and cost of education indexes. The cost function approach uses statistical methods to extract from actual data the relationship between characteristics of students, the cost of living in an area, and the spending required to meet different performance standards. As long as recent history is a good predictor of the near future, the cost function approach should provide reasonably accurate estimates of the cost of adequacy.
Working Paper
2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
education
educational finance
New York State schools
New York State Board of Regents
Regents Examinations
New York City schools
Education Policy
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/114
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1114
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Nominal Loss Aversion, Housing Equity Constraints, and Household Mobility: Evidence from the United States
Engelhardt, Gary
This paper exploits the significant recent variation in United States house prices to empirically examine the effect on housing equity constraints and nominal loss aversion on household mobility. The analysis uses unique, detailed data from 1985-1996 on household characteristics, mobility, and wealth from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) matched with house price data from 149 metropolitan areas to estimate semiparametric proportional hazard models of intra- and inter-metropolitan mobility. There are five principal findings: (1) household intra-metropolitan own-to-own mobility responds differently to nominal housing losses than to gains; (2) nominal loss aversion is significantly less pronounced in intra-metropolitan own-to-rent and inter-metropolitan mobility, respectively; (3) there is some evidence of binding equity constraints in intra-metropolitan own-to-own mobility; (4) there is little evidence that low equity constrains intra-metropolitan own-to-rent and inter-metropolitan mobility, respectively; (5) a comparison of the estimated effects indicates that nominal loss aversion has a more dominant effect than equity constraints in restricting household mobility, roughly two and one-half to three times the impact of equity constraints.
Working Paper
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
nominal loss aversion
household mobility
housing equity
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
NLSY79
housing supply
housing markets
Economics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/115
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1116
2013-01-29T18:14:54Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Lethal Elections: Gubernatorial Politics and the Timing of Executions
Kubik, Jeffrey D.
Moran, John R.
<p>We document the existence of a gubernatorial election cycle in state executions, suggesting that election year political considerations play a role in determining the timing of executions. Our analysis indicates that states are approximately 25 percent more likely to conduct executions in gubernatorial election years than in other years. We also find that elections have a larger effect on the probability that an African American defendant will be executed in a given year than on the probability that a white defendant will be executed, and that the overall effect of elections is largest in the South. These findings raise concerns that state executions may fail to meet the constitutional requirements stipulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in *Gregg v. Georgia* for the administration of state death penalty laws. This paper was revised July 2002.</p>
Working Paper
2001-01-01T08:00:00Z
Gubernatorial politics
elections
executions
criminal law
legal procedure
economics of minorities
Criminal Law
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/117
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1122
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Wavelet-Based Testing for Serial Correlation of Unknown Form in Panel Models
Kao, Chihwa
Wavelet analysis is a new mathematical tool developed as a unified field of science over the last decade. As spatially adaptive analytic tools, wavelets are useful for capturing serial correlation where the spectrum has peaks or kinks, as can arise from persistent/strong dependence, seasonality or use of seasonal data such as quarterly and monthly data, business cycles, and other kinds of periodicity. This paper proposes a new class of wavelet-based tests for serial correlation of unknown form in the estimated residuals of an error component model, where the error components can be one-way or two-way, the individual and time effects can be fixed or random, the regressors may contain lagged dependent variables or deterministic/stochastic trending variables. The proposed tests are applicable to unbalanced heterogeneous panel data. They have a convenient null limit N (0,1) distribution. No formulation of an alternative is required, and the tests are consistent against serial correlation of unknown form. We propose and justify a data-driven finest scale that, in an automatic manner, converges to zero under the null hypothesis of no serial correlation and grows to infinity as the sample size increases under the alternative, ensuring the consistency of the proposed tests. Simulation studies show that the new tests perform rather well in small and finite samples in comparison with some existing popular tests for panel models, and can be used as an effective evaluation procedure for panel models. KEY WORD: error component, panel model, hypothesis testing, serial correlation of unknown form, spectral peak, unbalanced panel data, wavelet.
Working Paper
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
Wavelet analysis
error component
panel model
hypothesis testing
serial correlation of unknown form
spectral peak
unbalanced panel data
wavelet
Mathematics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/123
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1127
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Worldwide Population Aging: Endogenous Policy Formation and Capital Market Transmissions in the Presence of Symmetric Demographic Shocks
Tosun, Mehmet Serkan
This paper examines the transition effects of population aging in more developed regions that is also expected to occur in developing regions in the near future. We address these effects by exploring the influences of internationally mobile capital and a politically responsive fiscal policy in a two-country overlapping generations model. Our results show that the combination of capital mobility and endogenous fiscal policy play an important role in how economies respond to population aging. Capital mobility has consumption smoothing effects but endogenous fiscal policy is the key factor in creating asymmetries between countries. The interaction of the two may even account for a change in the pattern, in addition to a change in the size, of the effects of population aging on economic growth and welfare when compared to closed economy and exogenous fiscal policy models. We find that even when the demographic shock in the two regions is symmetric, reaction to this shock depends on the timing of the shock. Overall, the late, developing country demographic shock produces relatively more favorable economic outcomes worldwide. Finally, our analysis of the timing of developing country aging indicates that an early aging scenario is more beneficial for both regions.
Working Paper
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
International economics
population aging
capital market transmissions
symmetric demographic shocks
endogenous policy formation
capital mobility
fiscal policy
Economics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/128
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1130
2012-12-11T16:16:31Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Tax Reform and Automatic Stabilization
Kniesner, Thomas J.
Ziliak, James P.
<p>A fundamental property of a progressive income tax is that it provides implicit insurance against shocks to income by dampening the variability of disposable income and consumption. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA) in combination with the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) greatly reduced the number of marginal tax brackets and the maximum marginal rate, which limits the stabilizing effect of the tax system on household consumption when pre-tax income fluctuates. We examine the effect of the federal income tax reforms of the 1980s on the associated degree of automatic stabilization of consumption. The empirical framework derives from the consumption insurance literature, where the ideal outcome is spatially equal changes in households' marginal utilities of consumption, and permits partial insurance, which we use to identify how the degree of consumption insurance has changed since ERTA and TRA86. Our data come from interview years 1980-1991 in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that in certain the tax reforms of the 1980s actually increased the automatic stabilization inherent in the United States income tax. Overall, ERTA and TRA86 reduced consumption stability by about 50 percent. More recent tax reforms, most notably increased EITC generosity, have restored or enhanced consumption insurance. A welfare analysis indicates that the cost of moving to the post-TRA86 system is sizable for relatively risk averse households facing large income risk, but is much more modest for the typical household. This paper was revised January 2001.</p>
Working Paper
2000-01-01T08:00:00Z
Taxation
optimal taxation
Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
ERTA
Tax Reform Act of 1986
TRA86
Panel Study of Income Dynamics
tax reform
Taxation
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/131
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1066
2013-04-29T17:17:06Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
A Monte Carlo Study for Pure and Pretest Estimators of a Panel Data Model with Spatially Auto correlated Disturbances
Baltagi, Badi H.
Egger, Peter
Pfaffermayr, Michael
<p>This paper examines the consequences of model misspecification using a panel data model with spatially auto correlated disturbances. The performance of several maximum likelihood estimators assuming different specifications for this model are compared using Monte Carlo experiments. These include (i) MLE of a random effects model that ignore the spatial correlation; (ii) MLE described in Anselin (1988) which assumes that the individual effects are not spatially auto correlated; (iii) MLE described in Kapoor et al. (2006) which assumes that both the individual effects and the remainder error are governed by the same spatial autocorrelation; (iv) MLE described in Baltagi et al. (2006) which allows the spatial correlation parameter for the individual effects to be different from that of the remainder error term. The latter model encompasses the other models and allows the researcher to test these specifications as restrictions on the general model using LM and LR tests. In fact, based on these tests, we suggest a pretest estimator which is shown to perform well in Monte Carlo experiments, ranking a close second to the true MLE in mean squared error performance.</p>
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
Spatially auto correlated residuals
Pretest estimator
Maximum-likelihood estimation
Econometrics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/67
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1068
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Testing for Instability in Factor Structure of Yield Curves
Philip, Dennis
Kao, Chihwa
Urga, Giovanni
A widely relied upon but a formally untested consideration is the issue of stability in actors underlying the term structure of interest rates. In testing for stability, practitioners as well as academics have employed ad hoc techniques such as splitting the sample into a few sub-periods and determining whether the factor loadings have appeared to be similar over all sub-periods. Various authors have found mixed evidence on stability in the actors. In this paper we develop a formal testing procedure to evaluate the factor structure stability of the US zero coupon yield term structure. We find the factor structure of level to be unstable over the sample period considered. The slope and curvature factor structures are however found to be stable. Common structural changes affecting all interest rate maturities have fostered instability in the level factor. We corroborate the literature that variances (volatility) explained by the level, slope, and curvature factors are unstable over time. We find that the volatility of slope factor is sensitive to shocks affecting the short rates and the volatility of curvature factor is sensitive to shocks affecting the medium and long rates. Finally, we find evidence of the presence of common economic shocks affecting the level and slope factors, unlike slope and curvature factors that responded differently to economic shocks and were unaffected by any common instabilities.
Working Paper
2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
Stability
factor structure
principal component analysis
term structure of interest rates.
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/69
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1076
2012-09-05T15:42:14Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Random effects and Spatial Autocorrelations with Equal Weights
Baltagi, Badi H.
<p>This note considers a panel data regression model with spatial autoregressive disturbances and random effects where the weight matrix is normalized and has equal elements. This is motivated by Kelejian et al. (2005), who argue that such a weighting matrix, having blocks of equal elements, might be considered when units are equally distant within certain neighborhoods but unrelated between neighborhoods. We derive a simple weighted least squares transformation that obtains GLS on this model as a simple OLS. For the special case of a spatial panel model with no random effects, we obtain two sufficient conditions where GLS on this model is equivalent to OLS. Finally, we show that these results, for the equal weight matrix, hold whether we use the spatial autoregressive specification, the spatial moving average specification, the spatial error components specification or the Kapoor et al. (2005) alternative to modeling panel data with spatially correlated error components.</p>
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
Panel data
spatial error correlation
equal weights
error components
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/77
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1078
2012-09-19T14:20:45Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Estimating Heterogeneous Capacity and Capacity Utilization in a Multi-Species Fishery
Felthoven, Ronald G.
Horrace, William C.
Schnier, Kurt E.
<p>We use a stochastic production frontier model to investigate the presence of heterogeneous production and its impact on fleet capacity and capacity utilization in a multi-species fishery. Furthermore, we propose a new fleet capacity estimate that incorporates complete information on the stochastic differences between each vessel-specific technical efficiency distribution. Results indicate that ignoring heterogeneity in production technologies within a multi-species fishery, as well as the complete distribution of a vessel's technical efficiency score, may yield erroneous fleet-wide production profiles and estimates of capacity. Furthermore, our new estimate of capacity enables out-of-sample production predictions predicated on either homogeneity or heterogeneity modeling which may be utilized to facilitate policy.</p>
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
fishery capacity
heterogeneous production
latent class modeling
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/79
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1080
2012-09-05T15:43:44Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Prediction in the Panel Data Model with Spatial Correlation: The Case of Liquor
Baltagi, Badi H.
Li, Dong
<p>This paper considers the problem of prediction in a panel data regression model with spatial autocorrelation in the context of a simple demand equation for liquor. This is based on a panel of 43 states over the period 1965-1994. The spatial autocorrelation due to neighboring states and the individual heterogeneity across states is taken explicitly into account. We compare the performance of several predictors of the states demand for liquor for one year and five years ahead. The estimators whose predictions are compared include OLS, fixed effects ignoring spatial correlation, fixed effects with spatial correlation, random effects GLS estimator ignoring spatial correlation and random effects estimator accounting for the spatial correlation. Based on RMSE forecast performance, estimators that take into account spatial correlation and heterogeneity across the states perform the best for one year ahead forecasts. However, for two to five years ahead forecasts, estimators that take into account the heterogeneity across the states yield the best forecasts.</p>
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
prediction
spatial correlation
panel data
liquor demand
Mathematics
<p>Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org</p>
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/81
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1085
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
Identifying Technically Efficient Fishing Vessels: A Non-Empty, Minimal Subset Approach
Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso
Horrace, William Clinton
Schnier, Kurt E.
There is a growing resource economics literature, concerning the estimation of the technical efficiency of fishing vessels utilizing the stochastic frontier model. In these models, vessel output is regressed on a linear function of vessel inputs and a random composed error. Using parametric assumptions on the regression residual, estimates of vessel technical efficiency are calculated as the mean of a truncated normal distribution and are often reported in a rank statistic as a measure of a captain's skill and used to estimate excess capacity within fisheries. We demonstrate analytically that these measures are potentially flawed, and extend the results of Horrace (2005) to estimate captain skill for thirty-nine vessels in the Northeast Atlantic herring fleet, based on homogeneous and heterogeneous production functions within the fleet. When homogeneous production is assumed, we find inferential inconsistencies between our methods and the methods of ranking the means of the technical inefficiency distributions for each vessel. When production is allowed to be heterogeneous, these inconsistencies are mitigated.
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
fishing industries
stochastic frontier model
fishing vessels
homogeneous production
heterogeneous production
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/86
oai:surface.syr.edu:cpr-1086
2010-09-14T16:00:05Z
publication:centers
publication:cpr
publication:irccg
publication:cpr_workingpapers
The Asymptotics for Panel Models with Common Shocks
Kao, Chihwa
Trapani, Lorenzo
Urga, Giovanni
This paper develops a novel asymptotic theory for panel models with common shocks. We assume that contemporaneous correlation can be generated by both the presence of common regressors among units and weak spatial dependence among the error terms. Several characteristics of the panel are considered: cross sectional and time series dimensions can either be fixed or large; factors can either be observable or unobservable; the factor model can describe either cointegration relationship or a spurious regression, and we also consider the stationary case. We derive the rate of convergence and the distribution limits for the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates of the model parameters under all the aforementioned cases.
Working Paper
2006-01-01T08:00:00Z
cross-sectional dependence
common shocks
nonstationary panel
Econometrics
Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/87
1460249/simple-dublin-core/100//