Political Economy: National最新文献

{"title":"An Alberta Guaranteed Basic Income: Issues and Options","authors":"W. Simpson, Harvey Stevens","doi":"10.11575/SPPP.V12I0.53021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11575/SPPP.V12I0.53021","url":null,"abstract":"Poverty remains a persistent problem even in advanced economies, and Alberta is no exception despite robust long-term economic growth.  Serious discussion of poverty reduction through a basic or guaranteed income has reemerged at the federal level and among the provinces, including Quebec and Ontario, coinciding with renewed efforts to address child poverty through the Canada Child Benefit and the Alberta Child Benefit.  These relatively new income support programs provide federal and provincial tax credits that are refundable; that is, unlike many current nonrefundable tax credits, they provide a benefit to families that is larger the further their income lies below the level of the credit.  This paper analyzes the prospects for Alberta poverty reduction today through a basic guaranteed income achieved by tax reform that would make most of the current existing nonrefundable tax credits refundable. Our paper demonstrates that a guaranteed basic income achieved by transforming most existing nonrefundable tax credits into a single refundable credit can have substantial impact on poverty in Alberta because it more effectively transfers the income support provided by these credits to lower-income families.  Using version 26.0 of the Social Policy Simulation Database and Model (SPSD/M) from Statistics Canada, we are able to simulate the impact of various options for an Alberta Guaranteed Basic Income (AGBI) that might emerge from this tax change.  Our analysis sets a budget for the AGBI based on current expenditures for the Basic credit and five other nonrefundable tax credits that have a total value of $5.36 billion in Alberta.  For this budget, a wide variety of program options are available based on different combinations of an income guarantee that would be the maximum amount available to a family with no other income and a benefit reduction rate that reduces the income benefit as family income from other sources rises.  We consider the impact of a variety of these program options along multiple dimensions, including the poverty rate based on Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cutoffs poverty line, the depth of poverty calculated as the amount by which family incomes fall below the poverty line, income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient, earnings from the labour market, and the distribution of beneficiaries.   We illustrate our approach by choosing an AGBI with a relatively low benefit reduction rate of 10% that yields income guarantees of $6,389 and $9,305 for families with one and two adults, respectively.  While our plan is illustrative, we argue that it is sensible in light of the inevitable trade-offs between changes in the degree of poverty reduction, labour earnings and the proportion of families that benefit from a program of this nature.  The plan provides benefits to 37.3% of families, effectively delivers benefits to the families with the lowest incomes, and reduces the rate of poverty and its depth by more than 20%.  Single parent","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"181 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128483498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Convergence Clustering in the Chinese Provinces: New Evidence from Several Macroeconomic Indicators","authors":"Giray Gozgor, Chi Keung Marco Lau, Zhou Lu","doi":"10.1111/rode.12590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12590","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, the convergence clustering in 31 Chinese provinces regarding several important economic indicators over the period 1952 to 2016 was empirically investigated. Several provincial clusters were identified in the per capita (real) gross domestic product (GDP), consumption–income ratio, retail price, and consumer price inflation rates, using a club convergence and clustering procedure. The empirical findings are as follows. First, it was found that all series of the original data contain a significant nonlinear component. Second, it was observed that there are five significant clusters for the per capita income in China. Third, it was found that there are four significant clusters for the consumption–income ratio. Fourth, it was observed that there are four significant clusters for the retail inflation rates and two significant clusters for the consumer inflation rates in China. These results will enable local and central planners to implement economic growth, savings and price adjustment policies for different groups of provinces.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115444800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Good Investment: The Updated Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities","authors":"Corey A. DeAngelis, Patrick J. Wolf, L. Maloney, Jay F. May","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3366979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3366979","url":null,"abstract":"In 2015-16, the United states spent over $660 billion on its public education system in hopes of providing children with greater opportunities to excel academically and to improve their life trajectories. While public education dollars have risen at a relatively fast pace historically, future challenges, including underfunded pension liabilities, suggest policymakers should economize wherever possible. Meanwhile, the number of public charter schools has increased exponentially. from 1991 to 2018, charter school legislation passed in 44 states and the nation’s capital, and student enrollment in charters increased to around 3.2 million. Since educational resources are limited, we examine which types of schooling offer society the biggest “bang for the buck.” both cost- effectiveness and return-on-investment analyses (ROI) compare the productivity of different organizations providing a similar service – in this case, public education. cost-effectiveness is “the efficacy of a program in achieving given intervention outcomes in relation to the program costs.” We examine the differences in cost-effectiveness and ROI for public charter schools and traditional public schools (TPS) in eight major U.S. cities: Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, New York City, San Antonio, and the District of Columbia. We determine how much money is invested in public charter schools and TPS, what levels of student achievement are attained across the two public school sectors, and how much economic payoff our society can expect to receive as a result of the educational investments in each sector. this report is an update to our first study examining these differences across the United states at the city level.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133319644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Оценка эффективности инвестиций в человеческий капитал в современных условиях (Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Investments in Human Capital in Modern Conditions)","authors":"R. Melnikov, A. Margolin, V. Ustenko, Argishti Ginoyan, V. Teslenko, Ekaterina Turanova","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3387344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3387344","url":null,"abstract":"<b>Russian Abstract:</b> В работе построены количественные оценки частной, бюджетной и общественной эффективности инвестиций в человеческий капитал для различных уровней и профилей образования в современных российских условиях. Оценка эффективности и рисков инвестиций в высшее (включая аспирантуру) и среднее профессиональное образование осуществлена с использованием регрессионного анализа данных Российского мониторинга экономического положения и здоровья населения и финансовых моделей, позволивших сопоставить издержки, выгоды и риски инвестиций в человеческий капитал для различных субъектов. Для оценки влияния человеческого капитала на экономическое развитие на макроуровне проведен регрессионный анализ панельных данных Росстата, позволивший выявить влияние человеческого капитала на динамику экономического роста российских регионов. Сформулированы рекомендации по совершенствованию механизма инвестирования в человеческий капитал на уровнях среднего профессионального и высшего образования с особым акцентом на программы подготовки научно-педагогических кадров высшей квалификации.<br><br><b>English Abstract:</b> The study measures the efficiency of human capital investment at the individual, public, and social levels for different levels of educational attainment and specialist fields in the present-day Russia. The efficiency and risk evaluation of investment in the higher education (including postgraduate studies) and vocational education and training (VET) was based on the regression analysis of the data provided by the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey as well as on financial models, which allowed us to compare costs, benefits, and risks of human capital investment for different stakeholders. To evaluate the impact of human capital on economic growth at the macroeconomic level, we conducted regression analysis of the panel data provided by Rosstat, which was used to assess the effect of human capital development on the growth dynamics of the Russian regions. The present research enabled us to formulate policy recommendations aimed at improving the mechanism of investment in human capital at the level of VET and higher education, with a specific emphasis on the training of academic and teaching staff.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121873092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Local Economic Impact of Science Spending: Evidence from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act","authors":"Yulia Chhabra, Margaret C. Levenstein, Jason Owen-Smith","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3201136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3201136","url":null,"abstract":"We use detailed information about American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) spending to identify the distinctive effects R&D stimulus had on county level employment dynamics. ARRA R&D and science funding was awarded to over half the counties in the country. Counties with research universities and existing manufacturing employment were more likely to receive funding. We estimate that, over the program’s five-year disbursement period, each one million USD in R&D and science spending was associated with twenty-seven additional jobs in the county that received the stimulus and one additional job in adjacent counties. The average cost of a job for a year was less than $15,000.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"26 10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113963483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Opportunity Zones for Economic Development and Job Creation: The 'Nuts and Bolts' and a Look at Alabama","authors":"James R. Barth, S. Zhang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3359962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3359962","url":null,"abstract":"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is the most recent federal government attempt to help economically distressed communities. It allowed for the creation of 8,764 designated “opportunity zones�? in July 2018 that cover parts of all 50 States, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. Investors who reinvest their capital gains through opportunity funds in opportunity zones receive significant federal tax benefits. The hope is that this incentive will spur new economic development and creating more jobs than otherwise would occur in distressed communities. In this paper, we describe the “nuts and bolts�? of opportunity zones created throughout the nation and assess some of the determinants in the selection of opportunity zones in the State of Alabama.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128348291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Effects of Regulations on Private School Choice Program Participation: Experimental Evidence from California and New York","authors":"Corey A. DeAngelis, L. Burke, Patrick J. Wolf","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3349453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3349453","url":null,"abstract":"Although private school voucher programs provide subsidies to students for tuition and other education-related costs, private school leaders weigh program participation against any associated regulatory costs. The higher the regulatory costs of participation, the less likely a private school is to participate in a school voucher program. Since we do not know with certainty which regulations will be viewed by school leaders as more or less costly, we explore whether specific regulations that are common to private school choice programs do or do not deter likely voucher program participation. \u0000 \u0000We use surveys to randomly assign different regulations to 4,825 private school leaders in the states of California and New York and ask them whether or not they would participate in a new private school choice program during the following school year. Relative to no regulations, our most conservative models find that open-enrollment mandates reduce the likelihood that private school leaders are certain to participate in a hypothetical choice program by about 19 percentage points, or 60 percent. State standardized testing requirements reduce the likelihood that private school leaders are certain to participate by 9 percentage points, or 29 percent. We find no evidence to suggest that the prohibition of copayment or nationally norm-referenced testing requirements affect the overall willingness to participate in a school choice program.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128021719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Pension 'Crisis' Mentality","authors":"David Merriman, A. Kass, R. Bruno","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3882188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3882188","url":null,"abstract":"Few will argue that Illinois has significant issues with the underfunding of its five public employee pension systems. In fact, many say the state faces a continuing “pension crisis.” However, this report argues that this “crisis” framework or mentality surrounding the issue actually impedes a sustainable solution. The report urges policymakers to rethink the conversation about pensions and Illinois’ finances.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"30 11","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113942024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tax Limits and the Future of Local Democracy","authors":"Ariel Jurow Kleiman","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3327952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3327952","url":null,"abstract":"Property tax limits are state-level laws that place caps on local governments’ tax rates and revenue. \u0000These statutory limits, which put pressure on already strapped cities and counties in forty-six \u0000states, present an inexorable dilemma for local policymakers. On the one hand, they may cause \u0000cuts to vital services, bankruptcy, and reliance on regressive revenue sources. At the same time, \u0000however, tax limits may reflect genuine concerns about government profligacy and \u0000nonresponsiveness. While much research has focused on the first side of the dilemma — examining \u0000the laws’ fiscal consequences — this Article explores the second, probing how tax limits affect the \u0000distribution of political power between local voters and policymakers. \u0000The Article makes three contributions. First, it argues that property tax limits have focused too \u0000strongly on a tax reduction goal to the exclusion of other potential objectives. It takes tax limits \u0000as a political reality and argues that existing limits should be shaped to improve local public control \u0000and oversight of government fiscal decisions. Prioritizing public control would increase voter \u0000satisfaction and expand opportunities for taxpayer voices to be heard. Second, having identified \u0000this additional tax limit objective, the Article evaluates the laws’ potential efficacy in achieving it. \u0000To do so, the Article identifies a list of statutory features that enhance or undermine local public \u0000control. The Article then surveys property tax limits in all fifty states and is the first to code each \u0000statute for features affecting the power of local voters. The survey results demonstrate that tax \u0000limits in most states undermine public control by reducing voter power, instead shifting power to \u0000governors and state legislatures and prioritizing a pure tax reduction goal. Additionally, although \u0000most tax limits can be exceeded with voter approval, there is reason to believe that voter approval \u0000may result in policies that do not accurately reflect voters’ true preferences. The Article surveys \u0000literature on direct democracy to conclude that softer forms of public engagement such as disclosure \u0000requirements or petition referenda may result in more democratically responsive laws. \u0000The Article’s third and final contribution is a menu of policy reforms for state and local actors. \u0000Distinct from other commentators who tend to advocate the wholesale embrace or repeal of tax \u0000limits, the author suggests reforms that respect the laws’ public appeal while seeking to soften their \u0000harsher consequences. Assuming that the state-set limits will persist, mayors, city councils, and \u0000state legislatures can use the suggested reform principles to reinvigorate local democracy and, \u0000perhaps, address some of the concerns that led to the limits being adopted in the first place.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"112 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127065102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Explosive Behaviour and Long Memory with an Application to European Bond Yield Spreads","authors":"Robinson Kruse, Christoph Wegener","doi":"10.1111/sjpe.12179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12179","url":null,"abstract":"This article deals with the interplay of explosive behaviour and long memory. We conduct Monte Carlo simulations and study the finite‐sample properties of the popular unit root test by Phillips et al. (2011) against explosive alternatives. This test exhibits severe upward size distortions under the presence of strongly autocorrelated residuals. We propose the usage of a set of adjusted critical values which leads to a size‐controlled test with increased power. As a complement, we consider the Lagrange Multiplier test against long memory by Tanaka (1999). We study European government bond yield spreads during the financial crisis.","PeriodicalId":137820,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: National","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123813698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}