Massachusetts Immigrants by the Numbers: Demographic Characteristics and Economic Footprint

Massachusetts Immigrants by the Numbers: Demographic Characteristics and Economic Footprint is the first ILC-commissioned study that looks across the contributions that immigrants make in all their roles as members of the Massachusetts community. It is a groundbreaking study that provides basic and new data about Massachusetts immigrants including pioneering compilations of data about immigrants as tax payers and consumers. This one report provides a comprehensive picture of immigrants' characteristics and their contributions as well as challenges to their effective integration into the economic and social life of the state. The ILC hopes that this study will reinforce its continuing mission to raise the visibility of immigrants as assets to America

Firm Characteristics, Economic Conditions and Capital Structure Adjustment

We use a dynamic framework and panel methodology to investigate the determinants of a firms’ time-varying capital structure. Our sample comprises 706 European firms from France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. over the period from 1983 to 2002. If capital structure adjustment is costly, firms may deviate temporarily from their target debt ratios. Therefore, we endogenize the adjustment process and analyze the impact of firm-specific characteristics as well as macroeconomic factors on the speed of adjustment towards target leverage. We find that larger and faster growing firms as well as firms that are further away from their targets adjust more readily. Additionally, we document interesting relations between well-known business cycle variables and the adjustment speed. In a nutshell, firms adjust faster in favorable macroeconomic conditions, e.g., if interest rates are low and the risk of disruptions in the global financial system are negligible. We also document that capital structure decision are largely determined by financial constraints. Finally, we shed new light on the interdependence between book value based and market value based measures of leverage as well as on capital structure rebalancing issues.Capital Structure, dynamic analysis, panel data

To go or not to go: Emigration from Germany

This study analyzes the qualitative aspects of emigration from Germany taking account of economic and non-economic reasons. The reported willingness to emigrate from Germany in the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) is explained for men and women by three groups of variables: individual characteristics, household characteristics, and regional characteristics. It turns out that the educational background and West German residency positively affect the willingness to emigrate, whereas German nationality, age, and the family situation are mostly negatively correlated with it.emigration, intention variable, probit estimation, German Socio Economic Panel (GSOEP)

Low-Income Families in New Hampshire

To inform policy discussion on the challenges facing low income families in New Hampshire, we identify individual and structural characteristics that heighten families' risk of low income. This brief profi les low-income families in New Hampshire, documents recent trends in the economic status of low-income families in the state, and identifies characteristics of families that experience particular obstacles to economic stability. Th e report concludes with a discussion of policies that impact these families

ECONOMIC RISK AND THE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FARM BUSINESSES

Using longitudinal panel farm-level data, this study finds that income variability may be materially influenced by farm size. Econometric results suggest that policy analyses and other considerations of the distributional effects of, and response to, income variability for commercial scale family farms may concentrate on farm size and other structural variables.risk, income variability, farm size, financial structure, Farm Management, Industrial Organization,

Firm-Network Characteristics and Economic Robustness to Natural Disasters

This article proposes a theoretical framework to investigate economic robustness to exogenous shocks such as natural disasters. It is based on a dynamic model that represents a regional economy as a network of production units through the disaggregation of sectorscale Input-Output tables. Results suggest that disaster-related output losses depend on direct losses heterogeneity and on the economic network structure. Two aggregate indexes, concentration and clustering, appear as important drivers of economic robustness, offering opportunities for robustness-enhancing strategies. Modern industrial organization seems to reduce short-term robustness in a trade-off against higher efficiency in normal times.Natural disasters, Economic impacts, Economic Network.

U.S. Intragenerational Economic Mobility From 1984 to 2004: Trends and Implications

Compares changes in the economic positions of 25- to 44-year-olds between 1984 and 1994 and between 1994 and 2004, in relative and absolute terms. Analyzes characteristics of those in the bottom quintile and factors that contribute to economic mobility

Exclusivity of Agrifood Supply Chains: Seven Fundamental Economic Characteristics

The IFAMR is published by the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. IFAMA. www.ifama.orgagrifood supply chains, exclusive economic characteristics, risk, market power, globalization, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty, Q130,

Economic Assessment of Improving Nutritional Characteristics of Feed Grains

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,