Beyond the Boom: Ensuring Adequate Payment for Mineral Wealth Extraction

Examines Ohio's severance tax rate and receipts on gas and oil extraction compared with other states, oil and gas production's costs to the state, and potential impact of a higher tax. Recommends raising the tax and creating a severance tax trust fund

U.S. urban decline and growth, 1950 to 2000

Following World War II, many large U.S. cities began to rapidly lose population. This urban decline climaxed during the 1970s when New York City, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Atlanta each lost more than 10 percent of their population. The sharp declines of these and numerous other U.S. urban municipalities led many to believe that large U.S. cities were dying. ; Then, during the 1980s, New York and Boston began to grow again. In the 1990s, so did Chicago, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. The reversal of population declines by these and a few other U.S. urban municipalities has led many to believe that large U.S. cities were coming back. ; Rappaport explains why, contrary to such perceptions, recent U.S. history has not been characterized by a period of pervasive urban decline followed by a widespread urban renaissance. To be sure, a few large cities were able to successfully reverse steep population declines. But over the past 50 years, most large U.S. cities either declined continuously or else grew continuously. Such varied growth experiences resulted from a complex combination of national, regional, metropolitan area, and local factors. These included a continuing shift of population from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, a slowing shift of population from cities to suburbs, and the much more rapid growth of some metropolitan areas relative to others.Urban economics

Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation

Examines graduation-rate patterns in the fifty most populous U.S. cities and surrounding metropolitan areas. Compares data by race/ethnicity, gender, and principal district, and highlights the urban-suburban gaps within the same metropolitan areas

Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap

Analyzes trends in high school graduation rates in the nation's fifty largest metropolitan areas, including improvements and the urban-suburban divide. Compares employment, income, and poverty levels by educational attainment in each metropolitan area

The Effect of Tort Reform on Tort Case Filings

Does so-called tort reform decrease tort case filings? In Texas and other states that have enacted numerous rounds of tort reform, the answer appears to be a resounding yes, at least as of the year 2000. More recent evidence from Oklahoma supports that conclusion and provides an interesting case study within the tort reform juggernaut. During at least the past twenty years, tort reformers have achieved substantial legislative successes and, some would argue, public relations victories. Yet their desire for more reform seems insatiable, and their legislative agenda rarely sleeps. Tort reform bills bloom perennially in the Oklahoma legislature, and numerous significant changes in liability rules, restrictions on remedies, and procedural innovations were enacted in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Despite their apparent success, tort reformers spun these victories as losses and vowed to press on. One omnibus tort reform bill passed by the legislature in 2007 was immediately vetoed by the governor. Its supporters, apparently undeterred, resurrected most of the provisions from the defeated 2007 bill and reintroduced them in 2008. One might reasonably ask whether anyone has stopped to see what, if anything, the enacted reforms have already wrought, before advocating even more sweeping changes. This article will make a small contribution toward answering that question

Cultural Vitality in Communities: Interpretation and Indicators

This report introduces a definition of cultural vitality that includes the range of cultural activity people around the country find significant. We use this definition as a lens to clarify our understanding of data necessary, as well as the more limited data currently available, to document arts and culture in communities in a consistent, recurrent and reliable manner. Specifically, we define cultural vitality as evidence of creating, disseminating, validating, and supporting arts and culture as a dimension of everyday life in communities. We develop and recommend an initial set of arts and culture indicators derived from nationally available data, and compare selected metropolitan areas based on these measures. Policy and planning implications for use of the cultural vitality definition and related measures are discussed

Limiting the Mortgage Interest Deduction by Size of Home: Effects on the User Cost and Price of Housing Across Metropolitan Areas

In this paper, I examine the user cost and home price implications of limiting the federal mortgage interest deduction (MID) based on the square footage of a home. I extend the standard user cost model to include a square footage-based cap on the tax-favored status of mortgage interest. I compare two policy alternatives: one that limits the marginal deduction based on home size, and another that removes the deduction on the home based on home size. There is substantial variation across metropolitan areas in both the number of homes exposed to each type of cap, the user cost increase, and the resulting expected price declines

Mobility and the Metropolis: How Communities Factor Into Economic Mobility

This report shows that neighborhoods play an important role in determining a family's prospects of moving up the economic ladder. Metropolitan areas where the wealthy and poor live apart have lower mobility than areas where residents are more economically integrated

The Right Track: Building a 21st Century High-Speed Rail System for America

Provides an overview of U.S. investment in high-speed intercity passenger rail, its economic and environmental benefits, analyses by region, and key steps for building an efficient network, including balancing private investment with public safeguards

The Worst of Times: Children in Extreme Poverty in the South and Nation

Analyzes patterns of extreme child poverty by state, county, and school district. Examines federal funding for high-poverty districts and the need for local, state, and federal policy to improve educational opportunities for the poorest children