Social indicators and the study of inequality - commentary

Economic indicators ; Public policy ; Income distribution ; New York (N.Y.)

Welfare reform and New York City's low-income population

Welfare ; Poverty

The Decline in Welfare Receipt in New York City: Push vs. Pull

To evaluate the initial effects of welfare reform in New York City, we use the Current Population Survey to compare benefit receipt, earnings, and income among vulnerable households in 1994-95 and 1997-99. Overall, there were drops in public assistance and Food Stamps receipt, but the proportion getting Medicaid remained stable. Citizens and noncitizens lost welfare at similar rates, but the decline was significantly greater for Hispanic households than blacks, and was greatest among Puerto Ricans. Both the proportion with earnings and average earnings rose for Hispanics, but earnings did not increase for vulnerable blacks and whites. The sharp difference between Hispanics and blacks resulted in the convergence of Hispanics' higher welfare rates and lower incomes toward those of blacks. This convergence represents both the "pull" of a tighter labor market, together with improvements in Hispanics' education levels and shifts in family structure, and "push" of tighter administrative procedures.Assistance; Food Stamp; Medicaid; Public Assistance; Welfare

Consumption Taxes, Income Taxes, and Revenue Stability: States and the Great Recession

Abstract This paper translates state reliance on income versus consumption taxes into tax burdens by income slice and uses those burdens, together with changes in Adjusted Gross Income by income slice, to explain state tax revenue changes during the Great Recession. We find that more unequal income distributions increased tax base volatility, but greater base volatility did not systematically translate into more volatile tax revenues. While regressivity is decreased in states with higher income tax shares, and increased where there are higher consumption tax shares, simulation results from imposing national average income and consumption tax shares challenge the conventional wisdom that consumption taxes are more stable than income taxes. Volatility would have been greater in high income tax share states, and lower in high consumption share states, if they had more balanced tax structures. The interaction between tax burdens and base volatility by income slice is key to these surprising results

Tax structure and revenue instability: the Great Recession and the states

The Great Recession had the most severe impact on state tax revenues of any downturn since the Great Depression. We hypothesize that states with more progressive tax structures are more vulnerable to economic downturns, and that progressivity and income volatility may interact to amplify the recession’s fiscal impact. We find that, while potential revenue exposure is greater in more progressive states, the most important source of variation was differences in income concentration and capital gains shares in the top 5 percent of taxpayers. Though the interaction between income volatility and high tax burdens at the top did produce large decreases in tax revenue in a few states, tax progressivity accounted for little of the overall interstate variation in revenue volatility

Correlation of pretreatment drug induced apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells with patient survival and clinical response

Background This study was performed to determine if a chemotherapy-induced apoptosis assay (MiCK) could predict the best therapy for patients with ovarian cancer. Methods A prospective, multi-institutional and blinded trial of the assay was conducted in 104 evaluable ovarian cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. The MiCK assay was performed prior to therapy, but treating physicians were not told of the results and selected treatment only on clinical criteria. Outcomes (response, time to relapse, and survival) were compared to the drug-induced apoptosis observed in the assay. Results Overall survival in primary therapy, chemotherapy naïve patients with Stage III or IV disease was longer if patients received a chemotherapy which was best in the MiCK assay, compared to shorter survival in patients who received a chemotherapy that was not the best. (p < 0.01, hazard ratio HR 0.23). Multivariate model risk ratio showed use of the best chemotherapy in the MiCK assay was the strongest predictor of overall survival (p < 0.01) in stage III or IV patients. Standard therapy with carboplatin plus paclitaxel (C + P) was not the best chemotherapy in the MiCK assay in 44% of patients. If patients received C + P and it was the best chemotherapy in the MiCK assay, they had longer survival than those patients receiving C + P when it was not the best chemotherapy in the assay (p = 0.03). Relapse-free interval in primary therapy patients was longer if patients received the best chemotherapy from the MiCK assay (p = 0.03, HR 0.52). Response rates (CR + PR) were higher if physicians used an active chemotherapy based on the MiCK assay (p = 0.03). Conclusion The MiCK assay can predict the chemotherapy associated with better outcomes in ovarian cancer patients. This study quantifies outcome benefits on which a prospective randomized trial can be developed

Re-playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games to Teach Religious Legal Systems

Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning. It includes the background leading to the author\u27s work in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then discuss the hermeneutics influencing the approach to understanding the legal systems being modeled, and closes with a discussion of the kind of teaching and learning involved in the design of the games and early stage data on the public play of the games