Tax Cuts and Employment Growth in New Jersey: Lessons From a Regional Analysis

The Whitman Administration’s 30 percent reduction in New Jersey’s personal income taxes from 1994-96 is prominently cited as a role model for state fiscal policy. We investigate whether the growth benefits attributed to the Whitman tax cuts are warranted. Panel data methods are applied to annual observations of county-level employment growth from New Jersey and the surrounding economic region. Our analysis does not support the hypothesis that tax cuts stimulated employment growth in New Jersey. While New Jersey did experience substantial employment growth subsequent to the tax cuts, most of this growth was shared by the nearby Economic Areas.Tax cuts, economics growth

On Estimating Marginal Tax Rates and Tax Progressivities for U.S. States

This research presents a simple procedure for improving state-specific estimates of marginal tax rates (MTR’s). Most research employing MTR’s follows a procedure developed by Koester and Kormendi (K&K, 1987). Unfortunately, the time-invariant nature of the K&K estimates precludes their use as explanatory variables in panel data studies. Furthermore, their estimates are not based on statutory tax parameters. In contrast, our procedure produces timevarying estimates of MTR’s that are directly related to observed changes in statutory tax parameters. Using comprehensive data on state tax policy parameters, our procedure produces state-specific MTR’s estimates for all 50 states over the years 1977-2004. We compare our refined MTR’s to alternative estimates and evaluate implications for estimating tax progressivity for US states.State tax revenues; Marginal tax rates; Tax burden; Tax progressivity; Economic growth.

Environmental conditions to promote healthy childhood brain/behavioral development: Informing early preventive interventions for delivery in routine care

Environmental experiences early in life have strong and enduring consequences for cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological development and related physical and mental health trajectories. The powerful influence of early caregiver nurturance and stimulation on promoting positive neurodevelopmental outcomes has been demonstrated across species. These findings elucidate the environmental conditions known to facilitate healthy neurodevelopment and underscore the potential for modifiable psychosocial factors in the environment to be harnessed to inform early preventive interventions to promote health and adaptive development. A framework for early preventive interventions to enhance nurturing and responsive caregiving for implementation during early sensitive periods of brain development delivered within existing health or educational infrastructures is proposed. Emotional development during sensitive periods is an important, under-recognized, and abundantly modifiable predictor of mental and physical health outcomes that warrants investment of resources and integration of interventions into public health infrastructure for children worldwide. Future studies are needed to further clarify whether and when sensitive periods are present for key developmental domains to inform the optimal timing and targets of these interventions. Numerous available empirically supported early interventions may be modified and applied in briefer and more feasible modalities of delivery to broader populations of developing children. As well established in growth and development across species, essential environmental inputs that are particularly important at specified developmental periods facilitate optimal growth trajectories. Such principles hold great potential in application to early child neurodevelopment to facilitate a thriving and resilient human population

Methodology for determining the impact of highway bypasses in Oklahoma

Project #2160 develops a methodology for determining the impact of highway bypasses on small town business districts in Oklahoma. The focus is predicting likely impacts of proposed bypasses on US 70. Economic impacts are measured by comparing changes in the sales tax base in the bypassed cities with those of in similar non-bypassed cities. Quasi-experimental control group and difference-in-difference estimation techniques are employed. The method is demonstrated by analyzing the 1993 bypass of Stonewall as well as bypasses of Rush Springs and Snyder in the early 1970s. The null hypothesis that the bypasses had no impact on city sales taxes cannot be rejected. The results are not conclusive due to a lack of bypass cases and usable data on traffic volumes and composition, residential property values, regional economic performance and business climate during the pre-bypass period. The recommendations based on site visits and interviews are to include signs identifying business districts as well as follow-up safety studies of route intersections in bypass project plans. The results of the project were presented at the annual meetings of the TRB in January 2001, published in an academic journal, and summarized1n a PowerPoint presentation developed for ODOT's use in planning and development.Final Report, January 1999 - January 2001N

Renal Medullary and Cortical Correlates in Fibrosis, Epithelial Mass, Microvascularity, and Microanatomy Using Whole Slide Image Analysis Morphometry

Renal tubulointerstitial injury often leads to interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IF/TA). IF/TA is typically assessed in the renal cortex and can be objectively quantitated with computerized image analysis (IA). However, the human medulla accounts for a substantial proportion of the nephron; therefore, medullary scarring will have important cortical consequences and may parallel overall chronic renal injury. Trichrome, periodic acid–Schiff (PAS), and collagen III immunohistochemistry (IHC) were visually examined and quantitated on scanned whole slide images (WSIs) (N = 67 cases). When tuned to measure fibrosis, IA of trichrome and Trichrome-PAS (T-P) WSIs correlated for all anatomic compartments (among cortex, medulla, and entire tissue, r = 0.84 to 0.89, P all <0.0001); and collagen III deposition correlated between compartments (r = 0.69 to 0.89, P <0.0001 to 0.0002); however, trichrome and T-P measures did not correlate with collagen deposition, suggesting heterogeneous contributions to extracellular matrix deposition. Epithelial cell mass (EPCM) correlated between cortex and medulla when measured with cytokeratin IHC and with the trichrome red portion (r = 0.85 and 0.66, respectively, all P < 0.0001). Visual assessment also correlated between compartments for fibrosis and EPCM. Correlations were found between increasing medullary inner stripe (IS) width and fibrosis in all of the tissue and the medulla by trichrome morphometry (r = 0.56, P < 0.0001, and r = 0.48, P = 0.00008, respectively). Weak correlations were found between increasing IS width and decreasing visual assessment of all tissue EPCM. Microvessel density (MVD) and microvessel area (MVA) measured using a MVD algorithm applied to CD34 IHC correlated significantly between all compartments (r = 0.76 to 0.87 for MVD and 0.71 to 0.87 for MVA, P all < 0.0001). Overall, these findings demonstrate the interrelatedness of the cortex and medulla and the importance of considering the renal parenchyma as a whole

Measurements and Models for Hazardous chemical and Mixed Wastes

Mixed solvent aqueous waste of various chemical compositions constitutes a significant fraction of the total waste produced by industry in the United States. Not only does the chemical process industry create large quantities of aqueous waste, but the majority of the waste inventory at the DOE sites previously used for nuclear weapons production is mixed solvent aqueous waste. In addition, large quantities of waste are expected to be generated in the clean-up of those sites. In order to effectively treat, safely handle, and properly dispose of these wastes, accurate and comprehensive knowledge of basic thermophysical properties is essential. The goal of this work is to develop a phase equilibrium model for mixed solvent aqueous solutions containing salts. An equation of state was sought for these mixtures that (a) would require a minimum of adjustable parameters and (b) could be obtained from a available data or data that were easily measured. A model was developed to predict vapor composition and pressure given the liquid composition and temperature. It is based on the Peng-Robinson equation of state, adapted to include non-volatile and salt components. The model itself is capable of predicting the vapor-liquid equilibria of a wide variety of systems composed of water, organic solvents, salts, nonvolatile solutes, and acids or bases. The representative system o water + acetone + 2-propanol + NaNo3 was selected to test and verify the model. Vapor-liquid equilibrium and phase density measurements were performed for this system and its constituent binaries

Association of prenatal exposure to early-life adversity with neonatal brain volumes at birth

Importance: Exposure to early-life adversity alters the structural development of key brain regions underlying neurodevelopmental impairments. The association between prenatal exposure to adversity and brain structure at birth remains poorly understood. Objective: To examine whether prenatal exposure to maternal social disadvantage and psychosocial stress is associated with neonatal global and regional brain volumes and cortical folding. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective, longitudinal cohort study included 399 mother-infant dyads of sociodemographically diverse mothers recruited in the first or early second trimester of pregnancy and their infants, who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging in the first weeks of life. Mothers were recruited from local obstetric clinics in St Louis, Missouri from September 1, 2017, to February 28, 2020. Exposures: Maternal social disadvantage and psychosocial stress in pregnancy. Main Outcomes and Measures: Confirmatory factor analyses were used to create latent constructs of maternal social disadvantage (income-to-needs ratio, Area Deprivation Index, Healthy Eating Index, educational level, and insurance status) and psychosocial stress (Perceived Stress Scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Everyday Discrimination Scale, and Stress and Adversity Inventory). Neonatal cortical and subcortical gray matter, white matter, cerebellum, hippocampus, and amygdala volumes were generated using semiautomated, age-specific, segmentation pipelines. Results: A total of 280 mothers (mean [SD] age, 29.1 [5.3] years; 170 [60.7%] Black or African American, 100 [35.7%] White, and 10 [3.6%] other race or ethnicity) and their healthy, term-born infants (149 [53.2%] male; mean [SD] infant gestational age, 38.6 [1.0] weeks) were included in the analysis. After covariate adjustment and multiple comparisons correction, greater social disadvantage was associated with reduced cortical gray matter (unstandardized β = -2.0; 95% CI, -3.5 to -0.5; P = .01), subcortical gray matter (unstandardized β = -0.4; 95% CI, -0.7 to -0.2; P = .003), and white matter (unstandardized β = -5.5; 95% CI, -7.8 to -3.3; P \u3c .001) volumes and cortical folding (unstandardized β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.04 to -0.01; P \u3c .001). Psychosocial stress showed no association with brain metrics. Although social disadvantage accounted for an additional 2.3% of the variance of the left hippocampus (unstandardized β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.05 to -0.01), 2.3% of the right hippocampus (unstandardized β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.05 to -0.01), 3.1% of the left amygdala (unstandardized β = -0.02; 95% CI, -0.03 to -0.01), and 2.9% of the right amygdala (unstandardized β = -0.02; 95% CI, -0.03 to -0.01), no regional effects were found after accounting for total brain volume. Conclusions and Relevance: In this baseline assessment of an ongoing cohort study, prenatal social disadvantage was associated with global reductions in brain volumes and cortical folding at birth. No regional specificity for the hippocampus or amygdala was detected. Results highlight that associations between poverty and brain development begin in utero and are evident early in life. These findings emphasize that preventive interventions that support fetal brain development should address parental socioeconomic hardships

Prenatal exposure to maternal social disadvantage and psychosocial stress and neonatal white matter connectivity at birth

Early life adversity (social disadvantage and psychosocial stressors) is associated with altered microstructure in fronto-limbic pathways important for socioemotional development. Understanding when these associations begin to emerge may inform the timing and design of preventative interventions. In this longitudinal study, 399 mothers were oversampled for low income and completed social background measures during pregnancy. Measures were analyzed with structural equation analysis resulting in two latent factors: social disadvantage (education, insurance status, income-to-needs ratio [INR], neighborhood deprivation, and nutrition) and psychosocial stress (depression, stress, life events, and racial discrimination). At birth, 289 healthy term-born neonates underwent a diffusion MRI (dMRI) scan. Mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were measured for the dorsal and inferior cingulum bundle (CB), uncinate, and fornix using probabilistic tractography in FSL. Social disadvantage and psychosocial stress were fitted to dMRI parameters using regression models adjusted for infant postmenstrual age at scan and sex. Social disadvantage, but not psychosocial stress, was independently associated with lower MD in the bilateral inferior CB and left uncinate, right fornix, and lower MD and higher FA in the right dorsal CB. Results persisted after accounting for maternal medical morbidities and prenatal drug exposure. In moderation analysis, psychosocial stress was associated with lower MD in the left inferior CB among the lower-to-higher socioeconomic status (SES) (INR ≥ 200%) group, but not the extremely low SES (INR \u3c 200%) group. Increasing access to social welfare programs that reduce the burden of social disadvantage and related psychosocial stressors may be an important target to protect fetal brain development in fronto-limbic pathways

Neonatal motor functional connectivity and motor outcomes at age two years in very preterm children with and without high-grade brain injury

Preterm-born children have high rates of motor impairments, but mechanisms for early identification remain limited. We hypothesized that neonatal motor system functional connectivity (FC) would relate to motor outcomes at age two years; currently, this relationship is not yet well-described in very preterm (VPT; born \u3c32 weeks\u27 gestation) infants with and without brain injury. We recruited 107 VPT infants - including 55 with brain injury (grade III-IV intraventricular hemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus) - and collected FC data at/near term-equivalent age (35-45 weeks postmenstrual age). Correlation coefficients were used to calculate the FC between bilateral motor and visual cortices and thalami. At two years corrected-age, motor outcomes were assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition. Multiple imputation was used to estimate missing data, and regression models related FC measures to motor outcomes. Within the brain-injured group only, interhemispheric motor cortex FC was positively related to gross motor outcomes. Thalamocortical and visual FC were not related to motor scores. This suggests neonatal alterations in motor system FC may provide prognostic information about impairments in children with brain injury

Social disadvantage during pregnancy: Effects on gestational age and birthweight

OBJECTIVE: Whether psychosocial adversity during pregnancy impacts fetal health outcomes at birth remains underexplored. This is a critical issue given significant social disadvantage and psychosocial stress faced by pregnant women worldwide. STUDY DESIGN: Measures of social disadvantage and psychological factors, and medical/reproductive and nutritional health status in pregnant women were obtained at each trimester. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we investigated the relationship of forms of adversity to each other and to infant gestational age, and birthweight. RESULTS: Among 399 singletons, Social Disadvantage significantly predicted gestational age (p = 0.003), and residual birthweight (p = 0.006). There was a 0.4 week decrease in gestational age and a 3% decrease in birthweight for each standard deviation increase in Social Disadvantage. CONCLUSION: Significant negative effects of social adversity on the developing fetus were found. Notably, these effects emerged despite good prenatal care and after accounting for maternal age and medical reproductive risk factors