Addressing the Psychosocial Risk Factors Affecting the Developing Brain of the High-Risk Infant

In this article, Cynthia Rogers examines how exposure to prenatal and postnatal psychosocial stressors in the caregiver-infant interaction can lead to impaired brain development. Specifically, Rogers examines how maternal mental health and substance use disorders related to poverty have a deleterious effect on infant outcomes and create dysfunctional parenting styles that continue to negatively impact childhood brain development. Rogers points to intervention programs like the Perinatal Behavioral Health Service at Washington University School of Medicine as a successful tool for screening pregnant and postpartum women for mental health disorders and directing parents of high-risk infants to physicians, social workers, psychiatrists and/or therapists with the goal of improving maternal mental health and optimizing child outcomes. Such programs can have positive impacts on maternal mental health and evidence suggests that these interventions also positively influence childhood brain development

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

Walking builds community cohesion: Survey of two New Hampshire communities looks at social capital and walkability

This brief reports the results of a survey conducted in 2009 of approximately 2,000 households in Portsmouth and Manchester, New Hampshire, to examine the connection between walkability and social capital. Authors Shannon Rogers, Kevin Gardner, and Cynthia Carlson report that higher levels of social capital are found in areas that are perceived to be more walkable, as measured by the number of places people can walk to in their community. In addition, walkability is influenced by concerns of safety, access, time, and health and by physical characteristics such as proximity, scale, and aesthetics. Given the link between walkability and greater social capital, and in turn the link between social capital and numerous positive outcomes, refitting communities with greater walkability can have short- and longer-term payoffs. The authors conclude that more walkable communities are healthier communities, and as the research in the brief shows, residents in them are more connected to one another not only by sidewalks but also through the social networks and social capital they form when they live in communities that encourage gathering and meeting face-to-face

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.

Do Tax Havens Really Flourish? Accounting for Endogeneity in Growth Regressions

That tax haven policies contribute to favorable economic growth in tax haven countries is commonly accepted. There is, however, minimal empirical evidence to substantiate this assertion and empirical investigations are subject to endogeneity bias. Using a sample of 155 countries from 1982 to 2003, we find that the standard tax haven variable is endogenous to the error term in a typical growth regression. We offer land area measures as valid instruments for tax haven status. Results based on two-stage least squares estimation with heteroskedastic standard errors and controls for initial conditions provide support for the claim that tax havens “flourish” compared with non-tax haven countries. The sensitivity of the estimates to the treatment of endogeneity is salient for a variety of related research, including the current dialogue concerning the impact of tax haven policies on non-tax haven countries

Local Economic Development as a Game: We’re Caught in a Trap, I Can’t Walk Out …

This paper uses game theory to analyze the practice of offering incentives to attract new firms to localities. It demonstrates that in trying to attract firms localities are faced with something like a prisoner’s dilemma: they are compelled to offer incentives but would be better off if they could agree not compete for firms. The dilemma that localities face explains why the bidding war for firms continues to escalate despite calls by economists and politicians for disarmament

Competition between Tax Havens: Does Proximity Matter?

We study whether proximity to the nearest tax haven affects FDI and the number of American affiliates in a tax haven. Our results show that distance to the nearest tax haven is positively related to FDI inflows and the number of American affiliates in tax havens. These findings suggest that there is a harmful competition between tax havens. We also find evidence of positive spillovers: the number of American affiliates in a tax haven is positively related to the number of in its closest neighboring tax haven. This suggests the presence of agglomeration benefits given there is an affiliate in a nearby tax haven

Tax Havens and FDI Spillovers: Implications for LDCs

Tax competition and spillover models offer ambiguous predictions concerning the economic impact of tax havens on non-tax havens. The implications of tax havens for less developed countries (LDCs), in particular, are not well understood and are little studied. This paper investigates the impact of tax havens on non-tax haven countries in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI). We investigate the importance of agglomeration effects by accounting for the level of FDI inflows as well as the role of geography by measuring proximity to the nearest tax haven. Our analysis yields several interesting findings. First, using panel data for 142 countries, we find evidence of positive spillovers from tax havens to nearby LDCs, but not to nearby developed countries. Second, restricting our panel to LDCs, we find the positive effect of tax haven FDI on LDCs to be robust. Third, we find that geographic distance matters for financial flows: LDCs which are the closest to a nearby tax haven benefit the most in terms of FDI inflows. This result is robust to including a lag of the dependent variable and accounting for spatial interdependence of FDI. We conclude that tax haven activity has beneficial implications for FDI inflows of nearby LDCs

Evidence of nitric acid uptake in warm cirrus anvil clouds during the NASA TC4 campaign

Uptake of HNO3 onto cirrus ice may play an important role in tropospheric NOx cycling. Discrepancies between modeled and in situ measurements of gas-phase HNO3 in the troposphere suggest that redistribution and removal mechanisms by cirrus ice have been poorly constrained. Limited in situ measurements have provided somewhat differing results and are not fully compatible with theory developed from laboratory studies. We present new airborne measurements of HNO3 in cirrus clouds from anvil outflow made during the Tropical Composition, Cloud, and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4). Upper tropospheric (\u3e9 km) measurements made during three flights while repeatedly traversing the same cloud region revealed depletions of gas-phase HNO3 in regions characterized by higher ice water content and surface area. We hypothesize that adsorption of HNO3 onto cirrus ice surfaces could explain this. Using measurements of cirrus ice surface area density and some assumptions about background mixing ratios of gas-phase HNO3, we estimate molecular coverages of HNO 3 on cirrus ice surface in the tropical upper troposphere during the TC4 racetracks to be about 1 × 1013 molecules cm-2. This likely reflects an upper limit because potential dilution by recently convected, scavenged air is ignored. Also presented is an observation of considerably enhanced gas-phase HNO3 at the base of a cirrus anvil suggesting vertical redistribution of HNO3 by sedimenting cirrus particles and subsequent particle sublimation and HNO3 evaporation. The impact of released HNO3, however, appears to be restricted to a very thin layer just below the cloud. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union

Social Capital and Walkability as Social Aspects of Sustainability

The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are frequently described as having three main components, sometimes referred to as the three pillars or the triple bottom line: environmental, economic, and social. Because of an historical focus in the sustainability field on correcting environmental problems, much consideration has been given to environmental issues, especially how they interface with economic ones. Frequently mentioned but rarely examined, the social aspects of sustainability have been considered the weakest and least described pillar. After a brief review of existing concepts and theories, this paper uses a case study approach to examine the third pillar more comprehensively and offers social capital as one measure of social sustainability. Specifically, social capital was used to measure the social-environmental interface of communities. The positive correlation between aspects of the built environment, specifically walkability, and social capital suggests that measuring a social aspect of sustainability may be feasible, especially in the context of community development