The Incidence of the Local Property Tax: A Re-evaluation

The article identifies the key assumptions that underlie competing theories of the incidence of the local property tax. We conclude that the"benefit view" which maintains that the property tax system is equivalent to a set of non-distortionary user changes is correct only under very restrictive assumptions. Only when communities adopt a set of exact, binding zoning requirements will a distortionary tax be transformed into a lump-sum tax. We argue that within jurisdiction heterogeneity of house and firm typeis very unlikely and that the burden of a property tax that is distortionary at the margin falls on the owners of capital.

The New View of the Property Tax: A Reformulation

The"new view" of the property tax is reformulated within the context of a model with interjurisdictional competition, endogenous local public services, individuals who are segregated into homogeneous communities according to tastes for local public services, a simple form of land use zoning, and a political or constitutional constraint on the use of head taxes by local governments. Expressions for the "profits tax" and"excise tax" effects of the property tax are derived. The effects of a "consumption distortion" away from government services due to local reluctance to tax mobile capital are also examined.

Dairy marketing and pricing in Kenya: are milk shortages the consequence of drought or pricing policies?

In this paper, production, consumption, marketing and pricing of dairy products in Kenya are examined and discussed. It is argued that there are severe irrationalities in the pricing of dairy products and that these have become an important constraint on the industry. At a uniform price between locations, transport costs are hidden and there is excessive stimulation to production far from the consuming areas. At a uniform price between seasons, the far greater production costs in the dry season are not incurred so that dry season milk shortages (annually, blamed on the drought) are now regular features. Wet season surpluses are in the meantime enormous, involving the necessity for substantial processing capacity that remains idle for a good part of each year. Large financial losses are incurred by the Kenya Cooperative Creamery (K.C.C.) in the flush season when twice as much milk must be purchased at the same uniform price. A large percentage of this milk is then used for manufacturing and sold at a net loss. An excessive consumer price for liquid milk is meanwhile maintained which severely inhibits the growth of milk consumption, especially among the poor who would derive the greatest nutritional benefit from increasing their consumption. A large part of the additional supplies in the smallholder areas are going into local consumption. Only when local demand is met at the supply price to K.C.C. can the surpluses from these areas be expected in the formal market. At a seasonally uniform producer price the supply fluctuations between seasons are particularly severe fro these areas. An alternative milk pricing system is proposed that would recognise that neither the production costs nor the financial or social value of additional milk is uniform between seasons and locations. In this system a floor price would be paid for all seasons with an ex post additional payout depending on the proportion of milk intake that is sold as fluid milk

Foreign Body Ingestion: Three Case Reports

Foreign body ingestion in adults is rarely reported in our environment. While the incident is commonly deliberate in adults, it is often accidental in children. As illustrated in these case reports, diagnosis is often challenging if the act is not witnessed or reported by someone, even at the onset of complications. A seven-week-old boy ingested a used razor blade given to him by his three-year-old sister. The incident was reported and the object removed at laparotomy.A 38year old woman deliberately swallowed a padlock-and-key apparently to attract her husband’s attention. Plain X-rays demonstrated a radio-opaque object first in the chest and then in the stomach. Both padlock-and-key were removed at operation. A 24-year old male with a psychiatric disorder was brought for treatment of an abdominal surgical wound that had failed to heal four months after appendicectomy. Wound treatment failed and exploration of the wound and laparotomy extracted metals and plastic objects.Diagnosis of foreign body ingestion in our environment is achieved by documenting a proper history, physical evaluation and often, plain X-rays. Removal of the ingested object(s) is accomplished mainly by surgical intervention. Recovery and prognosis in most patients are usually satisfactor

MIXED MODELS APPROACH TO ON-FARM TRIALS: AN ALTERNATIVE TO META-ANALYSIS FOR COMPARING ONE TREATMENT TO POSSIBLY DIFFERENT CONTROLS

The estimator of effect size, the sample mean difference divided by the sample standard error of the difference is studied in the context of mixed models and is related to the analysis of on-farm trials. A single treatment is compared against possibly different controls using a completely randomized design on each farm. A lower (1-α)100% confidence limit on mean difference of the treatment and the average control is obtained. The best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) of the mean difference of the treatment and the individual controls as well as the lower (1-α)100% prediction limits are provided. The effect of omitting or not omitting the farm-by-treatment interaction variance component in the weighting process is assessed using two numerical examples

Detectable HIV Viral Load in Kenya: Data from a Population-Based Survey.

IntroductionAt the individual level, there is clear evidence that Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) transmission can be substantially reduced by lowering viral load. However there are few data describing population-level HIV viremia especially in high-burden settings with substantial under-diagnosis of HIV infection. The 2nd Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS 2012) provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage on viremia and to examine the risks for failure to suppress viral replication. We report population-level HIV viral load suppression using data from KAIS 2012.MethodsBetween October 2012 to February 2013, KAIS 2012 surveyed household members, administered questionnaires and drew serum samples to test for HIV and, for those found to be infected with HIV, plasma viral load (PVL) was measured. Our principal outcome was unsuppressed HIV viremia, defined as a PVL ≥ 550 copies/mL. The exposure variables included current treatment with ART, prior history of an HIV diagnosis, and engagement in HIV care. All point estimates were adjusted to account for the KAIS 2012 cluster sampling design and survey non-response.ResultsOverall, 61·2% (95% CI: 56·4-66·1) of HIV-infected Kenyans aged 15-64 years had not achieved virological suppression. The base10 median (interquartile range [IQR]) and mean (95% CI) VL was 4,633 copies/mL (0-51,596) and 81,750 copies/mL (59,366-104,134), respectively. Among 266 persons taking ART, 26.1% (95% CI: 20.0-32.1) had detectable viremia. Non-ART use, younger age, and lack of awareness of HIV status were independently associated with significantly higher odds of detectable viral load. In multivariate analysis for the sub-sample of patients on ART, detectable viremia was independently associated with younger age and sub-optimal adherence to ART.DiscussionThis report adds to the limited data of nationally-representative surveys to report population- level virological suppression. We established heterogeneity across the ten administrative and HIV programmatic regions on levels of detectable viral load. Timely initiation of ART and retention in care are crucial for the elimination of transmission of HIV through sex, needle and syringe use or from mother to child. Further refinement of geospatial mapping of populations with highest risk of transmission is necessary

Market-Based Alternatives for Managing Congestion at New York’s LaGuardia Airport

We summarize the results of a project that was motivated by the expiration of the “High Density Rule,” which defined the slot controls employed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport for more than 30 years. The scope of the project included the analysis of several administrative measures, congestion pricing options and slot auctions. The research output includes a congestion pricing procedure and also the specification of a slot auction mechanism. The research results are based in part on two strategic simulations. These were multi-day events that included the participation of airport operators, most notably the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, FAA and DOT executives, airline representatives and other members of the air transportation community. The first simulation placed participants in a stressful, high congestion future scenario and then allowed participants to react and problem solve under various administrative measures and congestion pricing options. The second simulation was a mock slot auction in which participants bid on LGA arrival and departure slots for fictitious airlines.Auctions, airport slot auctions, combinatorial auctions