Capping the Mortgage Interest Deduction

In this paper we examine the economic implications of several policy options for capping the mortgage interest deduction (MID). We extend the standard user–cost model of owner–occupied housing to include a cap on the mortgage size receiving tax–favored status. Our user–cost estimates for taxpayers with mortgages above the current–law cap are 4.41 percent higher than estimates from a model without the cap. We simulate the share of mortgage dollars that would be subject to three alternative cap policy variants and summarize the distributional impacts of each proposal, computing the share of mortgage dollars impacted across U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Morton Subotnick\u27s Ghost Scores: Interaction and Performance with Music Technology

This thesis investigates the ghost works of Morton Subotnick and their contribution to the world of sound art and electronic music technologies. Subotnick\u27s work in this area is an integral part of his outstanding achievements, on which there is little collected research. The discussion focuses on the development of Subotnick\u27s designs and techniques that he applied to the construction of the ghost works. Through an exploration of earlier background details, it is shown that tape recording, voltage-controlled technologies, and the analog sequencer provided Subotnick with the means to follow his vision and begin creating music as studio art. An examination of these technologies and the creative manner in which he applied them reveal how Subotnick established a vehicle for his life\u27s work in the early sixties, from which he created notable electronic works. An assessment of Subotnick\u27s work from the early seventies shows that the composer\u27s methods progressed using a variety of compositional elements, including electronics and traditional acoustic orchestral instruments, the culmination of which resulted in the creation of the ghost compositions in the mid-seventies. The evaluation of these works reveals Subotnick\u27s aptitude with real-time analog signal processing and his standing as a significant American composer

Immigration and African-American Employment Opportunities: The Response of Wages, Employment, and Incarceration to Labor Supply Shocks

The employment rate of black men, and particularly of low-skill black men, fell precipitously from 1960 to 2000. At the same time, the incarceration rate of black men rose markedly. This paper examines the relation between immigration and these trends in black employment and incarceration. Using data drawn from the 1960-2000 U.S. Censuses, we find a strong correlation between immigration, black wages, black employment rates, and black incarceration rates. As immigrants disproportionately increased the supply of workers in a particular skill group, the wage of black workers in that group fell, the employment rate declined, and the incarceration rate rose. Our analysis suggests that a 10-percent immigrant-induced increase in the supply of a particular skill group reduced the black wage by 4.0 percent, lowered the employment rate of black men by 3.5 percentage points, and increased the incarceration rate of blacks by almost a full percentage point.

Session 4 Presentation - Improved Coastal and Nearshore Wave Forecasting

Accurate nearshore and coastal wave forecasts are essential for the protection of life and property as well as enhancing the economy through safe and efficient commercial activities. Modeling the nearshore environment has remained both computationally intensive and challenging due to the strong interaction of waves with the ocean bottom in shallow water environments. Here we develop a new wave system approach for nearshore wave modeling that addresses these issues. Wave systems result from specific wind forcing events on the ocean surface. This approach extends earlier work on wave system partitioning and tracking to assimilate coastal buoy observations into model output at the wave system level and model wave system transition through the shallow water environment. The resulting model is affectionately called Nessie

GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL REFORM AND U.S. AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT CAPACITY

This paper focuses on U.S. agriculture response to policy reform. A growing body of empirical literature describes the potential aggregate gains for the U.S. markets if global agricultural tariffs and subsidies can be further reduced (USDA, 2001; World Bank, GEP 2002; Tokarick, 2003). These gains are based on an aggregation of expected responses at the micro-level, by firms and households, to changing market conditions. Some of them will be "gainers" whose current economic activities and assets will benefit from the new opportunities presented by policy reform. Some will be "losers" who are adversely affected by the reduction or loss of subsidies or import protection.Agricultural and Food Policy,