India's defense budget: can it be reduced?

Includes bibliographical references. Cover title.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Do Food Stamps Cause Obesity? Evidence from Immigrant Experience

I use changes in immigrant eligibility for food stamps under the 1996 federal law and heterogeneous state responses to set up a natural experiment research design to study the effect of food stamps on Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults in immigrant families. I find that in the post-1996 period food stamps use by foreign-born unmarried mothers with a high school or lower education was 10 percentage points higher in states with substitute programs than in states that implemented the federal ban. However, this increase in FSP participation was not associated with any statistically significant difference in BMI. I find that FSP participation was associated a statistically insignificant 0.3 percent increase in BMI among low-educated unmarried mothers.

DOUBLE-COATED BIODEGRADABLE POLY (BUTYL CYANOACRYLATE) NANOPARTICULATE DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR BRAIN TARGETING OF DOXORUBICIN VIA ORAL ADMINISTRATION

Primary brain cancer cells grow within the brain or cancer cells can metastasis from different site of the body into brain. The major hurdle in the treatment of brain cancer is the presence of blood-brain barrier (BBB). Additionally, acquired multidrug-resistant (MDR) impedes the success of long-term chemotherapy. Therefore, the objective of this investigation is to evaluate the brain targeting potential of orally administered poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticulate delivery systems (PBCA-NPDS), double-coated with Tween 80 and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 20000 for brain delivery of doxorubicin, that does not cross the BBB by itself. And, evaluate the MDR reversal potential of PBCA-NPDS. Doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS were prepared by the anionic polymerization method and were successively double-coated with Tween 80 and PEG 20000 in varied concentrations. Brain uptake study of double-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS using bEnd.3 cell line suggested the role of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in the uptake of double coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS. When Transwell® permeable supports were used, significant transport of doxorubicin across the cell monolayer was observed by the double-coated formulations, in comparison to doxorubicin solution (p\u3c0.05). Significant accumulation of doxorubicin in brain was achieved after oral administration of double-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS in rats (p\u3c0.05). Furthermore, simultaneously analyzing the pharmacokinetic data obtained after intravenous and oral administrations, revealed the role of lymphatics in absorption of double-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS. When MDR reversal potential of PBCA-NPDS was evaluated by cell uptake in P-gp overexpressing cell line, significant uptake of doxorubicin was mediated by double-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS (p\u3c0.05). These results were verified by MTT assay in P-gp or BCRP overexpressing cell lines. MTT assays revealed that double-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS significantly potentiated the sensitivity of doxorubicin in P-gp overexpressing cells, in comparison to doxorubicin solution, single-, and un-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS (p\u3c0.05 in all case), respectively. Further increase in concentration of Tween 80, significantly enhanced the sensitivity of doxorubicin in BCRP overexpressing cell line, in comparison to single- and double-coated doxorubicin-loaded PBCA-NPDS (with lower concentration of Tween 80) (p\u3c0.05 in all case). Hence, it could be concluded that double-coated doxorubicin loaded PBCA-NPDS could be used for brain targeting of doxorubicin administered orally and overcome MDR

Welfare Reform and Family Expenditures: How are Single Mothers Adapting to the New Welfare and Work Regime?

We study the effect of welfare reform, broadly defined to include social policy changes in the 1990s, on the material well-being and expenditure patterns of poor single-mother families. Our research suggests that welfare reform did not affect total expenditures in households headed by low-educated single mothers. However, patterns of expenditure did change. We find strong evidence that the policy was associated with an increase in spending on transportation and food away from home, and some evidence of an increase in spending on adult clothing and footwear. In contrast, we find no statistically significant changes in expenditures on childcare or learning and enrichment activities. This pattern of results suggests that welfare reform has shifted family expenditures towards items that facilitate work outside the home, but, at least so far, has not allowed families to catch up with more advantaged families in terms of their expenditures on learning and enrichment items.

Migration Consequences of Welfare Reform

In this paper, we investigate whether or not recent state and federal changes in welfare policy -- the imposition of time-limited benefits, the use of financial sanctions for non-compliance, and the setting of strict work eligibility rules -- affect the migration of low-educated unmarried women. Estimates of welfare's effect on migration reveal that welfare policy does indeed affect migration. Recent changes in policy that have made public assistance a less attractive alternative are associated with greater migration among low-educated unmarried women. Welfare reform has motivated low-educated women to move greater distances more frequently, and to combine such moves with employment. Estimates also indicate that welfare reform is associated with more local (i.e., within county) changes in residential location that are associated with employment, although estimates of this effect were not robust to estimation method. The close link between residential moves and employment in the post-reform period is consistent with the idea that welfare reform has motivated people to move for economic reasons such as better employment opportunities. This evidence suggests that the traditional way of thinking about the effect of welfare on migration -- as a strategic move to obtain higher benefits -- is inadequate.

Recent Immigration to Canada and the United States: A Mixed Tale of Relative Selection

Using large-scale census data and adjusting for sending-country fixed effect to account for changing composition of immigrants, we study relative immigrant selection to Canada and the U.S. during 1990-2006, a period characterized by diverging immigration policies in the two countries. Results show a gradual change in selection patterns in educational attainment and host country language proficiency in favor of Canada as its post-1990 immigration policy allocated more points to the human capital of new entrants. Specifically, in 1990, new immigrants in Canada were less likely to have a B.A. degree than those in the U.S.; they were also less likely to have a high-school or lower education. By 2006, Canada surpassed the U.S. in drawing highly-educated immigrants, while continuing to attract fewer low-educated immigrants. Canada also improved its edge over the U.S. in terms of host-country language proficiency of new immigrants. Entry-level earnings, however, do not reflect the same trend: Recent immigrants to Canada have experienced a wage disadvantage compared to recent immigrants to the U.S., as well as Canadian natives. One plausible explanation is that, while the Canadian points system has successfully attracted more educated immigrants, it may not be effective in capturing productivity-related traits that are not easily measurable

Health and Health Insurance Trajectories of Mexicans in the US

We study how the health and health insurance coverage of Mexican immigrants change with time in the US. Cross-sectional analyses suggest that approximately three decades of residency in the US is associated with a 9 to 11 percentage point (12% to 15%) decline in the probability of being uninsured for Mexican men and women. However, analysis using longitudinal data and fixed effects methods show that time in the US is unrelated to health insurance coverage. Both cross sectional and longitudinal analyses provide evidence of unhealthy assimilation—self-reported health declines slightly with time in the US.

Food Stamp Program and Consumption Choices

We study the effect of the Food Stamp Program (FSP) on consumption patterns in families headed by low-educated single mothers in the U.S. using the Consumer Expenditure Surveys for 1994-2004. Our analysis suggests that the food stamp caseload does not have any statistically significant association with per capita expenditure on food in families headed by low-educated single mothers. We find that state and federal welfare reforms during the 1990s lowered the food stamp caseload by approximately 18 percent and the introduction of the Electronic Benefit Transfer cards and simplified reporting procedures for recertification of food stamps increased participation by about seven percent. However, we do not find any evidence that these policies had any effect on total food expenditure, nor do we find any consistent evidence that the policies affected expenditures on specific food items.

Trends in Child Poverty by Race/Ethnicity: New Evidence Using an Anchored Historical Supplemental Poverty Measure

Official poverty statistics have been criticized, however, for being based on an outdated measure of poverty (Blank, 2008; Citro and Michael, 1995). First put into use in the 1960s, the official poverty measure’s (OPM) concept of needs has been updated for inflation but still reflects the living standards, family budgets, and family structures of that time. Moreover, when tallying family resources, the OPM misses key government programs such as Food Stamps and tax credits that have expanded since the 1960s. For these reasons, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) implemented an improved “supplemental poverty measure” (SPM) in 2011 (Short 2011) for calendar years 2009 and 2010. This SPM is now released annually alongside the OPM (see Short 2015 for the latest data as of this writing), but the Census Bureau has no plans to produce the measure historically. However, historical data on levels and trends in poverty are essential for better understanding the progress the country has made since Lyndon B. Johnson’s famous declaration of the War on Poverty in the 1960s. Understanding what has been successful in the past is important for assessing what might be successful in the future for amelioration of economic disadvantage. What’s more, success and its sources may vary by race/ethnicity. We use a historical version of the SPM to provide the first estimates of racial/ethnic differences in child poverty for the period 1970 to the present using this improved measure. We begin our analysis in 1970 because that is the first year we can reliably distinguish non-Hispanic whites, African-Americans, and Latinos (unfortunately, data limitations prevent us from examining other groups over the long term). We detail below our data and methods, then describe our main results, and conclude briefly. Data and Methods We use data from multiple years of the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement (also known as the March CPS) combined with data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) to produce SPM estimates for the period 1970 to 2014. We use a methodology similar to that used by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in producing their SPM estimates, but with adjustments for differences in available data over time. Our methodology differs from the SPM in only one respect. Instead of using a poverty threshold that is re-calculated over time, we use today’s threshold and carry it back historically by adjusting it for inflation using the CPI-U-RS. Because this alternative measure is anchored with today’s SPM threshold, we refer to it as an anchored supplemental poverty measure, or anchored SPM for short. An advantage of an anchored SPM is that poverty trends resulting from such a measure can be explained only by changes in income and net transfer payments (cash or in kind). Trends in poverty based on a relative measure (e.g. SPM poverty), on the other hand, could be due to over time changes in thresholds. Thus, an anchored SPM arguably provides a cleaner measure of how changes in income and net transfer payments have affected poverty historically (Wimer et al., 2013).[1] [1] All analyses in this paper are also available using quasi-relative poverty thresholds; results are available upon request