Spring Jazz Festival

List of performers and performances

Transferable tax credits in Missouri: an analytical review

In 2005, Missouri had 53 legally authorized tax credit programs. In this paper, the authors assemble basic information on all of these programs and further analyze the six largest (by tax credits issued) that include freely transferable credits. Their analysis focuses on the institutional features of these programs, the kinds of market failures or disparities they may address, and whether the design of each program is consistent with its economic rationale. The authors also consider whether the evaluation of each program by the state is consistent with its economic rationale. They conclude with a brief discussion of the transactions prices for the credits on which they have data and whether making the tax credits refundable as well as transferable could reduce the transactions costs associated with these programs.Tax credits ; Economic development ; Missouri

Check cashers: moving from the fringes to the financial mainstream

Once relegated to the margins of the financial services industry, check cashing outlets (CCO's) are now more visible parts of the urban landscape. Check cashers offer convenient check clearing and bill payment services, mostly tailored to meet the needs of the "unbanked" in low-and moderate income communities. The industry has grown dramatically over the years and is generating new products and services to meet the needs of its niche clientele. While some argue that check cashers are offering marginalized lower income Americans more responsive products than those available from banks, consumer advocates and community groups disagree. They argue that CCO customers pay too much for basic payment services, and that a reliance on check cashers keeps these lower-income individuals form being integrated into the financial mainstream. Lesly Jean-Paul and Luxman Nathan examine industry trends and the reach of check cashers here in New England.Checks ; Unbanked

Australia's energy options: policy choice not economic inevitability

Executive summary A reliable and affordable supply of energy is a fundamental component to a vibrant economy. As a major source of commodities, including significant known reserves of low carbon emission energy sources, Australia is well positioned to supply the world’s future energy needs. In order for that to occur, Australia needs to examine all its energy options. The Government released a Draft Energy White paper in November 2011. CEDA considers this an opportunity that the Government should not miss in ensuring that Australia not only develops its energy resources for national economic gain but also to guarantee access to reasonably priced energy for Australian consumers. CEDA determined it would contribute to this significant debate by undertaking a year-long research project that examined Australia’s future energy options. As part of this research project CEDA published three policy perspectives that addressed Australia’s nuclear, renewables and efficiency and unconventional energy options. Recommendations in each of these perspectives were made with the specific aim of providing policy-makers with evidence-based research on the various energy sources either currently available or being actively explored and researched, often funded through the public purse. Fundamental governance decisions underpinned by strong economic policy arguments were at the centre of these recommendations. This final research report canvasses one of the more significant current debates associated with the availability of energy – the Australian electricity market. It puts forward a series of recommendations designed to enhance this element of the energy sector’s efficiency, security and effectiveness by placing consumers at the centre of the energy market and a reform agenda is proposed. Related identifier: ISBN 0 85801 284

Stronger wireless signals appear more Poisson

Keeler, Ross and Xia (2016) recently derived approximation and convergence results, which imply that the point process formed from the signal strengths received by an observer in a wireless network under a general statistical propagation model can be modelled by an inhomogeneous Poisson point process on the positive real line. The basic requirement for the results to apply is that there must be a large number of transmitters with different locations and random propagation effects.The aim of this note is to apply some of the main results of Keeler, Ross and Xia (2016) in a less general but more easily applicable form to illustrate how the results can be applied in practice. New results are derived that show that it is the strongest signals, after being weakened by random propagation effects, that behave like a Poisson process, which supports recent experimental work.Comment: 7 pages with 1.5 line spacin

Governance Issues for Health Insurance Exchanges

Outlines considerations for states in deciding how to structure a health insurance exchange, as well as issues of funding sources, operational flexibility, political independence and accountability, management structure, and sub-state dimensions

Nondeterminism and an abstract formulation of Ne\v{c}iporuk's lower bound method

A formulation of "Ne\v{c}iporuk's lower bound method" slightly more inclusive than the usual complexity-measure-specific formulation is presented. Using this general formulation, limitations to lower bounds achievable by the method are obtained for several computation models, such as branching programs and Boolean formulas having access to a sublinear number of nondeterministic bits. In particular, it is shown that any lower bound achievable by the method of Ne\v{c}iporuk for the size of nondeterministic and parity branching programs is at most $O(n^{3/2}/\log n)$