Will Workers Survive State Budget Belt-Tightening?

As state governments face budget gaps of tens of billions of dollars in FY2009 and FY2010, this issue brief calculates the potential detrimental effects of state budget cuts on unemployment. While Congress considers a national economic recovery package, this issue brief highlights the fact that aid to state and local governments could help avoid spending cuts and ensuing job losses

The Alphabet Soup Explained: An Analysis of the Special Lending Facilities at the Federal Reserve

This paper looks at the trends in activity at the Federal Reserve's newly-created special lending facilities, hoping to provide a better understanding of their operation and significance within financial markets. These facilities were created in response to the financial crisis and have expanded the Fed's balance sheet by over $1 trillion in terms of total assets. This sum is larger than the total price tag of the recent federal stimulus as well as the bank bailout authorized by the TARP. Yet both of these government responses have received enormously more public scrutiny than any of the actions taken by the Federal Reserve

The Alphabet Soup Explained: An Analysis of the Special Lending Facilities at the Federal Reserve

This paper looks at the trends in activity at the Federal Reserve’s newly-created special lending facilities, hoping to provide a better understanding of their operation and significance within financial markets. These facilities were created in response to the financial crisis and have expanded the Fed's balance sheet by over $1 trillion in terms of total assets. This sum is larger than the total price tag of the recent federal stimulus as well as the bank bailout authorized by the TARP. Yet both of these government responses have received enormously more public scrutiny than any of the actions taken by the Federal Reserve.Federal Reserve, special lending facilities

Will Workers Survive State Budget Belt-Tightening?

As state governments face budget gaps of tens of billions of dollars in FY2009 and FY2010, this issue brief calculates the potential detrimental effects of state budget cuts on unemployment. While Congress considers a national economic recovery package, this issue brief highlights the fact that aid to state and local governments could help avoid spending cuts and ensuing job losses.state, budget deficit,

Investment Bank Welfare? The Implicit Bank Subsidies in the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) and the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) Created by the Federal Reserve Board

This study produces calculations of the amount of money being dispersed by the government to the 16 primary dealers and investment banks who qualify to borrow through the special lending facilities created in the last year by the Federal Reserve Board under the assumption that each borrows in proportion to its assets. The study then uses Fed data on the interest rate charged for loans from these lending facilities to calculate the potential subsidy in this lending. The report calls attention to the fact that few details have been given about the specific loan amounts, recipients, or collateral posted.Federal Reserve, special lending facilities

Oil Drilling and Automobile Fuel Economy: The Relative Impact on Oil Prices

This issue brief compares projected savings from drilling in presently restricted offshore zones, savings under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and the projected savings from the fuel efficiency schedule proposed by Senator Obama. The issue brief projects savings through 2027, the year in which offshore drilling would reach peak capacity.

Coherent Excitation of the 6S1/2 to 5D3/2 Electric Quadrupole Transition in 138Ba+

The electric dipole-forbidden, quadrupole 6S1/2 5D3/2 transition in Ba+ near 2051 nm, with a natural linewidth of 13 mHz, is attractive for potential observation of parity non-conservation, and also as a clock transition for a barium ion optical frequency standard. This transition also offers a direct means of populating the metastable 5D3/2 state to measure the nuclear magnetic octupole moment in the odd barium isotopes. Light from a diode-pumped, solid state Tm,Ho:YLF laser operating at 2051 nm is used to coherently drive this transition between resolved Zeeman levels in a single trapped 138Ba+ ion. The frequency of the laser is stabilized to a high finesse Fabry Perot cavity at 1025 nm after being frequency doubled. Rabi oscillations on this transition indicate a laser-ion coherence time of 3 ms, most likely limited by ambient magnetic field fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Mobility and Clinic Switching Among Postpartum Women Considered Lost to HIV Care in South Africa.

This version is the Accepted Manuscript, and was published in final edited form as: J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 April 01; 74(4): 383–389. doi:10.1097/QAI.0000000000001284OBJECTIVE: Retention in HIV care, particularly among postpartum women, is a challenge to national antiretroviral therapy programs. Retention estimates may be underestimated because of unreported transfers. We explored mobility and clinic switching among patients considered lost to follow-up (LTFU). DESIGN: Observational cohort study. METHODS: Of 788 women initiating antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy at 6 public clinics in Johannesburg, South Africa, 300 (38.1%) were LTFU (no visit ≥3 months). We manually searched for these women in the South African National Health Laboratory Services database to assess continuity of HIV care. We used geographic information system tools to map mobility to new facilities. RESULTS: Over one-third (37.6%) of women showed evidence of continued HIV care after LTFU. Of these, 67.0% continued care in the same province as the origin clinic. Compared with those who traveled outside of the province for care, these same-province "clinic shoppers" stayed out-of-care longer {median 373 days [interquartile range (IQR): 175-790] vs. 175.5 days (IQR: 74-371)} and had a lower CD4 cell count on re-entry [median 327 cells/μL (IQR: 196-576) vs. 493 cells/μL (IQR: 213-557). When considering all women with additional evidence of care as engaged in care, cohort LTFU dropped from 38.1% to 25.0%. CONCLUSION: We found evidence of continued care after LTFU and identified local and national clinic mobility among postpartum women. Laboratory records do not show all clinic visits and manual matching may have been under- or overestimated. A national health database linked to a unique identifier is necessary to improve reporting and patient care among highly mobile populations

Identifying Treatment Effects Under Data Combination

We consider the identification of counterfactual distributions and treatment effects when the outcome variables and conditioning covariates are observed in separate data sets. Under the standard selection on observables assumption, the counterfactual distributions and treatment effect parameters are no longer point identified. However, applying the classical monotone rearrangement inequality, we derive sharp bounds on the counterfactual distributions and policy parameters of interest