Survey of curriculums in summer music camps and correlation with school music.

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston Universit

Neighborhoods by Assessment: An Analysis of Non-Ad Valorem Financing In California

Non-ad valorem assessments on property are a fiscal innovation born from financial stress. Unable to raise property taxes due to limitations, many localities have turned to these charges as an alternative method to fund local services. In this paper, we seek to explain differential levels of non-ad valorem assessment financing through the analysis of property tax records of a large and diverse set of single family homes in California. We theorize that assessments, as opposed to other forms of taxation, will be used when residents hold anti-redistributive preferences. We show that assessment financing is most common in cities with high median household incomes and greater ethnic diversity. We also show that certain types of assessments, those with narrow geographic range, are frequently levied on expensive homes in poorer communities. We argue that this new form of financing exacerbates economic inequality by creating additional inequities in public service provisions

A New Scale to Measure War Attitudes: Construction and Predictors

Attitudes people have toward war in general have been of recent interest due to the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq. The purpose of this research was to develop a scale to measure war attitudes and to investigate factors that may influence these attitudes. In the first study, a scale was developed that measured war attitudes. Three factors emerging from the War Attitude Scale were labeled ethics of war, support for war, and affect about war. Patriotism-nationalism, authoritarianism, social criticism, belief in war outcomes, support of the president, and gender were found to be significant predictors of war attitudes. In the second study, the scale was administered to a community sample. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with three similar factors emerging. Additionally, the community sample results allowed further generalization of the findings. Implications for the construction of the War Attitude Scale and its predictors are discussed

Openness, Technology Capital, and Development

In this paper, we extend the growth model to include firm-specific technology capital and use it to assess the gains from opening to foreign direct investment. A firm's technology capital is its unique know-how from investing in research and development, brands, and organization capital. What distinguishes technology capital from other forms of capital is the fact that a firm can use it simultaneously in multiple domestic and foreign locations. Foreign technology capital is exploited by permitting foreign direct investment by multinationals. In both steady-state and transitional analyses, the extended growth model predicts large gains to being open.

Average debt and equity returns: puzzling?

Mehra and Prescott (1985) found the difference between average equity and debt returns puzzling because it was too large to be a premium for bearing nondiversifiable aggregate risk. Here, we re-examine this puzzle, taking into account some factors ignored by Mehra and Prescott-taxes, regulatory constraints, and diversification costs-and focusing on long-term rather than short-term savings instruments. Accounting for these factors, we find the difference between average equity and debt returns during peacetime in the last century is less than 1 percent, with the average real equity return somewhat under 5 percent, and the average real debt return almost 4 percent. As theory predicts, the real return on debt has been close to the 4 percent average after-tax real return on capital. Similarly, as theory predicts, the real return on equity is equal to the after-tax real return on capital plus a modest premium for bearing nondiversifiable aggregate risk.

On efficiently financing retirement

A problem facing the United States and many other countries is how to finance retirement consumption as the number of their workers per retiree falls. The problem with a savings for retirement systems is that there is a shortage of good savings opportunities given the nature of most current tax systems and governments’ limited ability to honor the debt it issues. We find that eliminating capital income taxes will greatly increase saving opportunities and make a savings-for-retirement system feasible with only modest amount of government debt. The switch from a system close to the current U.S. retirement system, which relies heavily on taxing workers’ incomes and making lump-sum transfers to retirees, to one without income taxes will increase the welfare of all birth-year cohorts alive today and particularly the welfare of the yet unborn cohorts. The equilibrium paths for the current and alternative policies are computed.

Productivity and the post-1990 U.S. economy

In this paper, the authors show that ignoring corporate intangible investments gives a distorted picture of the post-1990 U.S. economy. In particular, ignoring intangible investments in the late 1990s leads one to conclude that productivity growth was modest, corporate profits were low, and corporate investment was at moderate levels. In fact, the late 1990s was a boom period for productivity growth, corporate profits, and corporate investment.Productivity ; Economic history

Openness, technology capital, and development

A framework is developed with what we call technology capital. A country is a measure of locations. Absent policy constraints, a firm owning a unit of technology capital can produce the composite output good using the unit of technology capital at as many locations as it chooses. But it can operate only one operation at a given location, so the number of locations is what constrains the number of units it operates using this unit of technology capital. If it has two units of technology capital, it can operate twice as many operations at every location. In this paper, aggregation is carried out and the aggregate production functions for the countries are derived. Our framework interacts well with the national accounts in the same way as does the neoclassical growth model. It also interacts well with the international accounts. There are constant returns to scale, and therefore no monopoly rents. Yet there are gains to being economically integrated. In the framework, a country's openness is measured by the effect of its policies on the productivity of foreign operations. Our analysis indicates that there are large gains to this openness.Technology - Economic aspects

Unmeasured investment and the puzzling U.S. boom in the 1990s

For the 1990s, the basic neoclassical growth model predicts a depressed economy, when in fact the U.S. economy boomed. We extend the base model by introducing intangible investment and non-neutral technology change with respect to producing intangible investment goods and find that the 1990s are not puzzling in light of this new theory. There is micro and macro evidence motivating our extension, and the theory’s predictions are in conformity with U.S. national accounts and capital gains. We compare accounting measures with corresponding measures for our model economy. We find that standard accounting measures greatly understate the 1990s boom. ; Earlier title: Why did U.S. market hours boom in the 1990s? ; Earlier title: Unmeasured investment and the 1990s U.S. hours boomBusiness cycles ; Productivity