The growth and volatility of state tax revenue sources in the Tenth District

With the sluggishness in the national economy in 2008, many state governments are projecting budget shortfalls for the 2009 fiscal year. This trend is a concern to policymakers, as the health of a state's tax revenues is important to its economic growth and its ability to finance the public services that residents demand. State governments provide physical infrastructure, educate the future workforce, and protect people and property. In addition, in the Tenth Federal Reserve District, state and local governments employ over 16 percent of the workforce. ; While a number of factors influence the growth and volatility of state tax revenues, one key determinant is the composition of each state's tax portfolio. Governments desire a portfolio of tax instruments that allows for revenues to grow with the economy so that spending demands can be met without much change in tax rates. At the same time, stability in the revenue stream is important so that governments are not left with large financing constraints during downturns. ; Felix analyzes the impact of portfolio composition on the growth and stability of state tax revenues, particularly in the states that make up the Tenth District. She uses long-run and short-run elasticity estimates to analyze the growth and stability of each tax instrument and discusses implications for Tenth District states.

The incidence of capital taxation and the magnitude of its burden.

Capital ; Taxation

Do state corporate income taxes reduce wages?

Amid falling revenues and impending budget shortfalls, state policymakers must find ways to increase revenue, cut spending, or both. At the same time, they must develop policies that attract or keep businesses and jobs. Some policymakers may consider raising corporate tax rates because it avoids directly taxing workers who are already suffering the effects of this recession. But as states reevaluate their current tax policy, it is important to consider the effects of each tax component. One important question is: Who will bear the burden of the taxes? ; State corporate income taxes are complex, and thus the answer to this question is far from obvious. Many believe that the state corporate tax structure is highly progressive because the corporate capital taxed is owned disproportionately by wealthy individuals. In today's economy, however, the burden of the corporate tax may have shifted to consumers or labor, resulting in a less progressive tax structure. ; Research has shown that in some cases labor bears a substantial weight of the corporate tax. While this burden has fluctuated over time, the relationship between corporate taxes and wages has been consistently negative. In other words, higher corporate taxes are typically associated with lower wages. ; Felix examines the impact of state corporate taxes on wages. She shows that corporate taxes reduce wages and that the magnitude of the negative relationship between the taxes and wages has increased over the past 30 years. She also finds that state corporate taxes have a larger negative effect on more highly educated workers.

Investigation into the effect of Y, Yb doping in Ba2In2O5: determination of the solid solution range and co-doping with phosphate

In this paper we examine the effect of Y, Yb doping in Ba2In2O5, examining the solid solution range and effect on the conductivity and CO2 stability. The results showed that up to 35% Y, Yb can be introduced, and this doping leads to an introduction of disorder on the oxygen sublattice, and a corresponding increase in conductivity. Further increases in Y, Yb content could be achieved through co-doping with phosphate. While this co-doping strategy led to a reduction in the conductivity, it did have a beneficial effect on the CO2 stability, and further improvements in the CO2 stability could be achieved through La and P co-doping

Transient and stationary behavior of the Olami-Feder-Christensen earthquake model

Using long-term computer simulations and mean-field like arguments, we investigate the transient time and the properties of the stationary state of the Olami-Feder-Christensen earthquake model as function of the coupling parameter $\alpha$ and the system size $N$. The most important findings are that the transient time diverges nonanalytically when $\alpha$ approaches zero, and that the avalanche-size distribution will not approach a power law with increasing system size.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Commuting in small towns in rural areas: the case of St Andrews.

Since many rural commuters depend on the private car due to lack of convenient public transport, car reduction policies designed for large cities with ample public transport may be unsuitable for smaller towns. In particular, pricing policies designed to encourage public transport use may be less effective, as commuters with no convenient substitute to driving will be unable to switch. This paper develops multinomial and mixed logit models of commuters’ mode choice using data from a survey of commuters in the University of St Andrews. We find that the direct elasticities of the car mode are comparable to estimates reported in studies of commuting in larger urban areas, while the demand for public transport is considerably more elastic. The value of in-vehicle time is found to be about half of the UK average, reflecting that the roads in the St Andrews area are relatively uncongested.Mode choice, Rural commuting, Discrete choice models

Multilingualism in the Field of Early Childhood

In this paper, I analyse early childhood centres, expounding what a quality early childhood centre entails. Early childhood centres nurture children socially, emotionally, cognitively and intellectually (Phillips & Lowenstein 2011; Backer & Nærde 2017). Employing a multilingual curriculum in early childhood centres may help promote quality childcare. There are more than a billion people who speak more than one language fluently (Okal 2014). Therefore, early childhood centres should work to implement a multilingual curriculum as this can greatly benefit the children. Unfortunately, most early childhood centres lack a multilingual curriculum as their policies do not enable it. By assessing the Luxembourg government’s language policy, one can discern how policy imposes certain truths. To efficaciously deconstruct the use of policy, I will implement the work of Michel Foucault

Who offers tax-based business development incentives?

Many American communities seek to attract or retain businesses with tax abatements, tax credits, or tax increment financing of infrastructure projects (TIFs). The evidence for 1999 indicates that communities are most likely to offer one or more of these business development incentives if their residents have low incomes, if they are located close to state borders, and if their states have troubled political cultures. Ten percent greater median household income is associated with a 3.2 percent lower probability of offering incentives; ten percent greater distance from a state border is associated with a 1.0 percent lower probability of offering incentives; and a 10 percent higher rate at which government officials are convicted of federal corruption crimes is associated with a 1.2 percent greater probability of offering business incentives. TIFs are the preferred incentive of communities whose residents have household incomes between $25,000 and$75,000; whereas TIFs are much less commonly offered by communities whose residents have household incomes below $25,000. The need to finance TIFs out of incremental tax revenues may make it infeasible for many of the poorest of communities to use TIFs for local business development.