Supportive housing: combating homelessness in Connecticut

Cutting-edge programs address the growing recognition that homeless individuals need more than shelter to move back into the mainstream. Combining support services with housing helps individuals and families—and saves money in the long run.Homeless persons - Connecticut ; Housing - Connecticut

K-classes of matroids and equivariant localization

To every matroid, we associate a class in the K-theory of the Grassmannian. We study this class using the method of equivariant localization. In particular, we provide a geometric interpretation of the Tutte polynomial. We also extend results of the second author concerning the behavior of such classes under direct sum, series and parallel connection and two-sum; these results were previously only established for realizable matroids, and their earlier proofs were more difficult.Comment: v2: added a starting point for combinatorialists in Section 2.4, + minor change

Urbanization and the Wealth of Nations

The proportion of a country's population living in urban areas is highly correlated with its level of income. Urban areas offer economies of scale and richer market structures, and there is strong evidence that workers in urban areas are individually more productive, and earn more, than rural workers. However, rapid urbanization is also associated with crowding, environmental degradation, and other impediments to productivity. Overall, we find no evidence that the level of urbanization affects the rate of economic growth. Our findings weaken the rationale for either encouraging or discouraging urbanization as part of a strategy for economic growth.urbanization, economic growth, development.

The Graying of Global Population and Its Macroeconomic Consequences

Population aging is emerging as a major demographic trend in many countries, with potentially important implications for a variety of macroeconomic issues. Notwithstanding these challenges, population aging will likely have a comparatively modest effect on economic growth. Although the changed age distribution would be expected to cause the labor force participation rate to decrease, the ratio of labor force to population will actually increase in most countries. This will occur because the lower youth dependency rate and the increased rate of female labor force participation – both of which may reasonably be expected to follow from the fertility rate declines that are driving population aging – will counterbalance the shifting of adults toward older ages at which labor force participation and savings rates are lower. Behavioral and policy responses to population aging – including higher savings for retirement, a higher rate of human capital accumulation, alternate pension funding plans, and (possibly) increased migration from labor-abundant to labor-scarce countries – also suggest that population aging need not necessarily significantly impede economic growth.Global population, macroeconomics, aging

Disease and Development Revisited

In a recent paper, Acemoglu and Johnson (2007) argue that the large increases in population health witnessed in the 20th century may have lowered income levels. We argue that this result depends crucially on their assumption that initial health and income do not affect subsequent economic growth. Using their data we reject this assumption in favor of a model of conditional convergence, with income adjusting to its steady state over time. We show that, allowing for conditional convergence, exogenous improvements in health due to technical advances associated with the epidemiological transition appear to have increased income levels.Disease, development, economic growth, health

Does Age Structure Forecast Economic Growth?

High ratios of working age to dependent population can yield a increases the rate of economic growth. We estimate the parameters model with a cross section of countries over the period 1960 to 1980 inclusion of age structure improves the model’s forecasts for the period that including age structure improves the forecast, although there instability between periods with an unexplained growth slowdown the model to generate growth forecasts for the period 2000–2020.Economic Growth, demography, forecast, evaluation, error decomposition

Murray-Darling basin freshwater shells: riverine reservoir effect

We report carbon isotope measurements on pre-bomb museum samples of freshwater mussel shells collected alive from riverine locations in New South Wales, Australia. The calculated reservoir ages, ranging from -60 to +112 years, are much smaller than those for Australian marine shells and not considered significant for the radiocarbon dating of Late Pleistocene freshwater shells from the Murray-Darling Basin

The Effect of Social Security Reform on Male Retirement in High and Middle Income Countries

We analyze panel data for 40 countries over the period 1970-2000 to examine the effect of social security reforms on the labor supply of older men. The data show a trend towards earlier retirement that can be explained by rising income levels. We find that the average retirement age rises significantly when the normal, or early, social security eligibility age rises, the pension benefits for postponing retirement are increased, or the system shifts from defined benefits to defined contributions. A package of social security reforms is capable of substantially increasing the labor supply of older men.Social security reform, retirement, high and middle income countries

Realizing the Demographic Dividend: Is Africa any different?

The demographic transition creates a window of opportunity during which economies may benefit from a temporary increase in the working age share of the population. While many economies have already enjoyed these benefits, they remain a promising opportunity for much of Sub-Saharan Africa. We show in this paper that Sub-Saharan Africa adheres to the same principles as the rest of the world with respect to the determinants of economic growth, including particularly the effects of demographic change. Assuming a policy and institutional context that is conducive to economic growth, most Sub-Saharan countries have the potential to reap a sizable demographic dividend.growth, Africa, Demographic Dividend, demography, sub-saharan.

Does Age Structure Forecast Economic Growth?

Increases in the proportion of the working age population can yield a "demographic dividend" that enhances the rate of economic growth. We estimate the parameters of an economic growth model with a cross section of countries over the period 1960 to 1980 and investigate whether the inclusion of age structure improves the model's forecasts for the period 1980 to 2000. We find that including age structure improves the forecast, although there is evidence of parameter instability between periods with an unexplained growth slowdown in the second period. We use the model to generate growth forecasts for the period 2000 to 2020.