Low-income States Research Articles

The Initial Incidence of a Carbon Tax Across US States

Carbon taxes introduce potentially uneven cost burdens across the population. The distribution of these costs is especially important in affecting political outcomes. This paper links dynamic overlapping-generations and microsimulation models of the United States to estimate the initial incidence of a carbon tax across states. Geographic differences in incidence are driven primarily by differences in sources of income. Differing patterns of energy use also matter but are relatively less important. The use of the carbon tax revenue plays an important role, particularly in determining how different income sources are affected, as: (1) using carbon tax revenue to cut capital taxes disproportionately benefits states with large shares of capital income; (2) returning the revenue via lump-sum transfers favors relatively low-income states; and (3) returning the revenue via cuts in labor taxes provides a relatively even distribution of cost across states. In general, geographic differences in incidence are substantially smaller than the differences across income groups.

Economic Freedom and Growth in U.S. State-Level Market Incomes at the Top and Bottom

This paper investigates the relationship between economic freedom and income growth and inequality across U.S. states over the period 1979 to 2011. The focus is on market income at the top and bottom of the income distribution. Results show that increases in overall freedom are associated with average income growth. When viewed separately, an increase in overall freedom is associated with larger income growth rates for income earners in the bottom 90% relative to the top 10%. Interestingly, results show that increases in overall economic freedom are related to larger relative growth rates for top 10% incomes within high income states, and larger relative growth rates for bottom 90% incomes within low income states. Top-to-bottom income ratio regressions suggest a negative and statistically significant relationship between economic freedom and income inequality.

THE INITIAL INCIDENCE OF A CARBON TAX ACROSS U.S. STATES

Carbon taxes introduce potentially uneven cost burdens across the population. The distribution of these costs is especially important in affecting political outcomes. This paper links dynamic overlappinggenerations and microsimulation models of the United States to estimate the initial incidence of a carbon tax across states. Geographic differences in incidence are driven primarily by differences in sources of income. Differing patterns of energy use also matter but are relatively less important. The use of the carbon tax revenue plays an important role, particularly in determining how different income sources are affected, as: (1) using carbon tax revenue to cut capital taxes disproportionately benefits states with large shares of capital income; (2) returning the revenue via lump-sum transfers favors relatively low-income states; and (3) returning the revenue via cuts in labor taxes provides a relatively even distribution of cost across states. In general, geographic differences in incidence are substantially smaller than the differences across income groups.

Dependence of States on Central Transfers: State-wise Analysis

This article examines the dependence of states on central fiscal transfers. The pattern of dependence of states on central transfers is studied with respect to five groups of states, namely, high-, middle- and low-income general-category states and two groups of special-category states categorized into high- and low-income states. We make a distinction between transfers that are in the form of an entitlement like states’ share in central taxes or statutory grants vis-à-vis transfers that are discretionary and depend on centre’s decisions. In terms of groups of states, the extent of dependence is relatively quite high for the special-category states and the low-income states. The extent of dependence was lowest during the period covered under the Tenth Finance Commission period. It has since increased, for all states considered together, by about 3.5 percentage points, from 37.4 per cent to 40.9 per cent of states’ revenue receipts. This increase comes both from entitlement transfers and discretionary transfers to the extent of 2.1 and 1.3 percentage points, respectively.

Regional Income Disparity and Government Intervention in India

This study examines the relationship between the fiscal intervention of the government and regional income disparity in 14 major Indian states. The impact of decentralization on the regional disparity of these states is also examined. The findings suggest that both policy measures have reduced the level of regional disparity. This study has also investigated the impacts of policy measures on regional income disparity within the clusters of states of similar income levels. Results suggest that both types of policy interventions have reduced regional disparity in low-income states, whereas only fiscal intervention is found significant in reducing regional disparity in middle-income states. Surprisingly, no relation is found between regional disparity and the policy measures in high-income states.

Hard times in the land of plenty: The effect on income and disability later in life for people born during the great depression

We use 20th-century data to examine how community economic conditions at the time of birth influenced various measures of socioeconomic success as adults. Our analysis focuses on the worst downturn ever experienced in the United States: the Great Depression. We merge individual information reported by respondents in the U.S. Censuses of 1970 and 1980 with information on state per capita income during the individual's year of birth in their state of birth. Results indicate that the effect of state income per capita in the birth year on income and disability later in life varies with changes in income levels. Individuals born in the trough of the Depression in low-income states had substantially lower incomes and higher work disability rates later in life than workers born in those states in the peak year of 1929. However, the effect of being born during the trough of the Depression in states with higher incomes during the first half of the 20th century was much weaker on income and disability later in life.

Countering the Imbalance in Healthcare Financing - A Study of Karunya Benevolent Fund

The health sector challenges in India, like those in other low- and middle-income countries, are formidable. Public spending on medical, public health, and family welfare in India is much below what is required. Further, the gap between the actual spending and the required amount is larger in the relatively low-income states and this results in marked inter-state inequality.

The Size Distribution of Manufacturing Plants and Development

The typical size distribution of manufacturing plants in developing countries has a thick left tail compared to developed countries. The same holds across Indian states, with richer states having a much smaller share of their manufacturing employment in small plants. In this paper, I explore the hypothesis that this income-size relation arises from the fact that low income countries and states have high demand for low quality products which can be produced efficiently in small plants. I provide evidence which is consistent with this hypothesis from both the consumer and producer side. In particular, I show empirically that richer households buy higher price goods while larger plants produce higher price products (and use higher price inputs). I develop a model which matches these cross-sectional facts. The model features non-homothetic preferences with respect to quality on the consumer side. On the producer side, high quality production has higher marginal costs and requires higher fixed costs. These two features imply that high quality producers are larger on average and charge higher prices. The model can explain about forty percent of the cross-state variation in the left tail of manufacturing plants in India.

The Size Distribution of Manufacturing Plants and Development

The typical size distribution of manufacturing plants in developing countries has a thick left tail compared to developed countries. The same holds across Indian states, with richer states having a much smaller share of their manufacturing employment in small plants. In this paper, I explore the hypothesis that this income-size relation arises from the fact that low income countries and states have high demand for low quality products which can be produced efficiently in small plants. I provide evidence which is consistent with this hypothesis from both the consumer and producer side. In particular, I show empirically that richer households buy higher price goods while larger plants produce higher price products (and use higher price inputs). I develop a model which matches these cross-sectional facts. The model features non-homothetic preferences with respect to quality on the consumer side. On the producer side, high quality production has higher marginal costs and requires higher fixed costs. These two features imply that high quality producers are larger on average and charge higher prices. The model can explain about forty percent of the cross-state variation in the left tail of manufacturing plants in India.

Who Really Pays for Medicaid

The goal of the Medicaid intergovernmental matching grant is to stimulate state spending while achieving some level of beneficiary and taxpayer equity. This study uses the Current Population Survey data on 174,031 families to estimate federal and state Medicaid tax burdens per family, net of tax exporting. Of the total US$305 billion spent on Medicaid in 2004, US$29.9 billion is redistributed through the grant’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, as residents of low-income states export federal tax burdens to higher-income states. Another US$4.5 billion in state taxes is exported via business flows and tourism with the bulk, US$3.2 billion, being exported internationally. Some states pay as little as US$.55 in “own” tax revenues while residents in states importing the burden pay up to US$1.86, for every US$1 spent on Medicaid. Since virtually all states have regressive tax structures, it is federal Medicaid funding that helps maintain vertical equity overall.

Foreign Policy and the Domestic Worker

In 2009, following numerous high profile abuse cases, the Indonesian government placed a moratorium on its citizens taking up employment in Malaysia as domestic workers. From the perspective of feminist International Relations, the emergence of migrant domestic work as a foreign policy concern between these two states is significant – exposing a relationship between foreign policy and the webs of transnationalized social relations of reproduction that underpin the development prospects of middle to low income states. In this article I utilize the example of the Malaysia–Indonesia dispute in order to develop some tentative suggestions concerning the possibility of integrating an analysis of transnational social relations of reproduction into foreign policy analyses. The article initially overviews how the dispute is widely understood in relation to Indonesia's turn to a more democratic foreign policy. The inadequacy of such a reading is explored further. The article suggests that the above-mentioned dispute should rather be understood in relation to the specific configurations of productive–reproductive relations that underpin migratory flows and the role of Indonesia and Malaysia as ‘regulatory’ states involved in the establishment of return-migration systems in which women migrants are viewed as economic commodities and policed via a range of state-sanctioned practices (including commitments to anti-trafficking).

Who benefits from increased government spending? A state-level analysis

We simultaneously identify two government spending shocks: military spending shocks as defined by Ramey (2011) and federal spending shocks as defined by Perotti (2008). We analyze the effect of these shocks on state-level personal income and employment. We find regional patterns in the manner in which both shocks affect state-level variables. Moreover, we find differences in the propagation mechanisms for military versus non-military spending shocks. The former benefits economies with larger manufacturing and retail sectors and states that receive military contracts. While non-military shocks also benefit states with the proper industrial mix, they appear to stimulate economic activity in lower-income states.

Fiscal Imbalances and Indebtedness across Indian States: Recent Trends

This paper examines the extent to which the states have been successful in achieving the targets set by the FRBM Act (2003) in the last decade, and the route through which the necessary fiscal adjustments were undertaken. We find though there has been a clear reduction in all the deficit indicators, Special category states have done better adjustments, particularly in reduction of revenue deficit. However, this is not the case when it comes to debt reduction. It is also found that the low-income states have undertaken a greater extent of fiscal adjustment than both high- and middle-income states. Our analysis on the decomposition of revenue account adjustments coupled with the analysis of interest payments shows that there was no serious contraction of developmental expenditure in low income states except in Orissa to a small extent. This leads to the conclusion that the negative fallout of the fiscal adjustment process has been minimal.

Aggregation and the Estimated Effects of Local Economic Conditions on Health

This paper considers the relationship between local economic conditions and health with a focus on different approaches to geographic aggregation. After reviewing the tradeoffs associated with more- and less-disaggregated analyses – including an investigation of the migratory response to changing economic conditions – I update earlier state-level analyses of mortality and infant health and then consider how the estimated effects vary when the analysis is conducted at differing levels of geographic aggregation. This analysis reveals that more-disaggregated analyses severely understate the extent to which downturns are associated with improved health. Further investigation reveals that county economic conditions have an independent effect on mortality but that state and regional economic conditions are stronger predictors. I also leverage county-level data to explore heterogeneity in the link between county economic conditions and health across states, demonstrating that local downturns lead to the greatest improvements in health in low-income states.

Regime type and good governance in low and high income states: what is the empirical link?

This analysis looks at the link between regime type and good governance across four different levels of development – low income countries, medium-low income countries, medium-high income countries, and high income countries. Through pooled time series analysis of more than 170 countries with yearly or bi-yearly data from 1996 to 2009, I find that democracies are better governed than non-democracies. This relationship is robust across all regime types. Even at a low level of development, countries that elect their representatives in free and fair elections have a better regulatory framework and are more efficient and transparent. The practical implications of this finding are that a democratically governed state will most likely have a superior social and economic track record than a non-democracy.

Use of Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases From Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the United States

The indications for treatment of brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) remain controversial. We studied patterns, predictors, and cost of SRS use in elderly patients with NSCLC. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare (SEER-Medicare) database, we identified patients with NSCLC who were diagnosed with brain metastases between 2000 and 2007. Our cohort included patients treated with radiation therapy and not surgical resection as initial treatment for brain metastases. We identified 7684 patients treated with radiation therapy within 2 months after brain metastases diagnosis, of whom 469 (6.1%) cases had billing codes for SRS. Annual SRS use increased from 3.0% in 2000 to 8.2% in 2005 and varied from 3.4% to 12.5% by specific SEER registry site. After controlling for clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, we found SRS use was significantly associated with increasing year of diagnosis, specific SEER registry, higher socioeconomic status, admission to a teaching hospital, no history of participation in low-income state buy-in programs (a proxy for Medicaid eligibility), no extracranial metastases, and longer intervals from NSCLC diagnosis. The average cost per patient associated with radiation therapy was 2.19 times greater for those who received SRS than for those who did not. The use of SRS in patients with metastatic NSCLC increased almost 3-fold from 2000 to 2005. In addition, we found significant variations in SRS use across SEER registries and socioeconomic quartiles. National practice patterns in this study suggested both a lack of consensus and an overall limited use of the approach among elderly patients before 2008.

FLYING BLIND? EVIDENCE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM AGENDAS, IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOMES IN LOW INCOME COUNTRIES

SUMMARYAlthough considerable resources and attention have been allocated to recent ‘good governance’ public management reform in low income and fragile states, there is little evidence as to what degree this agenda has been implemented nor as to whether it has led to improved services and outcomes for populations. To address this lacuna, we conduct a review of the large but almost entirely qualitative literature on good governance reform in the 49 countries classed as low income by the United Nations. We find only a small number of documents that link good governance public sector reform agendas with implementation. Fewer still assess outcome. We conduct an empirical analysis of the relationship between reform agenda (using data from the literature review), implementation, service delivery and outcomes, as measured by performance on Millennium Development Goals indicators. We report that there is little, if any, empirical evidence that reform enhances service delivery. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

What Makes a State Stable and Peaceful? Good Governance, Legitimacy and Legal-Rationality Matter Even More for Low-Income Countries

This study explores state stability using various governance and development indicators. We find stability is associated with state capacity and public goods, the legal–rational state, legitimacy, good governance and corruption, income/capita and democracy and human rights. In particular, we show the importance of democracy, legitimacy, rule of law and secularity. Environmental degradation and debt dependency undermine stability. Revenue collection, corruption, rule of law, independent judiciary and exports can be important to stability even in the face of incomplete democracy and lower GDP per capita. These factors are relatively more important in low-income states.

Overweight and Obese Low-Income Women: Restorative Health Behaviors Under Overwhelming Conditions

In this grounded theory study we used semistructured interviews to explore how 16 low-income uninsured Midwestern United States women who were overweight or obese felt about their condition. Using grounded theory, we identified a central problem—overwhelming conditions exemplified by numerous stressors in the lives of the participants. Despite these overwhelming conditions, the participants identified numerous restorative health behaviors in five dimensions: health, economics, environment, knowledge, and commitment. Health care providers should be cognizant of their patients’ complex lives and support them in identifying, adopting, and maintaining health-restoring behaviors that work for them.

The False Promise of Aid for Trade

Aid for Trade (AfT) has gained prominence as an innovative form of donor support in the era of the ‘post’-Washington Consensus. Institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Commission, and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) have heralded AfT concessions as a means of creating a level economic playing field between industrialized nations and countries in the global South. Specifically, AfT mechanisms have been praised as a means of aligning trade liberalisation deals (whether in the Doha Round or within bilaterals) to poverty reduction objectives. Donor AfT assistance to low-income states’ trade capacity – including support to government ministries, private sector development, and local infrastructure – are understood to construct a more balanced global trade system conducive to the needs of ‘the poor’. This article, however, through critical analysis of AfT discourse within the ‘moral economies’ of multilateral WTO and bilateral EU-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) negotiations, points to the strategic purposes of donor language in rationalizing asymmetric North-South trade systems. Moreover, it questions the ‘development’ credentials of AfT assistance, given its disbursement to strategically significant middle-income states in relation to Western overseas interventions, private sector activities that have dubious consequences for supposed beneficiaries, and the tying of AfT disbursements to the implementation of inappropriate policies.