Preliminary Policy Implications Research Articles

Economic and Noneconomic Factors Influencing Geographic Differentials in Homelessness: An Exploratory State‐Level Analysis

AbstractIn this exploratory state‐level empirical study for the United States, the authors estimate a pooled time‐series/cross‐section framework, with control variables for population size and population growth, for the years 2015–2016. Within this context, the least squares estimates lead to the following tentative findings: (1) homelessness is positively associated with the overall cost of living, on the one hand, and the average rent level, on the other hand; (2) homelessness appears to be an increasing function of the percent of the population without a high school diploma but a decreasing function of the percent of the population with a bachelor’s degree or a higher level of formal education; (3) homelessness is a decreasing function of labor market freedoms reflecting the degree of union density and union power, on the one hand, and excessive government employment beyond that needed solely for productive and protective services, on the other hand; (4) homelessness is positively associated with personal freedom from incarceration and arrest; and (5) homelessness is negatively associated with income, as higher income reduces homelessness. Based on these findings, preliminary policy implications are also provided.

Digital Platforms and Innovation: Lessons for Innovation Policy and Regulation

Unease about the growing market power of digital platforms has unleashed a broad discussion on remedial policy measures. One concern is that the high level of concentration in platform markets is impeding digital innovation. A somewhat more narrowly construed assertion is that the dominance of digital platforms is biasing innovation in a direction that favors shareholders at the cost of the public interest. This paper critically examines the validity of these potentially troubling outcomes, the conditions under which they might materialize, and what might be done to mitigate them. We draw on insights from innovation economics and innovation management to address three sets of questions: First, the paper develops a theoretical framework to deepen our understanding of the multi-faceted relations between digital platforms and innovation. Second, it discusses which data and metrics could be used to examine these interactions empirically. Third, it discusses implications for the design of policies toward digital platforms. Innovation economics has drawn on computer science, management and other disciplines to explore different types of innovation, including modular, architectural, incremental, radical, independent, interdependent, systemic innovation. In addition, it has examined the coordination needs of business processes in complementary innovation systems. Our approach allows identifying multiple, coexisting innovation processes in the platform economy, each follow a somewhat different economic logic. The conceptual analysis, with a preliminary set of related innovation data, suggests that platforms have both positive and negative effects on innovation. For example, they facilitate coordination among affiliated market players, enhance the innovation opportunities space. Moreover, their enormous capitalization and financial resources allows them to pursue innovation projects with a high risk/high reward profile. At the same time, their dominance in data and advertising markets may, over time, reduce the overall innovation activity in the sector. Finally, platforms may bias innovation experiments by start-up companies in a direction that will increase their chances to affiliate with or sell out to platform players. The net effect of these contradictory effects is a priori not clear and can be influenced by policy. The paper concludes with a discussion of preliminary policy implications. A key insight is that an innovation economics perspective redirects the focus of regulatory and other digital policies away from specific detailed interventions to the design of the broader rules governing a market. It also provides a strong argument in favor of institutional and organizational diversity. Most likely, the full innovation potential of next generations of digital technology will be best explored in a contest between a multitude of private, public, and non-profit players.

2288 - Intercity Transportation's Role in Affecting Distal Area's Urbanization/Green Coverage – a High-Speed Rail's Case in Urban Land Teleconnections

Background The urban land teleconnections’ (ULT) research is emerging largely due to more local urbanization being attributable to distal land demand. The knowledge on ULT and how ULT is driven by transportation is significant because urban growth or shrinkage, and green coverage probably sets the city's foundation of natural, healthy living settings. However, transportation's role in driving ULT is barely studied. This study aims to contribute to the theoretical role of intercity transportation in the ULT arena, and to explore empirically the spatial pattern of high-speed rail (HSR) trips, as well as to probe HSR's impact on ULT. Methods The 2007 inaugurated Taiwan HSR (THSR) is selected for this study. The data sources include the THSR ticket database, a THSR passenger survey, the employment and population databases, and the United States Geological Survey/USGS's free 30-meter resolution Landsat satellite images. The primary analysis tools include descriptive statistics, spatial analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Results Theoretically, the intercity transportation may play as a necessity factor in driving ULT; while the local attractiveness factors play the sufficiency roles. The ULT land is used for producing products or services for distant needs, for which transportation is required to ship inbound remote passengers or companies and outbound products and services, which are materialized as trips. Hence, traffic data have the potential to depict teleconnection. Furthermore, different trips/activities likely affect land consumption differently, and different intercity transportation modes likely affect distal land consumption differently. The preliminary empirical analysis on the green land coverage shows that ULT phenomenon seems existing in Taiwan based on the mismatched spatial distributions of incremental population and the loss of green coverage between 2006-11. This finding could be the joint result of the tourism attraction of the Eastern counties and the elevated accessibility to tourists/population due to the new intercity transportation infrastructure. A two-level green coverage HLM model shows that at the regional level, the increased employment accessibility brought by the THSR for a town/district is statistically significant (p=0.05) in reducing its green coverage. At the local level, the closer a town/district is to an HSR station; the higher its green coverage is reduced. Conclusions The preliminary policy implications include precautious planning for potential increasing land demand from distant areas and the reduction in green coverage and collecting taxes from the distant land demand consumers to cope for these impacts of the tele-connected land demand.

“Risk It Out, Risk It Out”: Occupational and Organizational Stresses in Rural Policing

In rural areas, police experience unique work-related health and safety risks attributable to a multitude of factors, ranging from inaccessible backup to navigating inclement weather alongside geographic obstacles. Although the result of institutional and organizational structures, operational (job content) and organizational (job context) risk must be recontextualized in the rural context. In the current study, I contextualize understandings of risk, referring to a lack of safety shaped by either a physical, administrative, legal, or emotional feeling of vulnerability—or a combination of such—for rural officers that results from occupational experiences of understaffing and insufficient material resources. Drawing on transcripts from 14 focus groups with 49 officers across rank, I extrapolate the effects of understaffing on officer experiences of work-role overload and the resulting stress. Findings reveal how officers’ perceptions of risk are impacted by such factors, and how risk is interpreted as either preventable (i.e., organizational) or unavoidable (i.e., operational). In this context, risk knowledges of occupational realities shape the occupational role and well-being of officers working in rural and remote detachments. Preliminary policy implications are presented.

The Causes and Consequences of Development Clusters: State Capacity, Peace, and Income

Three important aspects of development—per capita income, state capabilities, and (the absence of) political violence—are correlated with each other at the country level. This article discusses the causes of such development clusters and highlights two explanations: common economic, political, and social drivers and complementarities (two-way positive feedbacks). It also draws out preliminary policy implications of these patterns of development and proposes topics for further research.

Examining the correlates and spatial distribution of organizational data breaches in the United States

While copious amounts of information exist on the loss of personal data by various entities (government offices, colleges and universities, health-care facilities, private sector organizations and so on), very little scholarly analysis has been performed to aid our understanding of our vulnerabilities. This research utilizes a 6-year sample compiled from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse who maintain a record of all published data breaches in the United States to examine the correlates of data loss as well as how lost records are spatially distributed across the country. Advanced spatial analysis techniques were employed to achieve this goal. A thorough discussion of our current vulnerabilities is proffered given this rich data source followed by an exploration of preliminary policy implications.

Infectious diseases and social stigma

Stigma creates a barrier between the sick and the rest of society that prevents them from acting on their instinctive desire to seek curative treatment that will enable them to reenter into their every day social activity. For these ailing persons, the cost of being stigmatized far outweighs the desire to rehabilitate their lifestyle. Further, social stigma associated with infectious disease undermines the overall health of society, and the effectiveness of community efforts to offer unabridged healthcare services to treat and prevent the spread of communicable disease. In the wake of the latest pandemic influenza outbreak, the global community witnessed how under the stress H1N1, communities, regions, and countries can suffer socially and economically. Our research finds a statistically significant relationship between infectious disease and social stigma. We also identify the role the media plays in exacerbating this issue, and address preliminary policy implications to mitigate these issues in the future.

Realization and Progressivity

The realization requirement is the income tax’s original sin. Although longstanding, it is widely considered the main source of tax complexity, inequity, and economic distortion. Despite these problems, realization is also considered a fundamental element of modern income tax regimes. It is explained early in most federal income tax courses as necessitated by problems of asset valuation and taxpayer liquidity. To the dismay of certain professors, this explanation usually generates little class discussion. More worrisome, it is also widely accepted outside the classroom— prompting few political objections or normative academic inquiries. The goal of this article is to provide a normative framework that allows policymakers to better understand the role of the realization requirement. It makes two related arguments. First, with respect to certain emotionally non-fungible (personal) assets, the realization requirement is normatively justified because the market price is not a good indication of the assets’ value to their owners. Second, contrary to the traditional view of realization as a regressive element, taxing only these personal assets upon realization would promote income tax progressivity. This article’s normative approach provides a basis for developing a more effective and coherent redistributive income tax policy. This analysis contributes to the broader tax reform debate and opens a novel theoretical inquiry with respect to the distributive impact of different types of errors. * Associate Professor Hebrew University. LL.B. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, LL.M. University College London, LL.M. & J.S.D. Yale Law School. We are thankful to the following people for all of their comments and suggestions along the way: Reuven Avi-Yonah, Edna Benshalom, Gadi Benshalom, Tom Brennan, Assaf Hamdani, Sharon Hannes, Stephanie Hoffer, Susan Morse, David Pozen, and Edward Zelinsky. We would also like to thank participants of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Tax Policy Workshop for their very helpful comments. We would like to extend special thanks to Ben Alarie, Avital Benshalom, David Enoch, Lee Fennell, Alon Harel, Sarah Lawsky, Debra Lefler, Daphna Lewinsohn-Zamir, Jacob Nussim, Diane Ring, and Eyal Zamir for their detailed comments. Most of all, we would like to thank Avihay Dorfman and David Gamage for their invaluable framing and substantive comments. ** J.D. Northwestern University School of Law. I would like to thank Ryan Sniatecki, Scott Lerner, and Jonathan Conon for their thoughtful comments. 44 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF TAX LAW [Vol.3:43 INTRODUCTION 45 I. THE REALIZATION REQUIREMENT—COSTS AND ENDURANCES OF AN ACHILLES’ HEEL 49 A. The Function and Social Costs of the Realization Requirement 49 B. Technical in Nature—The Valuation Liquidity Consensus 53 II. WITH IT OR WITHOUT IT? EXISTING APPROACHES TO REALIZATION.... 55 A. Without It: A Less Realization-Based Income Tax Regime 55 B. With It: Some Hidden Justifications for Realization 57 C. The Policy Costs of a Theoretical Debate 60 III. A NORMATIVE DEFENSE FOR REALIZATION—PROMOTING INCOME TAX PROGRESSIVITY 61 A. Tax and Redistribution: At the Crossroads of Philosophy and Public Finance... 62 B. Market Price, Personal Assets, and Interpersonal Comparisons 63 C. Realization as a Progressively Distributed Tax Benefit 69 D. Advantages and Limitations of the Proposal 72 IV. THE ROAD AHEAD—PRELIMINARY POLICY IMPLICATIONS 78 A. Taking the First Step: A Modest Real-World Reform Proposal 79 B. Future Avenues of Research 81 CONCLUSIONS 84 2011] REALIZATION AND PROGRESSIVITY 45

Academic Dishonesty in Nursing Schools: An Empirical Investigation

Academic dishonesty, whether in the form of plagiarism or cheating on tests, has received renewed attention in the past few decades as pervasive use of the Internet and a presumed deterioration of ethics in the current generation of students has led some, perhaps many, to conclude that academic dishonesty is reaching epidemic proportions. What is lacking in many cases, including in the nursing profession, is empirical support of these trends. This article attempts to provide some of that empirical data and supports the conclusion that cheating is a significant issue in all disciplines today, including nursing. Some preliminary policy implications are also considered.

Blind Spots on the Map of Aid Allocations, Concentration and Complementarity of International NGO Aid

The budgets of development NGOs have risen dramatically over the last decades. In stark contrast to bilateral donors, the geographic choices of NGOs remain virtually unexplored. Using a new dataset and Lorenz curves, this paper shows that NGOs are very active in some countries and hardly active in others. A clustering of NGO activity takes place in UN-labelled high priority countries, but ample room for improved targeting exists. Aid concentration curves provide insight into whether NGOs target the same countries as bilateral donors. The article concludes that this is the case and that NGOs are thus acting as complements. The drawback of this complementary approach is that it reinforces the donor-darling/donor-orphan divide. The paper concludes with some research suggestions and preliminary policy implications.

The Determinants of Household Migration Into and Out of Distressed Neighborhoods

This study focuses on the factors affecting the decisions of households to move into and out of 2 distressed neighborhoods in Tel Aviv Israel. An important characteristic of neighborhood deterioriation is the process of selective migration whereby certain households that can afford to move out of a neighborhood do so and others of a lower socioeconomic level take their place. The decision to move is directly related to the desire to relocate and the total accruing utility to the household from the consumption of the combination of housing services and neighborhood qualities is expected to be greater than it is in the present location. The 2 neighborhoods selected have a relatively high density (persons per room) a low level of educational attainment per person and a low income per household. Results show that out-migration households of both areas are relatively more satisfied with their new dwellings and new neighborhoods than they are with their old dwellings and old neighborhoods. To identify the reasons for moving out of and into each of the 2 neighborhoods a hypothetical compensation exercise is carried out. Most households in both neighborhoods are dissatisfied with the former neighborhoods quality of environment for raising children as well as with its safety and its deficiency in maintaining law and order. Thus households moving out did so primarily because of unsatisfactory neighborhood qualities; on the other hand households moving into each of the 2 neighborhoods were motivated primarily by the availability of relatively low cost housing. The possible preliminary policy implications are: public or government intervention in these distressed neighborhoods should be aimed at improving neighborhood qualities. At the same time young couples should be encouraged and aided in their search for new dwellings to move into these neighborhoods because these young households are usually composed of well trained or skilled workers with adequate educational attainment. It is crucial to provide these households with the neighborhood qualities they seek otherwise they might attempt to move out as soon as it is within their financial capabilities to do so.