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3411. Has U.S. Income Inequality Really Increased?

Author:
Alan Reynolds
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
There are frequent complaints that U.S. income inequality has increased in recent decades. Estimates of rising inequality that are widely cited in the media are often based on federal income tax return data. Those data appear to show that the share of U.S. income going to the top 1 percent (those people with the highest incomes) has increased substantially since the 1970s.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States

3412. Drugs, Civil War, and the Conditional Impact of the Economy on Democracy

Author:
Michael Coppedge, Angel Alvarez, and Lucas González
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Theorizing about the influence of modernization on democracy is once again in vogue. Nevertheless, this theme faces an important obstacle: the leverage of modernization hypotheses is generally modest. Key modernization variables, especially per capita GDP, almost always explain part of the variance in democracy, but rarely more than half. Also, as one can see in certain Latin American cases, economic growth sometimes has a negative impact on democracy. This paper argues that the impact of economic growth varies from country to country for systematic, not random, reasons. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) in a cross-regional sample of 108 countries from 1978 to 1999, the paper shows that it is crucial to distinguish between the short- term effect of per capita GDP growth within each country and the cross-national effect of long-term growth. A distinct causal mechanism is at work at each level of analysis. More precisely, the paper identifies four factors that condition the impact of economic growth on democracy: the existing political regime, the democratic experience of each country, the frequency of civil war, and the importance of drug trafficking in the domestic economy. Although other factors probably also condition the effect of the economy on democracy and democratization, the model used in this paper explains 82 percent of the variance in the sample, which is substantially greater than what is typically found in other studies of democratization. Consequently, this paper shows that it is necessary to continue to refine hypotheses about the conditional effect of the economy in order to improve conventional explanations of variation in levels of democracy, whether within one country or in comparative perspective.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and War on Drugs
Political Geography:
Latin America

3413. The Law and Economics of Software Security

Author:
Robert W. Hahn and Anna Layne-Farrar
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Security in software networks relies on technology, law, and economics. As the cost of software security breaches becomes more apparent, there has been greater interest in developing and implementing solutions for different parts of the problem.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Government, and Science and Technology

3414. The Taxation of Corporate Gains on Sales of Depreciable Property: An Economic Analysis

Author:
Kevin A. Hassett and Alan D. Viard
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The statutory rate on corporate capital gains currently is equal to the statutory tax rate on ordinary corporate income. Although individual capital gains taxes have received an enormous amount of attention, both in the popular media and in the academic literature, corporate capital gains have received very sparse attention. In principle, however, the distortions that arise from corporate capital gain taxation are analogous to those that might arrive from individual capital gains taxation. Corporations might face a higher user cost of capital and they could find that their previous purchases have been “locked in” in the sense that asset sales are avoided because of their tax consequences.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology

3415. Fueling Educational Entrepreneurship Addressing the Human Capital Challenge

Author:
Frederick M. Hess and Bryan C. Hassel
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
In October 2006, the American Enterprise Institute convened a meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss what might be done to grow the human capital pipeline to support entrepreneurship in K–12 education. Participants included foundation officers, educational entrepreneurs, and policy analysts. While the gathering did not seek to formulate any grand consensus or blueprint, the authors hope that the following summary will spark further discussion and action on this critical issues in education reform.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Education, and Markets

3416. An Empirical Analysis of Middle Class Welfare - Testing Alternative Approaches

Author:
Aparna Mathur and Kevin A. Hassett
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Every year the Census Bureau reports data on income inequality and poverty, based on income estimates derived from the Current Population Survey. Our analysis suggests that the data may not be presenting an accurate picture. By under-reporting incomes, leaving out certain sources of income, and not making equivalence adjustments that are now standard among researchers, the reports present an imperfect picture of overall welfare. We develop an alternative that relies on data from the National Income and Product Accounts. Our data reveal that real median incomes have been increasing in the recent period, albeit at a slower rate than the long-term average. Using the same methodology for consumption, we find that consumption for all income groups, including the middle, has been growing robustly in recent times. This is in contrast to statistics reported by the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the most often cited data for all consumption analysis, which show middle class consumption declining.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States

3417. Australia and APEC in 2007

Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
I want to congratulate the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre on a decade of helping to build understanding in Australia of Asian countries-their politics, business and culture.I particularly want to recognise the contribution Hugh Morgan has made as the Society's Chairman, knowing that he will be stepping back from this role at the end of this month.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
Asia, Australia, Australia/Pacific, and AustralAsia

3418. Thailand : Moving Toward A More Sustainable and Democratic Future

Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
It is my pleasure to be here this afternoon. I think what we normally say is that there's no free lunch. Today I think it is my great honor to address the distinguished members and guests of the Asia Society today. As you are all friends of Thailand, or at least friends of Asia, I must say I feel quite at home. At the very least, I know that here, if I say I am Thai, no one will ask what I think about reunification with the mainland!
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Asia and Thailand

3419. Bernard Schwartz Fellow Sadanand Dhume on Political Islam and Indonesia

Author:
Nermeen Shaikh
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Sadanand Dhume, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society, is a journalist and writer with a long-standing interest in Asia. He has recently completed a book on the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia. As a former Indonesia correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Asian Wall Street Journal in Jakarta, Sadanand covered Indonesia's economic, political, security and social scene. Before that he was the New Delhi bureau chief of FEER.
Topic:
Economics, Politics, and Religion
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Asia, New Delhi, and Southeast Asia

3420. Famine in North Korea: AsiaSource Interview with Marcus Noland

Author:
Nermeen Shaikh
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Marcus Noland is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His work encompasses a wide range of topics including the political economy of US trade policy and the Asian financial crisis. Mr Noland is unique among American economists in having devoted serious scholarly effort to the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification. He won the 2000–01 Ohira Masayoshi Award for his book Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States, America, Asia, North Korea, and Korea