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1. Delivering a Local EITC: Lessons from the San Francisco Working Families Credit

Author:
Tiana Wertheim and Tim Flacke
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
For families struggling to make ends meet on earnings from low-wage jobs, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has become an essential form of support, boosting the size of annual tax refunds by as much as several thousand dollars. The program is widely recognized for its accessibility (working through the tax code and tax filing system), administrative efficiency and simplicity, and its effectiveness in lifting working poor house- holds out of poverty. Why then shouldn't the EITC serve as a model for other programs for working families, particularly in parts of the country where high costs of living create added difficulties for lower-income residents?
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States and San Francisco

2. Can Climate Change Save Lives? A comment on "Economy-wide estimates of the implications of climate change: Human health"

Author:
Frank Ackerman and Elizabeth Stanton
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
In a recent article in this journal, Francesco Bosello, Roberto Roson, and Richard Tol make the surprising prediction that the first stages of global warming will, on balance, save a large number of lives. Bosello et al. fail to substantiate this remarkable estimate, and they make multiple mistaken or misleading assumptions. They rely on research that identifies a simple empirical relationship between temperature and mortality, but ignores the countervailing effect of human adaptation to gradual changes in average temperature. While focusing on small changes in average temperatures, they ignore the important health impacts of extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and hurricanes. They extrapolate this pattern far beyond the level that is apparently supported by their principal sources, and introduce an arbitrary assumption that may bias the result toward finding benefits from warming.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:
San Francisco