This paper employs a long panel of income tax returns to examine trends in reported by the wealthy taxpayers over a number of tax reforms spanning the years 1979 through 1995. During this period, a number of tax reforms were enacted, including the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. This paper focuses on how the top one percent of the tax filing population responded to changes in income tax rates in these reforms.
{"title":"The Taxable Income Elasticity of High-Income Taxpayers: Evidence from a Long Panel","authors":"Gerald E. Auten, David Joulfaian","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1406641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1406641","url":null,"abstract":"This paper employs a long panel of income tax returns to examine trends in reported by the wealthy taxpayers over a number of tax reforms spanning the years 1979 through 1995. During this period, a number of tax reforms were enacted, including the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. This paper focuses on how the top one percent of the tax filing population responded to changes in income tax rates in these reforms.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"28 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120895394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Economic insecurity is an inherent characteristic of the transition from a planned economy to a market-oriented economy and workers' assessments of their economic insecurity have direct consequences not only for their happiness/well-being, but also on consumption and saving behavior. This study utilizes data from the nationally representative Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey to study perceptions of economic insecurity among workers in both rural and urban settlements. Analyzing three measures of perceived economic insecurity, we find that perceptions of insecurity were higher when economic conditions were deteriorating (1995-1998), and lower when economic conditions had stabilized (2000-2004). While perceived insecurity varies substantially by worker characteristics-those with less education, women, and unskilled and semi-skilled manual workers feel most vulnerable-, differences in observed characteristics explain a relatively small part of the ruralurban perceptions gap; other factors, such as different rates of economic recovery in rural and urban locales are also important. Individual well-being and household consumption tend to be lower when concerns about economic insecurity are present.
{"title":"Perceptions of Economic Insecurity: Evidence from Russia","authors":"Susan J. Linz, Anastasia Semykina","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1404022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1404022","url":null,"abstract":"Economic insecurity is an inherent characteristic of the transition from a planned economy to a market-oriented economy and workers' assessments of their economic insecurity have direct consequences not only for their happiness/well-being, but also on consumption and saving behavior. This study utilizes data from the nationally representative Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey to study perceptions of economic insecurity among workers in both rural and urban settlements. Analyzing three measures of perceived economic insecurity, we find that perceptions of insecurity were higher when economic conditions were deteriorating (1995-1998), and lower when economic conditions had stabilized (2000-2004). While perceived insecurity varies substantially by worker characteristics-those with less education, women, and unskilled and semi-skilled manual workers feel most vulnerable-, differences in observed characteristics explain a relatively small part of the ruralurban perceptions gap; other factors, such as different rates of economic recovery in rural and urban locales are also important. Individual well-being and household consumption tend to be lower when concerns about economic insecurity are present.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124692371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-03-12DOI: 10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780199732739.003.0007
R. Easterlin, Onnicha Sawangfa
Based on point-of-time comparisons of happiness in richer and poorer countries, it is commonly asserted that economic growth will have a significant positive impact on happiness in poorer countries, if not richer. The time trends of subjective well-being (SWB) in 13 developing countries, however, are not significantly related to predictions derived from the cross sectional relation of happiness to GDP per capita. The point-of-time comparison leads to the expectation that the same absolute increase in GDP per capita will have a bigger impact on SWB in a poorer than a richer country. In fact there is no significant relation between actual trends in SWB and those predicted from the cross sectional relationship. Nor is a higher percentage rate of growth in GDP per capita significantly positively associated with a greater improvement in SWB. In the developing countries studied here a greater increase in happiness does not accompany more rapid economic growth. These conclusions hold true for two measures of SWB that are separately analyzed, overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with finances. The two SWB measures themselves, however, typically trend similarly within a country, providing mutually supporting evidence of the trend in well-being.
{"title":"Happiness and Economic Growth: Does the Cross Section Predict Time Trends? Evidence from Developing Countries","authors":"R. Easterlin, Onnicha Sawangfa","doi":"10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780199732739.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACPROF:OSO/9780199732739.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Based on point-of-time comparisons of happiness in richer and poorer countries, it is commonly asserted that economic growth will have a significant positive impact on happiness in poorer countries, if not richer. The time trends of subjective well-being (SWB) in 13 developing countries, however, are not significantly related to predictions derived from the cross sectional relation of happiness to GDP per capita. The point-of-time comparison leads to the expectation that the same absolute increase in GDP per capita will have a bigger impact on SWB in a poorer than a richer country. In fact there is no significant relation between actual trends in SWB and those predicted from the cross sectional relationship. Nor is a higher percentage rate of growth in GDP per capita significantly positively associated with a greater improvement in SWB. In the developing countries studied here a greater increase in happiness does not accompany more rapid economic growth. These conclusions hold true for two measures of SWB that are separately analyzed, overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with finances. The two SWB measures themselves, however, typically trend similarly within a country, providing mutually supporting evidence of the trend in well-being.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126812257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145 (1960), the Supreme Court held that 28 USC section 1346(a)(1) requires the full payment of all assessed tax before a refund lawsuit can be maintained in a district court or the Court of Federal Claims. Justice Whittaker, in his dissent (joined by three other Justices), railed against a side consequence of the holding, noting that, under the ruling, "taxpayers who pay assessments in installments would be without remedy to recover early installments that were wrongfully collected should the period of limitations run before the last installment is paid." He thought it "grossly unfair and, to me, shockingly inequitable" to apply the full payment requirement where a taxpayer "is unable to pay the balance within the two-year period of limitations." Since 1960, Congress has overruled the Flora full payment rule in one situation where the rich asked it to: In 1998, in 26 USC section 7422(j), Congress allowed an estate that had elected to pay estate taxes in installment lasting 10 years to bring a refund lawsuit without full payment as long as the estate was current on its installment payments. The author now proposes a similar exception from the full payment rule for the poor - one that would finally end the "shocking inequit[y]": Add a new subsection to the Internal Revenue Code that would allow a taxpayer to maintain a refund lawsuit, even without full payment, if the taxpayer is paying all or part of the remaining uncollected balance of any tax under an installment payment agreement or the IRS has placed the taxpayer into currently not collectible status.
在Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145(1960)一案中，最高法院认为，《美国法典》第28条第1346(a)(1)款规定，在地区法院或联邦索赔法院维持退款诉讼之前，必须全额缴纳所有已评定的税款。惠特克法官在他的反对意见中(其他三位法官也加入了他的反对意见)，对判决的附带后果进行了抨击，他指出，根据该裁决，“分期支付评估的纳税人，如果在最后一期付款之前的诉讼时效已经过去，将无法收回被错误收取的早期分期付款。”他认为，在纳税人“无法在两年的限期内支付余额”的情况下，实施全额支付要求“非常不公平，对我来说，也非常不公平”。自1960年以来，国会在富人要求的一种情况下否决了弗洛拉全额支付规则:1998年，在26 USC第7422(j)条中，国会允许选择分期支付10年遗产税的遗产提起不全额支付的退款诉讼，只要该遗产正在分期支付。作者现在提出了一个类似的针对穷人的全额支付规则的例外——一个将最终结束“令人震惊的不平等”的例外:在《国内税收法》中增加一个新的章节，允许纳税人维持退款诉讼，即使没有全额支付，如果纳税人在分期付款协议下支付了所有或部分未征收的任何税收余额，或者国税局已经将纳税人置于目前无法收取的状态。
{"title":"Let the Poor Sue for Refund Without Full Payment","authors":"Carlton M. Smith","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1354145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1354145","url":null,"abstract":"In Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145 (1960), the Supreme Court held that 28 USC section 1346(a)(1) requires the full payment of all assessed tax before a refund lawsuit can be maintained in a district court or the Court of Federal Claims. Justice Whittaker, in his dissent (joined by three other Justices), railed against a side consequence of the holding, noting that, under the ruling, \"taxpayers who pay assessments in installments would be without remedy to recover early installments that were wrongfully collected should the period of limitations run before the last installment is paid.\" He thought it \"grossly unfair and, to me, shockingly inequitable\" to apply the full payment requirement where a taxpayer \"is unable to pay the balance within the two-year period of limitations.\" Since 1960, Congress has overruled the Flora full payment rule in one situation where the rich asked it to: In 1998, in 26 USC section 7422(j), Congress allowed an estate that had elected to pay estate taxes in installment lasting 10 years to bring a refund lawsuit without full payment as long as the estate was current on its installment payments. The author now proposes a similar exception from the full payment rule for the poor - one that would finally end the \"shocking inequit[y]\": Add a new subsection to the Internal Revenue Code that would allow a taxpayer to maintain a refund lawsuit, even without full payment, if the taxpayer is paying all or part of the remaining uncollected balance of any tax under an installment payment agreement or the IRS has placed the taxpayer into currently not collectible status.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127023008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Most welfare programs seek to ensure that poor families have adequate income while at the same time encouraging self-sufficiency. Based on studies of 28 programs involving more than 100,000 sample members, this synthesis compares the costs, benefits, and returns on investment of six welfare program strategies - from the perspectives of participants, government budgets, and society as a whole.
{"title":"Welfare-to-Work Program Benefits and Costs: A Synthesis of Research","authors":"D. Greenberg, Victoria Deitch, G. Hamilton","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1353354","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1353354","url":null,"abstract":"Most welfare programs seek to ensure that poor families have adequate income while at the same time encouraging self-sufficiency. Based on studies of 28 programs involving more than 100,000 sample members, this synthesis compares the costs, benefits, and returns on investment of six welfare program strategies - from the perspectives of participants, government budgets, and society as a whole.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"2021 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117147590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Non-cash benefits can have substantial effects on the distribution of economic welfare. Standard approaches to the inclusion of non-cash benefits in broader measures of resources have failed to take adequate account of the pattern of needs associated with the greater use of health and education services. Our results, for Ireland in the year 2000, show that it is possible to derive more appropriate measures of total resources than have been derived using standard methods. The results indicate that the greatest impact comes from the inclusion of imputed rent for owner occupation as part of the resource measure. When this is done, the rate of "resource poverty" for older people is substantially reduced, in line with results which use indicators of standard of living as well as cash incomes ("consistent poverty").
{"title":"Non-Cash Benefits and the Distribution of Economic Welfare","authors":"T. Callan, C. Keane","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1332595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1332595","url":null,"abstract":"Non-cash benefits can have substantial effects on the distribution of economic welfare. Standard approaches to the inclusion of non-cash benefits in broader measures of resources have failed to take adequate account of the pattern of needs associated with the greater use of health and education services. Our results, for Ireland in the year 2000, show that it is possible to derive more appropriate measures of total resources than have been derived using standard methods. The results indicate that the greatest impact comes from the inclusion of imputed rent for owner occupation as part of the resource measure. When this is done, the rate of \"resource poverty\" for older people is substantially reduced, in line with results which use indicators of standard of living as well as cash incomes (\"consistent poverty\").","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117077366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OBJECTIVES Socioeconomic segregation rose substantially in U.S. cities during the final decades of the 20th century, and we argue that zoning regulations are an important cause of this increase.Methods. We measure neighborhood economic segregation using the Gini coefficient for neighborhood income inequality and the poor-affluent exposure index. These outcomes are regressed on an index of density zoning developed from the work of Pendall for 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, while controlling for other metropolitan characteristics likely to affect urban housing markets and class segregation.Results. For both 2000 and changes from 1990 to 2000, OLS estimates reveal a strong relationship between density zoning and income segregation, and replication using 2SLS suggests that the relationship is causal. We also show that zoning is associated with higher interjurisdictional inequality.Conclusions. Metropolitan areas with suburbs that restrict the density of residential construction are more segregated on the basis of income than those with more permissive density zoning regimes. This arrangement perpetuates and exacerbates racial and class inequality in the United States.
{"title":"Density Zoning and Class Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas","authors":"J. Rothwell, D. Massey","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1322128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1322128","url":null,"abstract":"OBJECTIVES\u0000Socioeconomic segregation rose substantially in U.S. cities during the final decades of the 20th century, and we argue that zoning regulations are an important cause of this increase.Methods. We measure neighborhood economic segregation using the Gini coefficient for neighborhood income inequality and the poor-affluent exposure index. These outcomes are regressed on an index of density zoning developed from the work of Pendall for 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, while controlling for other metropolitan characteristics likely to affect urban housing markets and class segregation.Results. For both 2000 and changes from 1990 to 2000, OLS estimates reveal a strong relationship between density zoning and income segregation, and replication using 2SLS suggests that the relationship is causal. We also show that zoning is associated with higher interjurisdictional inequality.Conclusions. Metropolitan areas with suburbs that restrict the density of residential construction are more segregated on the basis of income than those with more permissive density zoning regimes. This arrangement perpetuates and exacerbates racial and class inequality in the United States.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131270400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent research has found that differences in neighborhood segregation explain black-white inequality in education attainment and that these differences matter more than school characteristics. In recent years, neighborhood segregation has persisted at high levels in many metropolitan areas with high black populations and the black white achievement gap has stopped converging. This is somewhat puzzling since, at the same time, research on education supply has found that the college wage premium has increased in recent years providing a greater incentive for blacks to become educated. This paper synthesizes these findings and facts to offer a comprehensive theoretical explanation for the gap in black-white education attainment. I model neighborhood segregation as limiting black education attainment by increasing the discount rate of future returns and discuss research that supports that contention. Then I confirm the broadest prediction of the model by using individual data from IPUMs to predict the effect of segregation on black college attainment conditional on the return to college and other controls. The results are highly significant and imply that the black-white achievement gap is fully explained by residential segregation.
{"title":"Racial Segregation, the College Premium, and Black College Attainment: Some Theory and Empirics","authors":"J. Rothwell","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1313424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1313424","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research has found that differences in neighborhood segregation explain black-white inequality in education attainment and that these differences matter more than school characteristics. In recent years, neighborhood segregation has persisted at high levels in many metropolitan areas with high black populations and the black white achievement gap has stopped converging. This is somewhat puzzling since, at the same time, research on education supply has found that the college wage premium has increased in recent years providing a greater incentive for blacks to become educated. This paper synthesizes these findings and facts to offer a comprehensive theoretical explanation for the gap in black-white education attainment. I model neighborhood segregation as limiting black education attainment by increasing the discount rate of future returns and discuss research that supports that contention. Then I confirm the broadest prediction of the model by using individual data from IPUMs to predict the effect of segregation on black college attainment conditional on the return to college and other controls. The results are highly significant and imply that the black-white achievement gap is fully explained by residential segregation.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124559664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The existing Social Security special minimum benefit, which offers an alternative benefit formula for long-term workers with low levels of wages across many years, has the potential to reduce poverty among the elderly, while rewarding significant numbers of working years. The paper proposes tying the benefit formula for the special minimum benefit to a modernized poverty measure based on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendations, or about 125 percent of the current poverty threshold.An increase in the special minimum benefit will affect access to means-tested social supports for seniors. Thus, the paper outlines the potential interaction effects that would occur with an increase the special minimum benefit for low-income seniors who currently benefit from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and provides several policy options for addressing program interactions. Proposals include policies to ensure maintenance of Medicaid eligibility for special minimum beneficiaries as well as increases in the general income exclusion and asset limits in SSI, which are not indexed to inflation. The authors suggest that through an enhancement of the Social Security special minimum benefit and a modernization and coordination of program rules for other programs affecting low-income seniors, policymakers can do much to enhance the social safety net for seniors with low lifetime earnings. This Working Paper was completed with support from the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Rockefeller Foundation through their Strengthening Social Security for Vulnerable Groups project.
现有的社会保障特别最低福利(Social Security special minimum benefit)为长期工资水平较低的工人提供了另一种福利公式，有可能减少老年人的贫困，同时奖励大量工作年限。该论文建议将特殊最低福利的福利公式与基于美国国家科学院(NAS)建议的现代化贫困衡量标准挂钩，即现行贫困线的125%左右。增加特别最低津贴将影响老年人获得经经济状况调查的社会支助。因此，本文概述了增加目前受益于补充保障收入(SSI)、医疗补助(Medicaid)和补充营养援助计划(SNAP)的低收入老年人的特殊最低福利可能产生的潜在相互作用，并提供了解决计划相互作用的几种政策选择。提案包括确保维持特殊最低受益人的医疗补助资格的政策，以及增加SSI的一般收入排除和资产限制，这些都不与通货膨胀挂钩。作者建议，通过加强社会保障特殊最低福利，以及对影响低收入老年人的其他项目的项目规则进行现代化和协调，政策制定者可以在加强终身收入较低的老年人的社会安全网方面做很多工作。本工作文件是在国家社会保险学会和洛克菲勒基金会通过其加强弱势群体社会保障项目的支持下完成的。
{"title":"Enhancing Social Security for Low-Income Workers: Coordinating an Enhanced Special Minimum Benefit with Social Safety Net Provisions for Seniors","authors":"Laura A. Sullivan, T. Meschede, T. Shapiro","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1371068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1371068","url":null,"abstract":"The existing Social Security special minimum benefit, which offers an alternative benefit formula for long-term workers with low levels of wages across many years, has the potential to reduce poverty among the elderly, while rewarding significant numbers of working years. The paper proposes tying the benefit formula for the special minimum benefit to a modernized poverty measure based on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendations, or about 125 percent of the current poverty threshold.An increase in the special minimum benefit will affect access to means-tested social supports for seniors. Thus, the paper outlines the potential interaction effects that would occur with an increase the special minimum benefit for low-income seniors who currently benefit from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and provides several policy options for addressing program interactions. Proposals include policies to ensure maintenance of Medicaid eligibility for special minimum beneficiaries as well as increases in the general income exclusion and asset limits in SSI, which are not indexed to inflation. The authors suggest that through an enhancement of the Social Security special minimum benefit and a modernization and coordination of program rules for other programs affecting low-income seniors, policymakers can do much to enhance the social safety net for seniors with low lifetime earnings. This Working Paper was completed with support from the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Rockefeller Foundation through their Strengthening Social Security for Vulnerable Groups project.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"129 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121248797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We show how small initial wealth differences between low skilled black and white workers can generate large differences in their labor-market outcomes. This even occurs in the absence of a taste for discrimination against blacks or exogenous differences in the distance to jobs. Because of the initial wealth difference, blacks cannot afford cars while whites can. Car ownership allows whites to reach more jobs per unit of time and this gives them a better bargaining position. As a result, in equilibrium, blacks end up with both higher unemployment rates and lower wages than whites. Furthermore, it takes more time for blacks to reach their jobs even though they travel less miles. Those predictions are consistent with the data. Better access to capital markets or better public transportation will reduce the differences in labor market outcomes.
{"title":"Car Ownership and the Labor Markets of Ethnic Minorites","authors":"P. Gautier, Y. Zenou","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1295422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1295422","url":null,"abstract":"We show how small initial wealth differences between low skilled black and white workers can generate large differences in their labor-market outcomes. This even occurs in the absence of a taste for discrimination against blacks or exogenous differences in the distance to jobs. Because of the initial wealth difference, blacks cannot afford cars while whites can. Car ownership allows whites to reach more jobs per unit of time and this gives them a better bargaining position. As a result, in equilibrium, blacks end up with both higher unemployment rates and lower wages than whites. Furthermore, it takes more time for blacks to reach their jobs even though they travel less miles. Those predictions are consistent with the data. Better access to capital markets or better public transportation will reduce the differences in labor market outcomes.","PeriodicalId":306856,"journal":{"name":"Economic Inequality & the Law eJournal","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122675153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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