Fiscal Decentralization, Commitment and Regional Inequality: Evidence from State-level Cross-sectional Data for the United States

2009 ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Nobuo Akai ◽  
Masayo Hosio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Adverse Effect ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regional Inequality ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Commitment Device

Conventional approaches to fiscal decentralization suggest that decentralization lowers the power of redistribution, but recent theories argue that fiscal decentralization can work as a commitment device. The former effect is argued to cause an increase in inter-county inequality, while the latter suggests a decrease. This article first clarifies the relationship between fiscal decentralization and inter-county inequality by using cross-sectional data for the United States. Our result indicates that the achievement of autonomy by fiscal decentralization in poor (low-income) counties contributes to decreased inter-county inequality, but that this effect is not as large as the dominating adverse effect fiscal decentralization has on rich (highincome) counties.

The Opioid Epidemic and Homicide in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 002242782098684
Author(s):  
Richard Rosenfeld ◽  
Joel Wallman ◽  
Randolph Roth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Drug Markets ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Homicide Rates ◽  
Overdose Death ◽  
Sectional Analysis ◽  
The Relationship

Objectives: Evaluate the relationship between the opioid epidemic and homicide rates in the United States. Methods: A county-level cross-sectional analysis covering the period 1999 to 2015. The race-specific homicide rate and the race-specific opioid-related overdose death rate are regressed on demographic, social, and economic covariates. Results: The race-specific opioid-related overdose death rate is positively associated with race-specific homicide rates, net of controls. The results are generally robust across alternative samples and model specifications. Conclusions: We interpret the results as reflecting the violent dynamics of street drug markets, although more research is needed to draw definitive conclusions about the mechanisms linking opioid demand and homicide.

Trust in Government and the American Public’s Responsiveness to Rising Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 790-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Combine Data ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship

The United States has become increasingly unequal. Income inequality has risen dramatically since the 1970s, yet public opinion toward redistribution has remained largely unchanged. This is puzzling, given Americans’ professed concern regarding, and knowledge of, rising inequality. I argue that trust in government can help to reconcile this. I combine data on state-level income inequality with survey data from the Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES) from 1984 to 2016. I find that trust in government conditions the relationship between inequality and redistribution, with higher inequality prompting demand for government redistribution, but only among politically trustful individuals. This holds among conservatives and non-conservatives and among the affluent and non-affluent. These findings underscore the relevance of political trust in shaping attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution and contribute to our understanding of why American public opinion has not turned in favor of redistribution during an era of rising income inequality.

Examining the Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Academic Performance: Implications for Diversity and Equity in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 152102512110538
Author(s):  
Heather Mechler ◽  
Kathryn Coakley ◽  
Marygold Walsh-Dilley ◽  
Sarita Cargas
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Educational Equity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Professional Students ◽  
The Relationship

In recent years, researchers have increasingly focused on the experience of food insecurity among students at higher education institutions. Most of the literature has focused on undergraduates in the eastern and midwestern regions of the United States. This cross-sectional study of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at a Minority Institution in the southwestern United States is the first of its kind to explore food insecurity among diverse students that also includes data on gender identity and sexual orientation. When holding other factors constant, food-insecure students were far more likely to fail or withdraw from a course or to drop out entirely. We explore the role that higher education can play in ensuring students’ basic needs and implications for educational equity.

scholarly journals Feeding the disparities: the geography and trends of breastfeeding in the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Garnier ◽  
Ana I. Bento ◽  
Pejman Rohani ◽  
Saad B. Omer ◽  
Shweta Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Breast Milk ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Breastfeeding Rates

AbstractThere is scientific consensus on the importance of breastfeeding for the present and future health of newborns, in high- and low-income settings alike. In the United States, improving breast milk access is a public health priority but analysis of secular trends are largely lacking. Here, we used data from the National Immunization Survey of the CDC, collected between 2003 and 2016, to illustrate the temporal trends and the spatial heterogeneity in breastfeeding. We also considered the effect sizes of two key determinants of breastfeeding rates. We show that, while access to breast milk both at birth and at 6 months old has steadily increased over the past decade, large spatial disparities still remain at the state level. We also find that, since 2009, the proportion of households below the poverty level has become the strongest predictor of breastfeeding rates. We argue that, because variations in breastfeeding rates are associated with socio-economic factors, public health policies advocating for breastfeeding are still needed in particular in underserved communities. This is key to reducing longer term health disparities in the U.S., and more generally in high-income countries.

How Courts Structure State-Level Representation

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Kastellec
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
State Courts ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Structure State ◽  
The Relationship

I examine how courts condition the relationship between state-level public opinion and policy. The system of federalism in the United States allows federal and state courts to establish the types of policies that states are constitutionally allowed to implement. In particular, federal courts can set “federal floors” for policy, below which no states can go. State courts, in turn, can raise the level of this floor. Thus, both federal and state courts shape whether state policy can match the preferences of the median voter in a given state. Analyzing data on public opinion, judicial decisions, and state-level policy on the issue of abortion, from 1973 to 2012, I show that changes in the set of allowable abortion restrictions, according to the combined decisions of state and federal courts, significantly affect whether states implement majority-preferred policies. I also show that ignoring the influence of courts on the policymaking environment significantly affects the estimated level of policy congruence and thus conclusions about the scope of representation. These results demonstrate the importance of placing courts in the larger study of state-level representation.

Low-income children’s readiness for group-based learning at age 3 and prekindergarten outcomes at age 5

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-274
Author(s):  
Hannah B Mudrick ◽  
JoAnn L Robinson ◽  
Holly E Brophy-Herb
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Academic Outcomes ◽  
Effortful Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Classroom Learning ◽  
Classroom Adjustment ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Early Developmental

Although 3-year-olds in the United States may attend prekindergarten prior to formal school entry in kindergarten, few investigations focus on the socioemotional foundations of classroom learning at age 3 and their relationship to later achievement. This study examined the relationship between age 3 readiness for group-based learning, modeled as the latent constructs, effortful control and social communication, and age 5 classroom adjustment and pre-academic outcomes. Data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project in the United States ( n = 797) included observations, direct assessment, and examiner and teacher report. Children’s effortful control predicted classroom adjustment and their social communication predicted pre-academic outcomes. Readiness for group-based learning provides a way to describe key constructs of early skill development and a framework to support children’s classroom learning. Implications include promoting parents’ and educators’ capacities to support early developmental foundations for later adjustment and learning by fostering infants’ and toddlers’ effortful control and social communication. Efforts to support these skills simultaneously across diverse experiences in the home and classroom by focusing on children’s individual needs may prove advantageous.

School Hopscotch: A Comprehensive Review of K–12 Student Mobility in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard O. Welsh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Transition Costs ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Changing Schools

This article provides an integrative review of the extant literature on K–12 student mobility in the United States. Student mobility is a widespread phenomenon with significant policy implications. Changing schools is most prevalent among minority and low-income students in urban school districts. There is an ongoing debate about whether student mobility is helpful or harmful. Earlier research compared movers with nonmovers using cross-sectional data and did not always include controls for the students’ prior achievement and demographic characteristics. Studies in the past decade compared movers with themselves over time using longitudinal data and provided more convincing estimates. Overall, switching schools is associated with a negative impact on students’ educational outcomes; however, transferring to higher quality schools may offset and outweigh the transition costs of moving. Strong causal claims are elusive due to considerable data and methodological challenges and the inability to account for the motivating reasons for changing schools.

scholarly journals On the Relationship between Development and Fertility: The Case of the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Ryabov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
The United States ◽  
Median Income ◽  
County Level ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Rural Counties ◽  
The Relationship

The present article addresses the question of whether there is a link between the spatial patterns of human development and period fertility in the United States at the county level. Using cross-sectional analyses of the relationship between Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and an array of human development indicators (pertaining to three components of the Human Development Index (HDI) – wealth, health, and education), this study sheds light on the relationship between fertility and human development. The analyses were conducted separately for urban, suburban and rural counties. According to the multivariate results, a negative association between selected human development indicators and TFR exists in suburban and rural counties, as well as in the United States as a whole. However, this is not the case for urban counties, where the results were inconclusive. Some indicators (e.g., median income per capita) were found to be positively, and some (e.g., the share of adults with at least bachelor’s degree) negatively, associated with TFR in urban counties. All in all, our results provide evidence of a negative relationship between human development indicators and period fertility in the United States at the county level, a finding which is consistent with the basic tenets of classic demographic transition theory.

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