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Events
In the News
Employers help immigrants achieve dream of becoming US citizens, earn loyalty from workers
Minimum wage at $15 an hour: Would it help or hurt?
Analysis: Merged American Airlines-US Airways would offer more, could charge more
Elon Musk's Hyperloop: A pipe dream?
What's wrong with a little neighborly love?
Companies help immigrants obtain US citizenship
Spirit Airlines thrives in the cheap seats
Study: Mothers' status affects student performance
Three men, three ages. Which do you like?
'Living wage' laws create both winners and losers
Airlines reveal ticket pricing strategies
Mexican American mobility (Op-ed)
A $15 minimum wage is a terrible idea
If the world were run like airlines
Welfare reform took people off the rolls; it might have also shortened their lives (blog)
San Onofre nuclear plant closure will mean hundreds of layoffs
Another false immigration amnesty claim: Tax edition
Reform tied to immigrant taxes
Minimum wage: Credible studies show raising it costs jobs
California's economic growth outpaces job gains: SF Fed study
Utah, Virginia are next up on woo-California-businesses circuit
Alexander: Making hiring more expensive "hurts the people we want to help"
California is back — or so we're told
Obama's minimum wage hike: A case of zombie economics (Op-ed)
A better deal than minimum wage (Op-ed)
What an American-US Airways deal means for fliers
Airline merger can only help at JWA, economist says
Helpful, harmful, or hype? 5 economists weigh in on Obama's minimum-wage proposal
Bid on minimum wage revives issue that has divided economists
County will become older, more diverse
Income gap between rich and poor, black and white has grown in California
Hiding link between wages, job loss
Gas price rise helps fuel cities
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Message
from the director
The Center for Economics & Public Policy has just completed its second year. One of our central goals is to contribute to informed public debate about economics-related public policy issues at the national and state level. To this end, we seek to bring to the UCI community top scholars whose research explores fundamental public policy issues. In the fall, we hosted Dr. John Williams, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Dr. Williams gave a lecture on the various types of monetary policy tools the Federal Reserve Board has used to try to help the U.S. economy recover from the Great Recession. In the spring, we heard from Professor George Borjas, of Harvard University, who spoke about the evidence underlying economic arguments for and against immigration. Both lectures played to packed lecture halls, and were followed by engaging discussion over dinner with community members who are interested in the Center's activities.
In support of the same goal of bringing economic research to bear on key public policy issues, this fall we will host Professor Dana Goldman, from the University of Southern California. In anticipation of the many changes – and continuing debate – over the implementation of health care reform ("Obamacare"), Professor Goldman will speak on "Charting a Course for the Affordable Care Act: Lessons from Health Economics." (You can find more details at http://www.economicsandpublicpolicy.uci.edu/node/15993).
A second core goal of the Center for Economics & Public Policy is to encourage UCI faculty and students to engage in research related to economics and public policy. We have received a second gift from Steven Borowski '79 to support graduate and undergraduate student research on transportation policy. Student research has focused on significant questions such as the "rebound" effect in improving gas mileage in cars – whereby the gains in gasoline savings from better mileage can be offset by increased driving – and the effects of London's congestion tolls that charge residents to bring their cars into parts of Central London. We are actively seeking additional support for student research in other policy areas.
And perhaps most important are our efforts to help research by UCI faculty (and graduate students) inform public policy debate. We have launched a working paper series featuring policy-relevant research by UCI faculty. Each working paper has an extensive executive summary to help readers distill the main ideas easily. You can find the papers posted so far at http://www.economicsandpublicpolicy.uci.edu/epp_workingpapers, and there are many more to come. UCI faculty also provide important perspective on policy debate in the media, based on their research. You can find commentary by me on recent debate over the minimum wage at http://www.economicsandpublicpolicy.uci.edu/node/16330, and commentary from Professor Jan Brueckner on proposed airline mergers at http://www.economicsandpublicpolicy.uci.edu/node/16455.
In pursuit of the same goal, we are also beginning to experiment with another model, by organizing a "salon" at which UCI faculty will discuss their research on an important policy question in an informal, intimate setting with community members who will have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Our first salon will be in the evening on Monday, September 30, with UCI Professor David Brownstone discussing high-speed rail in California.
This newsletter is intended to help communicate findings from UCI research on economics and public policy to the policy community. In addition to the links given above, I encourage you to browse through the CEPP website (http://www.economicsandpublicpolicy.uci.edu/), and to come to our lectures and other events. Below, you will also find numerous links to newspaper stories and other descriptions of policy-relevant research by these same faculty, as well as op-eds and policy memos by faculty affiliates:
Finally, I welcome your suggestions as to how the Center for Economics & Public Policy can do more to strengthen the links between research and policy.
David Neumark
Chancellor's Professor of Economics
Director, Center for Economics & Public Policy
dneumark@uci.edu
STUDIES
Breaking down the fiscal cliff
UCI macroeconomist explains its causes and consequences, should we go over
Tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect January 1 would likely push the U.S. economy back into recession, says UCI economics associate professor Bill Branch. An expert in macroeconomics, he explains the looming fiscal cliff – a term coined by Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke – as the result of shifting demographic trends, tax cuts and defense spending that increased the federal debt at a time when tax revenues were on a recession-fueled decline. Below, Branch explains in detail what fiscal tightening measures would mean for the average American and what it will take from a polarized Congress to ensure a fall off the cliff is avoided.
Read on...
Expert help to reduce child poverty in New Zealand
Greg Duncan, Distinguished Professor, heads to New Zealand
Courtesy of Victoria University, New Zealand: Childhood poverty in New Zealand will be under the spotlight over the next few weeks with the arrival at Victoria University of an American academic who has spent three decades researching the issue.
Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan, from the University of California, Irvine, has published extensively on issues of income distribution, child poverty and welfare dependency. His recent research focuses on understanding the importance of the skills and behaviours developed during childhood, and how they affect children's eventual success later in life.
Read on...
WORKING PAPERS
- Partial Fiscal Decentralization and Public-Sector Heterogeneity: Theory and Evidence from Norway
Lars-Erik Borge, Norwegian University of Science and Technology | Jan K. Brueckner, University of California, Irvine | Jorn Rattsø, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
- Investing in Preschool Programs
Greg J. Duncan, UC Irvine | Katherine Magnuson, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Revisiting the Minimum Wage-Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?
David Neumark, UCI, NBER, and IZA | J.M. Ian Salas, UCI | William Wascher, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Paper or Plastic? Money and Credit as Means of Payment
Sebastien Lotz, LEMMA, University of Paris 2 | Cathy Zhang, University of California, Irvine
OP-EDS
VIDEO
VIDEO: Expert on airline mergers
Economics professor Jan Brueckner weighs in on potential American Airlines-US Airways merger
What does the potential American Airlines-US Airways merger mean for passengers? Jan Brueckner, UC Irvine economics professor and transportation economics expert, weighs in.
Read on...
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