Amy Ellen Schwartz

Infrastructure in a structural model of economic growth

This paper develops a neoclassical growth model that explicitly incorporates infrastructure and is designed to provide a tractable framework within which to analyze the empirical importance of public capital accumulation to productivity growth. The authors find little support for claims of a dramatic productivity boost from increased infrastructure outlays. In a specification designed to provide an upper bound for the influence of infrastructure, the authors estimate that raising the rate of infrastructure investment would have had a negligible impact on annual productivity growth between 1971 and 1986.

An historical context for behavioral models of hypertension

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is provide an historical context for current behavioral models of hypertension. METHODS A selective sample of the cardiovascular reactivity literature was reviewed, from 1932 to present. RESULTS In the earliest model, cardiovascular reactivity was regarded as a marker of disease risk; however, in later models, reactivity came to be viewed as a causal influence in the development of hypertension. As the models evolved, the underlying assumptions changed. Thus, the risk marker model assumed that cardiovascular responses to stress were a stable, generalized characteristic of the individual, and therefore the eliciting stimuli were arbitrary. The later models, however, assume that the nature of the eliciting stimulus is a determinant of the cardiovascular response. We describe the increasing complexity of the four models, and contrast their underlying assumptions and the implications of these assumptions. CONCLUSION We provide an overview of study designs and variables that should be incorporated into studies seeking to understand the ways in which cardiovascular responses to stress may influence the development of hypertension.

Revitalizing inner‐city neighborhoods: New York city's Ten‐Year Plan

Abstract This article examines the impact of New York Citys Ten‐Year Plan on the sale prices of homes in surrounding neighborhoods. Beginning in the mid‐1980s, New York City invested

IS THERE A NATIVITY GAP? NEW EVIDENCE ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF IMMIGRANT STUDENTS

5.1 billion in constructing or rehabilitating over 180,000 units of housing in many of the citys most distressed neighborhoods. One of the main purposes was to spur neighborhood revitalization. In this article, we describe the origins of the Ten‐Year Plan, as well as the various programs the city used to implement it, and estimate whether housing built or rehabilitated under the Ten‐Year Plan affected the prices of nearby homes. The prices of homes within 500 feet of Ten‐Year Plan units rose relative to those located beyond 500 feet, but still within the same census tract. These findings are consistent with the proposition that well‐planned project‐based housing programs can generate positive spillover effects and contribute to efforts to revitalize inner‐city neighborhoods.

Public Infrastructure, Private Input Demand, and Economic Performance in New England Manufacturing

Public schools across the United States are educating an increasing number and diversity of immigrant students. Unfortunately, little is known about their performance relative to native-born students and the extent to which the nativity gap might be explained by school and demographic characteristics. This article takes a step toward filling that void using data from New York City where 17 percent of elementary and middle school students are immigrants. We explore disparities in performance between foreign-born and native-born students on reading and math tests in three waysusing levels (unadjusted scores), value-added scores (adjusted for prior performance), and an education production function. While unadjusted levels and value-added measures often indicate superior performance among immigrants, disparities are substantially explained by student and school characteristics. Further, while the nativity gap differs for students from different world regions, disparities are considerably diminished in fully specified models. We conclude with implications for urban schools in the United States.

Distinguishing external from internal scale effects: The case of public infrastructure

Much of the current debate on the economic performance impacts of public infrastructure investment relates to the input-specific effects of such investment. In this article we explore these impacts by evaluating substitution patterns affecting private input use in New England manufacturing. Using a cost-based methodology, we find that, in the short run, public capital expenditures provide cost-saving benefits that exceed the associated investment costs due to substitutability between public capital and private inputs. Over time, however, stimulating investment in private capital increases economic performance more effectively than public capital expenditures alone and in fact reduces the cost incentive for such expenditures. In addition, growth in output motivated by infrastructure investment increases employment opportunities because this growth overrides short-run substitutability.

Immigrants and the Distribution of Resources within an Urban School District.

The recent applied production theory literature focusing on the economic performance of firms has increasingly recognized the importance of scale effects on costs and therefore efficiency. These scale effects may include short run returns due to fixity of privately demanded inputs (i.e., capital, long run internal returns to scale, and external factors affecting costs. Since these different types of scale effects can be thought of as shifts in and movements along cost curves, the different cost effects of such factors can be identified in a framework which explicitly takes them into account in the definition ofscale.In this article we formalize such a framework, and then use it to measure short run, long run (internal) and external scale effects from fixity of private capital, nonconstant returns to scale and public infrastructure. We then use these measures to identify the impacts of these different scale factors on productivity growth. The focus on public infrastructure as an important “external” scale factor is motivated by the current theoretical and policy interest in this issue; we show how a structural production theory model provides a rich basis for the analysis of the cost effects of infrastructure investment.

Effect of a school-based water intervention on child body mass index and obesity

In New York City, where almost 14% of elementary school pupils are foreign-born and roughly half of these are “recent immigrants,” the impact of immigrant students on school resources may be important. While immigrant advocates worry about inequitable treatment of immigrant students, others worry that immigrants drain resources from native-born students. In this article, we explore the variation in school resources and the relationship to the representation of immigrant students. To what extent are variations in school resources explained by the presence of immigrants per se rather than by differences in student educational needs, such as poverty or language skills, or differences in other characteristics, such as race? Our results indicate that, while schools resources decrease with the representation of immigrants, this relationship largely reflects differences in the educational needs of immigrant students. Although analyses that link resources to the representation of foreign-born students in 12 geographic regions of origin find some disparities, these are again largely driven by differences in educational need. Finally, we find that some resources increase over time when there are large increases in the percentage of immigrants in a school, but these results are less precisely estimated. Thus, elementary schools appear not to be biased either against or for immigrants per se, although differences in the needs of particular groups of immigrant students may lead to more (or fewer) school resources.

So Many Children Left Behind: Segregation and the Impact of Subgroup Reporting in No Child Left Behind on the Racial Test Score Gap

IMPORTANCE Decreasing the amount of caloric beverages consumed and simultaneously increasing water consumption is important to promoting child health and decreasing the prevalence of childhood obesity. OBJECTIVE To estimate the impact of water jets (electrically cooled, large clear jugs with a push lever for fast dispensing) on standardized body mass index, overweight, and obesity in elementary school and middle school students. Milk purchases were explored as a potential mechanism for weight outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This quasi-experimental study used a school-level database of cafeteria equipment deliveries between the 2008-2009 and 2012-2013 and included a sample of 1227 New York, New York, public elementary schools and middle schools and the 1,065,562 students within those schools. INTERVENTION Installation of water jets in schools. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Individual body mass index (BMI) was calculated for all students in the sample using annual student-level height and weight measurements collected as part of New Yorks FITNESSGRAM initiative. Age- and sex-specific growth charts produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used to categorize students as overweight and obese. The hypothesis that water jets would be associated with decreased standardized BMI, overweight, and obesity was tested using a difference-in-difference strategy, comparing outcomes for treated and nontreated students before and after the introduction of a water jet. RESULTS This study included 1 065 562 students within New York City public elementary schools and middle schools. There was a significant effect of water jets on standardized BMI, such that the adoption of water jets was associated with a 0.025 (95% CI, -0.038 to -0.011) reduction of standardized BMI for boys and a 0.022 (95% CI, -0.035 to -0.008) reduction of standardized BMI for girls (P < .01). There was also a significant effect on being overweight. Water jets were associated with a 0.9 percentage point reduction (95% CI, 0.015-0.003) in the likelihood of being overweight for boys and a 0.6 percentage reduction (95% CI, 0.011-0.000) in the likelihood of being overweight for girls (P < .05). We also found a 12.3 decrease (95% CI, -19.371 to -5.204) in the number of all types of milk half-pints purchased per student per year (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Results from this study show an association between a relatively low-cost water availability intervention and decreased student weight. Milk purchases were explored as a potential mechanism. Additional research is needed to examine potential mechanisms for decreased student weight, including reduced milk taking, as well as assessing impacts on longer-term outcomes.

The Impact of Business Improvement Districts on Property Values: Evidence from New York City

Although the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to help “all students meet high academic standards,” it is focused on subgroups of low-achieving students. The authors analyze the possible impact of the legislations requirement for performance reporting by racial subgroup in light of the considerable racial segregation in U.S. schools. In particular, using data on elementary and middle schools in New York State, the authors show that the schools are so highly segregated that more than half are too homogeneous to report test scores for any racial or ethnic subgroups. In addition, they show that the racial achievement gap is greatest across segregated schools rather than within integrated ones. The authors analyze the characteristics of schools that are and are not accountable for subgroups, finding that urban schools and large schools are particularly likely to be accountable, and conclude with implications for the reach of the law and for incentives for school segregation.