John B. Horowitz

Local Politics and the Demand for Public Education

This paper expands on the school finance literature by using a political fragmentation index to calculate how political power affects educational spending in Virginia, USA. The methodology allows the comparison of different political voices relative to each other and the consideration of the role of the distribution of political power. Political fragmentation is considered across several different dimensions, including race, age, income and political parties. Using a demand for local public goods model, it is found that, along with traditional demand variables, the interest-group pressures dominated by the primary beneficiaries (teachers and students) increase educational spending while higher income and a larger percentage of African-Americans in the population reduce educational spending.

Income Mobility and the Earned Income Tax Credit

The authors use a unique data set of federal tax returns to analyze usage and participation patterns of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) over the period 1989–2006. The authors find that most EITC recipients claimed the EITC for short periods, 61% for 1 or 2 years. Over the period examined, the EITC reached approximately 50 percent of the taxpayers with children. Finally, the authors find considerable income mobility among the EITC eligible population. Only 11 percent of those claiming the EITC in 1990 and in the third decile of income were in the same decile in 2003. They also find that 20 percent of EITC claimants claim the EITC for more than 5 years.

Low-dose risk assessment for arsenic: a meta-analysis approach.

We conducted a meta-analysis to explore dose–response relationships for bladder and lung cancers when people are chronically exposed to low doses of arsenic. We searched electronic databases for articles published through 2010. Ten studies on bladder cancer and ingested arsenic exposure and five studies on lung cancer and ingested arsenic exposure fit our selection criteria. We also investigate the sensitivity of the absolute risk of lung and bladder cancer under different underlying prevalence measures. Males have a higher risk of bladder cancer than do females at all maximum contamination levels. The absolute risk of bladder cancer and lung cancer from ingested arsenic correlates highly with smoking rates. For a maximum contamination level of 10 µg/L, we estimate that there are about 2.91 additional bladder cancer cases per 100 000 people and, considering studies since 2000, we estimate that there are about 4.51 additional lung cancer cases per 100 000 people.

Discrimination and diversity: Market and non-market settings

This paper analyzes discrimination in light of two possibilities (1) that variety has a positive marginal value and (2) that it is less costly to deal with more homogeneous inputs. In market settings it explains the anomaly that firms practicing discrimination in hiring may survive in a competitive environment. In non-market settings it explains the minority separatism practiced under the name of “multiculturalism” on college campuses. Curriculum reforms in the direction of more ethnic, racial and religious “exclusivity” may be understood as attempts to change the constraints within which individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds, brought together into intimate contact, may maximize their utilities.

Income redistribution: An international perspective

Many view global income inequality as a problem. Income redistribution from the rich countries to poor countries is often offered as a solution. However, such redistribution would have to be politically acceptable to voters in rich countries to occur. Using a constructed distribution of world income we show that even modest income redistribution efforts would impose significant costs on taxpayer-voters in rich countries. We conclude such income redistribution is unlikely.

Efficiency Costs and the Demand for Income Redistribution

This study includes the marginal cost of redistribution (MCR) in analyzing the adjusted tax price faced by the median voter. The adjusted tax price is then used to analyze the degree to which efficiency costs change the level of income redistribution provided through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. The results of this article suggest that efficiency costs, on average, raise the cost of AFDC transfers by approximately 28% and reduces the level of AFDC redistribution by about 14.6%.

Ownership Status and Length of Stay in Skilled Nursing Facilities: Does Endogeneity Matter?

In 1998, Medicare implemented the Prospective Payment System for post-acute care provided by skilled nursing facilities. This system paid a fixed price per day above the cost of care, creating an incentive to provide longer length of stays to increase revenues. In this paper, we examine whether there are systematic differences in length of stay for post-acute care patients between for-profit and not-for-profit skilled nursing facilities. Based on the financial incentives inherent in the reimbursement system, we develop a conceptual framework that argues for-profits will provide a greater number of days of care to increase profits relative to not-for-profits. We find significant differences in length of stay by ownership, but once patient selection into a facility is accounted for using two-staged residual inclusion, there is no statistical differences in length of stay between for-profit and not-for-profit facilities.