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Working Paper
Low-income housing tax credit developments and neighborhood property conditions
Public housing has long been a contentious issue for cities and regions. While there is a great need for affordable housing in many communities, neighbors of low-income housing developments fret about neighborhood decay. This paper evaluates the notion that low-income housing developments damage the communities in which they are placed. The focus is on the evaluation of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) financed developments, and the neighborhood indicator of interest is the physical condition of nearby properties. The results of the empirical analysis suggest that proximity to LIHTC ...
Working Paper
Student loan relief programs: implications for borrowers and the federal government
As college costs increase and more students fund their education through borrowing, debt load and delinquency rates have become significant problems on a number of levels. Student loan obligations are challenging to manage for new graduates with lower earnings and borrowers in financial hardship. This paper discusses the federal student loan repayment relief programs that are available and estimates their borrower and fiscal impacts. The implications of relief plans on borrowers? costs and the federal budget vary for different loan amounts, income levels, and relief program. {{p}} It is ...
Journal Article
A look at bankruptcy in the Tenth District and beyond
Working Paper
The role of small business in economic development
This paper sets out to evaluate the role that entrepreneurs and small businesses play in economic development. How important are entrepreneurs and small businesses in creating jobs, and are these the types of jobs that should be encouraged? How important are entrepreneurs and small businesses in the development of new products and new markets? Does promoting entrepreneurship and small businesses make sense as an economic development strategy? The answer is yes, but with some qualifications. Small businesses are potent job creators, but so are large businesses. The attribution of the bulk of ...
Working Paper
Taxing consumption in Jamaica
In Jamaica, as in most countries, consumption taxes in the form of a value-added tax called the General Consumption Tax (GCT) and several excise taxes collectively known as the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) are critically important revenue sources, accounting for 37.4 percent of total revenues in fiscal year 2003/04 (27.7 percent for GCT alone) and an estimated 11.2 percent of GDP (8.3 percent for GCT alone). This paper first describes in some detail the present structure and administration of the GCT and SCT and then evaluates the performance of these taxes from several angles -- as revenue ...
Working Paper
Financial education at the workplace: evidence from a survey of Federal Reserve Bank employees
There are a number of possible explanations for the seemingly irresponsible financial behavior of many Americans. In this paper we argue that an important explanation is simply ignorance: consumers often make poor financial decisions because they do not know how to make good ones. In particular, we stress that consumers may not realize the importance of saving for the future, and that they may not perceive the trouble they can bring upon themselves by incurring large amounts of unsecured debt. Using survey data from employees of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, we demonstrate that, at ...
Working Paper
Financial Vulnerability and Personal Finance Outcomes of Natural Disasters
I evaluate the effects of hurricanes of varying intensity on the financial condition of a typical resident in both affected and unaffected census tracts, where the degree of affect is determined by the relative location of a census tract?s boundary with buffers around the tracks of hurricane eyes that occurred in the years 2000-2014. The primary question in the article is whether financial vulnerability, or, alternatively, ?financial preparedness,? affects post-hurricane disaster financial outcomes. {{p}} I find that hurricanes tend to lower credit scores, for the most, but outcomes are far ...
Journal Article
Attracting the power cohort to the Tenth District
A long debated issue in regional economics is whether ?people follow jobs? or ?jobs follow people.? That is, do people move to where jobs are available, or do employers locate their facilities where potential employees reside? If people follow jobs, an appropriate economic development policy would be to concentrate on luring employers, especially large employers. This view reflects many traditional state and local economic development policies. If, on the other hand, jobs follow people, a better policy would be to focus on luring skilled people by creating an environment that is an attractive ...
Journal Article
Structural and Cyclical Trends in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased sharply over the past 20 years. Average monthly participation grew from 17.3 million people in 2001 to a peak of 47.6 million people in 2013. Although participation declined somewhat as the economy recovered from the Great Recession, SNAP participation remains well above its pre-recession level. {{p}} Kelly D. Edmiston investigates the forces driving long-term patterns in SNAP participation as well as its cyclical variation. He finds that three structural factors?legislative and programmatic changes, poverty, ...