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Working Paper
What do cross-sectional growth regressions tell us about convergence?
This paper tests the dynamic implications of beta-convergence with time-series data from 48 contiguous U.S. states. The motivation for this paper rests with the interpretation of results from cross-sectional growth regressions. These results show that poor regions experience faster per-capita income growth than rich regions. This is interpreted as evidence of convergence. However, convergence is a dynamic adjustment process with testable implications in time-series data, while the literature employs cross-sectional data to estimate this dynamic concept. A set of strong assumptions must be ...
Journal Article
Are state government debt levels too high?
Journal Article
Will the current boom encourage states to spend too much?
Journal Article
How will future aid cuts affect New England's public sector?
Journal Article
How will New Hampshire solve its school funding problem? part 1 of 3
In December 1997, the New Hampshire Supreme Court decided that the local property tax used to fund the states K-12 public education was set at $6.60 per $1,000 of a propertys value. On the surface, this measure would appear to meet the stipulation of equal and proportionate, since a uniform tax rate is applied equally to all property owners across the state. However, on January 17, 2001, Rockingham Superior Court Judge Richard E. Galway ruled in Sirrell, et al. v. State of New Hampshire, et al. that the new statewide property tax was also unconstitutional. A divided state Supreme Court ...
Working Paper
Is the U.S. economy characterized by endogenous growth?: a time-series test of two stochastic growth models
In this paper, I conduct a structural change test that casts doubt on the validity of exogenous growth assumptions. Cross-sectional empirical support for non-stochastic convergence in the neoclassical growth model is the reason that the literature rejects endogenous growth. But, in a stochastic world, both neoclassical and endogenous growth models exhibit disequilibrium adjustment dynamics, thus convergence is not sufficient to reject endogenous growth. After testing for cointegration in regional per-capita incomes, I extract a single common trend to control for non-stationarity in ...
Journal Article
How will New Hampshire solve its school funding problem?: part 3 of 3
Ever since the New Hampshire Supreme Court decided in Claremont II that the local property tax used to fund K-12 public education was unconstitutional, policymakers have struggled to find a permanent solution to the school finance problem. In June 2001, after a rancorous two-year public debate, and nearly four years after the Claremont II decision, policymakers enacted a second plan that made the statewide property tax permanent and added sufficient supplemental revenues to finance the legislature's definition of the amount required to fund an "adequate" education. However, the school ...
Journal Article
Will the tobacco settlement payments go up in smoke?
In December 1995, Massachusetts attorney general Scott Harshbarger filed a civil suit against the tobacco industry. The Commonwealths lawsuit charged that the tobacco industry had conducted research into the addictive properties of nicotine and used this research to willfully manipulate the nicotine level of cigarettes in order to addict smokers and increase cigarette sales. The lawsuit asked the court for damages to compensate the Commonwealth for expenditures paid to treat smoking-related illnesses. At the time this litigation was filed, Massachusetts was the fifth state in the nation to ...
Journal Article
Is New England underinvesting in public infrastructure?