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TRAC Immigration

October 15, 2021

TRAC's Immigration Project is a unique new multi-year effort to systematically go after very detailed information from the government, check it for accuracy and completeness and then make it available in an understandable way to the American people, Congress, immigration groups and others.Currently available on TRAC's Immigration site are reports focusing on Border Patrol apprehensions along the border, Border Patrol staffing, criminal enforcement in the federal district courts and government inspections activities at the designated ports of entry. Additional reports and studies are under development on a range of subjects such as the granting of immigration benefits — green cards, naturalization, affirmative asylum, etc — and the workings of the immigration courts. These reports and the latest data obtained from the government will be posted to our new site as the information is obtained from the various agencies, checked for accuracy and completeness and analyzed.

Measuring Social Unrest Based on Income Distribution

October 1, 2013

This paper develops a social unrest measure by revising Esteban-Ray (1994, Econometrica) polarization index. For the purpose of measuring more effectively the level of social unrest that is generated by separation of income classes, the new index allows for asymmetry between the rich and the poor groups' alienation feeling against the other, and it constructs a more effective group identification function. To facilitate statistical inferences, asymptotic distribution of the proposed measure is also derived using results from U-statistics, and an easy-to-implement jackknife-based variance estimation algorithm is obtained. Since the new index is general enough to include the Esteban-Ray index and the Gini index for group data as special cases, the asymptotic results can be readily applied to these popular indices. Evidence based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data suggests that the level of social unrest has generally increased over the sample period of 1981-2005, particular since the late 1990's, and the increase is statistically significant.

Revitalizing the Legacy Cities of Upstate New York

February 1, 2013

The report summarizes input from over one hundred public, private, and non-profit sector leaders recently assembled from across New York State to prioritize economic development strategies. Lieutenant Governor Duffy, charged the policy workshop participants to identify key Upstate Legacy City revitalization priorities for practitioners and policy makers. Moreover, the recommendations provide critical tools to encourage and inform a growing national dialogue on the future of Legacy Cities and their critical role in 21st century economic prosperity and quality of life.

Family Structure and the Economic Wellbeing of Children

August 1, 2012

An extensive literature that examines the relationship between family structure and children's outcomes consistently shows that living with a single parent is associated with negative outcomes. Few studies, however, directly test the relationship between family structure and outcomes for the child once he/she reaches adulthood. We directly examine, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, whether family structure during childhood is related to the child's economic wellbeing both during childhood as well as adulthood. Our findings suggest that the economic wellbeing of children of mothers who experience a marital dissolution and remarry are no different from the children of mothers who are continuously married. However, the children of mothers whose marriages dissolve but who do not remarry experience large declines in their income over their first ten years of life. We also show that while the children of never married mothers earn a lot less as adults than the children of married parents, these differences can largely be explained by demographic and socioeconomic factors. Finally, our findings suggest that children who have mothers who experience a marital dissolution and who do not remarry have economic losses that persist into adulthood. Robustness checks using family fixed effects models support this result.

The Value of Statistical Life: Pursuing the Deadliest Catch

October 1, 2009

Observed tradeoffs between monetary returns and fatality risk identify estimates of the valueof a statistical life (VSL), which inform public policy and quantify preferences for environmentalquality, health and safety. To date, few investigations have estimated the VSL associated withtradeoffs between returns from natural resource extraction activities and the fatality risks theyinvolve. Furthermore researchers have been unable to determine whether or not one's VSL is stableacross multiple decision environments using revealed preference methods. Understanding thesetradeoffs (and the VSL that they imply) may be used to inform resource management policy andsafety regulations, as well as our general understanding of the value of life. By modeling a commercial fishing captain's choice to fish or not, conditional on the observed risk, this research investigates these topics using data from the Alaskan red king crab and snow crab fisheries. Using weather conditions and policy variables as instruments, our estimates of the mean VSL range from $4.00M to $4.76M (depending on the modeling assumption and fishery analyzed) and are robust to the incorporation of heterogeneous preferences. Furthermore, given the unique nature of the data we are able to conduct an intra-vessel comparison of the VSL and conclude that for roughly 92% of thefishermen observed in the data set their VSL estimates are stable across both fisheries.

Allocating Resources within a Big City School District: New York City after Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. New York

May 1, 2005

This brief looks at at the mechanisms used to distribute resources across public schools. We first present what we know about the current distribution of educational resources within New York City and other large city districts. Then we discuss current efforts to promote greater equity in the distribution of resources and improve student performance. We conclude with lessons and policy implications for New York State as it implements the CFE decision in New York City. These findings also apply to other large districts in the state, such as Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. Our focus in this brief is on vertical equity--ensuring that schools serving students with different levels of need receive appropriately different levels of resources--rather than adequacy. But the two concepts are closely related. If we ensure that students with a variety of needs have ample resources to achieve agreed upon educational goals, we will achieve both school-level adequacy and vertical equit

Community Integration Report: Supporting Children and Youth with Disabilities in Integrated Recreation and Leisure Activities

January 1, 1992

Fact sheet on including children and youth with disabilities in inclusive recreational and leisure activities.