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2. A Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century
- Author:
- Robert Puentes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- In the past, strategic investments in our nation's transportation infrastructure—the railroads in the 19th century, the interstates in the 20th—turbocharged growth and transformed the country. But more recently, America's transportation infrastructure has not kept pace with the growth and evolution of its economy. At the precise time when the nation desperately needs to prioritize its limited investments and resources, the federal transportation program has lost focus.
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
3. Bridging the Social Security Divide: Lessons From Abroad
- Author:
- R. Kent Weaver
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Efforts by President George W. Bush to promote major reforms in the Social Security retirement program have not led to policy change, but rather to increased polarization between the two parties. And the longer we wait to address Social Security's long-term funding problem, the bigger and more painful the changes will need to be.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States
4. Modernizing the Intelligence Surveillance Act
- Author:
- David Kris
- Publication Date:
- 11-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- In December 2005, the New York Times reported, and President Bush confirmed, that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been conducting electronic surveillance of international communications, to or from the United States, without obeying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). The disclosure ignited a wildfire of political and legal controversy, which continues to generate heat, if not light, today.
- Topic:
- Government, Intelligence, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States and New York
5. Committing to Prosperity: Moving Forward on the Agenda to Renew Pennsylvania
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Pennsylvania is at once the same and different, three years after the release of the 2003 Brookings Institution report “Back to Prosperity,” which proposed a new vision for how Pennsylvania might revitalize its cities, towns, and regions in order to compete more energetically in today's global economy.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States and Pennsylvania
6. The Implications of Service Offshoring for Metropolitan Economies
- Author:
- Howard Wial and Robert Atkinson
- Publication Date:
- 02-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- In the months running up to the 2004 election the issue of off- shoring—the movement of jobs from the United States to other nations—seemed to be on the front pages of newspapers every day. Some of the concern was about the loss of manufacturing jobs to lower-wage countries such as China and Mexico, a process that had been going on for decades. The offshoring of service jobs, though, was something new. Service workers—including college- educated professionals—who previously thought their jobs immune to foreign competition began to worry about this new source of job in security. Policymakers concerned about the American standard of living wondered whether service offshoring would eliminate the United States' advantage in high technology industries.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Economics, Government, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, and Mexico
7. More COPS
- Author:
- John J. Donohue III and Jens Ludwig
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- It would be unrealistic to expect crime to continue dropping sharply as it did in the 1990s, but that is no reason to undermine the progress brought by successful policies. With recent FBI data showing crime on the rise, it is time to reconsider the massive de-funding of one of the most successful federal anti-crime measures of the 1990s: the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) program. The program, authorized by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, provides grants to state and local police to hire additional officers and adopt aspects of "community policing."
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Crime, Development, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
8. Making Sense of Clusters: Regional Competitiveness and Economic Development
- Author:
- Joseph Cortright
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- In recent years, "cluster strategies" have become a popular economic development approach among state and local policymakers and economic development practitioners. An industry cluster is a group of firms, and related economic actors and institutions, that are located near one another and that draw productive advantage from their mutual proximity and connections. Cluster analysis can help diagnose a region's economic strengths and challenges and identify realistic ways to shape the region's economic future. Yet many policymakers and practitioners have only a limited understanding of what clusters are and how to build economic development strategies around them.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
9. The Affordability Index
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- This brief describes a new information tool developed by the Urban Markets Initiative to quantify, for the first time, the impact of transportation costs on the affordability of housing choices. This brief explains the background, creation, and purpose of this new tool. The first section provides a project overview and a short summary of the method used to create the Affordability Index. The next section highlights the results from testing the index in a seven-county area in and around Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. To demonstrate the usefulness of this tool at a neighborhood level, the third section projects the effect of transportation and housing choices on three hypothetical low- and moderate-income families in each of four different neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. The brief concludes with suggested policy recommendations and applications of the new tool for various actors in the housing market, and for regulators, planners, and funders in the transportation and land use arenas at all levels of government.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
10. How Well Are American Students Learning?
- Author:
- Tom Loveless
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- This report launches the second volume of the Brown Center Report on American Education. The five issues of volume one were published from 2000 to 2004. Volume one included regular reports on data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and state assessments, analysis of student achievement in charter schools, a study of trends in homework, evaluations of the federal government's Blue Ribbon Schools Program, an investigation of the academic performance of high schools with powerhouse sports teams, analyses of student achievement in urban school districts and rural schools, a survey of exchange students from countries abroad to see what they think of American schools, and a survey of the mathematics preparation of middle school math teachers. Volume two will explore similar topics related to how well American students are learning.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Education, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
11. Charting Maine's Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and Quality Places
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- For all its challenges Maine stands within reach of a new prosperity—if it takes bold action and focuses its limited resources on a few critical investments. The moment is urgent. After decades of industrial restructuring and drift, the pace of transformation is quickening, and the slow replacement of the old order is yielding a new one that may bring better lives for Mainers. New population growth is bringing new people and new wealth to the state.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
12. Reducing Unwed Childbearing: The Missing Link in Efforts to Promote Marriage
- Author:
- Daniel T. Lichter and Andrea Kane
- Publication Date:
- 04-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Most social scientists acknowledge that, on balance, single parents, stepparents, or cohabiting couples are no substitute for childrearing by two married parents. Yet, new data from the federal government show that a record number of babies—nearly 1.5 million—were born to unmarried women in the United States in 2004. Empirical evidence of this sort has leveraged political support for the Bush administration's “Healthy Marriage Initiative.” Congress recently approved major funding for this initiative as part of welfare reform reauthorization. Approximately $100 million per year will be available for research, demonstration, and technical assistance projects to promote healthy marriage through such activities as public advertising campaigns, relationship and marriage education in high schools, and relationship and marriage skills for both unmarried and married couples. In addition, about $50 million per year will be available to promote responsible fatherhood.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States
13. Can Rich Countries Afford to Grow Old?
- Author:
- Gary Burtless
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Observers in many industrialized countries believe population aging represents a serious economic threat. Increases in the percentage of the population past retirement age may impose unsustainable burdens on future workers. Either taxes or government debt will have to rise substantially to pay for old-age income support. This paper considers the extent of these burdens and corrects the widespread impression that the burdens are unsupportable. Population aging means that contributions needed to support the retired elderly must rise. But this extra burden will be at least partly offset by a reduced need to support the dependent young, who will become relatively less numerous. The extra burden of an aging population would be smaller still if labor force participation rates among the working-age and elderly populations increased. Indeed, employment rates among the nonaged have risen in nearly all the industrialized countries as a growing percentage of women has entered the work force. Many countries, including the United States, have adopted policies to encourage work among people past the traditional retirement age.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Economics, Government, and Population
- Political Geography:
- United States
14. Deficits, Interest Rates, and the User Cost of Capital: A Reconsideration of the Effects of Tax Policy on Investment
- Author:
- William G. Gale and Peter R. Orszag
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Under traditional formulations, lower capital income tax rates reduce the user cost of capital and stimulate investment. The traditional approach, however, implictly or explicitly considers a revenue-neutral reduction in capital income taxation. We extend the traditional approach by considering a reduction in taxes that generates an increase in the budget deficit; the expanded budget deficit raises interest rates and the opportunity cost of investment. This provides a mechanism through which tax cuts can raise the cost of capital. Representative calculations show that, even with relatively modest interest rate effects, the net effect of making the Administration's recent tax cuts permanent or a 10-percent reduction in individual income tax rates would be to raise the user cost of capital. Thus, sustained tax cuts can raise the cost of capital and reduce investment.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
15. Articulating a Policy Framework for Long-Term Federal Entitlement Reform
- Author:
- James C. Capretta
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- President Bush's top first-term objectives—in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks—were waging and winning the global war on terror, significantly enhancing our homeland security systems, and strengthening economic growth.1 With sluggish economic growth following the 2001 recession persisting in 2002 and 2003—due, in part, to the revelation of several corporate governance scandals and the aftermath of technology stock "bubble burst"—the President placed a high premium on tax relief proposals aimed at accelerating the pace of short and long-term economic growth. In this context, it is not at all surprising that large federal budget deficits emerged.
- Topic:
- Security, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
16. Why Federalism Matters
- Author:
- Pietro S. Nivola
- Publication Date:
- 10-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- What do we want from federalism?” asked the late Martin Diamond in a famous essay written thirty years ago. His answer was that federalism—a political system permitting a large measure of regional selfrule—presumably gives the rulers and the ruled a “school of their citizenship,” “a preserver of their liberties,” and “a vehicle for flexible response to their problems.” These features, broadly construed, are said to reduce conflict between diverse communities, even as a federated polity affords inter-jurisdictional competition that encourages innovations and constrains the overall growth of government.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States
17. Insuring America's Workers in a New Era of Offshoring
- Author:
- Robert E. Litan, Nicholas Warren, and Lael Brainard
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- With a new wave of white-collar offshoring coming fast on the heels of accelerated job losses in manufacturing, an ever-broader pool of American workers is finding that the nation's safety net has more holes than netting. The nation can and must do more to help insure the livelihoods of American workers in the face of structural shifts of whatever form, while preserving the benefits of an open and innovative economy. With technological change and offshoring accelerating job turnover and the pace at which workers' job-specific skills lose value, the time has come for the federal government to strengthen the existing safety net.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
18. Can the U.S. Government Live Within Its Means? Lessons from Abroad
- Author:
- Allen Schick
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- When George W. Bush leaves office in 2009, the federal government will owe at least $15,000 more for every American than it did when he became president eight years earlier. This unprecedented build-up of public debt will result from budget deficits projected to average more than $250 billion a year during the Bush presidency, plus more than one trillion dollars borrowed from social security trust funds. Although this budget projection may be high, there is far greater risk that actual deficits will exceed current estimates than that they will be lower.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
19. Offshoring, Import Competition, and the Jobless Recovery
- Author:
- Charles L. Schultze
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Until the end of 2003, the United States had been experiencing a “jobless” recovery, with employment stagnating at levels well below those in 2000. A widespread perception has arisen that a major culprit behind the dearth of jobs was the growing practice of U.S. firms to relocate part of their domestic operations to lower-wage countries abroad. “Offshoring” presumably caused a reduction in U.S. output and a corresponding loss of jobs.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States
20. Improving the Saver's Credit
- Author:
- William G. Gale and Peter R. Orszag
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- For decades, the U.S. private pension system has provided preferential tax treatment to employer-provided pensions, 401(k) plans, and individual retirement accounts relative to other forms of saving. The effectiveness of this system of subsidies is controversial. Despite the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth in pension accounts, concerns persist about the ability of the pension system to raise private and national saving, and in particular to improve saving outcomes among those households most in danger of inadequately preparing for retirement.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States