CLOSUP publications

A growing body of literature has demonstrated a relationship between an individual’s personal experience with weather and their views on the existence of global warming. In particular recent studies have shown that temperature and precipitation...

States producing gas and oil have long levied severance taxes at the point of extraction, commonly placing most revenues into general funds. These taxes have assumed new meaning in many states amid the expansion of gas and oil production...

The surge of American states’ adoption of policies to mitigate climate change in the late 1990s and 2000s appeared to constitute a first wave of expanding use of market-based policy tools such as carbon cap-and-trade in the absence of binding...

The purpose of this study is to begin to develop a comprehensive assessment of the relative activity of the US states in developing environmental policies. We did this by developing eleven policy categories varying across different environmental and...

With a unique approach and expanded data measures, this study attempts to contribute to the research on what leads metro economies in the United States to function the way they do, what makes some of the economies more successful than others, and...

Analysis of wind resources suggests that the proposed expansion of Michigan's renewable portfolio standard to require that 25\% of the state's electricity sales derive from renewables (Proposal 3 on the 2012 ballot) can be met by its 2025 target...

This paper examines affordable housing developments supported by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program and how they have contributed to neighborhood redevelopment in the city of Detroit. For cities like Detroit that have long suffered...

The nation's largest charter management organization is the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP schools are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education, a highly standardized and widely replicated charter model that features a long...

We assess the potential for expanding regional planning by asking local government officials their perspectives on the potential for increasing regionalism in their communities, and the most promising approaches to achieving greater regionalism. Our...

This paper focuses on the labor market outcomes that represent a key marker of the transition to adulthood—the attainment of economic stability and self-sufficiency. Achieving labor market success is a necessary condition for a successful transition...

We analyze SSI applications and benefit receipt after the 1996 welfare reform by single mothers who received cash assistance in February 1997. We address these questions: First, what characteristics are associated with SSI applications and how do...

Since the early 1970s, dramatic changes in the economy, demographic composition of the population and in public policies have combined to reduce the antipoverty effects of economic growth. Because economic growth is now necessary, but not...

Over the last three decades, structural changes in the American labor market eliminated many highly‐paid, stable jobs that had previously been available to workers with a high school diploma or less. Job security is important, particularly for the...

This report seeks to identify and quantify some of the challenges faced by districts as they push their students to higher academic levels in a time of fiscal hardship. We have conducted surveys and interviews of school and district level personnel...

Despite the concern that student plagiarism has become increasingly common, there is relatively little objective data on the prevalence or determinants of this illicit behavior. This study presents the results of a natural field experiment designed...

This paper takes advantage of a unique policy change to examine how principals make decisions regarding teacher dismissal. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) signed a new collective bargaining agreement that...

This paper studies the effect of employment protection on worker productivity and firm output in the context of a public school system. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) signed a new collective bargaining...

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design schoolaccountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but...

Despite the concern that student plagiarism has become increasingly common, there is relatively little objective data on the prevalence or determinants of this illicit behavior. This study presents the results of a natural field experiment designed...

Using a difference-in-difference hedonic regression approach, this study examines the external neighborhood effects of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Projects built in Santa Clara County from 1987 to 2000. It finds that a majority of the LIHTC...

Cleveland and Detroit have had similar losses in employment and population and have the same poverty rates. Both have experienced property abandonment that resulted in each city's owning thousands of parcels of tax-reverted land. The reputations of...

Policymakers are increasingly relying on emissions trading programs to address environmental problems caused by air pollution. If polluting firms in an emissions trading program face different economic regulations and investment incentives in their...

In the United States, workers in cities offering above-average nominal wages—cities with high productivity, low quality-of-life, or inefficient housing sectors—pay 30 percent more in federal taxes than otherwise identical workers in cities offering...

For political, jurisdictional and technical reasons, environmental regulation of industrial pollution is often incomplete: regulations apply to only a subset of facilities contributing to a pollution problem. Policymakers are increasingly concerned...

This study examines how neighborhoods hosting the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit projects in Miami-Dade County have changed from 1990 to 2000 and how these projects have affected their neighborhoods. The study applies a cluster analysis to identify...