If You Build It, Will They Come?: Fiscal Federalism, Local Provision of Public Tourist Amenities, and the Vision Iowa Fund

The philosophy of fiscal federalism presumes that local communities will under- or over-provide public amenities in the presence of externalities.� We test this hypothesis using data from Vision Iowa, a state program which provided partial funding to communities to build tourist attractions.� We find a 1% increase in investment increased county taxable retail sales 0.9%.� The State’s return, from program-induced sales tax revenue, averaged 9.2% annually.� Local communities’ returns averaged 0.9% and we find a significant increase in surrounding areas’ sales.� This suggests that without state subsidies, communities would undersupply public amenities aimed at attracting visitors.fiscal federalism; local public goods; subsidy; externality; spillover; amenity; retail sales

Racial Disparities in Traffic Stops

Stark racial inequity has long been a deeply troubling aspect of our criminal justice system. In recent years, traffic stops have emerged as a key factor driving some of these inequities and an area of potential reform. Are there opportunities to identify kinds of traffic stops that could be enforced in alternative ways—potentially improving officer and civilian safety, enhancing police efficiency, and reducing racial disparities—without jeopardizing road safety?To explore this question, in this report we use data on 3.4 million traffic stops made in 2019 by California's 15 largest law enforcement agencies to examine racial disparities in stop outcomes and experiences across time of the day, type of law enforcement agency, and type of traffic violation

Hospital Closure and Hospital Choice: How Hospital Quality and Availability will Affect Rural Residents

This study estimates a model of rural patient hospital choice between the nearest rural hospital, the nearest urban hospital, or the nearest research hospital. We present separate estimates for inpatient and outpatient visits, for different diagnoses, and for emergency and nonemergency admissions. The analyses illustrate the tradeoffs between hospital quality and distance in deciding whether to choose the nearest hospital or to travel farther for an alternative. The model parameters are used to simulate two hospital closing scenarios for both outpatient and inpatient data: 1) closing 25% of lowest quality rural hospitals and 2) closing 15% of the least used rural hospitals. Closing 25% of the lowest quality rural hospitals results in a 20.7% increase in expected distance and a 7.7% increase in expected hospital quality for those with inpatient ailments. Closing the least used hospitals modestly increases average distance but lowers average quality. We conclude that closing the lowest quality rural hospitals is a better policy prescription than closing the least used hospitals since closing low quality hospitals results in a substantial increase in average quality of hospital with only a slight increase in distance traveled for chosen hospitals

If You Build It, Will They Come?: Fiscal Federalism, Local Provision of Public Tourist Amenities, and the Vision Iowa Fund

Iowa provided partial state funding to communities to build tourist attractions, a potential solution to local under-provision of public goods. A 10 percent increase in state funds increased county taxable retail sales by 0.1 percent. The State’s return from resulting sales tax revenue averaged 11.8 percent. Local communities paid more and received less tax, and so their return was much smaller at 1.2 percent. Neighboring community sales also increased. The positive spillovers to neighbors and the state suggest that local communities will undersupply public amenities without state subsidies

EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN POLICING

Racial disparities within the criminal justice system continue to be a pressing issue, especially after the recent passage of California’s Racial Justice Act, which allows for a broader set of legal challenges based on racially disparate treatment. In this article, we analyze data for almost four million stops by California’s fifteen largest law enforcement agencies in 2019, examining the extent to which people of color experience searches, enforcement, intrusiveness, and use of force differently from white people. Black Californians are more likely to be searched than white Californians, but searches of Black civilians reveal less contraband and evidence. Black people are overrepresented in stops not leading to enforcement as well as in stops leading to an arrest. While differences in location and context for the stop significantly contribute to racial disparities, notable inequities remain after accounting for such factors. These disparities are concentrated in traffic stops. A notable proportion of which lead to no enforcement or discovery—suggesting that gains in efficiency and equity are possible. Through a “veil of darkness” analysis, we find evidence that racial bias may be a contributing factor to disparities in traffic stops for Black and Latino drivers. These findings suggest that traffic stops for non-moving violations deserve consideration for alternative enforcement strategies

If you build it, will they come?: fiscal federalism, local provision of public tourist amenities, and the Vision Iowa fund

The philosophy of fiscal federalism presumes that local communities will under- or over-provide public amenities in the presence of externalities. We test this hypothesis using data from Vision Iowa, a state program which provided partial funding to communities to build tourist attractions. We find a 1% increase in investment increased county taxable retail sales 0.9%. The State\u27s return, from program-induced sales tax revenue, averaged 9.2% annually. Local communities\u27 returns averaged 0.9% and we find a significant increase in surrounding areas\u27 sales. This suggests that without state subsidies, communities would undersupply public amenities aimed at attracting visitors

Multi-objective resistance-capacitance optimization algorithm: An effective multi-objective algorithm for engineering design problems

Focusing on practical engineering applications, this study introduces the Multi-Objective Resistance-Capacitance Optimization Algorithm (MORCOA), a new approach for multi-objective optimization problems. MORCOA uses the transient response behaviour of resistance-capacitance circuits to navigate complex optimization landscapes and identify global optima when faced with many competing objectives. The core approach of MORCOA combines a dynamic elimination-based crowding distance mechanism with non-dominated sorting to generate an ideal and evenly distributed Pareto front. The algorithm's effectiveness is evaluated through a structured, three-phase analysis. Initially, MORCOA is applied to five benchmark problems from the ZDT test suite, with performance assessed using various metrics and compared against state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization techniques. The study then expands to include seven problems from the DTLZ benchmark collection, further validating MORCOA's effectiveness. The final phase involves applying MORCOA to six real-world constrained engineering design problems. Notably, the optimization of a honeycomb heat sink, which is crucial in thermal management systems, is a significant part of this study. This phase uses a range of performance measures to assess MORCOA's practical application and efficacy in engineering design. The results highlight MORCOA's robustness and efficiency in both real-world engineering applications and benchmark problems, demonstrating its superior capabilities compared to existing algorithms. The effective use of MORCOA in real-world engineering design problems indicates its potential as an adaptable and powerful tool for complex multi-objective optimization tasks, contributing to the optimization field

Leukocyte- and Platelet-Derived Microvesicle Interactions following In Vitro and In Vivo Activation of Toll-Like Receptor 4 by Lipopolysaccharide

BACKGROUND: Pro-coagulant membrane microvesicles (MV) derived from platelets and leukocytes are shed into the circulation following receptor-mediated activation, cell-cell interaction, and apoptosis. Platelets are sentinel markers of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation. Experiments were designed to evaluate the time course and mechanism of direct interactions between platelets and leukocytes following acute activation of TLR4 by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Blood from age-matched male and female wild type (WT) and TLR4 gene deleted (dTLR4) mice was incubated with ultra-pure E. coli LPS (500 ng/ml) for up to one hour. At designated periods, leukocyte antigen positive platelets, platelet antigen positive leukocytes and cell-derived MV were quantified by flow cytometry. Numbers of platelet- or leukocyte-derived MV did not increase within one hour following in vitro exposure of blood to LPS. However, with LPS stimulation numbers of platelets staining positive for both platelet- and leukocyte-specific antigens increased in blood derived from WT but not dTLR4 mice. This effect was blocked by inhibition of TLR4 signaling mediated by My88 and TRIF. Seven days after a single intravenous injection of LPS (500 ng/mouse or 20 ng/gm body wt) to WT mice, none of the platelets stained for leukocyte antigen. However, granulocytes, monocytes and apoptotic bodies stained positive for platelet antigens. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Within one hour of exposure to LPS, leukocytes exchange surface antigens with platelets through TLR4 activation. In vivo, leukocyte expression of platelet antigen is retained after a single exposure to LPS following turn over of the platelet pool. Acute expression of leukocyte antigen on platelets within one hour of exposure to LPS and the sustained expression of platelet antigen on leukocytes following a single acute exposure to LPS in vivo explains, in part, associations of platelets and leukocytes in response to bacterial infection and changes in thrombotic propensity of the blood

Essays in the Economics of Crime and Health Economics

This dissertation explores policy-relevant issues in the economics of crime and health economics. In the first study, I explore the impact of public scrutiny generated by high-profile, officer-involved fatalities on police officer effort. The second chapter provides a synthesis of the evidence on whether police reduce crime, a timely review during a national discussion on policing—prompted by the "Defund the Police" movement. Finally, the last chapter explores the impacts of rural hospital closings on rural patient welfare, an increasing likely phenomenon as the COVID-19 virus has rendered numerous healthcare facilities insolvent.The first chapter explores whether public scrutiny of police officers reduces their level of effort—empirically testing the Ferguson Effect. Leveraging the quasi-random timing of high-profile, officer-involved fatalities (OFs), this paper provides the first national analysis of this question with department-level data on arrests and crime. To address the simultaneous effects that could occur after an OF—(1) greater scrutiny of police, (2) reduced community cooperation with identifying and locating suspects, (3) reduced civilian crime reporting, and (4) changes in offending behavior—I develop a theoretical model of policing behavior to provide empirical predictions of the changes in arrests due to each of the four possible channels. Following a high-profile OF, theft arrests drop by 4-13%, while arrests for the least serious offenses (e.g., marijuana possession and disorderly conduct) see sharp declines of up to 33%. Notably, arrest rates do not change for violent crime or more serious property crimes. These findings are consistent with scrutiny as the causal channel for the reduction in arrests. While the decline in arrests for theft is temporary, it persists for the least serious offenses, representing a sustained transition to a lower equilibrium effort. Reductions in arrests occur for both black and white suspects, but reductions for black suspects are suggestively larger in cases of theft and marijuana possession.The second chapter, co-authored with Justin McCrary, discusses the role that the police have in deterring and reducing crimes. After a brief overview of deterrence theory, we discuss the empirical evidence on the efficacy of police staffing and various policing strategies on crime reduction. Using a framework developed in Weisburd and Eck (2004), we quickly evaluate the model of standard policing and then mainly focus on evidence behind three current policing practices: hot spots, problem-oriented, and proactive. Finally, we use the empirical evidence of police staffing to provide a basis for a theoretical model on the optimal level of policing. Using the Chalfin and McCrary (2018) framework, we discuss how one could estimate how much crime could be reduced if additional funds were directed to hire more law enforcement officers, and if crime-reduction were the sole policing objective, how many cities are in fact underpoliced. We conclude by postulating whether we could implement additional policing without resulting in unwarranted and excessive social costs for the community as discussed by Manski and Nagin (2017).The third chapter, co-authored with Dave Jones and Peter Orazem, estimates a model of rural patient hospital choice between the nearest rural hospital, the nearest urban hospital, or the nearest research hospital. We present separate estimates for inpatient and outpatient visits, for different diagnoses, and for emergency and nonemergency admissions. The analyses illustrate the tradeoffs between hospital quality and distance in deciding whether to choose the nearest hospital or to travel farther for an alternative. The model parameters are used to simulate two hospital closing scenarios for both outpatient and inpatient data: 1) closing 25% of lowest quality rural hospitals and 2) closing 15% of the least used rural hospitals. Closing 25% of the lowest quality rural hospitals results in a 20.7% increase in expected distance and a 7.7% increase in expected hospital quality for those with inpatient ailments. Closing the least used hospitals modestly increases average distance but lowers average quality. We conclude that closing the lowest quality rural hospitals is a better policy prescription than closing the least used hospitals since closing low quality hospitals results in a substantial increase in average quality of hospital with only a slight increase in distance traveled for chosen hospitals