State governments have a long history of providing income tax relief to their elderly constituents. Our research investigates the current distributional and revenue effects of these tax breaks, as well as the economic status of the elderly, and explores how these measures have changed since 1990. Using data from the 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series and the 2013 American Community Survey, combined with the TAXSIM calculator, we calculate current state income tax liabilities and revenues and simulate the effects of removing all age-related tax breaks. Our analyses reveal that the economic well-being of the elderly has grown substantially relative to the nonelderly and that state tax breaks primarily benefit the middle- and upper-income elderly. Revenue costs of these tax breaks have also grown substantially, and their modest and mixed effects on income equality, measured by changes in the Gini, cast doubt on equity as a justification.

Using state-level data from 1970 to 1999 and a five-year interval approach, Reed provides robust evidence that taxes have a negative effect on state economic growth. Subsequent work by Gale, Krupkin, and Rueben uses more recent data, ending with the five-year period around the Great Recession, and provides evidence that the relationship is not stable. We take a systematic approach to replicating and then updating Reed to include the most recent data possible to see whether the relationship is sensitive to the time period considered. Our analyses corroborate Reed’s findings of a consistently negative and often statistically significant effect of taxes on state economic growth but also suggest that the long-run effects no longer exist in more current years.

Chironomid midges are ubiquitous and ecologically important aquatic insects. However, some species can become pests when they occur in extremely high numbers, particularly those that colonize man-made habitats. Chironomus calligraphus is a Neotropical, pan-American species that has recently been found in the Nearctic region. This paper represents the 1st reported occurrence of C. calligraphus in Georgia. Extensive larval populations were found in the leaf sheaths and root masses of cattails and in the firm sandy substrates of a wastewater lake at an industrial site in coastal Georgia. Chironomus calligraphus was causing a significant economic impact at this site.

Laws mandating that individuals wear a seat belt have the presumed goal of reducing motor vehicle accident fatalities, but the prevailing view is that they may reduce the number of organs available. I provide a conceptual model identifying mechanisms whereby the law could either increase or decrease organ donation. Exploiting variation across states and time in the adoption of primary seat belt enforcement, I investigate these mechanisms and estimate the effect of the law on the supply of organs. The law increases seat belt usage and decreases motor vehicle accident fatalities, which translates to a sizeable reduction in the number of motor vehicle accident-based organ donors. In contrast, the law is not associated with changes in the number of organ donors from nonmotor vehicle accident-based sources and is robust to controlling for hospital-specific effects. The effects are concentrated within organs expected to be most negatively impacted by the seat belt. Although primary enforcement represents a net-gain to society in terms of lives saved, the negative impact on organ donation suggests further emphasis be placed on policies aimed at increasing the availability of organs.

Income tax breaks for elderly taxpayers are sizable, widespread, and potentially affect growth through migration and other behaviors. We provide the first investigation into the growth effects of differential tax policy by age, taking a multi-pronged empirical approach to US state-level data since 1977. Some analyses include panel error-correction models combined with variation in state-level policies over time. Alternative analyses use how changes in federal tax law manifest at the state-level. Results suggest that taxes on lower income taxpayers, of any age, decrease growth the most, while taxing the high income elderly-those targeted recently-has little effect.