Recent Policy Studies

• Economic Growth
  

  Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity

  By Karol Boudreaux, Daniel Sacks, Mercatus Center
  
  Mercatus on Policy, 09/11/2009
  

  Agricultural development is a major focus of the current administration’s efforts in Africa. Though improvements to technology and training are important components of any push to increase food supplies and agricultural productivity, land tenure reform is a necessary factor in any long-term agricultural development plan. Ignoring this issue will limit the effectiveness of current efforts to strengthen African agricultural production, while improvements to land tenure security will help increase agricultural productivity by providing farmers—men and women—with incentives to invest in land and capital by strengthening land markets and increasing the efficient use of land.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Political Malpractice: Health Insurance Misdiagnosis and the Destruction of Medical Wealth

  By Gregory Conko, Philip Klein, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  
  Issue Analysis, 09/11/2009
  

  Government tax policies, third-party purchase of insurance, a deep-rooted entitlement mentality, and the forced injection of technology into the government-dominated medical system help drive spiraling costs and uninsurability, and threaten further damage. Obviously, cases of fraud and abuse (as politicians often emphasize) exist as in any human endeavor. But, as a rule insurance companies, doctors, and employers are not to blame for the fact that some individuals are uninsurable, and punitively scapegoating those groups would only decrease the supply of insurance for everyone and expand the pool of uninsurable individuals. It is unfortunate that America’s employers, doctors, insurers, and medical products manufacturers, by creating an abundance of medical wealth, have something for politicians to exploit and therefore have become political targets. When political opportunists are openly hostile to the nation’s greatest benefactors, we have a serious problem that makes reform far more difficult.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  The Michigan Economic Development Corporation: A Review and Analysis

  By Michael LaFaive, James Hohman, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  
  Report, 09/11/2009
  

  The state’s poor image among CEOs and its brutal economic decline have occurred despite the efforts of the MEDC’s economic development staff and growing list of programs. Clearly, the MEDC has failed in its mission to “create and retain good jobs and a high quality of life” for Michiganders, a conclusion reinforced by our findings on the performance of MEGA, the Michigan Broadband Development Authority and Michigan Film Incentive program. The earlier “Literature Review and Analysis” and our own research findings indicate that the MEDC’s problems are unlikely to go away. Moreover, the rationale for government economic development programs appears flawed.

  
  
  
• Information Technology
  

  The Hazards of Prescriptive Regulatory Intervention in a Rapidly Changing Marketplace

  By Donna Coleman Gregg, Free State Foundation
  
  Perspectives from FSF Scholars, 09/10/2009
  

  Nearly two decades have passed since Congress handed the Commission the unenviable task of “promulgating rules and regulations establishing reasonable limits on the number of subscribers a cable operator may serve.” Based on current conditions in the cable television industry and the broader video programming distribution marketplace, it appears that Congress’s objectives largely have been achieved. The past two decades of sustained subscriber growth and the expanding amount and diversity of programming and other services now available to cable subscribers5 certainly indicate that the once-maligned cable industry has served consumers well.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  K-12 Spending and Achievement in Kansas: 2008 Edition

  By John LaPlante, Kansas Policy Institute
  
  Policy Papers, 09/10/2009
  

  In the 2007-08 school year, Kansas government-run public schools had a full-time equivalent enrollment that was just 2.2 percent higher than in 1993. But spending has increased substantially, whether measured by growth in total spending (108 percent) or per-pupil spending (104 percent). For the 2007-08 school year, Kansas government-run public schools spent $5.4 billion or over $12,000 per pupil. There are four key measurements of student performance: mathematics in fourth and eighth grade, and reading in fourth and eighth grade. Of those four key performance measurements, Kansas schools do best on fourth-grade mathematics. But, nearly half of all Kansas students do not meet the standard of proficiency set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Tough Crowd: Arizona High School Students Evaluate Their Schools

  By Matthew Ladner, Goldwater Institute
  
  Policy Brief, 09/10/2009
  

  Arizona’s tax code makes it difficult for parents who want to send their children to private schools by making them pay for education twice: both with their taxes and private school tuition. That’s a mistake. The findings detailed in this report show that aside from being less expensive and more effective, students themselves are more satisfied in a private school environment than their public school counterparts.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Better Citizens, Lower Cost: Comparing Scholarship Tax Credit Students to Public School Students

  By Matthew Ladner, Goldwater Institute
  
  Policy Brief, 09/10/2009
  

  Social scientists have long studied political tolerance and volunteerism. In this study, we present the results of a survey of 1,350 Arizona high school students attending district schools. The surveyor also interviewed a group of students attending private schools with the aid of a tax credit scholarship. This is the first direct comparison between public school and tax credit students in Arizona. The survey finds an alarming lack of political tolerance in Arizona high school students, as measured by standard items. Tax credit students show substantially higher levels of both political tolerance and volunteerism.

  
  
  
• Family, Culture & Community
  

  Getting Dads Back on the Job

  By Kay S. Hymowitz, Manhattan Institute
  
  Article, 09/10/2009
  

  Welfare reform’s methods for encouraging moms to work don’t apply to dads, since, for the most part, they aren’t dependent on government benefits in the first place. The puzzle facing policy experts, then, is how to entice detached fathers into the workforce, where they can begin to build stable lives for themselves and also help support the children they have sired. NYU political scientist Larry Mead has an idea about that. Mead has observed that many detached low-income fathers actually are “attached”—to the government, at least—through two channels: the parole system and child-support enforcement agencies. Yet these groups do little to encourage legitimate employment and sometimes actively discourage it.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Halfway to Where? Answering the Key Questions of Health Care Reform

  By Michael Tanner, Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 09/10/2009
  

  If one reads through the different bills and proposals, it becomes clear that under all the current versions of health reform, Americans will end up paying more and getting less. In fact, Americans will pay more than $820 billion in higher taxes over the next 10 years and could see their insurance premiums rise as much as 95 percent. Health care reform will increase the budget deficit by at least $239 billion over the next 10 years and far more in the years beyond that. If the new health care entitlement were subject to the same 75-year actuarial standards as Social Security or Medicare, its unfunded liabilities would exceed $9.2 trillion.

  
  
  
• Transportation/Infrastructure
  

  High-Speed Rail Is Not “Interstate 2.0”

  By Randal O’Toole, Cato Institute
  
  Briefing Paper, 09/10/2009
  

  High-speed rail is a technology whose time has come—and gone. What might have been useful a century ago is today merely an anachronism that would cost taxpayers tens or hundreds of billions of dollars yet contribute little to American mobility or environmental quality. The most ardent supporters of high-speed rail predict that the Federal Railroad Administration plan would carry the average American less than 60 miles per year, and in most places outside of California the average would be even less. By comparison, the average American travels by automobile more than 15,000 miles per year.

  
  
  
• International Trade/Finance
  

  A Harsh Climate for Trade: How Climate Change Proposals Threaten Global Commerce

  By Sallie James, Cato Institute
  
  Trade Policy Analysis, 09/10/2009
  

  The upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change has led to calls for the United States to adopt a climate change abatement program in advance. In an effort to minimize adverse effects on certain domestic industries from higher energy costs, however, proponents of a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions have loaded up their proposal with giveaways, loopholes, and barriers to imports from nations with less stringent emission caps. These trade measures are likely to be ineffective at best and harmful to U.S. interests at worst.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Baumol’s Solution to the Baumol Effect

  By Tim Worstall, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 09/10/2009
  

  Technology reduces the costs of providing services by reducing the amount of labor that must go into that provision, a welcome change at a time of rising labor costs. What we really want to do is to routinize and mechanize as much of the medical process as we can, and the one spur, the workable incentive, that we know encourages this is that combination of greed, profits, the division of labor and specialization, and the urge to find cheaper ways of doing things which comes from that odd but unique interaction of capitalism and markets.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Regulation and the Financial Crisis: Myths and Realities

  By Arnold Kling, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 09/10/2009
  

  The biggest myth is that regulation is a one-dimensional problem, in which the choice is either “more” or “less.” From this myth, the only reasonable inference following the financial crisis is that we need to move the dial from “less” to “more.” The reality is that financial regulation is a complex problem. Indeed, many regulatory policies were major contributors to the crisis. To proceed ahead without examining or questioning past policies, particularly in the areas of housing and bank capital regulation, would preclude learning the lessons of history.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Debt Be Not Proud: The Sorry Tale of America’s Out-of-control Spending

  By John Steele Gordon, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 09/10/2009
  

  Only necessity will force Congress to control long-term spending on its own. And unless the body politic forces the needed changes, that necessity in the form of overwhelming debt is inescapable.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Time to Go ‘Down in Flames’ for Burma

  By Jean Geran, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 09/10/2009
  

  At the 2005 UN World Summit, world leaders first articulated the “responsibility to protect” as official UN doctrine. The power to intervene has always existed within the Security Council’s mandate, but this new language stipulated the conditions to prompt such intervention. The situation in Burma more than meets those conditions. With increasing public support, including across Asia, and with a coordinated diplomatic effort led by the United States to bring around China and Russia, a global arms embargo against the junta is possible. And for the people of Burma, it is essential.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Forecasting the Cost of U.S. Healthcare

  By Robert Fogel, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 09/10/2009
  

  The long-term income elasticity of the demand for health care is 1.6—for every 1 percent increase in a family’s income, the family wants to increase its expenditures on health care by 1.6 percent. This is not a new trend. Between 1875 and 1995, the share of family income spent on food, clothing, and shelter declined from 87 percent to just 30 percent, despite the fact that we eat more food, own more clothes, and have better and larger homes today than we had in 1875. All of this has been made possible by the growth in the productivity of traditional commodities. In the last quarter of the 19th century, it took 1,700 hours of labor to purchase the annual food supply for a family. Today it requires just 260 hours, and it is likely that by 2040, a family’s food supply will be purchased with about 160 hours of labor. Consequently, there is no need to suppress the demand for health care. Expenditures on health care are driven by demand, which is spurred by income and by advances in biotechnology that make health interventions increasingly effective.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Data Exclusivity for Biologics: What Is the Appropriate Period of Protection?

  By Henry Grabowski, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Health Policy Outlook, 09/10/2009
  

  Innovators of biologics need to have a period of market exclusivity long enough to allow them to earn an appropriate return on investment. Failure to safeguard a place in the market for these originators may reduce the number of new therapies created and could serve as a disincentive for innovators to expend resources improving existing biologics. As Congress considers legislation that would allow imitative biological products, known as “biosimilars,” to rely on the safety and efficacy data of original innovators, it must ensure that any provisions passed will foster, not stifle, discovery.

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  Do DHS Fire Grants Reduce Fire Casualties?

  By David B. Muhlhausen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Center for Data Analysis Report, 09/10/2009
  

  From FY 2001 to FY 2009, Congress appropriated $5.7 billion in funding for fire grants. Using panel data from 1999 to 2006 for more than 10,000 fire departments, this evaluation uses fixed-effects regressions to estimate the impact of fire grants on four different measures of fire casualties: firefighter deaths, firefighter injuries, civilian deaths, and civilian injuries.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Maintaining Full-Spectrum Capabilities in an Operating Environment of Hybrid Threats: The Army’s Future Requirements

  By Mackenzie M. Eaglen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 09/10/2009
  

  Experience shows that blended warfare will happen more often than expected in one conflict and that hybrid conflict will demand creative approaches to operational problems, including the need for ad hoc, modular composite units. As Army leaders create an updated modernization plan, they will be wise not to think of modernization in a vacuum, but to plan for a future force of legacy and modern platforms.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  School Safety in Washington, D.C.: New Data for the 2007-2008 School Year

  By David Muhlhausen, Don Soifer, Dan Lips, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/10/2009
  

  This WebMemo is a summary of a CDA Report by The Heritage Foundation and Lexington Institute that presents an analysis of 911 calls originating from schools in D.C. for the 2007-2008 school year, the most recent full school year for which data were available.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Alaska’s Strategic Role in the Defense of the United States and the Vital Role of Missile Defense

  By Mark Begich, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Heritage Lecture, 09/10/2009
  

  Alaska is sixth among all states and territories in volume of personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a very important component in America’s missile defense system, which overall is 90 percent accurate because of robust testing and better technology. In addition, energy independence is critical if we are to have more flexibility both in our national defense and in dealing with international affairs.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Swine Flu: What Every American Should Know

  By James Jay Carafano, Richard Weitz, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 09/10/2009
  

  With H1N1 vaccines not becoming generally available until after the U.S. flu season begins, the single greatest contribution that the public can make is to limit opportunities for infection by practicing basic hygiene, beginning with washing hands frequently. National capabilities should prove sufficient to deal with the swine flu during the approaching flu season.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Eight Years after 9/11: Analyzing Congress’s Homeland Security Agenda

  By Jena Baker McNeill, James Jay Carafano, Matt A. Mayer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/10/2009
  

  This Friday makes the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Congress should honor the memory of that tragedy by solidifying its homeland security agenda by enacting several critical pieces of legislation—and avoiding others.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The Persuadable Public

  By William Howell, Martin West, Paul Peterson, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 09/10/2009
  

  Our findings suggest that a well-publicized stance taken by a popular president on an education issue might shift the opinions of large segments of the American public. Similarly, scholarship appears to be a potent weapon for groups with policy agendas they wish to pursue, as the committed can broadcast research findings with great repetition. Indeed, any group that seeks to change public opinion without gathering research to back its positions is leaving a flank unprotected. Finally, advocates are well advised to search for facts the public does not understand, and then to communicate those facts as widely as they can. Just as nothing affects opinion about an ongoing war as quickly as communiqués from the front, so too a better understanding of the facts about the public schools could in the long run shape American education.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The Preschool Picture

  By Chester E. Finn Jr., Education Next
  
  Education Next, 09/10/2009
  

  Sustaining whatever pre-K gains can be produced, especially for poor kids, is therefore principally a challenge for K—12 policy and practice. But that does not mean entrusting pre-K education to public-school systems. Today, those systems cannot even sustain their own gains, which is why American 4th graders tend to have stronger results than 8th graders, and high school students do less well than middle schoolers. Adding more years to the present public-education mandate would simply give ineffectual school systems additional time to fumble around while entangling pre-K education more tightly in the web of school politics, federalism disputes, bureaucratic rigidities, and adult interest groups.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The International PISA Test

  By Mark Schneider, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 09/10/2009
  

  While the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) program has its partisans and states have chosen to participate in past years, momentum is behind the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). If more states do choose to participate in PISA, what should they expect? First, they would get a PISA score that would allow them to compare themselves to other PISA participants. In some cases, this would provide bragging rights (“Our students are better than those in Turkey”). In most states, disappointing results would provide reform-minded governors with ammunition to push for their own legislative agenda. But if states choose a full state assessment, along with the PISA scale score would come all of the OECD’s policy advice and its approach to standards, which might make it harder for reform-minded governors to choose the options they prefer. Caveat emptor.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Lost Opportunities

  By Patrick J. Wolf, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 09/10/2009
  

  On average, participating low-income students are performing better in reading because the federal government decided to launch an experimental school choice program in our nation’s capital. The achievement results from the D.C. voucher evaluation are also striking when compared to the results from other experimental evaluations of education policies. The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) at the IES has sponsored and overseen 11 studies that are RCTs, including the OSP evaluation. Only 3 of the 11 education interventions tested, when subjected to such a rigorous evaluation, have demonstrated statistically significant achievement impacts overall in either reading or math. The reading impact of the D.C. voucher program is the largest achievement impact yet reported in an RCT evaluation overseen by the NCEE.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Law and Disorder in the Classroom

  By Richard Arum, Doreet Preiss, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 09/10/2009
  

  The expansion of student legal entitlements has been accompanied by the increasing formalization and institutionalization of school discipline. As educators’ discretionary authority over school discipline has been challenged and undermined, counterproductive authoritarian measures such as zero-tolerance policies have been implemented in its place. But to be educationally effective, school discipline requires that educators have moral authority and students perceive their actions as legitimate and fair. Ironically, the expansion of student legal rights, rather than enhancing youth outcomes, has increased the extent to which schools have relied on authoritarian measures, decreased the moral authority of educators, and diminished the capacity of schools to socialize young people effectively.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Teachers as Entrepreneurs

  By Tom Neumark, Maryland Public Policy Institute
  
  Maryland Policy Report, 09/09/2009
  

  Maryland’s unions should give teachers the freedom to be entrepreneurs. If, in the end, teachers return to unions because they offer teachers more satisfying pay and working conditions, the union’s case will be made. But, if Maryland’s union continues to prevent teacher freedom by using their legislative influence to enact laws that protect them from competition, they will have avoided the chance to demonstrate their relevance to teachers. If the union is important to teachers as unions claim, setting teachers free is the best way to prove it.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Project Labor Agreements on Federal Construction Projects: A Costly Solution in Search of a Problem

  By David G. Tuerck, Sarah Glassman, Paul Bachman, Beacon Hill Institute
  
  BHI Policy Study, 09/09/2009
  

  The Beacon Hill Institute undertook a multi-pronged effort to determine whether the claims put forth in Obama’s Executive Order regarding the benefits of Project Labor Agreements on large-scale federal construction projects were justified by the facts. We found that the claims were at odds with the facts.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  2009 Facts & Figures: How Does Your State Compare? Mid-Year Update

  By Mark Robyn, Tax Foundation
  
  Booklet, 09/09/2009
  

  How do taxes in your state compare nationally? This convenient pocket-size booklet compares the 50 states on 37 different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending. The 2009 version of this booklet was originally published in February; this is a mid-year update reflecting recent rate changes in some states.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  How to Protect Consumers in the Financial Marketplace: An Alternate Approach

  By David C. John, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 09/09/2009
  

  The Treasury Department has proposed consolidating the existing consumer protection divisions of the various federal financial regulatory agencies into a new and powerful Consumer Financial Protection Agency. A far better approach would be to coordinate the consumer activities of existing state and federal financial agencies creating a coordinating council designed to promote equal standards of consumer protection using agencies’ existing powers.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Critical Reforms Required for U.N. Peacekeeping

  By Brett D. Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 09/09/2009
  

  The unprecedented pace, scope, and ambition of U.N. peacekeeping operations have led to numerous serious flaws, limitations, and weaknesses that need to be addressed. Peacekeeping assessments should be revised to spread the financial burden more equitably among U.N. member states. Without fundamental reform, these problems will likely continue and expand, undermining the U.N.’s credibility and ability to maintain international peace and security.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Success in Afghanistan Requires Firm Presidential Leadership, Not Half-Measures

  By James Phillips, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/09/2009
  

  President Obama is expected to launch a new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan that puts a premium on protecting the Afghan people from Taliban terrorism and intimidation. While this new strategy is promising, it will not be easily or quickly implemented.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  House Health Care Bill Will Hurt Small Businesses: A Reply to My Critics

  By D. Mark Wilson, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/09/2009
  

  Policymakers need to know that the costs and benefits of an employer mandate will not be equally borne by firms and employees.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Why Organized Labor Supports Government Health Care

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/09/2009
  

  Unions strongly support health care reform and have made supporting a “public plan” that would lead to a government-run single-payer system their top priority.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Heritage Employment Report: August Jobs Report Shows Too Soon to Announce “Mission Accomplished”

  By Rea S. Hederman Jr., James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/09/2009
  

  The predictions that were used to promote the stimulus bill have proven false as the August jobs report shows unemployment continues to climb.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  President Obama Must Not Surrender to Russia on Missile Defense

  By Nile Gardiner, Sally McNamara, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/09/2009
  

  Abandoning the third site missile defense installation would sacrifice U.S. interests, as well as those of its allies in Europe, on the altar of political vanity. Such a move would also grant Russia a strategic victory and embolden Iran.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Repealing Death Tax Will Create Jobs and Boost Economy

  By Palmer Schoening, Patrick Fagan, Family Research Council
  
  Insight, 09/09/2009
  

  The death tax, which negatively affects family businesses, will soon be modified. In a rare opportunity, Congress can increase its revenues, increase employment and stimulate the economy if it chooses to repeal the death tax. If the death tax returns to its 2001 (high) levels, Congress will collect less revenue while the country will have fewer companies and fewer jobs. All sectors of the economy, and especially the individual states, have much at stake.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  ConUNdrum: The Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives

  By Brett D. Schaefer, Rowman & Littlefield
  
  Book, 09/09/2009
  

  Although rooted in noble aims, the United Nations has a long history of failing to solve the world’s most critical problems—such as war, terrorism, genocide, poverty and pandemics. Despite this poor track record, the United Nations has managed to increase its budgets and expand its mandate and activities into new areas in which it has little expertise. Billions of hard-earned American tax dollars are invested in the United Nations each year, but U.S. efforts to improve the effectiveness of the organization seemingly have little effect. This book discusses the many weaknesses and failings of the current U.N. system and offers practical solutions for reform.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Fake Aid: How Foreign Aid Is Being Used to Support the Self-Serving Political Activities of NGOs

  By International Policy Network, International Policy Network
  
  Report, 09/08/2009
  

  The ideological rights-based approach that Britain’s Department for International Development takes to development assistance does not appear to have resulted in an improvement of the condition of the poor. Furthermore, substantial amounts of funding predicated on the rights-based approach appear to have been spent on projects that have little if any connection even to the promotion of the “rights” of people in poor countries, but have instead been spent on domestic propaganda and lobbying. It is time to stop this fake aid.