Road Use Tax/Fund Primary Road Fund Budget: Reversions, September 11, 2008

Pursuant to Iowa Code Section 307.46(2) - This is the Iowa Department of Transportation's report on the use of reversions.

A-1A Supplemental Security Income Program, September 2008

A-1A - Supplemental Security Income Program

Social spending and demographics: The role of public policies in the intergenerational redistribution of income. Empirical evidence from Spain and Catalonia

The demographic shift underway in Southern Europe requires a revision of some of thefundamental principles of the traditional welfare state. We analyze the evolution of several aspects of welfare and social expenditure over the last two decades. We find that in the context of the present demographic changes and real estate boom current social and pension policy leads to a new distribution of benefits and burdens which is highly intergenerationally unequal. We argue for a revised definition of public policy based on Musgrave's proposition as a possible rule for an intergenerationally fair distribution.

A-1A Supplemental Security Income Program, October 2008

A-1A - Supplemental Security Income Program

A-1A Supplemental Security Income Program, November 2008

A-1A - Supplemental Security Income Program

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Avoid Rapid Tax-Refund Loans December, 2008

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Avoid Rapid Tax-Refund Loans

A-1A Supplemental Security Income Program, December 2008

A-1A - Supplemental Security Income Program

Does risk aversion or attraction depend on income? An experiment

Does risk attitude (aversion or attraction) vary with the level of the income at risk? About half of our subjects chose to insure all levels, whereas another half chose instead not to insure low levels, but to insure high levels.

A-1A Supplemental Security Income Program, January 2009

A-1A - Supplemental Security Income Program

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Avoid Rapid Tax-Refund Loans December, 2008

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Avoid Rapid Tax-Refund Loans

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, Avoid Rapid Tax-Refund Loans February, 2009

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Avoid Rapid Tax-Refund Loans

A-1A Supplemental Security Income Program, February 2009

A-1A - Supplemental Security Income Program

Iowa Sales and Use Tax Annual Statistical Report 2008

Iowa Sales and Use Tax Annual Statistical Report 2008

The three horsemen of riches: Plague, war and urbanization in early modern Europe

How did Europe escape the "Iron Law of Wages?" We construct a simple Malthusian model withtwo sectors and multiple steady states, and use it to explain why European per capita incomes andurbanization rates increased during the period 1350-1700. Productivity growth can only explain a smallfraction of the rise in output per capita. Population dynamics changes of the birth and death schedules were far more important determinants of steady states. We show how a major shock to population cantrigger a transition to a new steady state with higher per-capita income. The Black Death was such ashock, raising wages substantially. Because of Engel's Law, demand for urban products increased, andurban centers grew in size. European cities were unhealthy, and rising urbanization pushed up aggregatedeath rates. This effect was reinforced by diseases spread through war, financed by higher tax revenues.In addition, rising trade also spread diseases. In this way higher wages themselves reduced populationpressure. We show in a calibration exercise that our model can account for the sustained rise in Europeanurbanization as well as permanently higher per capita incomes in 1700, without technological change.Wars contributed importantly to the "Rise of Europe", even if they had negative short-run effects. We thustrace Europe s precocious rise to economic riches to interactions of the plague shock with the belligerentpolitical environment and the nature of cities.

Income and body mass index in Europe

The problem of obesity is alarming public health authorities around the world. Therefore, it is important to study its determinants. In this paper we explore the empirical relationship between household income and body mass index (BMI) in nine European Union countries. Our findings suggest that the association is negative for women, but we find no statistically significant relationship for men. However, we show that the different relationship for men and women appears to be driven by the negative relationship for women between BMI and individual income from work. We tentatively conclude that the negative relationship between household income and BMI for women may simply be capturing the wage penalty that obese women suffer in the labor market.