BACKGROUND Prices are an important determinant of food choices. Consequently, food price policies (subsidies and/or taxes) are proposed to improve the nutritional quality of diets. The aim of the present study was to explore the impact of food price policies on the expenditures and nutritional quality of the food baskets chosen by low- and medium-income households. METHODS Experimental econom...

Optimality conditions and comparative static properties of the optimal Mirrleesian nonlinear income tax are obtained for a nite population and quasilinear-in-consumption preferences. Contrary to Weymark (1987) who considers quasilinear-in-leisure preferences, the linearity with respect to gross income, which is observed by the government and used as a tax base, is lost. A reduced-form optimal i...

There is ample empirical evidence that individuals do not simply maximize expected monetary income. Rather, relative positions seem often more important than absolute ones. This can cause surprising effects. In Hessia (Germany), for example, the government has recently decided to abolish lower ranks for policemen1 and to promote everybody in these ranks within several years. Although, this meas...

This paper presents data and analysis on the antipoverty effectiveness of safety nets in eight rich nations using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). We find that national safety nets are quite varied and that the most expensive ones (in terms of budgetary cost) are also the most effective. The paper concludes with some suggestions for the construction of effective safety nets in devel...

of other Federal Agencies -Food and Nutrition Service (USDA), National Center for Education Statistics (DoEd), Head Start (HHS), HUD, and the Employment and Training Administration (DoL) -initiated a project to provide postcensal estimates of income and poverty for small areas during the 1990's. While current plans for the 2000 census include a system of "continuous measurement" which will peri...

Background The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010. In the past four years, federal and state governments have made changes to existing programs, created new ones, and attempted to foster innovation in the health care system. We provide an update on implementation of the ACA in California, specifically focused on the expansion of Medi-Cal for low-income ...