Urban Institute Latest Reports
The Urban Institute is a nonprofit nonpartisan policy research and educational organization established to examine the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation.
- Last build:
- Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:10:00 EST
- Language:
- en-us
- Feed URL:
- http://www.urban.org/rss/urban.xml
RSS FEED IDEMS: Urban Institute Latest Reports
- What Is Responsible for the Growth of the AMT?
Under current law, the number of taxpayers affected by the alternative minimum tax (AMT) is projected to rise from about 4 million in 2006 to more than 23 million in 2007 and more than 32 million in 2010. On average, taxpayers affected by the AMT in 2010 will owe an additional $3,600 in taxes. Two primary culprits are responsible for this impending explosion: the failure to index the AMT for inflation and the 20012006 tax cuts. This article illustrates the growth of the AMT that would have taken place if the different incarnations of the tax that have existed since 1990 were in place today and explains the reasons for the changes in the projections under each scenario.
Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Do Annuities Help Older Adults Manage Their Spending?
For the first time in history, many older Americans will likely retire with large stockpiles of money and will have to determine how to carefully manage these assets. Our study results suggest that converting retirement wealth into an annuity that guarantees a lifetime income may help retirees manage their spending and ensure they will not outlive their savings. This brief is related to the longer paper "<a href="/url.cfm?ID=311429">Annuitized Wealth and Consumption at Older Ages</a>."
Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax
A precursor to the current individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) was originally enacted in 1969 to limit the amount of tax sheltering that taxpayers could pursue and to assure that high-income filers paid at least a minimal amount of tax. However, the current AMT has strayed far from those original goals and threatens to grow from a footnote in the tax code to a major component affecting tens of millions of taxpayers every year. This testimony outlines how the AMT works, whom it affects, and why it demands attention. It also discusses possible ways of reforming the AMT and why financing AMT reform or repeal is important.
Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - The 15 Percent Rate on Capital Gains: A Casualty of the Alternative Minimum Tax
Tax rate reductions on long-term capital gains and qualifying dividends were a key, highly touted component of the tax cuts passed in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA). However, like the 20012006 tax cuts more broadly, taxpayers affected by the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) may not pay the advertised lower rates. This article explains the interaction between the capital gains rate and the AMT and provides example tax calculations for two sample taxpayers.
Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - The Characteristics of Unauthorized Immigrants in California, Los Angeles County, and the United States
This report hopes to fill some of the knowledge gaps in the current immigration debate by describing the unauthorized population nationally and in California and Los Angelesthe state and urban area with the largest numbers of these immigrants. Unauthorized immigrants numbered 2.45 million in California in 2004, representing almost one-quarter (24 percent) of the nation's total (10.3 million). There are about 1 million unauthorized immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, almost twice the number of any other metro area; the unauthorized are one-tenth of the area's population (10 million). The report presents findings about these populations, including their socio-economic characteristics, such as national origin, education, employment, and poverty.
Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Trends in the Low-Wage Immigrant Labor Force, 2000-2005
As Congress debates the fate of more than 10 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, their impact on the U.S. low-skilled labor force is an important consideration. In 2005, immigrants overall represented more than a fifth of low-wage workersthose earning less than twice the minimum wageand almost half of workers without a high school education. Unauthorized workers were nearly a tenth of low-wage workers and a quarter of low-skilled workers. The number of low-wage and low-skilled native-born workers fell between 2000 and 2005, due to improvements in their educational attainment but also due to decreasing labor force participation. This report, underwritten by the Hitachi Foundation, describes recent trends in the immigrant labor force and their implications for the U.S. economy.
Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - The Survey of Consumer Finances and Homeownership
The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a data series on household wealth compiled by the Federal Reserve. Every three years the Fed surveys about 4,500 American households, asking about their income, saving, wealth, types of wealth, debt, debt payments, and so forth, garnering valuable information. This brief focuses on homeownership, using the SCF to examine variations in ownership rates and overextension ratios by race and income.
Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Fairness in Tax Policy : Testimony Before Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, House Appropriations Committee
In this testimony, Burman summarizes the trends in inequality, examines the role the federal tax system has played in mitigating inequality, and discusses the effect of the tax cuts enacted since 2001. He concludes that while the income tax system provides one mechanism of redistributing the gains of our dynamic free-market economy more equitably, the immediate benefits of the recent tax cuts have accrued disproportionately to those with very high incomes and have undermined tax progressivity. Without knowing how they will be financed, it is impossible to determine how these tax cuts will ultimately affect the distribution of economic burdens in the United States.
Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Gender Gaps in Math and Reading Gains During Elementary and High School by Race and Ethnicity
Gender differences in academic achievement have long fascinated researchers and policy-makers alike. In this paper we analyze differences in math and reading test score growth rates by gender for four different race and ethnic groups -- white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students -- for six different time periods. Our data cover both the earliest years of education and the crucial years of adolescence. In addition, we have data bracketing one non-schooling period. Together these data enable us to get a very complete picture of how gender gaps evolve over the course of early elementary and high school years and how these trajectories differ by race and ethnicity. While the gender gaps are not always statistically significant, they are for 15 of 48 comparisons made, all during school. In addition, all of the statistically significant results suggest that males learn more math and females more reading during early elementary school and again during high school.
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Studying the Effects of Incarceration on Offending Trajectories : An Information-Theoretic Approach
Dated arrest histories of a sample of prisoners released from state prisons in 1994, collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, were used to model re-offending trajectories and study their deflection. A semi-parametric method was used to develop plausible counterfactual trajectories and compare them with actual postrelease offending patterns. Analysis suggests that most individuals were either deterred from future offending (40 percent) or reverted back to projected offending patterns (56 percent) as a result of their incarceration. About 4 percent had a criminogenic effect.
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Annuitized Wealth and Consumption at Older Ages
The growing popularity of Individual Retirement Accounts and defined contribution (DC) pension plans, which generally provide lump sum payments instead of annuities, will likely affect spending at older ages. Retirees with little annuitized wealth risk spending too quickly and depleting their assets before they die, or spending too slowly and not enjoying as comfortable a retirement as they could afford. This study finds that older adults with little annuitized wealth spend more, and implies that the shift from defined benefit pensions to DC pensions or privatizing Social Security without requiring annuitization may promote even further spending of retirement resources.
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Five Questions With Maria Rosario Jackson
Maria Rosario Jackson, senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center and director of the Urban Institute's Culture, Creativity, and Communities Program, discusses cultural vitality and its importance to communities.
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST - Current Rental Housing Market Challenges and the Need for a New Federal Policy Response : Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
Our countrys rental housing challenges are changing in ways that not only affect an expanding segment of the population but also implicate other top domestic priorities. We face a <em>nationwide</em> housing affordability problem, insufficient housing supply in <em>prosperous regions</em>, a problem of housing location <em>within metropolitan regions</em>, and a <em>neighborhood</em> distress problem. Some states and localities are starting to respond to these challenges in new and creative ways. But without a renewed commitment from the federal government, these efforts will never be sufficient to address the breadth and depth of the affordable housing challenges we face today.
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST - Report on D.C. Housing Finds More Signs of Market Slowdown
The latest installment of the <em>District of Columbia Housing Monitor</em> shows home sales continuing to slow, although prices through the second quarter of 2006 remained steady. The report also features a special section on property ownership in the city, "Who Owns the Neighborhood?"
Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST - Capital Access for Women : Profile and Analysis of U.S. Best Practice Programs
Capital access programs and funds for women starting and expanding their businesses have grown dramatically over the past decade. These programs cover the spectrum from microenterprise to venture capital funds and serve highly diverse populations. Thirteen "best practice" programs and three "promising practices" (new programs that appear innovative but do not yet have a track record) are profiled in this report and are the basis for our analysis of key success factors, barriers, and constraints faced by women entrepreneurs, and our policy recommendations. We profile and analyze the programs to share best practices and lessons learned so that successful programs can be replicated. Our analysis of these best practice programs identifies six areas that can improve the strength of all capital access programs and expand their reach.
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST
