The refundable tax credit: A cubist policy analysis

A cubist policy analysis sets forth several interacting realities about a policy proposal in order to arrive at an optimum reconciliation of their demands. In relation to the proposal of a refundable tax credit, one must consider the political climate in 1984 and 1985 with respect to income taxes, the effect on families that are poor or have marginally middle-class or middle-class income, of relatively small increments or reductions of money, trends with respect to income for such families, and the manner in which established income transfer mechanisms respond and are able to respond to problems that emerge. Taking all this together, we are led to a proposal to replace the personal exemption in income taxes with a tax credit of $400 per person, reduced by 5 percent of household Adjusted Gross Income in excess of $10,000 a year. Costs and benefits and alternative designs for a refundable tax credit (including one that a taxpayer may choose or decline) are provided.     

THE STATES' ROLE IN LAND USE POLICY

Historically, land use had been an exclusively local function. By the early 1960s, a "quiet revolution" broke the local government monopoly over zoning and land use, with a larger state role. Those states which passed land use legislation soon were faced with substantial political opposition, especially from rural dwellers and developers. When Congress considered national land use legislation in the early 1970s. these same interests united in effective opposition.     

OPINION CONGRUENCE AND THE FORMULATION OF SEISMIC SAFETY POLICIES

This article examines key actors'and citizens'perceptions on several issues involving various actions designed to lessen the effects of a damaging earthquake as well as the degree of concern these groups have over the occurrence of such an event. The relationship discovered between key actors'and the public's attitudes on these issues indicates that several other studies of earthquake policy adoption which suggest that a lack of citizen awareness and support for earthquake policy are the major barriers to adoption may be in error. In fact, it is discovered that in the Central states, it is the public which is concerned and supportive of such policy and the key actors who are more reluctant to endorse such policies.     

Evidence of incomplete cortical modulation of autonomic responses in 11-to 16-year-old adolescents

This study examines response differentiation in the sympathetically innervated skin conductance response (SCR). Differentiation in such systems has been ascribed to cortical inhibitory control over subcortical autonomic centers. Developmental study of such differentiation thus provides information on cortical development and the maturation of cortical control over subcortical centers. Previous investigators have focused on the simple level of differentiation involved in discriminating response on one side the body from that on the other. In such studies several investigators reported more diffuse response among young children; some reported adultlike differentiation by approximately age 10. The present study examines a more complex instance of differentiation, the quantitative modulation of response from a given site in order to produce SCR amplitudes proportionate to the information value of the eliciting stimulus. Relatively large amplitude SCRs elicited by imperative PRESS-SIGNALS of varying information value were studied, together with smaller SCRs elicited by NONPRESS-SIGNALS also varying in information value, in two adolescent groups, aged 11–16 years, and in a young adult sample. In contrast to earlier work, the present study demonstrates a continuing difference between adolescents and adults. Adults showed consistent differentiation, with SCR amplitude reflecting changes in stimulus information values for both PRESS- and NONPRESS-SIGNALS. Adolescents displayed differentiation only for SCRs elicited by NONPRESS-SIGNALS: Response to PRESS-SIGNALS did not reflect stimulus information values, even though reaction time data demonstrated that PRESS-SIGNAL information was being registered cortically. The degree of cortical control present in these adolescents, enabling them to display differentiated SCRs to NONPRESS-SIGNALS, would likely be sufficient to allow simple left-right discrimination, perhaps accounting for the adultlike reactions previously reported for this age group. The inability of the adolescents to sustain SCR differentiation when large amplitude responses were elicited by the PRESS-SIGNALS might reflect the inability of still immature cortical controls to cope with sizable sympathetic output. A critical level of sympathetic arousal may exist for adolescents in this age range, above which cortical inhibitory controls may become ineffective.This study was supported in part by NIMH Research Grant 15633 to the first author.Received his Ph.D in psychology from the University of Buffalo. Major research interest is psychophysiological correlates of attention in both normal and pathological states.Received his M.D. from the University of California at San Francisco in 1955. Major research interest is cognitive developmental alterations in severely disturbed, retarded, and/ or brain-damaged children and adolescents.