What Can We Learn About the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program by Looking at the Tenants?

Abstract

Several recent studies have found that homeownership has positive effects on children's development. This article extends these studies by testing whether these effects depend on neighborhood conditions. This extension is important because many low‐income families that become homeowners under current policies promoting homeownership for the poor are likely to purchase homes in troubled or distressed neighborhoods.

Homeownership in almost any neighborhood is found to benefit children, while neighborhood effects are weak. This suggests that the children of most low‐income renters would be better served by programs that help their families become homeowners in their current neighborhoods instead of helping them move to better neighborhoods while remaining renters. However, the positive effects of homeownership on children are weakened in distressed neighborhoods, especially those that are residentially unstable and poor. Thus, helping low‐income families purchase homes in good neighborhoods is likely to have the best effects on children.     

The low‐income housing tax credit program goes mainstream and moves to the suburbs

Abstract

The Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is now 20 years old. With the maturing of the program, the use of tax credits has become commonplace in the development of rental housing across the nation. This article examines how the program has changed both financially and spatially. Specifically, the article asks whether it provides a mechanism that can help deconcentrate impoverished renters by providing access to low‐poverty neighborhoods.

This research finds that as the price for tax credits rises, the program becomes increasingly popular with developers who are helping it make inroads in low‐poverty suburbs. By entering the suburbs, the LIHTC program is meeting and even exceeding the performance of the Housing Choice Voucher Program in terms of offering opportunities to live in low‐poverty settings.     

Comment on Jennifer Steffel Johnson and Emily Talen's “affordable housing in New Urbanist Communities: A survey of developers”

Abstract

A long‐time criticism of New Urbanism has been that the housing it provides is affordable only to middle‐ and upper‐income families. Johnson and Talen's survey of New Urbanist developers and developments is intended to see whether this criticism is justified. Although the methodology is limited, the results of this survey would seem to indicate that it is.

Because Johnson and Talen's survey is restricted to New Urbanist developments, it is not possible to compare the results with those for other, more conventional developments to see whether New Urbanist developments may actually contain more affordable units than comparable conventional projects. Also, limiting the definition of affordability to the cost of housing alone prevents the authors from seeing whether the housing New Urbanist communities provide would be considered less expensive if housing and transportation costs were combined.     

Section 8 and Movement to Job Opportunity: Experience after Welfare Reform in Kansas City

Abstract

This research addresses the extent to which tenant‐based rental assistance, before and after welfare reform, helps households move to areas with greater opportunities for employment. It was thought that the threat of losing their welfare benefits would encourage participants in the Section 8 program to use the mobility it offers to move to neighborhoods with greater opportunities for employment.

Two samples of Section 8 program participants, one taken before welfare reform and the other taken after it was enacted, have been examined. With the strong economy after welfare reform, more Section 8 households are employed and fewer are on welfare. However, the analysis finds that, independent of welfare reform, households did not use their housing subsidy to move to areas with greater opportunities for employment. Program participants typically remained in racially concentrated areas of the central city, away from those neighborhoods with job growth or large numbers of jobs.     

贵州农民可持续增收的总体思路与路径

农民实现可持续增收是解决“三农”问题的关键,选择实现农民可持续增收的有效途径更为紧迫。文章分析探讨了促进贵州农民可持续增收的总体思路与实现路径。     

美英教师工薪个人所得税税收优惠启示及借鉴

实行教师工薪个人所得税税收优惠政策不仅有利于提高教师待遇,也有利于形成全社会尊师重教的良好氛围。美国和英国在20世纪90年代,结合综合所得税制,提出了一系列针对教师的具体减免税政策和费用扣除标准,从而使教师适用更低的税率或者获得更多的退税,这对改善和提高我国教师待遇提供了良好借鉴。鉴于美英两国政府的个人所得税税收优惠法规已经形成了较为完善的税法体制,因此通过借鉴美国与英国关于教师工薪个人所得税税收优惠政策先进经验,并在此基础上提出适合我国国情的针对性建议,可以为我国教育行业吸引更多优秀人才长期从教、终身从教创造积极条件。     

Income and Wealth Inequality in Nepal, 1996 and 2004: Changes and Socio-demographic,Spatial and Economic Determinants

Micro-data from national surveys indicate that economic inequality remained high and relatively unchanged in Nepal during the middle 1990s and early 2000s. Using household income and wealth as indicators, this study finds that many of the demographic characteristics, such as age, caste, ethnicity and widowhood, determined mostly along traditional social hierarchies, play influential roles in determining inequality in much of Nepal. In urban areas and especially in Kathmandu, however, these factors have proved increasingly less influential, replacing them with such factors as migration, education and labour market participation. These changes highlight the mechanisms through which different social groups are experiencing inequality, with important implications for the much needed economic, social and political stability of the country.     

关于完善我国个人所得税的探讨

目前,我国现行个人所得税制度在税制模式、税制要素和税收征管三方面仍存在一些问题。可以采用优化税制模式、合理设计税制要素和提高个人所得税征管水平的方式加以解决。     

建国以来我国分配领域公平与效率实践的回顾与思考

建国以来,我国的收入分配制度发生了很大的变化,分配制度的变迁实际上就是一个不断探索效率与公平关系的过程。从＂平均主义＂到＂效率优先＂的探索,一定程度上有效地促进了经济发展和生产效率的提高,但也导致了收入分配差距迅速扩大,并影响到社会稳定和经济增长,从而导致公平正义问题凸现。反思建国以来收入分配制度变迁的过程,从效率公平的权衡到公平正义的诉求,将有助于深化分配制度改革,加快体制机制创新,推动社会的和谐发展。     

新农村建设的逻辑起点：国民收入城乡分配和谐

国民收入城乡分配长期失衡是城乡二元结构和“三农”问题日益深化的重要诱因之一。调整国民收入城乡分配结构,构建和谐的国民收入城乡分配关系,是社会主义新农村建设的逻辑起点和根本前提。