One major criticism of Universal Basic Income is that unconditional cash transfers discourage recipients from working. Evidence to date has largely relied on targeted and/or conditional transfer programs. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions from such programs because universal transfers may induce a positive demand shock by distributing…

One of the major concerns about the one-child policy is its negative impact on the current and future labor force in China. People have talked about the Lewis Turning Point and the end of demographic dividends. Some of these arguments, however, can be misleading. The working-age population (ages 15 to 59) can be treated as the potential labor…

The one-child policy is the only fundamental policy in China that has been kept intact for over three decades, despite the vast socioeconomic changes emerging during this period. While the pressure of population growth still exists, the current control-focused policy has aroused problems and damages that tend to offset its gains. The legitimacy of…

For more than 30 years the United States has unsuccessfully struggled to reform its often maligned and massively abused immigration policies. Matters went awry following the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. There were unexpected consequences. Intended to remove the overtly discriminatory features of the "national origins"…

This paper provides estimates for a comprehensive set of social benefits and costs associated with the federal Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program. The impact categories for which we provide empirical estimates include the value of the voucher to recipients; additional services and public benefits induced by voucher receipt; improvements in…

This paper examined how the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which banned Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for the majority of elderly immigrants, affected their employment, retirement, and family incomes. The policy was found to be associated with a 3.5 percentage point (9.5 percent) increase in the…

The labor supply and benefit claiming incentives provided by the early retirement rules of the Social Security Old Age benefits program are of growing importance as the Normal Retirement Age (NRA) increases to 67, the labor force participation of Older Americans rises, and a variety of reforms to the Social Security system are considered. Any…

Volunteer labor is generally analyzed as a homogeneous activity, implying that the marginal effects of tax changes and demographic shifts are equal across industries and forms of volunteering. Here the homogeneity assumption is tested by estimating and comparing volunteer labor supply functions in three sectors that rely on volunteer…