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The World Bank: “Women, Business and the Law (WBL) measures gender inequality in the law. The dataset identifies barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages the reform of discriminatory laws…In its 5th edition, Women, Business and the Law introduces scoring to better inform the reform agenda. The report tracks progress made over the past two …
Bloomberg: “The richest zip code in America is just as exclusive and elite as the people who live there. Fisher Island, located just off the coast of Miami, is accessible only by ferry or water taxi and is a haven for the world’s richest. The 216-acre island has diverse residents, representing over 50 nationalities and …
The New York Times: “The embattled political data firm Cambridge Analytica quietly sought to develop its own virtual currency in recent months through a so-called initial coin offering, a novel fund-raising method that has come under growing scrutiny by financial regulators around the world. The offering was part of a broader, but still very private …
“Today, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman launched the Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative, a fact-finding inquiry into the policies and practices of platforms used by consumers to trade virtual or “crypto” currencies like bitcoin and ether. As part of a broader effort to protect cryptocurrency investors and consumers, the Attorney General’s office sent letters …
IRS electronic filing systems working again after agency’s Tax Day technology meltdown – “The Internal Revenue Service’s system for accepting online tax returns is working again after being inoperational for much of the day Tuesday [April 17, 2018]. IRS officials promised that people hampered by the technology failures would not be penalized for late returns, but …
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Innovation, Iain M. Cockburn, Rebecca Henderson, Scott Stern, NBER Working Paper No. 24449. Issued in March 2018. “Artificial intelligence may greatly increase the efficiency of the existing economy. But it may have an even larger impact by serving as a new general-purpose “method of invention” that can reshape the …
Why New York City Stopped Building Subways – Nearly 80 years ago, a construction standstill derailed the subway’s progress, leading to its present crisis. This is the story, decade by decade. “In the first decades of the 20th century, New York City experienced an unprecedented infrastructure boom. Iconic bridges, opulent railway terminals, and much of …
Summary – “Section 710 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017 (section 710) prohibits an agency from obligating an amount in excess of $5,000 to furnish, redecorate, purchase furniture for, or make improvements for the office of a presidential appointee during the period of appointment without prior notification to the appropriations committees …
Center for Data Innovation – “The Financial Times (paywall) has created a collection of data visualizations showing that 89 percent of women in the United Kingdom work at companies with a pay gap favoring men. The newspaper analyzed data from firms with more than 250 employees, which were required to submit data comparing men and …
Surveys of Consumers – chief economist, Richard Curtin – Preliminary Results for April 2018 – “Consumer sentiment slipped in early April, largely reversing the gains recorded in the prior two months. The small decline was widely shared by all age and income subgroups and across all regions of the country. Importantly, confidence still remains relatively …
Federal Times: “Federal employees on average see a 31.86 percent difference between their paychecks and those doing the same work in the private sector, according to an April 10, 2018, report submitted to the Federal Salary Council by its Locality Pay Working Group. The working group calculates the pay gap between federal employees and their …
New York Fed – Liberty Street Economics: “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) introduces significant changes to the federal income tax code for individuals and businesses. Several provisions of the new tax law are particularly significant for the owner‑occupied housing market. In this blog post, we compare the federal tax liability and …
