Sondra Collins – Expungement and the Mississippi Economy

[Slides]Expungement and Mississippi Economy – Sondra Collins, Ph.D., Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning

[Recording]Expungement and the Mississippi Economy – Sondra Collins, Ph.D., Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning

Forgiving criminal offenses has been suggested throughout the United States as a way of addressing labor and employment deficiencies. Allowing more citizens to enter the workforce can generate social benefits, but researchers and analysts can overlook the potential for economic growth statewide.

REMI will be joined by guest speaker Sondra Collins, Ph.D., Senior Economist from the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, for her webinar presentation, “Expungement and the Mississippi Economy,” on Wednesday, October 9th from 2 to 3 p.m. (ET) that explores the link between forgiving past criminal histories and the economic growth in Mississippi.

The state of Mississippi currently stands as the 49th state in terms of lowest unemployment rate while also facilitating the third-highest overall incarceration rate in America. This discrepancy is causing those tasked with improving workforce standards and participation to analyze alternative measures.

Policymakers and activists are often frustrated by the difficulties that those who have been convicted of a crime face when attempting to enter the job market. These difficulties do not appear to lessen over time, which almost creates a lifetime of punishment for, on average, very small offenses.

Dr. Collins will be describing the key findings from her organization’s paper on expungement in Mississippi that examines the change in employment and the state’s review as a result of forgiving the criminal records of a select group of past offenders and making more citizens eligible to work. This webinar will also explain how dynamic economic modeling can generate the socioeconomic and demographic effects of workforce development policies and detail the methodologies implemented in the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning’s analysis.

Fiscal Resiliency Using Tax-PI

[Slides]Fiscal Resiliency Using Tax-PI – Jacob Linger & Harry Walsh, REMI

[Recording]Fiscal Resiliency Using Tax-PI – Jacob Linger & Harry Walsh, REMI

The United States has been experiencing overall economic growth and decreasing unemployment over the last few years. Even with this recent success, the impacts of the Great Recession that occurred a decade ago remind national, state, and local stakeholders to prepare their respective economies for potential shocks.

Please feel free to join REMI for an upcoming webinar, “Fiscal Resiliency Using Tax-PI,” scheduled for Tuesday, August 20th from 2 to 3 p.m. (ET) that features economic associates Jacob Linger and Harry Walsh exploring the Tax-PI model’s ability to evaluate fiscal resiliency.

In preparing for possible economic disruptions at any level of government, it is important for policymakers to evaluate fiscal resiliency, which refers to the ability for a state budget to withstand substantial shifts in the economy.

In this webinar, Mr. Linger and Mr. Walsh will overview the workings of Tax-PI and examine several analyses that have incorporated this model in the past. They will also give an in-depth demonstration on how to use Tax-PI to evaluate prospective scenarios, including national recessions and local disruptions that can affect tax revenues or expenditure decisions.

Ted Egan – Zoning, Housing, and Economic Growth in San Francisco

[Slides]Zoning, Housing, and Economic Growth in San Francisco – Ted Egan, Ph.D., City and County of San Francisco’s Office of the Controller

[Recording]Zoning, Housing, and Economic Growth in San Francisco – Ted Egan, Ph.D., City and County of San Francisco’s Office of the Controller

California’s housing market currently ranks as the third-most expensive in the nation, with eight of the top twenty American cities in terms of highest median home prices belonging to the state. San Francisco only trails their neighbor San Jose as the most costly United States cities to live in, making it an ideal area to analyze when trying to determine what is driving the recent uptick in housing prices.

Please feel free to join REMI for a guest webinar, “Zoning, Housing, and Economic Growth in San Francisco,” on Wednesday, August 28th from 2 to 3 p.m. (ET) that will be presented by Chief Economist Ted Egan, Ph.D. from the City and County of San Francisco’s Office of the Controller.

Dr. Egan’s office researched and examined the intricate relationship between zoning, housing, and economic growth in their city. With their compiled research and the REMI model, the office was able to estimate the sensitivity of housing production to hypothetical changes in land use controls and permitted densities.

Once those estimates were generated, researchers began calculating how housing prices and amenities would shift in the face of increased housing production. The REMI model was utilized at this point in the analysis to determine the net economic impact of decreased housing prices, increased construction, reduced amenities, and diminished employment on land that would likely support housing if controls were relaxed.

This webinar presentation by Dr. Egan will assess the housing trends that are affecting metropolitan areas across the country and discuss how housing policies can be monitored or forecasted using dynamic economic modeling.