Voter Participation and Costs of Elections

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The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act from 1990 to 2020 Final Report U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Air and Radiation March 2011 The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act fron 1990 to 2020 ABSTRACT Section 812 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop periodic reports that estimate the benefits and costs of the Clean Air Act. The main goal of these reports is to provide Congress and the public with comprehensive, up-to-date, peer-reviewed information on the Clean Air Act’s social benefits and costs, including improvements in human health, welfare, and ecological resources, as well as the impact of the Act’s provisions on the US economy. This report is the third in the Section 812 series, and is the result of EPA’s Second Prospective analysis of the 1990 Amendments. The Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990 augmented the significant progress made in improving the nation's air quality through the original Clean Air Act of 1970 and its 1977 amendments. The amendments built off the existing structure of the original Clean Air Act, but went beyond those requirements to tighten and clarify implementation goals and timing, increase the stringency of some federal requirements, revamp the hazardous air pollutant regulatory program, refine and streamline permitting requirements, and introduce new programs for the control of acid rain and stratospheric ozone depleters. The main purpose of this report is to document the costs and benefits of the 1990 CAAA provisions incremental to those costs and benefits achieved from implementing the original 1970 Clean Air Act and the 1977 amendments. The analysis estimates the costs and benefits of reducing emissions of air pollutants by comparing a "with-CAAA" scenario that reflects expected or likely future measures implemented under the CAAA with a “without-CAAA” scenario that freezes the scope and stringency of emissions controls at the levels that existed prior to implementing the CAAA. There are six basic steps undertaken to complete this analysis: 1. air pollutant emissions modeling; 2. compliance cost estimation; 3. ambient air quality modeling; 4. health and environmental effects estimation; 5. economic valuation of these effects; and 6. results aggregation and uncertainty characterization. The results of our analysis, summarized in the table below, make it abundantly clear that the benefits of the CAAA exceed its costs by a wide margin, making the CAAA a very good investment for the nation. We estimate that the annual dollar value of benefits of air quality improvements will be very large, and will grow over time as emissions control programs take their full effect, reaching a level of approximately $2.0 trillion in 2020. These benefits will be achieved as a result of Voter Participation and Costs of Elections Voter Participation and Costs of Elections By: OpenStaxCollege In U.S presidential elections over the last few decades, about 55% to 65% of votingage citizens actually voted, according to the U.S Census In congressional elections when there is no presidential race, or in local elections, the turnout is typically lower, often less than half the eligible voters In other countries, the share of adults who vote is often higher For example, in national elections since the 1980s in Germany, Spain, and France, about 75% to 80% of those of voting age cast ballots Even this total falls well short of 100% Some countries have laws that require voting, among them Australia, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, and most Latin American nations At the time the United States was founded, voting was mandatory in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Georgia Even if the law can require people to vote, however, no law can require that each voter cast an informed or a thoughtful vote Moreover, in the United States and in most countries around the world, the freedom to vote has also typically meant the freedom not to vote Why people not vote? Perhaps they not care too much about who wins, or they are uninformed about who is running, or they not believe their vote will matter or change their lives in any way Indeed, these reasons are probably tied together, since people who not believe their vote matters will not bother to become informed or care who wins Economists have suggested why a utility-maximizing person might rationally decide not to vote or not to become informed about the election While a few elections in very small towns may be decided by a single vote, in most elections of any size, the margin of victory is measured in hundreds, thousands, or even millions of votes A rational voter will recognize that one vote is extremely unlikely to make a difference This theory of rational ignorance holds that people will not vote if the costs of becoming informed and voting are too high, or they feel their vote will not be decisive in the election In a 1957 work, An Economic Theory of Democracy, the economist Anthony Downs stated the problem this way: “It seems probable that for a great many citizens in a democracy, rational behavior excludes any investment whatever in political information per se No matter how significant a difference between parties is revealed to the rational citizen by his free information, or how uncertain he is about which party to support, he 1/5 Voter Participation and Costs of Elections realizes that his vote has almost no chance of influencing the outcome… He will not even utilize all the free information available, since assimilating it takes time.” In his classic 1948 novel Walden Two, the psychologist B F Skinner puts the issue even more succinctly via one of his characters, who states: “The chance that one man’s vote will decide the issue in a national election…is less than the chance that he will be killed on his way to the polls.” The following Clear It Up feature explores another aspect of the election process: spending How much is too much to spend on an election? According to a report from The New York Times, the 2012 elections for president, Congress, and state and local offices, saw a total of about $5.8 billion spent The money raised went to the campaigns, including advertising, fundraising, travel, and staff Many people worry that politicians spend too much time raising money and end up entangled with special interest groups that make major donations Critics would prefer a system that restricts what candidates can spend, perhaps in exchange for limited public campaign financing or free television advertising time How much spending on campaigns is too much? Five billion dollars will buy a lot of potato chips, but in the U.S economy, which exceeded $16 trillion in 2012, the $5.8 billion spent on political campaigns was about 1/25 of 1% of the overall economy Here is another way to think about campaign spending Total government spending programs in 2009, including federal and state governments, was about $5.1 trillion, so the cost of choosing the people who would determine how this money would be spent was about 1/10 of 1% of that In the context of the enormous U.S economy, $5.8 billion is not as much money as it sounds U.S consumers spend about $2 billion per year on toothpaste and $7 billion on hair care products In 2008, Proctor and Gamble spent $4.8 billion on advertising It may not be sensible to believe the United States is going to decide its presidential elections for less than we spend on toothpaste or than Proctor and Gamble spends on advertisements Whatever we believe about whether candidates and their parties spend too much or too little on elections, the U.S Supreme Court has placed limits on how government can limit campaign spending In a 1976 decision, Buckley v Valeo, the Supreme Court emphasized that the First Amendment to the U.S ...BioMed Central Page 1 of 11 (page number not for citation purposes) Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Open Access Research Do quality of life, participation and environment of older adults differ according to level of activity? Mélanie Levasseur* 1,2,3,4 , Johanne Desrosiers 1,2 and Denise St-Cyr Tribble 4,5 Address: 1 Research Centre on Aging, Health and Social Services Centre – University Institute of Geriatrics of Sherbrooke (CSSS-IUGS), Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, 2 Department of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, 3 Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé (Interdisciplinary Research Group on Health), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 4 University of Sherbrooke Affiliated Local Community Centre (CLSC component) of the CSSS-IUGS, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada and 5 School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada Email: Mélanie Levasseur* - Melanie.Levasseur@USherbrooke.ca; Johanne Desrosiers - Johanne.Desrosiers@USherbrooke.ca; Denise St-Cyr Tribble - Denise.St-Cyr.Tribble@USherbrooke.ca * Corresponding author Abstract Background: Activity limitation is one of the most frequent geriatric clinical syndromes that have significant individual and societal impacts. People living with activity limitations might have fewer opportunities to be satisfied with life or experience happiness, which can have a negative effect on their quality of life. Participation and environment are also important modifiable variables that influence community living and are targeted by health interventions. However, little is known about how quality of life, participation and environment differ according to activity level. This study examines if quality of life, participation (level and satisfaction) and perceived quality of the environment (facilitators or obstacles in the physical or social environment) of community-dwelling older adults differ according to level of activity. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used with a convenience sample of 156 older adults (mean age = 73.7; 76.9% women), living at home and having good cognitive functions, recruited according to three levels of activity limitations (none, slight to moderate and moderate to severe). Quality of life was estimated with the Quality of Life Index, participation with the Assessment of Life Habits and environment with the Measure of the Quality of the Environment. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Welch F-ratio indicated if the main variables differed according to activity level. Results: Quality of life and satisfaction with participation were greater with a higher activity level (p < 0.001). However, these differences were clinically significant only between participants without activity limitations and those with moderate to severe activity limitations. When activity level was more limited, participation level was further restricted (p < 0.001) and the physical environment was perceived as having more obstacles (p < 0.001). No differences were observed for facilitators in the physical and social environment or for obstacles in the social environment. Conclusion: This study suggests Rivero-Arias et al. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation 2010, 8:6 http://www.resource-allocation.com/content/8/1/6 Open Access RESEARCH BioMed Central © 2010 Rivero-Arias et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Com- mons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc- tion in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Research Burden of disease and costs of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) in the United Kingdom Oliver Rivero-Arias*, Alastair Gray and Jane Wolstenholme Abstract Background: To estimate life years and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) lost and the economic burden of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) in the United Kingdom including healthcare and non-healthcare costs from a societal perspective. Methods: All UK residents in 2005 with aSAH (International Classification of Diseases 10 th revision (ICD-10) code I60). Sex and age-specific abridged life tables were generated for a general population and aSAH cohorts. QALYs in each cohort were calculated adjusting the life tables with health-related quality of life (HRQL) data. Healthcare costs included hospital expenditure, cerebrovascular rehabilitation, primary care and community health and social services. Non-healthcare costs included informal care and productivity losses arising from morbidity and premature death. Results: A total of 80,356 life years and 74,807 quality-adjusted life years were estimated to be lost due to aSAH in the UK in 2005. aSAH costs the National Health Service (NHS) £168.2 million annually with hospital inpatient admissions accounting for 59%, community health and social services for 18%, aSAH-related operations for 15% and cerebrovascular rehabilitation for 6% of the total NHS estimated costs. The average per patient cost for the NHS was estimated to be £23,294. The total economic burden (including informal care and using the human capital method to estimate production losses) of a SAH in the United Kingdom was estimated to be £510 million annually. Conclusion: The economic and disease burden of aSAH in the United Kingdom is reported in this study. Decision- makers can use these results to complement other information when informing prevention policies in this field and to relate health care expenditures to disease categories. Introduction Aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) (Inter- national Classification of Diseases 10 th revision code I60) is a type of cerebrovascular disease and a main cause of disability and mortality in relatively young patients, with an average age at first onset of 55 [1]. The incidence of aSAH has been estimated at around 6-7 per 100,000 peo- ple in most populations [1]. The epidemiology and effec- tiveness of treatments of aSAH is well-documented in the literature [2] and cost analyses of alternative therapies to treat aSAH are also available [3-5]. However the overall economic burden of aSAH to society remains unknown. Making accurate economic estimates of resources asso- ciated with particular health problems provides useful information for Departments of Health worldwide [6]. These figures can be used by health care decision makers to understand the overall impact of a disease on the annual health care budget and to provide parameter esti- mates for economic models, including value of informa- tion studies. If performed at regular intervals such studies help to monitor the impact of health care policies as well as changes in clinical practice. For example, in the field of aSAH, the increased use of endovascular intervention with its associated shorter length of stay is likely to influ- ence the total budget, and this may be of interest to deci- sion makers. Detailed comparisons of such health care expenditure estimates across countries may also play a part in assessing the aggregate performance of INAUGURAL PROFESSORIAL LECTURE AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES AND COSTS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH: W HA T POLICY MA KERS OF TODA Y CA N LEA RN FROM THE MUQA DDIMA H OF IBN KHA LDUN Prof Dr Syed Omar Syed Agil Razak School of Government INTRODUCTION • Economic growth has been a subject of debate and controversy in the history of western economics • Research on economic growth has increased tremendously in the past decade • However, we are also seeing economic welfare declining globally • Governments and business find that the current economic path is environmentally unsustainable OBJECTIVES OF THIS LECTURE •To elucidate the theory of economic growth and costs of economic growth in the Muqaddimah •To set the record straight on the contribution of Ibn Khaldun to the theory of economic growth and costs of economic growth •To contribute to the existing literature on the theory of economic growth and costs of economic growth from the perspective of Ibn Khaldun •Remember, You and I are here “to learn from each other” ECONOMIC GROWTH PARADIGM • • • • Economic growth is measured by real rate of growth in a country's total output of goods and services or real GDP The paradigm states that the pursuit of economic growth is a sole measure of national success The western economic growth theories evolved from Mercantilism, Physiocrates, Classical economics, Keynesians, Neoclassical to modern theories Literature on the Benefits and costs of economic growth(environment, global warming, consumerism, inflation, inequality) BENEFIT S OF ECONOMIC GROWTH IN WESTERN LITERATURE THE COSTS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH IN WESTERN LITERATURE THE COSTS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH IN WESTERN LITERATURE A DIVERGENCE OF THE GPI AND GDP WOULD SUGGEST THAT ECONOMIC GROWTH IS COMING AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHER CONTRIBUTORS TO WELL-BEING, SUCH AS ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OR LEISURE TIME published by the State • Report Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA ) and the National Bureau of Statistics ( NBS) re-examines China’s 2004 GDP, estimating that pollution cost the country 511.8 billion yuan (US$64 billion) in economic losses that year, or 3.05 percent of 2004’s total economic output • The economic system is a part of a larger ecological system and they are interdependent and interwoven • Economic system is connected to the ethical, environmental, social and political systems • Therefore policy makers also should consider the effects of an economic decision on other subsystems to reduce the costs of economic growth and slows down the limit to growth • Ibn Khaldun finds that ideas, human capital, innovation and technology are important for economic expansion although the limit to growth is inevitable • Ibn Khaldun focuses on man’s ability to think as an impetus to growth • Therefore intellectual development has to be nurtured in various ways including education, freedom of expression, intellectual network and discourses, and commercial exchanges and network THAILAND ECONOMIC MODEL: SUFFICIENCY ECONOMICS • Focus on sustainable profit, moderation, avoid indulging in overconsumption, ethical approach to business, role of government in alleviating poverty and guiding macroeconomic policies, careful risk management, mental and spiritual development • Raising ethical standards for economic management, getting rid of conflicts of interest and introduce transparency • This economic model was endorsed by United Nation's main development agency(UNDP) • http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/03/20/fea03.asp FINANCIAL CRISIS • Ibn Khaldun’s view: As a result of luxury habits, man is transformed from a moral individual seeking common good to a self interest economic man indulge in excessive spending causing corruption, unethical behavior, financial and economic crisis • Non economic factors affect the economy • We have to differentiate between the root cause and the symptoms ROOT CAUSE OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS • The economic and financial crisis that have affected the global community is partly due to self interest and ... website to see a breakdown of how different groups voted in 2012 3/5 Voter Participation and Costs of Elections A number of proposals have been offered to encourage greater voter turnout: making it... place, and any additional time and effort spent becoming informed about the candidates Review Question How does rational ignorance discourage voting? 4/5 Voter Participation and Costs of Elections. . .Voter Participation and Costs of Elections realizes that his vote has almost no chance of influencing the outcome… He will not even utilize