Assignment task:
In depth respond to the two below discussion post. Include two apa sources and one bible verse. Make 2 questions for each response to help them develop their research more.
Topic #1
My first research topic questions how remote employment and the gig economy may affect employment and earnings outcomes for former users of the NJ Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) from 10 years of data. It considers the influence of several potential confounding factors, including age, educational attainment, professional skills, digital equity (access to a smartphone and computer) and digital literacy (fluency with a smartphone, computer and digital applications). In addition to an initial quantitative analysis of the potential relationship between remote and gig work and employment and earnings for former New Jersey users, it conducts a qualitative assessment to measure digital equity and digital literacy for users.
This research hypothesizes that remote work has had a significant positive influence on employment and earnings for former Work First NJ users and that digital equity, digital literacy, age, educational attainment and professional skill attainment are significant influencing factors. I believe these controls are one of the report's strengths and that the reliance on self-reporting for gig work raises concerns about underreporting (Brenner & DeLameter, 2016; Haan, 2023). This research is significant as remote employment and gig work have increased significantly over time (Brannen et al., 2020; Siripurapu, 2020; Marcus, 2022). Such opportunities offer a means of income for those with less education, professional skills, transportation access, childcare, or disabilities. Such work can remove TANF users from welfare rolls and positively impact the macroeconomy (Delouya, 2023; Walsh, 2020; Dynan, 2019; Bedi, 2023).
Topic #2
The Opportunity Zone program was designed to generate private investment in distressed census tracts by offering tax incentives for investors. As part of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it is designed to support economic development and stimulate job creation. This research questions whether Opportunity Zones (OZs) have had a significant influence on the skilled labor market. It evaluates whether commercial and mixed-use OZ projects have generated an observable increase in skilled labor positions and local employment. It also considers whether transportation access is a significant influence. Previous literature has provided contradictory evaluations of OZ project employment outcomes (Arefeva et al., 2020; Freedman et al., 2022; Atkins et al., 2021; Brannon & Kemp, 2023, p. 12; Frank et al., 2020; Jacoby, 2019). As a relatively new program, the analysis focuses on case studies.
This research hypothesizes that the projects did not demonstrate a significant increase in skilled labor opportunities and that the jobs held by OZ projects are filled by non-local residents. It also hypothesizes that transportation access is a significant confounding factor. The outcomes of this research may suggest that job creation criteria or place-based interventions such as transportation development and workforce housing may improve the efficiency of the program and increase local employment. Future research should consider employment outcomes compared to wealth accumulation for investors. Research to date suggests the tax benefits for OZ investors are significantly disproportionate to the economic benefits the projects produce.
Topic #3
My third research topic questions the impact of Housing Overlay Zones (HOZs) and Affordable Housing Overlay Zones (AHOs) on housing stock (amount and type), housing affordability (rent and home prices) and the resident population (population, age, race, gender, educational attainment, median household income, employment and poverty). The zones impose an additional zoning layer on top of the primary zoning and encourage specific development in strategic areas through development incentives (Turner Center for Housing Innovation, 2019, p. 2). This research focuses on urban American cities, applies statistical analysis and considers the last ten years of data. Area median income, access to transportation, open space, and local zoning parameters are considered potential confounding factors.
This research hypothesizes that HOZs and AHOs had a significant positive influence on housing stock and costs. It suggests that the higher rent and home costs raise concerns about affordability. As such, it hypothesizes that significant changes in resident populations will be observed. As well, it suggests that access to open space and transportation are significant influences on these outcomes. Finally, it hypothesizes that additional zoning parameters may create barriers to development. This research is significant given the recent implementation of housing overlay zone models (Salvadore, 2023; Butler, 2022; Puget Sound Regional Council, 2020l Burgess et al., 2023; Komza, 2020). It suggests that in addition to the intended consequences of increased housing, overlay zones may generate unintended consequences such as additional barriers to development and residential displacement.
Favorite Topic
Of my three research topics, the one most interesting to me is how the gig economy and remote work have influenced employment and earning outcomes for users of the TANF program. I believe it has the strongest biblical foundation of my three topics. The welfare state contradicts man's nature to pursue self-improvement. The duty, importance and reward of hard work are necessary facets of life and God's design for creation (Psalm 128:2; 1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Chron. 15:7, ESV). It also contradicts God's design for government as a limited measure to protect mankind's unalienable rights (Bastiat, 1964). This topic also has the most significant economic significance given the evolution of government intervention and its macroeconomic consequences. The plethora of welfare programs have their costs on both the American economy and the nature of work. The programs impose significant costs on taxpayers. They have demonstrated significant increases in spending over time and lackluster employment and earnings outcomes for users (Lim et al., 2009, p. 548; Keith-Jennings & Chaudry, 2018, p. 1; Safawi & Pavetti, 2020).
Changes
After re-examining my research, I plan to make a few changes. I want to expand on the biblical foundation of this research, and the interconnectedness between it, the role of government and the economy. I want to synthesize the ideals of Christian philosophy and classical economic thought and trace them to the current state of American welfare. I also plan to refine my variables to ensure they measure what I intend to measure. Finally, I want to narrow down the specific quantitative analysis I plan to use. Given previous TANF research, a variety of statistical methods are utilized, however, a difference-in-difference model is the most frequently used. This will be informed by refining the study variables.Second Discussion:
I worked in the welfare industry and have firsthand knowledge of the field. In Florida, the Economic Self Sufficiency Program (ESS) is the umbrella program for the Food Stamp and medicaid office. Interestingly, a new program called the Hope Florida - A Pathway to Prosperity under ESS seeks to help people become economically self-sufficient without the incentive of financial assistance. The pursuit of self-sufficiency is a very subjective journey. From a social welfare perspective, it implies that individuals are not self-sufficient enough to acquire food and medical assistance. Thus, they require food stamps, Medicaid, cash assistance, or other forms of welfare. In my personal experience, an overwhelmingly small majority of the participants were willing to increase their income because they would lose eligibility for benefits.
I found a correlation between the experiences I obtained working with ESS clientele and the general assertions made about the negative aspects of social welfare programs through research. James Bartholomew (2004), a welfare researcher found a connection between welfare programs and lack of motivation. The negative connotation of the connection is that people are less motivated to work if they fall outside the qualification guidelines for their benefits. I recall working with a single mother who made little money working as a waitress. She had a child who received social-security disability payments every month as well as food stamps and owned her own home. The home was badly damaged by the most recent hurricane, and she was in desperate need of a new roof. Unfortunately, she felt she needed to be at home mostly to care for her child and was unwilling to work more for the risk of potentially losing her benefits. She was willing to find under-the-counter work which she was actively pursuing. Her story was like countless other individuals I worked with who consistently lost their supplemental assistance. The fact is if they live at a level that they deem self-sufficient, the ESS program will allow them to gain access to public benefits if they are below a certain threshold. In a way, the ESS program has redefined what it means to be self-sufficient through governmental aid and support.
As Bastiat (1964) contended in his book The Law, mankind is naturally inclined to self-preservation and self-development, but it is also inclined towards living at the expense of others (9). Should the law be used for the latter, it is perverted to meet those aims (for example, wars, migrations, religious persecutions, slavery, corruption, monopolies (10). I am concerned that social welfare programs continue to break and the individual and familial levels of our culture. If you are a single mother and the welfare system aims at supporting you, then there is a feeling of entitlement that you can qualify and live with at a certain level which sets you into a poverty trap where motivations are more about self-preservation than they are about self-development (Kraay & McKenzie, 2014). Nada Eissa and Hilary Hoynes (2006) argue welfare in the form of employment incentives like the Earned Income Tax Credit builds labor supply. Still, even this is a welfare program in and of itself where three-quarters of the recipients are single women (103).
Charles Murray (1985) researched technical data on the effect of social welfare programming and found that social programs do not accomplish the egalitarian goals of helping poor and disadvantaged individuals, but they make things worse. He found a connection between welfare dependency and social welfare. He found that the traditional family structures broke down with an increase in single-parent household benefit programs. Does social welfare destroy the family unit? I would stress that there is a problem across a multitude of different economic, political, and cultural systems and the breakdown of the individual and the family as a result of social welfare. From a biblical perspective, it is important to help people Women and children especially. Unfortunately, political policies have allowed the breakdown of the traditional marriage and family unit, it is not uncommon because man has fallen. Men need to be allowed to take responsibility for their children as well. As Malachi 4:6 details, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Our society should focus on Social Capital, where strong social ties can create a resource like financial capital resources (Putnam, 1995).