Throughout the year, NHFPI staff collectively read, listened to, or watched over 1,000 research products to help create monthly, curated lists for the NHFPI newsletter’s feature, What We’re Reading. Below is a non-comprehensive list of interesting books, reports, papers, analyses, and podcast episodes from 2024 that highlight the range of topics important to the economic growth, development, and wellbeing of the Granite State and its residents. Key excerpts from each are also included to provide insight into the relevance and importance of the research.
Budget and Revenue
How a Pandemic-Era Surge in Tax Collections Drove a Revenue Wave—and What It Means for Future State Budgets – Pew Charitable Trusts
“As the increased aid helped lift the economy, 48 states passed tax cuts or one-time rebates. Both the record-setting level of federal aid and the sheer volume of tax relief ultimately hindered states’ ability to identify the full scope of the revenue wave.”
States Can Fight Corporate Tax Avoidance by Requiring Worldwide Combined Reporting – Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
“Corporate profit shifting…gives large multinational corporations a tax advantage over purely domestic businesses, which are often small and lack the resources or ability to set up their own foreign shell companies. Lowering their taxes by shifting profits to tax havens enhances multinational corporations’ competitive advantages over their domestic counterparts, including their superior access to capital and other resources.”
Toward a Potential Grand Bargain for the Nation – Bipartisan Policy Center
“Free markets have led to unprecedented growth and innovation, along with rising incomes, over the past three centuries. But government also has a role to play….To bring prosperity to more people, we need policies that will enable more people to benefit from economic growth through investment in their education and skills…[W]e put a great deal of emphasis on improving education for children, on training or retraining for adult workers, and on subsidizing the earnings of low-wage workers when necessary while maintaining a safety net for those who cannot work.”
Demographics
More States are Planning for the Coming Retirement Surge – The Pew Charitable Trusts
“…[B]y the end of 2040, insufficient retirement savings will have cost states and the federal government a combined $1.3 trillion since 2021 in increased public assistance spending, administrative costs, and reduced tax revenue. Meanwhile, the working-age population, which provides most of the tax revenue needed to pay for such costs, is unlikely to keep pace with the workforce losses, growing only modestly over time.”
Nursing Home Closures in New England: Impact on Long-term Care, Labor Markets – New England Public Policy Center
“The number of older adults aging in place may be increasing in the region, nevertheless nearly one-third of the New England states’ combined Medicaid spending is devoted to funding long-term care. In 2023, low reimbursement rates from Medicaid and Medicare and high operating costs resulted in most nursing homes in New England losing money, suggesting the region could see more closures unless significant changes occur.”
Communities and Consequences II: Rebalancing NH’s Human Ecology – Peter Francese and Lorraine Merrill
“[In] the three decades since 1990, the picture has changed dramatically. The United States median age is now 38.2 years – the New Hampshire has gone from twenty-eighth-oldest median age to its current status as second-oldest state, with a median age of 43. Over these 30 years, New Hampshire’s median age rose at a faster rate than any other state except Maine, and only Maine’s median is higher, at 44.9 years. …Some of this demographic predicament is self-inflicted. Unintended consequences of decisions and policy-making based on several persistent myths have together fundamentally altered the age structure of residents of our state.”
The Age of Dignity – Ai-jen Poo and Ariane Conrad
“Right now, fewer than one third of adults over age 50 have started saving for long-term care, one in three employed adults aged 55-64 has no savings for retirement, and another one third have less than one year’s salary in savings. It used to be easier to save in a more stable market when more jobs were full-time with reliable benefit programs, when the cost of college wasn’t so astronomical.”
Economy
A Better Way of Understanding the US Consumer: Decomposing Retail Spending by Household Income – The U.S. Federal Reserve
“Our measure of spending by income shows that middle – and high-income households have been fueling the strong demand for retail goods in the economy while low-income households’ spending has been stable in the post-pandemic period.”
2024 Economic Analysis Report – New Hampshire Employment Security
“Government employment in New Hampshire has been lagging far behind private industry employment since the pandemic. Although government employment increased by 3.0 percent between June 2023 and June 2024, the employment level remains 2,200 jobs below the June 2019 level. This is primarily in the form of local government employment which had 2,100 fewer jobs in June 2024 than it did in June 2019.”
Black Women Best Framework Points the Way to Equitable and Just State Tax Reform – Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
“Across the economy, Black women are undervalued and overburdened. […] Black Women Best posits that if Black women can thrive in the economy, then the economy must finally be working for everyone. If policymakers…promote policies that focus on uplifting Black women, everyone will be lifted up in the process.”
Housing and Homelessness
From Homes to Classrooms: The Relationship Between Housing Development and School Enrollment in New Hampshire – New Hampshire Housing
“This study found that communities predominantly relying on single-family homes for property tax revenue experienced lower fiscal benefits, particularly per-acre, compared to communities with a more diverse mix of housing types and commercial properties. To enhance the resilience of the tax base, various strategies can be employed to promote the presence of higher-density housing and commercial developments while preserving a community’s historic character.”
Homelessness in US Cities and Downtowns – The Brookings Institution
“Inadequate housing supply, particularly of affordable units, is consistently shown to be the primary driver of homelessness in the U.S. — significantly outweighing factors such as substance use, poverty, and mental health.”
Cost-effective and Humane Recommendations for Local Leaders after Grants Pass – The Brookings Institution
“[The] churn between homelessness and incarceration is estimated to cost taxpayers $83,000 per person per year—far more costly than providing treatment and housing…[As an example] in Los Angeles County, it costs an average of $548 per day to incarcerate a person in a mental health unit, compared to just $207 per day to provide housing and community treatment.”
States Should Enact, Expand Mansion Taxes to Advance Fairness and Shared Prosperity – Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
“Mansion tax revenue can help fund not just affordable housing but also schools, health care, roads, and other services and infrastructure critical to residents’ long-term future. And the taxes would make upside-down state and local tax systems — where the wealthy pay less as a share of income — fairer.”
Income and Mobility
Key Takeaways on Reducing Intergenerational Poverty – The Brookings Institution
“In education, [Georgetown Professor of Public Policy Harry Holzer] strongly emphasized that money matters; that increasing spending in the poorest districts and effective post-secondary financial assistance combined with more campus supports would have a significant impact.”
Fastest Wage Growth of the Last Four Years Among Historically Disadvantaged Groups – Economic Policy Institute
“Black men, young workers, and working mothers experienced particularly fast wage growth over the last four years. After growing for many groups in the prior forty years, key wage gaps narrowed between 2019 and 2023, but still remain large… Faster growth for low-wage workers did not happen by luck: It was thanks to intentional policy decisions during the pandemic recession.”
Poverty, by America – Matthew Desmond, PhD
“Here’s the bottom line: The most recent data compiling spending on social insurance, means-tested programs, tax benefits, and financial aid for higher education show that average household in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution receives roughly $25,733 in government benefits a year, while the average household in the top 20 percent receives about $35,363. Every year, the richest American families receive almost 40 percent more in government subsides than the poorest American families.”
Early Care and Education
Aspects of Well-Being for the Child Care and Early Education Workforce – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
“Children do best when their teachers and caregivers are responsive to them, yet [Child Care and Early Education] teachers’ and caregivers’ responsiveness may depend upon their well-being…including physical health; mental health; workplace relationships; and respect, recognition, and compensation.”
New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium – Carsey School of Public Policy
“Child care workers in the Granite State are well educated. Seventy-nine percent have at least some college education, compared to just 70 percent of the general workforce…Despite their high educational attainment, New Hampshire’s child care workers have low earnings. Census Bureau data…show the median annual salary among early educators working full-time is $29,185, compared to $58,923 for Granite Staters in other occupations.”
The Daycare Myth – Dan Wuori, PhD
“…[F]or decades, American public policy has been structured around the premise that child care is somehow separate and distinct from education. School – the logic dictates – is a place for learning, whereas care is a support to working families – an industrialized form of babysitting that allows parents to earn a living… Ultimately, this is the problem with both ‘daycare’ and ‘child care’ as labels. Each centers the concept of care in ways that minimize both the life-altering promise of these settings and the urgency of the American public to act accordingly.”
False Starts: The Segregated Lives of Preschoolers – Casey Stockstill
“In the United States, two-thirds of preschool children are in classrooms of one of two types: either classrooms with mostly poor children of color, or in classrooms with mostly white, affluent children.”
K-12 and Higher Education
How US Employers and Educators Can Build a More Nimble Education System With Multiple Paths to Success – The Brookings Institution
“Tight labor markets in the post-pandemic era, baby boom retirements, digitalization, and changing social and cultural values around work have amplified pleas for better ways for the U.S. to develop a highly skilled labor force… Simply put, both types of learning—academic and hands-on—are in demand and merit credit and value when they are signaled in the labor market… [W]ithout the active engagement of employers in shaping those hands-on, work-based learning pathways in a transparent and efficient manner, the U.S. will continue to struggle to achieve high-quality hands-on training at the necessary scale.”
Teacher Pay Rises in 2023—But Not Enough to Shrink Pay Gap with Other College Graduates – Economic Policy Institute
“There are seven states where teachers, on average, earn less than 70 cents on the dollar compared with similar college graduates in their respective states. The states with the largest [teacher pay] penalties are Colorado (38.4%), Arizona (32.9%), Virginia (32.0%), Oklahoma (31.8%), New Hampshire (31.6%), Minnesota (31.0%), and Alabama (31.0%).”
Health Care
Healthcare Cost and Activity in New Hampshire – Franklin Pierce School of Law
“The average per person healthcare expenditures in NH were $11,793 and NH average family premiums and deductibles represented nearly half (49%) of NH average wages… This can be an affordability challenge for many and can have real impact on accessing care, as is demonstrated in the data: 11% of all people in New Hampshire and 26% of Granite Staters who identify as multi-racial reported that they could not see a doctor when they needed to because of cost.”
One or Two Health Systems Controlled the Entire Market for Inpatient Hospital Care in Nearly Half of Metropolitan Areas in 2022 – The Kaiser Family Foundation
“…[N]early one third of all health spending goes towards hospital care. Consolidation may allow providers to operate more efficiently and help struggling providers keep their doors open in underserved areas, but often reduces competition. A substantial body of evidence has found that consolidation can contribute to higher prices, with unclear effects on quality.”
Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine – Uché Blackstock, MD
“The fact is that [over the past thirty years] health outcomes have gotten worse, not better, for Black Americans. Despite the extraordinary advancements in health care technology and innovation, structural racism continues to inflict heavy blows on the health of Black Americans.”
– New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute Staff