RNR for November 2005

November 17, 2005

IWPR’s Research News Reporter is distributed monthly to highlight inventive, informative, innovative, and sometimes controversial research relating to women and their families. Each selection includes a short description of the research and either a link to the report itself or a citation. We sometimes include short pieces in their entirety.

In this edition:

Teenagers’ Access to Confidential Reproductive Health Services.
The Boom That Wasn’t: The Economy Has Little to Show for $860 in Tax Cuts.
Families and Work Institute’s 2005 National Study of Employers.
Property Ownership for Women Enriches, Empowers, and Protects.

1. Teenagers’ Access to Confidential Reproductive Health Services

Cynthia Dailard and Chinué Turner Richardson

Guttmacher Institute

October 2005

The Guttmacher Institute has prepared a synthesis of public policy research on mandated parental involvement in minors’ sexual and reproductive health. After reviewing three decades of research, the authors conclude that mandatory notification and consent policies post a severe threat to teenagers’ health. Major findings include:

A 2005 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that only 1 percent of adolescents who frequent family planning clinics indicate that they would stop having sex as a result of mandated parental notification and consent policies, while 20 percent said they would practice unsafe sex;
Another study, published in the Archives of Pediatric Medicine in 2004, predicted that recent changes to Texas law mandating parental consent for obtaining state-funded prescription contraceptives and increased statutory rape reporting would lead to higher rates of teen pregnancy, a greater number of untreated STDs, and a cost of $44 million per year to the state and federal governments.
A 1992 Family Planning Perspectives study found that a third of teenagers who did not inform their parents of their decision to seek an abortion experienced violence in the family.

According to the authors, these findings indicate that the health and well-being of many teenagers is negatively affected by the mandatory parental consent and notification laws and that greater awareness of the negative consequences is needed on the part of parents and the public.

Full report is available at: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/08/4/gr080406.pdf

2. The Boom That Wasn’t: The Economy Has Little to Show for $860 Billion in Tax Cuts

Lee Price

Economic Policy Institute

October 2005

With the debate over whether to extend past tax cuts and enact new ones ongoing, the Economic Policy Institute released a report examining how tax cuts over the past four years have affected the U.S. economy and budget. The authors conclude that, contrary to their declared purpose, the tax cuts did not strengthen the US economy. Instead, at a cost of $860 billion over the last five years, the tax cuts have caused permanent deficits that have decreased our standard of living. The authors arrive at this conclusion by examining the economy’s current performance compared to its performance during past business cycles. The findings of the report include:

Since 2001 the economy has grown significantly slower than the average over the previous 17 quarters. Gross domestic product increased by only 12.3 percent over 17 quarters since 2001, yielding an annual average of 2.8 percent growth, considerably below the average of 3.5 percent over the previous six cycles;
Labor market performance is also below average. Excluding the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. only has 1.3 percent more jobs today than it did as of March 2001. At this point in previous cycles, jobs had increased an average of 8.8 percent and never less than 6 percent.
Wages and salaries are stagnant. In this cycle, wage and salary income has increased on average only 1.3 percent annually, almost 2 percent below the annual average growth rate for the past six business cycles.

Not only did the tax cuts fail to boost economic performance, but they have also dramatically decreased revenue. In fiscal year 2005, the combined effect of the tax cuts passed since 2001 was $260 billion, including interest costs, a sum which would nearly cover last year’s $317 billion deficit. The authors emphasize the need for Congress to acknowledge the fiscal impact of extending or enacting new tax cuts against their relatively null impact on economic performance.

Full report is available at: http://www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/168/bp168.pdf

3. Families and Work Institute’s 2005 National Study of Employers

James T. Bond, Ellen Galinsky, Stacy S. Kim, and Erin Brownfield

Families and Work Institute

October 2005

The 2005 National Survey of Employers (NSE) is a nationally representative study of the practices, policies, programs, and benefits U.S. employers offer to meet the needs of the workplace and today’s workers. The study builds upon the Institute’s 1998 Business Work-Life Study and provides data on trends that have occurred over the past seven years. Key findings from the NSE include:

Compared with 1998, employers are contributing less to health insurance, disability plans, and retirement plans.
There has been an increase over the past seven years in the availability of daily flextime and compressed workweeks, information on elder care resources, and employer-provided health insurance for unmarried partners;
Seventy-two percent of supervisors report that they are encouraged to base their assessment of employee performance on accomplishments (as opposed to the number of hours worked), but less than a third of those supervisors report that management rewards those who support flexible work arrangements.
Of employers asked about why they offer work-life benefits, nearly half give employee recruitment and retention as their number one reason. An additional 25 percent believe the work-life benefits they offer increase productivity and commitment among their workers.
Half of employers cite cost as the main factor inhibiting them from enacting more work-life initiatives.

Full report is available at: www.familiesandwork.org/eproducts/2005nse.pdf

4. Property Ownership for Women Enriches, Empowers and Protects

International Center for Research on Women

2005

This new issue brief, part of the International Center for Research on Women’s Millennium Development Goal Series offers recommendations for supporting women’s land ownership, which is seen as a crucial component of gender equality and tool for women’s empowerment. The brief references research that shows how individuals who own land generate greater rural nonfarm earnings because they can use the land as collateral. Research also reveals that property ownership increases women’s bargaining power within the household, in turn decreasing women’s risk of domestic violence. Additionally, several studies cited in the brief link secure land tenure with increased agricultural productivity. Given that women are often the main food producers in areas suffering from hunger and chronic malnutrition, women’s property ownership is important in fighting food insecurity. Finally, because women who own property are less dependent on men, they may be less vulnerable to HIV infection. This is particularly important in areas where HIV/AIDS is prevalent. The brief concludes by offering the following policy recommendations:

Governments must step beyond legal reforms and support women in their attempts to realize their property rights, for instance by promoting legal literacy.
Mandating joint titling for legally married couples or supporting voluntary joint titling, is a significant step in assuring women’s land rights.
Women should be encouraged to participate in collective approaches to accessing land, like joint investment in capital inputs to improve land while maintaining individually managed plots and production.

Full report available at: www.icrw.org/docs/2005_brief_mdg-property.pdf

This edition of IWPR’s Research News Reporter was prepared by Jessica Koski and Inku Subedi.

[ top ]