News by Subject Social & Behavior

Most Canadian smokers are in favour of novel policies to reduce tobacco use, according to a national survey by the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC) at the University of Waterloo.

Latest research finds significant inequalities in cuts to council services across the country, with deprived areas in the north of England and London seeing the biggest drops in local authority spending since 2010.

A new analysis looks at what it would take for oil companies to start pumping millions of tons of carbon dioxide into their wells to boost crude production -- and what it would mean for the climate.

New socioeconomic research from Michigan State University found a market disruptor has turned the 'invisible hand' theory on its head.

Increasing taxes on alcohol is one of the most cost-effective methods of reducing the harms caused by alcohol consumption, according to research in the new issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

A study in the International Journal of Health Services finds that immigrants use far less health care than non-immigrants, and may actually subsidize the care of US citizens. Immigrants' utilization was only one-half to two-thirds as high as that of the US-born population. Researchers concluded that immigrants effectively subsidize private and public insurance programs (such as Medicare) because they pay more into the system than is paid out for their care.

During its first two years, StreetCred, a free tax preparation program developed at Boston Medical Center (BMC), helped 753 clients in pediatric clinics receive over $1.6 million in federal tax returns. Results from surveys of clients and staff, published in Pediatrics, showed that StreetCred was associated with a significant improvement in tax filings and a significant increase in client knowledge about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which helps lift families out of poverty.

The habit of taxing Multinational Enterprises (MNEs)' profits is the legacy of a time when "GM had to make cars in Detroit and Hollywood had to make movies in L.A.", but is now inefficient and detrimental to global welfare, a new study by Nicolai Foss, Rodolfo Debenedetti Chair of Entrepreneurship at Bocconi University, and colleagues asserts. The solution would be zeroing corporate tax and replacing it with a hike in taxes on dividends and sales.