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However, the state disinvestment hypothesis falls apart upon closer scrutiny of the data. This report uses a fixed-effects regression method, which isolates underlying tuition trends from fluctuations plausibly caused by state disinvestment. At four-year public colleges between 2004 and 2015, every dollar of per-student subsidy cuts was associated with a tuition hike of less than five cents. State subsidies appear to have little, if any, effect on tuition levels at public colleges.

. . . economists across the ideological spectrum have paid little attention to the links between household family structure and the macroeconomic outcomes of nations, states, and societies. This is a major oversight because, as this report shows, shifts in marriage and family structure are important factors in states’ economic performance, including their economic growth, economic mobility, child poverty, and median family income.

The headline numbers for the May jobs report are about what you would expect for a New Normal economy stuck in 2% growth mode: 175,000 net new jobs last month, the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.6%. No broad signs of acceleration; just the opposite, in fact. As Barclays bank points out, the three-month average increase in nonfarm payrolls through May is now 155,000 vs. a first-quarter average of 207,000. (And at May’s pace of job creation, it would take another 58 months to get back to 5% unemployment.)