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Welfare Reform: The View From New Hampshire And Massachusetts, Richard W. Hurd, Allen Thompson Oct 2013

Welfare Reform: The View From New Hampshire And Massachusetts, Richard W. Hurd, Allen Thompson

Richard W Hurd

As he promised during his election campaign, President Carter has proposed a major overhaul of the welfare system. Under the Better Jobs and Income Act, unveiled in August 1977, the major components of the current welfare system would be replaced by a program combining cash assistance and job opportunities. This paper evaluates the Carter proposal based on the experience under existing employment, training and welfare programs and then assesses its potential impact on the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In the course of the discussion, we deal with the following questions: (1) Does the proposal effectively address the weaknesses …


Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: Industry Overview And Analysis, Pacey C. Foster, David G. Terkla, Robert Laubacher Jul 2013

Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: Industry Overview And Analysis, Pacey C. Foster, David G. Terkla, Robert Laubacher

Pacey C Foster

This report describes the structure and recent growth of the film and television industry in Massachusetts. We begin with a discussion of national trends in this industry and find that Massachusetts is one of the fastest growing locations for film and television production in the United States. We then discuss recent employment trends in this sector and find that there has been significant recent growth in the total number of local film and television production jobs, particularly among the unionized crew and actors that staff local productions. Examination of federal data reveals that between 2005 and 2008 there has been …


Final-Offer Arbitration And Public-Safety Employees: The Massachusetts Experience, David B. Lipsky, Thomas A. Barocci Mar 2013

Final-Offer Arbitration And Public-Safety Employees: The Massachusetts Experience, David B. Lipsky, Thomas A. Barocci

David B Lipsky

[Excerpt] We conclude that, in terms of its impact on the bargaining process, final-offer arbitration has had a mixed record in Massachusetts. On the one hand, the law must probably be given some credit for preventing police and firefighter strikes; in addition, the rate of arbitration usage was remarkably low compared to experience in other states. On the other hand, the law probably led to more impasses in police and fire bargaining (although the experience in the commonwealth was still favorable compared to other states) and reduced the effectiveness of the mediation stage of the impasse procedures. Perhaps most important, …


Final-Offer Arbitration And Salaries Of Police And Firefighters, David B. Lipsky, Thomas A. Barocci Mar 2013

Final-Offer Arbitration And Salaries Of Police And Firefighters, David B. Lipsky, Thomas A. Barocci

David B Lipsky

[Excerpt] Did final-offer arbitration have a discernible impact on the salaries of police and firefighters in Massachusetts during the 3-year trial period which ended June 30, 1977? To analyze this question, we collected information on the maximum salary paid to police patrolmen, police sergeants, firefighters, and fire lieutenants for a large sample of Massachusetts municipalities. We integrated these data with police and fire impasse experiences and added several economic and environmental characteristics for each Massachusetts municipality. Then we performed several tests of the economic impact of final-offer arbitration.


Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts, Joshua H. Chase, Jonathan G. Cooper, Rory Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Filipe Antunes Lima, Sally R. Miller, Toni Marie Pignatelli Feb 2013

Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts, Joshua H. Chase, Jonathan G. Cooper, Rory Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Filipe Antunes Lima, Sally R. Miller, Toni Marie Pignatelli

Sally Miller

Climate change, understood as a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or its variability, is the greatest environmental challenge of this generation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001). Marshfield is already being affected by changes in the climate that will have a profound effect on the town’s economy, public health, coastal resources, natural features, water systems, and public and private infrastructure. Adaptation strategies have been widely recognized as playing an important role in improving a community’s ability to respond to climate stressors by resisting damage and recovering quickly. Based on review of climate projections for the …


The Effect Of Unions On Productivity In The Public Sector: The Case Of Municipal Libraries, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Joshua L. Schwarz Aug 2012

The Effect Of Unions On Productivity In The Public Sector: The Case Of Municipal Libraries, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Joshua L. Schwarz

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] This paper represents our initial efforts at analyzing the effects of unions on productivity in the public sector. We first sketch an analytical framework that can be used to estimate these effects, focusing for expository purposes on municipal public libraries. We initially focus on libraries because considerable effort has been devoted to conceptualizing productivity measures for them and because of the availability of data to implement the framework. After discussing the analytical framework, we present preliminary estimtes of the effects of unions on productivity in public libraries based upon analyses of data from 71 municipal libraries in Massachusetts. We …


Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: The Beginning Of Hollywood East?, Pacey C. Foster, David Terkla Dec 2011

Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: The Beginning Of Hollywood East?, Pacey C. Foster, David Terkla

David G. Terkla

After declining in the 1990s (laubacher, 2006), the Massachusetts film and television industry reached a nadir with the closing of the Massachusetts film office in 2002. To revitalize this once-thriving local creative industry, in 2005 the state legislature passed a tax incentive plan that provided a bankable tax credit for qualifying motion picture and television productions in Massachusetts. As updated in 2007, the Massachusetts film tax credit (FTC) provides a refundable/transferrable tax credit for 25% of qualifying wage and non-wage production expenses and a sales tax exemption for qualifying in-state spending. Massachusetts joined, at the maximum, 43 other states in …


Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: Industry Overview And Analysis, Pacey C. Foster, David G. Terkla, Robert Laubacher Dec 2011

Film And Television Production In Massachusetts: Industry Overview And Analysis, Pacey C. Foster, David G. Terkla, Robert Laubacher

David G. Terkla

This report describes the structure and recent growth of the film and television industry in Massachusetts. We begin with a discussion of national trends in this industry and find that Massachusetts is one of the fastest growing locations for film and television production in the United States. We then discuss recent employment trends in this sector and find that there has been significant recent growth in the total number of local film and television production jobs, particularly among the unionized crew and actors that staff local productions. Examination of federal data reveals that between 2005 and 2008 there has been …


Cloud Computing Providers And Data Security Law: Building Trust With United States Companies, Jared A. Harshbarger Esq. Nov 2011

Cloud Computing Providers And Data Security Law: Building Trust With United States Companies, Jared A. Harshbarger Esq.

Jared A. Harshbarger

Cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models are revolutionizing the information technology industry. As these services become more prevalent, data security and privacy concerns will also rise among consumers and the companies who consider using them. Cloud computing providers must establish a sufficient level of trust with their potential customers in order to ease initial fears - and ensure certain compliance obligations will be met - at least to the extent that any such inquiring customer will feel comfortable enough to ultimately take the irreversible step of releasing their sensitive data and personal information into the cloud.


Capital Mobility And Job Loss: Corporate Restructuring, Production Shifts, And Outsourcing, Stephanie Luce, Kate Bronfenbrenner Oct 2009

Capital Mobility And Job Loss: Corporate Restructuring, Production Shifts, And Outsourcing, Stephanie Luce, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the impact of corporate restructuring and global outsourcing on employment in the Commonwealth and the shifts in production from workplaces in Massachusetts to other countries. In particular we focus on global outsourcing, the shifting of work from Massachusetts offshore to countries in Europe and Asia, and nearshore to Canada and countries in Latin America. Given the huge media attention that outsourcing and nearshoring have garnered, and the increasing trend they represent toward corporate restructuring and capital mobility with lasting repercussions for workers, families, unions, and communities in the Commonwealth, it is important to assess their relative …