Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Hiv/Aids In The African Context, Eileen Stillwaggon, Larry Sawers

Economics Faculty Publications

This book of readings is intended for courses in Global Health. The editors asked Prof. Stillwaggon to contribute a chapter summarizing her years of work on the spread of HIV/AIDS in populations among whom bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral diseases are extremely common, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work has demonstrated that differences in behavior cannot explain differences in HIV rates between world regions.

The Impact Of Aid On The Economic Growth Of Developing Countries (Ldcs) In Sub-Saharan Africa, Maurice W. Phiri

Gettysburg Economic Review

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Sub-Saharan African have been recipients of official development assistance for more than 5 decades; however they are still characterized by chronic problems of poverty, low living standards and weak economic growth. The hot question is: Is aid effective in promoting economic growth? Thus, this paper investigates the impact of aid on the economic growth of 12 least developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over a period of 20 years. I take a fixed effects instrumental variable approach and the results imply that aid has a statistically insignificant negative impact on economic growth. I therefore conclude that …

Bootstrap Blues, Hannah M. Frantz

SURGE

Meet David*. In mid-January, he came to the small town Iowa elementary school where I work. David has attended more schools in the two years since he started school than I have in my lifetime. In fact, the school he just moved from only has four days of attendance listed on his record. David moves so often because he’s homeless. His situation is not what we may stereotypically think of as “homeless”—you wouldn’t see him on the streets or even in soup kitchens. Instead, David stays with his mother, and they couch surf from one home to another from week …

Milking The System: Do Poor People Deserve Fresh Food?, Melanie M. Meisenheimer

SURGE

Poor Americans are all lazy, selfish people who must first prove their worth as human beings if they want to be able to feed their children.

It sounds harsh, stereotypical, and judgmental when you put it like that, and few people would feel comfortable saying that exact phrase. However, it’s a perception of poverty in America that I’ve found still has a strong grip on our way of thinking. [excerpt]

The Effects Of Maternal Welfare Receipt On Children’S Development, Nikolay O. Doskov

Gettysburg Economic Review

Over the past 25 years, welfare and other public policies for families living below the poverty line have developed a primary objective of promoting parents’ self-sufficiency. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), passed in 1996, was a milestone in this effort, limiting the number of years that families can receive federal cash welfare assistance and requiring most of them to participate in work-related activities to be eligible for such assistance. This new emphasis on work was one of the main reasons for the dramatic decline in welfare dependency during the late 1990s. The new legislation, however, also …