Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

App Newsletter 7, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

The seventh issue of the APP newsletter, with contributions by Michele Croce, founder and President of Verona Pulita, and Abel Kinyondo, Senior Researcher at REPOA.

App Newsletter 5, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

Fifth issue of APP Newsletter

App Newsletter 4, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

fourthe issue of the APP Newsletter

Public Act 231 Of 2008: Proposed Policy Reform To Address The Ever-Increasing Obesity Rates In Michigan, Rachele M. Hendricks-Sturrup

Rachele M Hendricks-Sturrup

In order to address the growing problem of obesity in the state of Michigan, Michigan implemented Public Act 231 of 2008 (Senate Bill 294, Amendment to the Commercial Rehabilitation Act) (hereinafter referred to as “Public Act 231”). Public Act 231 introduces a property tax incentive that seeks to increase access to affordable, healthful foods in rural and low-income urban areas (S. 294, 2008). Given recent facts stating that obesity rates in Michigan have steadily increased between years 2008-2013, it is apparent that the tax incentive under Public Act 231 has had very little impact in effectively tackling the obesity problem …

How Do Gamblers Maintain And Illusion Of Control?, Elizabeth Cowley, Donnel A. Briley, Colin Farrell

Donnel A Briley

Gamblers' enduring illusions of control (IOC) may be one reason why they continue to gamble in the face of sustained losses. If gamblers persist in the belief that they have special skills, knowledge and other advantages when gambling, they may be able to convince themselves it is worth doing again. Maintaining an IOC requires selective attention of the illusion supporting moments during the construction of an evaluation of a gambling session.Objective: Test the hypothesis that selected moments, specifically the moment of the highest win and the last moment of the gaming session, explain the retrospective evaluation of the session for …

Notes On The Policy Seminar On Inequality And Development, Held On The 26th Of September 2014 At The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Of Finland, J. G. A. Saviranta

Akseli Saviranta

The following document presents summarised key notes from the United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) policy seminar titled “Inequality and Development – Trends and Policies”. This policy seminar represented a follow-up to a prior two-day conference organised earlier in the same month by the same institute, in which the author has participated as well.

Industrial Hemp: Canada Exports, United States Imports, Courtney N. Moran Ll.M.

Courtney N. Moran LL.M.

Industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive variety of Cannabis sativa L., (C. sativa) is the greatest renewable resource available to mankind. Industrial hemp is an environmentally friendly crop that does not require herbicides or pesticides and can clean up toxins in soil. Manufacturers can produce hemp into over 25,000 products.

More than 30 industrialized nations, including Canada, cultivate industrial hemp for commercial purposes. Despite the fact that industrial hemp is a viable agricultural commodity, in the United States hemp is classified as marihuana, a Schedule I controlled substance, under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Therefore, it is illegal under U.S. federal law …

Planning Local Economic Development In The Emerging World Order, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

A new consensus is emerging around effective modes of government action in the economic sphere—in essence, a new approach to industrial policy—that has significant implications for the reform of the subnational economic development function currently underway in the UK and US. Leading edge local and regional economic development practise must be smarter, more flexible, more collaborative among stakeholders, more experimental and evaluative, and much less prone to generic diagnoses of economic challenges and the application of universal strategies. In turn, good planning scholarship is needed to help design the organisations and practises the new model requires and to train the …

Symposium Report: Findings From The Research Roundtable On The Economic And Community Impact Of Broadband, Edward Feser, John Horrigan, William Lehr

Edward J Feser

In December 2012, a group of experts spanning disciplines and practice in the field of broadband policy met to discuss how the research community can better serve state and local policymakers and other stakeholders. This group of subject matter experts was convened to examine how best to measure the economic impact of state and national broadband deployment and capacity/adoption building efforts. The impetus for the symposium stemmed from the widespread view that there is a deficit of research, standards, and measurements to adequately inform the widely acknowledged view that broadband Internet is a driver of sustainable economic and community development. …

Reit White Paper, Frederic Juillet

Frederic Juillet

Subject: Resulting from the recent financial crisis, this white paper discusses how to better defend shareholders’ investments in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) for the long-term and how to reduce volatility in the REITs market.

A Role For Policymakers In Improving The Status Of Black Male Students In U.S. Higher Education, Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D., Frank Harris Iii, Ed.D.

Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.

Given the systemic nature of racial achievement and opportunity gaps in education and their disproportionate impact on Black men, postsecondary institutions alone cannot close them. Participation from multiple stakeholder groups is necessary. This report calls for greater involvement by federal and state policymakers, high school counselors, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, the policymaking organization for intercollegiate athletics), community–based organizations, and other groups in ongoing efforts to improve the status of Black undergraduate men. In support of this goal, this report presents policy–relevant data from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, NCAA Federal Graduation Rates Database, and …

Course Outline, Contemporary Issues In Human Development And Policy, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

This is the course outline for 'Contemporary Issues in Human Development and Policy: A New Millennium Perspective' January-May 2012, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai.

Novi Institucionalizam I Međunarodni Odnosi: Korak Napred, Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Roozbeh (Rudy) B. Baker

Revolucija koju je šezdesetih godina prošlog veka doneo biheviorizam, i koja je u potpunosti prožela društvene nauke, posebno u oblasti političkih nauka i sociologije, dovela je do nezainteresovanosti za proučavanje institucija i njihove strukture. Osamdesetih godina javio se, pak, novi pokret u društvenim naukama, pokret koji je ukazao na značaj centralnosti institucionalne analize u proučavanju politike i društva, i obnovio izučavanje institucija kao ključne varijable. Nazvan Novi institucionalizam, ovaj pokret u velikoj meri uticao je na usmerenje istraživanja u političkim naukama i sociologiji. Nažalost, mnogi teoretičari i praktičari međunarodnih odnosa su ignorisali Novi institucionalizam, iako je on došao do novih …

Participatory Rural Appraisal, Ganesh Chandra

Ganesh Chandra

Participation, empowerment and inclusion have become the new development buzzword. There has been a range of interpretations of the meaning of participation in development. Participatory development starts from the premise that it is important to identify and build upon strengths already present in communities. Perhaps the most widespread appearance of participation in mainstream development has been seen in the form of participatory methodologies of research, intended to gather a wide range of information from local people at their livelihoods, needs, and strengths, at the same time as 'empowering' them through a process of collaborative analysis and learning. PRA is a …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Reducing Crime Through Electronic Monitoring Of Parolees And Probationers, Stuart S. Yeh

Stuart S Yeh

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the benefits and costs of using electronic monitoring (EM) and home detention to reduce crime committed by parolees and probationers. Method: Data from a national survey of state prison inmates was adjusted and used to estimate the number of crimes that would have been committed by all parolees and probationers over the course of one year in the absence of EM and home detention. The data were analyzed in combination with existing analyses of the effectiveness and costs of EM and home detention and the economic costs of crime to estimate …

Negotiating Housing Recovery In Post-Earthquake Urban Kutch, India, Anuradha Mukherji

Anuradha Mukherji

The 2001 Kutch earthquake, in Gujarat state in western India, destroyed 230,000 houses and damaged another 1 million. In Bhuj and Bachhau, urban centers close to the epicenter of the earthquake, single-family houses, squatter settlements, and high-rise apartments were destroyed, and public and private housing reconstruction programs were introduced to help communities rebuild their houses. However, five years after the disaster, in spite of interventions by local and global, public and private entities, many communities in both towns continued to struggle towards housing recovery. This dissertation examines why some communities were able to rebuild and improve their overall housing conditions …

Critical Examination Of Ghana’S Agriculture Policy Under Vision 2020 Document - Ppt, Hector Addison

Hector Addison

Ghana, like many developing economies has a huge agricultural based with cocoa being the major export commodity. Since independence in 1957, Ghana had struggled to put together and implement and model of development that guarantees better life for her citizenry. This paper looks at one such document and analyzes it from agriculture perspective in the context of present realities. It is clear that Ghana stands to gain from a transformed agricultural sector which might lead the way to discover the eluded glory as a resource endowed nation

Globalization, Regional Economic Policy And Research, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

This paper considers two questions. First, are there unique implications of growing global economic integration for development planning and policy making at the city and regional level? Key issues include whether globalization is appreciably different today than it used to be and whether it means anything more, from the perspective of a given city or region, than heightened competition for resident industries and related challenges of more rapid macro-regional structural change and adjustment. Second, what kinds of spatial empirical research and model building would be most valuable to regional policy makers faced with designing programs and making specific allocative investment …

U.S. Regional Economic Fragmentation & Integration: Selected Empirical Evidence And Implications, Edward J. Feser, Geoffrey Hewings

Edward J Feser

The emergence of ten U.S. megaregions—increasingly contiguous spaces of high density development and population capturing a high share of U.S. economic activity—raises the question of appropriate scales for local, state and federal policy and how regional planning as a practice can adapt to an extended and, in some cases, almost continuous economic integration over space (RPA, 2006). Notions of cities as functional economic areas, more or less distinct spaces that operate as independent economic units, are less and less tenable as the basis for planning and policy making. At the same time, the megaregion phenomenon does not necessarily imply that …

Encouraging Broadband Deployment From The Bottom Up, Edward J. Feser

Edward J Feser

State governments that have elected to make investments to increase the availability of affordable broadband service in rural areas and low income urban neighborhoods should organize their efforts around a strategy that encourages and leverages locally-driven initiatives, rather than follow a top-down approach that seeks to identify and close all broadband service gaps in a comprehensive fashion. A bottom-up approach to state broadband policy has three major advantages. First, it is a conservative policy response in an economic arena in which the appropriate role of the public sector is highly contested and in which private sector deployment is proceeding rapidly, …

The Deregulation Policy Of The Down Streamsector Of The Nigerian Petroleum Industry: A Critical Reveiw, Ozy B. Orluwene Jp

Dr Ozy B.Orluwene,JP

Abstract The article attempts to take a critical look at the current deregulation policy of the present administration. It examines the main components of the reform policy programme. The article notes that the current policy just like the previous ones will fail because they are based on erroneous assumption of the failure of the previous policies without identifying and addressing the fundamental problems why the previous one failed. The paper contends that the prevailing neo capitalist political economy for better or for worse continues to influence what happens in the public sector. It therefore concludes that the policy or programme …

Regional Technology Assets And Opportunities: The Geographic Clustering Of High-Tech Industry, Science And Innovation In Appalachia, Edward Feser, Harvey Goldstein, Henry Renski, Catherine Renault

Edward J Feser

This study constitutes a systematic location analysis of the technology assets of Appalachia. The report identifies and documents sub-regional concentrations of technology-related employment, R&D, and applied innovation within and immediately adjacent to the 406-county service area of the Appalachian Regional Commission. By assembling and analyzing an extensive set of data at high levels of functional and spatial detail, the study reveals localized technology strengths that might be nurtured through focused economic development policy.

Factors Related To Earthquake Preparedness Among Child Care Professionals: Theory And Policy Implications, Ellen N. Junn, D. Guerin

Ellen N. Junn

With increasing numbers of children enrolled in child care, the safety of the child care environment and the preparedness of personnel to prevent injuries and fatalities in the event of natural disasters becomes an important public policy issue. In this study, earthquake preparedness and its correlates were examined in 25 child care centers located in a southern California community adjacent to the San Andreaas Fault. Extensive survey, interview, and on-site observational data were collected. Findings indicated a wide range of preparedness in child care centers. Half of the child care centers lacked basic essentials required to cope in the aftermath …