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2002

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Articles 1 - 30 of 67

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Additionality Of Debt Relief And Debt Forgiveness, And Implications For Future Volumes Of Official Assistance, Léonce Ndikumana Oct 2002

Additionality Of Debt Relief And Debt Forgiveness, And Implications For Future Volumes Of Official Assistance, Léonce Ndikumana

Léonce Ndikumana

This paper examines the impact of debt forgiveness and debt relief on official development assistance. From the recipient side, the econometric analysis suggests that countries that received debt relief also received more aid compared to those that did not qualify for debt relief. From the donor side, while the data indicate a decline in aid disbursement since the early 1990s, there is no econometric evidence for any direct causal relationship between the decline in aid and debt relief/forgiveness. Nonetheless, the decline in aid raises serious concerns given that developing countries’ need in external resources cannot be met by debt relief …

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A Model System For Study Of Sex Chromosome Effects On Sexually Dimorphic Neural And Behavioral Traits, Geert De Vries, E. F. Rissman, R. B. Simerly, Y. L. Yang, E. M. Scordalakes, C. J. Auger, A. Swain, R. Lovell-Badge, P. S. Burgoyne, A. P. Arnold Oct 2002

A Model System For Study Of Sex Chromosome Effects On Sexually Dimorphic Neural And Behavioral Traits, Geert De Vries, E. F. Rissman, R. B. Simerly, Y. L. Yang, E. M. Scordalakes, C. J. Auger, A. Swain, R. Lovell-Badge, P. S. Burgoyne, A. P. Arnold

Geert De Vries

We tested the hypothesis that genes encoded on the sex chromosomes play a direct role in sexual differentiation of brain and behavior. We used mice in which the testis-determining gene (Sry) was moved from the Y chromosome to an autosome (by deletion ofSry from the Y and subsequent insertion of anSry transgene onto an autosome), so that the determination of testis development occurred independently of the complement of X or Y chromosomes. We compared XX and XY mice with ovaries (females) and XX and XY mice with testes (males). These comparisons allowed us to assess the effect of sex chromosome …

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Meridian Hill Park: The Making Of An American Neoclassical Landscape, Elizabeth Brabec Oct 2002

Meridian Hill Park: The Making Of An American Neoclassical Landscape, Elizabeth Brabec

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series

The neoclassical design was the dominant design movement in landscape architecture at the turn of the last century, dictating the form and design of public parks for most of the first half of the twentieth century. Meridian Hill Park, located just north of the White ouse in Washington, DC, is considered the most ambitious neoclassical park ever conceived in the United States. The paper provides an overview of the design development of the park, illustrating how classical design precedents were used to create a contemporary neo-classical park.

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Reflection Of Jozef Obrebski’S Work In Macedonia From The Perspective Of American Anthropology, Joel Halpern Sep 2002

Reflection Of Jozef Obrebski’S Work In Macedonia From The Perspective Of American Anthropology, Joel Halpern

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

Jozef Obrebski (1905-1967) had a moderately long, interesting, and, in some respects, tragic life. The consequences of the Second World War and the subsequent Communist domination of Eastern Europe altered his life profoundly. While he and his immediate family escaped relatively unscathed and even his relatively voluminous scholarly documents were preserved he was never able to successfully readapt to the life he chose first in the lands of the then British Empire and finally in America. It would indeed be a limited approach to judge a person's life simply by their public record, in this case by a published output. …

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Reflection Of Jozef Obrebski’S Work In Macedonia From The Perspective Of American Anthropology, Joel Halpern Sep 2002

Reflection Of Jozef Obrebski’S Work In Macedonia From The Perspective Of American Anthropology, Joel Halpern

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

Jozef Obrebski (1905-1967) had a moderately long, interesting, and, in some respects, tragic life. The consequences of the Second World War and the subsequent Communist domination of Eastern Europe altered his life profoundly. While he and his immediate family escaped relatively unscathed and even his relatively voluminous scholarly documents were preserved he was never able to successfully readapt to the life he chose first in the lands of the then British Empire and finally in America. It would indeed be a limited approach to judge a person's life simply by their public record, in this case by a published output. …

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Nelig Meeting - August 15, 2002, New England Library Instruction Group Aug 2002

Nelig Meeting - August 15, 2002, New England Library Instruction Group

New England Library Instruction Group

NELIG quarterly meeting.

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The Changing Character Of Economic Development, John R. Mullin Jul 2002

The Changing Character Of Economic Development, John R. Mullin

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series

This article lays out several key trends concerning industrial development that I have noted over the past ten years in my consulting practice and academic research. They are not exhaustive nor will they be reflected in all parts of the country. They do, however, point out that we need to continually adapt to the market place; we need to become more pro-active in controlling how and where we stimulate development; we need to insure that we provide the opportunity for industry to succeed; and, finally, we must be reflective of world events and the speed of change.

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Defining The Pattern Of The Sustainable Urban Region - Development Of Regional Measurement Methods, Elizabeth Brabec, Geoffrey Mcd. Lewis Jun 2002

Defining The Pattern Of The Sustainable Urban Region - Development Of Regional Measurement Methods, Elizabeth Brabec, Geoffrey Mcd. Lewis

Elizabeth Brabec

To date, the debate on the sustainability of human settlements has focused on the urban portion of the land use pattern. Since urban areas rely on suburban, rural, and other less densely settled areas for their existence, these areas must be included in any sustainability assessment. This need for a regional view has resulted in a typology of regional form, which allows comparisons of relative sustainability between various regional land use patterns. Based on resource efficiency, this regional analysis includes measurements related to water, agricultural land, habitat, energy use, and transportation and identifies primary indicators for each category. Existing methods …

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Selling Canada To Canadians: Collective Memory, National Identity, And Popular Culture, Emily West Jun 2002

Selling Canada To Canadians: Collective Memory, National Identity, And Popular Culture, Emily West

Emily E. West

Two media endeavours, the Heritage Minutes and the CBC documentary Canada: A People’s History, hope to serve as a corrective to Canadians’ lack of interest in their history and to bolster national identity. However, the producers do not want to appear propagandistic in a country where there is conflict about what the shape of the nation should be. They accomplish this by appealing to the “on the spot” authority of journalistic representation and the emotional immediacy of dramatic story-telling. They also emphasize the multi-cultural and multi-perspectival nature of Canada’s past. However, ultimately these efforts exist within a larger narrative about …

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Nelig Meeting - May 3, 2002, New England Library Instruction Group May 2002

Nelig Meeting - May 3, 2002, New England Library Instruction Group

New England Library Instruction Group

NELIG quarterly meeting.

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Impervious Surfaces And Water Quality: A Review Of Current Literature And Its Implications For Watershed Planning, Elizabeth Brabec May 2002

Impervious Surfaces And Water Quality: A Review Of Current Literature And Its Implications For Watershed Planning, Elizabeth Brabec

Elizabeth Brabec

Impervious surfaces have for many years been recognized as an indicator of the intensity of the urban environment and, with the advent of urban sprawl, they have become a key issue in habitat health. Although a considerable amount of research has been done to define impervious thresholds for water quality degradation, there are a number of flaws in the assumptions and methodologies used. Given refinement of the methodology, accurate and usable parameters for preventative watershed planning can be developed, which include impervious surface thresholds and a balance between pervious and impervious surfaces within a watershed.

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Benchmarking: Measurable Indicators Of Economic Success, John Mullin, Zenia Kotval, Edward Murray Apr 2002

Benchmarking: Measurable Indicators Of Economic Success, John Mullin, Zenia Kotval, Edward Murray

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series

All our communities are striving for economic success. Political platforms are built on promises of economic prosperity. However, we rarely thoroughly measure this success. Across the country people are increasingly interested in ensuring that government expenditures are well spent. We can note this interest at all levels of government ranging from local to national scales. As well, accountability, in all of its manifestations, is a critical element of the "quality movement" that is becoming acculturated in both the private and public sectors. This article focuses on how local economic development officials can measure and evaluate their professional activities in a …

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Photographs: Bosnia 1954-1996, Joel Halpern Mar 2002

Photographs: Bosnia 1954-1996, Joel Halpern

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

The images which appear here are, unless otherwise indicated, are copyright Joel M. Halpern and taken from the catalog of an exhibition entitled The Thin Veneer; the Peoples of Bosnia and their Disappearing Cultural Heritage (Copyright 1997, University of Massachusetts Amherst and used by permission). Copies of the catalog are available for $ 6.00 including postage, from: Betsy Siersma, Director, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01002. Part of this presentation is also available online at http://www.h-net.org/~sae/halpern/photos.html.

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Images Of Bosnia, Joel Halpern Mar 2002

Images Of Bosnia, Joel Halpern

Joel M. Halpern

The images which appear here are, unless otherwise indicated, are copyright Joel M. Halpern and taken from the catalog of an exhibition entitled The Thin Veneer; the Peoples of Bosnia and their Disappearing Cultural Heritage (Copyright 1997, University of Massachusetts Amherst and used by permission). Copies of the catalog are available for $ 6.00 including postage, from: Betsy Siersma, Director, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01002. Part of this presentation is also available online at http://www.h-net.org/~sae/halpern/photos.html.

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Using Small Group Assignments In Teaching Research Ethics, Kenneth D. Pimple Mar 2002

Using Small Group Assignments In Teaching Research Ethics, Kenneth D. Pimple

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

No abstract provided.

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Using Short Writing Assignments In Teaching Research Ethics, Kenneth D. Pimple Mar 2002

Using Short Writing Assignments In Teaching Research Ethics, Kenneth D. Pimple

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

Regularly asking students to write down their thoughts and reactions to class readings and discussions is an effective method of teaching and assessing student learning. Furthermore, as composition teachers will attest, frequent writing assignments, regardless of content, dramatically improve writing skills. Asking students to think “on paper” about topics encountered in the classroom encourages them to think about those topics in greater depth, relate them to their own lives, and thus connect the classroom to the world outside. I will describe four kinds of useful short writing assignments – freewriting, the non-quiz, the one-minute paper, and logbooks.

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Agricultural Land Fragmentation: The Spatial Effects Of Three Land Protection Strategies In The Eastern United States, Elizabeth Brabec, Chip Smith Feb 2002

Agricultural Land Fragmentation: The Spatial Effects Of Three Land Protection Strategies In The Eastern United States, Elizabeth Brabec, Chip Smith

Elizabeth Brabec

Fragmentation of agricultural land by urban sprawl affects both the agricultural production capacity of the land and its rural scenic quality. In order to assess the resulting fragmentation of the three most common types of agricultural land conservation tools in the United States, this study analyzes the spatial form of three land protection strategies: a purchase of development rights (PDR) program, a clustering program and a transfer of development rights program. By assessing a series of measures of success such as total acreage protected, size of parcels, contiguity and farming status, the study compares the effectiveness of programs that have …

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Nelig Meeting - January 25, 2002, New England Library Instruction Group Jan 2002

Nelig Meeting - January 25, 2002, New England Library Instruction Group

New England Library Instruction Group

NELIG quarterly meeting.

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Securities Transaction Taxes For U.S. Financial Markets, Robert Pollin, Dean Baker, Marc Schaberg Jan 2002

Securities Transaction Taxes For U.S. Financial Markets, Robert Pollin, Dean Baker, Marc Schaberg

PERI Working Papers

This paper examines the viability of security transaction excise taxes (STETs) as one policy tool for promoting a more stable financial environment, specifically with respect to the U.S. economy. Contrary to a large recent critical literature, we show that a STET can be designed without creating large distortions between segments of the financial market. We also show that a modest STET for the U.S.—beginning with a 0.5 percent tax on equity trades and scaled appropriately for other financial instruments—would generate substantial new government revenues, on the order of $100 billion per year.

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Capitalism, Carol E. Heim Jan 2002

Capitalism, Carol E. Heim

PERI Working Papers

CAPITALISM is an economic system dedicated to production for profit and to the accumulation of value by private business firms. In the fully developed form of industrial capitalism, firms advance money to hire wage laborers and to buy means of production such as machinery and raw materials. If the firm can sell its products for a greater sum of value than that originally advanced, the firm grows and can advance more money for a new round of accumulation. Historically, the emergence of industrial capitalism depends upon the creation of three requirements for accumulation: initial sums of money (or credit), wage …

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Measuring The Impact Of Living Wage Laws: A Critical Appraisal Of David Neumark's How Living Wage Laws Affect Low-Wage Workers And Low-Income Families, Mark D. Brenner, Jeannette Wicks-Linn, Robert Pollin Jan 2002

Measuring The Impact Of Living Wage Laws: A Critical Appraisal Of David Neumark's How Living Wage Laws Affect Low-Wage Workers And Low-Income Families, Mark D. Brenner, Jeannette Wicks-Linn, Robert Pollin

PERI Working Papers

Drawing on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), David Neumark (2002) finds that living wage laws have brought substantial wage increases for a high proportion of workers in cities that have passed these laws. He also finds that living wage laws significantly reduce employment opportunities for low-wage workers. We argue, first, that by truncating his sample to concentrate his analysis on low-wage workers, Neumark’s analysis is vulnerable to sample selection bias, and that his results are not robust to alternative specifications that utilize quantile regression to avoid such selection bias. In addition, we argue that Neumark has erroneously utilized …

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Capacity Utilization, Income Distribution, And The Urban Informal Sector: An Open-Economy Model, Kendall K. Schaefer Jan 2002

Capacity Utilization, Income Distribution, And The Urban Informal Sector: An Open-Economy Model, Kendall K. Schaefer

PERI Working Papers

Developing economies worldwide have experienced rapid informal sector expansion in response to formal sector unemployment. However, the macroeconomic effects of formal-informal sector dualism have been widely overlooked. This paper develops a two-sector, structuralist, macroeconomic model to analyze the impact of urban informal sector activity on export-led growth policy. The model uses stylized facts from the Johannesburg informal sector and is applicable to countries where informal sector production is concentrated in low-wage goods and commercial services. The paper finds that trade-offs between capacity utilization and reduced income inequality could be magnified when the existence of an urban informal sector is incorporated.

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Employment-Oriented Central Bank Policy In An Integrated World Economy: A Reform Proposal For South Africa, Gerald Epstein Jan 2002

Employment-Oriented Central Bank Policy In An Integrated World Economy: A Reform Proposal For South Africa, Gerald Epstein

PERI Working Papers

The South African Reserve Bank and Ministry of Finance have adopted inflation targeting and the gradual relaxation of exchange controls (along with control of public spending and financial liberalization) as the foundation of their economic policy in an attempt to win the confidence of foreign investors and to attract more foreign investment. However, this policy has not succeded in generating employment growth or investment. Instead, it has contributed to high real interest rates and relative stagnation. In order to improve central bank and capital management policies and have them contribute more to solving the fundamental problems of unemployment and poverty …

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An International Index Of Child Welfare, Nasrin Dalirazar Jan 2002

An International Index Of Child Welfare, Nasrin Dalirazar

PERI Working Papers

This paper develops an international index of child welfare that can be used for comparisons across countries and over time. Values of this index for the year 1998 are presented for 118 countries. The paper is organized as follows. Sections 2 briefly discusses the importance of child welfare both as a means to advance economic development objectives and as an end in itself. Section 3 calculates National Performance Gaps (NPGs), a concept first introduced by UNICEF (1995) to measure child welfare variables relative to international norms based on per capita income. After reviewing some methodological issues, I present estimates of …

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Globalization And The Transition To Egalitarian Development, Robert Pollin Jan 2002

Globalization And The Transition To Egalitarian Development, Robert Pollin

PERI Working Papers

Keith Griffin is one of the giants of economics in our time. His writings on egalitarian development are of course prodigious and highly influential. But what sets him apart from even other leading thinkers in this field is his focus not simply on what should be done to advance an egalitarian development path, but also the specific means through which a more equal society that is also sustainable might actually be achieved. The Transition to Egalitarian Development (1981) was the title of just one of his many works reflecting this set of concerns and approach to research. This should not …

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Bargaining Power And Foreign Direct Investment In China: Can 1.3 Billion Consumers Tame The Multinationals?, Elissa Braunstein, Gerald Epstein Jan 2002

Bargaining Power And Foreign Direct Investment In China: Can 1.3 Billion Consumers Tame The Multinationals?, Elissa Braunstein, Gerald Epstein

PERI Working Papers

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become a much desired commodity by nations, regions and cities throughout the world. Indeed, governments bid for FDI because it is commonly thought to be an important engine of economic growth, job creation, and technological upgrading. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), the developing world’s largest recipient of FDI and one of the world’s fastest growing economies, is often cited as evidence for the beneficial effects of FDI. Given the PRC’s size and the huge allure of its cheap labor force and customer base, one would think that if any country had the bargaining power …

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Global Labor Standards: Their Impact And Implementation, James Heintz Jan 2002

Global Labor Standards: Their Impact And Implementation, James Heintz

PERI Working Papers

This paper reviews the critical issues concerning the establishment of a global system of labor standards. Global labor standards have gained a renewed prominence in policy debates with the rise of the new international division of labor, in which developing countries are producing an ever-increasing share of the world’s manufactured exports. This paper takes a close look at the research and theories that inform the current debates. In particular, it summarizes the arguments in support of global standards, evaluates the threat of unintended negative consequences, examines gender-specific issues relating to low-wage labor and informal employment, and discusses past and present …

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Stock Market Liquidity And Economic Growth: A Critical Appraisal Of The Levine/Zervos Model, Andong Zhu, Michael Ash, Robert Pollin Jan 2002

Stock Market Liquidity And Economic Growth: A Critical Appraisal Of The Levine/Zervos Model, Andong Zhu, Michael Ash, Robert Pollin

PERI Working Papers

Levine and Zervos (1998) presented cross-country econometric evidence showing that, in a sample of 47 countries, stock market liquidity contributed a significant positive influence on GDP growth between 1976-93. We show that the Levine-Zervos results are not robust to alternative specifications because of the incomplete manner in which they control for outliers in their data. We show that when one properly controls for outliers, stock market liquidity no longer exerts any statistically observable influence on GDP growth.

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Africa’S Debt: Who Owes Whom?, James K. Boyce, Léonce Ndikumana Jan 2002

Africa’S Debt: Who Owes Whom?, James K. Boyce, Léonce Ndikumana

PERI Working Papers

Sub-Saharan Africa includes 34 of the 42 countries classified as “Heavily Indebted Poor Countries” by the World Bank. The debt burden forces these countries to divert scarce resources from basic necessities, such as health and education, into debt service. Despite bearing these heavy social costs, African countries cannot keep up with the payments, and so they become ever more indebted.

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Who Lives On The Wrong Side Of The Environmental Tracks? Evidence From The Epa's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Model, Michael Ash, T. Robert Fetter Jan 2002

Who Lives On The Wrong Side Of The Environmental Tracks? Evidence From The Epa's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Model, Michael Ash, T. Robert Fetter

PERI Working Papers

This study analyzes the social and economic correlates of air pollution exposure in U.S. cities using a unique dataset created as a by-product of the EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model and finds evidence of disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards in communities with higher concentrations of lower-income people and people of color. We improve on previous studies of environmental inequality in three ways. First, where previous studies focus on the proximity to point sources and the total mass of pollutants released, our measure of toxic exposure reflects atmospheric dispersion and chemical toxicity. Second, we analyze the data at a fine level …

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