Economic Policy Commons^™

Summary Results Of A Survey Of Economic Development In Texas Cities (Report 95-1), Delbert A. Taebel

Center for Economic Development Research and Service Publications - Archive

Economic development is the new kid on the block in city government. If one looks at any textbook on municipal administration published more than 10 years ago, economic development as a city function would not even have been mentioned. Yet, because of the dozens of conferences and flurry of articles focusing on economic development, it may seem to many that economic development has been around for a long time. Indeed, seven years ago the Institute of Urban Studies published an initial study entitled "Local Economic Development in Texas." Since then, of course, economic development has become a permanent program in …

Subsidizing Increased Employment For The Urban Poor: What Labor Market Problems Might Justify It?, Timothy J. Bartik

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Access To Capital And Technical Assistance, Richard J. Ward

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article summarizes and analyzes the views of select leaders in business, labor, banking, the government, and academia with regard to the constraints, obstacles, and recommendations to achieve economic growth in Massachusetts. The role of the state government in addressing these issues receives special attention. Access to capital and technical assistance had been regarded by many as the key constraint, particularly during the recession of the early 1990s. The author analyzes inconvenient government systems, bottlenecks, and bureaucracy as throttling the flow of capital to small-business entrepreneurs. The analysis concludes, however, that unless the state cum federal government finds ways to …

Economic Growth Issues In Massachusetts Rural Areas And Small Cities, Nancy Goff

New England Journal of Public Policy

In developing a strategy for economic development, state government must consider the special needs of its small cities and rural areas. Well-meaning policies crafted for metropolitan areas have unintended and often negative consequences when applied statewide. This article is a revision of the author's topical discussion paper for the August 6, 1992, Conference on Rural and Small City Development at Mount Wachusett Community College, Gardner. It was used by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Affairs and the University of Massachusetts in developing a statewide economic development strategy.

Budget Policy And Fiscal Crisis: A Political Matrix, Francis J. Leazes Jr., Robert Sieczkiewicz

New England Journal of Public Policy

A study of 134 Rhode Island programs, administered during the state's budget crisis in the fiscal years 1987 to 1991, yielded a number of important lessons. The more mandated formula spending there was in a budget, the more uncontrollable was the budget. There is a spending bias ingrained in the political culture. Some nonentitlement spending can be difficult to curtail. Cutback management strategies are inadequate to address significant revenue shortfalls. The authors present a political budget matrix designed to assist budget policymakers and staff in making educated assumptions about the way categories of programs may be treated during times of …

Investing In Economic Infrastructure, Paul W. Shuldiner

New England Journal of Public Policy

The economic returns that the commonwealth of Massachusetts enjoys from its investments in transportation and other physical infrastructure result from the jobs that are created by these investments and from the enhanced utility of land that public works create. The integrative property of transportation in particular makes the comprehensive planning of transportation facilities an inordinately complex and essential public function. This function was the focus of the July 1992 workshop sponsored by the Executive Office of Economic Affairs and the University of Massachusetts. Among the principal themes the participants addressed were how the state's interest in economic development should be …

Improving Education And Training For Economic Development, Joan Mcrae Stoia

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article explores the connections between workforce quality and economic prosperity, as well as the role of the Massachusetts education and training system, in developing and preserving that quality and supporting the state's key industries. It includes a review of the most recent employment trend and projection data available from the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training, information about several business-based workplace education models, and a discussion of the specific education and training needs of workers across the age/skill continuum. For the purpose of this discussion, the education and training system are broadly defined to include existing public, private, and …

The Economy And The Regulatory Environment: In Search Of A New Paradigm, Zenia Kotval, John Mullin

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article focuses on the economy and the regulatory environment. The economic downturn over the past six years has taken its toll on Massachusetts. At the same time, there is immense pressure on the part of the electorate to ensure that our quality of life is protected and enhanced. It is clear that the business community, citizens, and our elected officials are searching for a new paradigm. The concept of a policy of sustainable development is emerging —political and corporate actions that produce well-paying jobs, that create a competitive business climate and improve life within the context of our existing …

Affirmative Action Policy Today: Its Effectiveness As Examined In The United States Department Of Commerce, Louritha Green

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, choose the leaders you please. you do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe you have been completely fair. (Graham, 182).

These words of President Lyndon Baines Johnson epitomize the foundation on which affirmative action programs were …

Mortality Effects Of Regulatory Costs And Policy Evaluation Criteria, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Risk regulations directly reduce risks, but they may produce offsetting risk increases. Regulated risks generate a substitution effect, as individuals' risk-averting actions will diminish. Recognition of these effects alters benefit-cost criteria and the value-of-life estimates pertinent to policy analysis. Particularly expensive risk regulations may be counterproductive. The expenditure level that will lead to the loss of one statistical life equals the value of life divided by the marginal propensity to spend on health. Regulations with a cost of $30 million to $70 million per life saved will, on balance, have a net adverse effect on mortality because of these linkages.

Public Policies For The Working Poor: The Earned Income Tax Credit Versus Minimum Wage Legislation, Richard V. Burkhauser, Andrew J. Glenn

Center for Policy Research

This paper first documents the decades-long erosion of the link between low wages and low household income. It then simulates the consequences of this determination on the relative gains of programs designed to help the working poor—minimum wage increases under the Fair Labor Standards Act and increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Using data from the Current Population Survey it is found that increases in the EITC between 1989 and 1992 were far more target-efficient than was the increase in the minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.25 and that the 1993 extension of the EITC is far more …

Supplement: Directory Of Egyptian Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations, Salwa Sharawi Gomaa

Faculty Book Chapters

[abstract not provided]

Economics As A Conceptual Resource For The Study Of Public Management, David, L. Weimer, Aidan, R. Vining

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

Four related bodies of knowledge inform the study and practice of public management. Broadest in scope is knowledge about the political processes that place demands, provide opportunities, and impose constraints on public managers. Next broadest in scope is policy analysis, which provides the conceptual foundations and craft skills for determining what government should do and how it should be done. Organizational design, a subset of policy analysis, gives insight into how the public sector can be organized to facilitate the effective delivery of goods and services. Narrowest in scope, but most directly relevant to the practice of management, is knowledge …

Unemployment And Training Reform: A Critical Analysis Of Australian Federal Government Policy 1983 To 1993, S. J. Bark

Theses : Honours

Unemployment levels in Australia are a problem that have confronted governments since the mid-1970's. Since the 1983 election, Labor Government policy has sought to combat unemployment by linking training reform within the parameters of economic restructuring. This thesis argues from a critical perspective that Australian Labor Government unemployment and training reform policies aim to develop people's economic potential rather than their personal potential. To this end, six policy documents form the basis of the analysis. There are four Reports (Australia Reconstructed, 'Finn', 'Carmichael' and 'Mayer'), one Policy Statement (One Nation), and one Discussion Paper ('The Employment Green Paper'). The thesis …