Economic Policy Commons^™

Hiv/Aids Among Women Of Color In Massachusetts, Erika Kates, Helen Levine, Lakay Cornell

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

According to a recent report on the status of women in Massachusetts, the Commonwealth has an “extraordinarily high” incidence of women of color with HIV/AIDS. Over 4,200 women are infected and women of color account for a disproportionately high number of these cases.

Estimating The Cost Of An Adequate Education, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

The Cfe Case, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Reemployment Of Claimants For Unemployment Insurance, Christopher J. O'Leary

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Land Values As A Source Of Local Government Finance, Tom Dunne

Books/Book Chapters

Funding local government has been a permanent feature of debates about public policy in Ireland and Many feel that the balance of power between local and central government is weighted too much in

This paper suggests that the concept of economic rent, on which the justification for property taxes rests and its relevance to the property market in a modern, economically successful and urbanised Ireland, needs to be vented, discussed and debated.

The proposition is that if a greater understanding was created about the economic characteristics of landed property both value capture and local property taxes would achieve greater public …

What Kind Of Labor Market Awaits Low-Income Workers?, Françoise Carré

New England Journal of Public Policy

This essay highlights changes in the context of the labor market for low-income people, particularly mothers. It briefly reviews labor market trends and policies. It then highlights the challenges faced by such workers. The essay argues for a shift in thinking and policy advocacy to encompass the world of work, and its domination by business imperatives and language, and thus better represent poor people’s concerns in the policy world.

The Empty Promise, Elaine Werby

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article reviews the federal role in providing rental housing for low-income households. It suggests that reliance on the private market has characterized the variety of programs designed to meet the housing needs of this population group. Despite some progress, millions of low-income households still lack stable, secure housing that they can afford, and the major current program of rent subsidies is under attack.

Foreword, Elaine Werby, Donna Haig Friedman

New England Journal of Public Policy

Interspersed throughout this issue are Voices of Community Action — the voices of executive directors, board members, and staff. Some are personal reflections; others describe their work or tell of the struggles of those who live with poverty. All speak to the commitment of service and change, to personal development and growth, and to the worth of their work. Their stories are 10 matched in the testimony of those who have received services or participated in community action programs. All of these stories bear witness to the importance of what happens on the front lines among leaders, board members, staff, …

Essay On Community, Hubie Jones

New England Journal of Public Policy

Family and community are human organisms that are the bedrock of any society. They provide the sustenance, values, direction, and protection that make it possible for individuals who live in a defined location to prosper and thrive singularly and collectively. Community is the social structure that mediates between the individual resident and the state and private elites, guiding social transactions between these different worlds to advance and protect the interests and needs of individuals and groups within neighborhoods or local communities.

Saving Capitalism From Itself: Whither The Welfare State?, Mimi Abramovitz

New England Journal of Public Policy

The U.S. welfare state has been under attack from both sides of the aisle since the mid-1970s. Using the lens of history, the following pages will argue that neither the rise of the welfare state in the 1930s nor the current attack were merely accidental. Instead, each was a response to a particular crisis of profitability because the institutional arrangements that had created the conditions for profit-making in the prior fifty years had deteriorated. The policies no longer worked for the powers-that-be and had to be “reformed.”

The Economic Context: Growing Disparities Of Income And Wealth, Chuck Collins

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last few years, poverty rates have remained constant in the New England states. The effort to reduce poverty in New England and the United States has been thwarted by trends of growing income and wealth inequality. Since the late 1970s, the real incomes for the majority of U.S. households have remained stagnant or fallen. During the same time, asset ownership has become dramatically more unequal, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has increased. The causes of this accelerated inequality are complex, but underlying the picture are a series of rule changes, both public …

Child Care: Four Decades Of Growth And Change, Bruce Hershfield, John Sciamanna

New England Journal of Public Policy

Child care has grown and changed over the past four decades. The federal government now has two major early education programs, Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Although Head Start was enacted in 1965 and has had mostly bipartisan support, it took the federal government until 1990 to enact a national child care program. Massachusetts, led by an active advocacy community and strong leadership in the state legislature, has been a leader among states in support for child care funding and policies. It is its support for strong licensing, periodic increases in reimbursement rates, parental choice, …

Devolution: The Retreat Of Government, Judith Kurland

New England Journal of Public Policy

Devolution as practiced in much of the world is decentralization of program authority and responsibility to achieve greater administrative efficiency or program standards. Devolution as practiced by the Bush administration and the Republican Congress is not that, nor is it a diminution of federal power and the strengthening of states’ rights. Rather, it is a radical restructuring of government to prevent the expenditure of funds for traditional Democratic programs of the New Deal and the Great Society, and to prohibit states from being either more generous in social programs or more stringent in regulating industry than this administration desires.

The Community Action Principle: Subjects Not Objects, Barney Frank

New England Journal of Public Policy

Deals with the impact of community action programs in the international and domestic economic policies. Influence of political participation on the application of democratic principles in politics; Background of economic policies by former U.S. Presidents regarding the free enterprise system; Relevance of community action on the formulation of international economic policies.

Moving Target: The Dilemma Of Serving Massachusetts Poor Families, Randy Albelda

New England Journal of Public Policy

While Community Action Agencies’ original mission of serving the poor has changed little over the last three decades, government commitments to the poor, the population of poor individuals and families, and women’s economic expectations have changed considerably. This article documents the trends in family structure, women’s employment patterns, and poverty policies in Massachusetts between 1970 and 2000. The increase in poor, single-mother families and poverty policies that emphasize employment present dynamic challenges for Community Action Agencies (and others who serve the poor), but also create some new organizing opportunities.

Interrupted Progress: Forty Years Of Child Poverty, Deborah Weinstein

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last forty years since the beginning of the war on poverty, the condition of poor children has improved and the percentage of children living in poverty has declined. Children and their families made the greatest gain when there was a good economy and an increase in government supports. But when such investments shrink, as they have in recent years, progress is impeded. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) must be reauthorized by Congress. The legislation now under discussion does not encourage states to replicate programs that have increased work and family income and helped children.

Challenging The Policy Establishment, Alice O'Connor

New England Journal of Public Policy

Among the many challenges community action faces after four decades, none cuts more deeply into its central mission than the political and ideological transformation reflected in the rise of the conservative right. Based on a potent combination of grass roots and institutional organizing, coalition-building, ideological mobilization, and inter/intra party politics, the right-wing takeover has empowered a political and policy establishment that is hostile not only to the ideas that animated the War on Poverty but to the very idea of public action against social and economic inequality. While this transformation has kept community action on the defensive, confronting the challenge …

Ideas Of Reform: Like Buddhist Souls, Peter Marris, Martin Rein

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 1967 Martin Rein and Peter Marris wrote an important book exploring the projects leading to the development of community action and related programs of the Great Society. In it they describe reform as a diffuse process in which preferences clash and evolve. Purposeful reform rarely has the intended consequences. The selection below is taken from the concluding remarks of their book, The Dilemmas of Social Reform, copyright University of Chicago Press, and is reprinted here with permission.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this issue, special guest editors, Elaine Werby and Donna Haig Friedman, assemble an array of distinguished scholars, policymakers, community activists and political advocates to examine the interaction of the economic, political, and social “flows,” the undercurrents of history that stymied the war on poverty. Their articles and essays chart the beachheads that must be secured before the war can be successfully resumed; No war, they collectively remind us, is won without some battles being lost. You do not secure the future of the country if you abandon the principles of equity and equality for all, the bedrock of the …

Higher Education And The Promise Of Opportunity, Robert L. Woodbury

New England Journal of Public Policy

The article portrays the passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as a watershed event, much like the Morrill Land Grant Act and the G.I. Bill, in the history of opening higher education to a broader range of citizens. What had once been a largely private enterprise for the elite became an increasingly public commitment to make a college and university education accessible to anyone qualified to take advantage of the opportunity. In the last two decades, however, that promise has faded as costs have escalated, financial aid has become less available to the needy, federal and state support …

When Half The Neighborhood Is Missing, Gus Newport

New England Journal of Public Policy

Local nonprofits too often compete with each other for power, turf, and funds. The author, formerly director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, advocates for a collaborative process that engages the local community in defining and executing new initiatives. Governance for the good of the people must rely on sound research, sound principles and values, and the understanding and support of the community.

Update - September 2004, Loma Linda University Center For Christian Bioethics

Update

In this issue:

-- A Statement on Racism
-- Editorial
-- Review and Critique of "A Statement on Racism"
-- Homelessness and Poverty
-- Review and Critique of the Seventh-day Adventist Policy Statement Titled "Homelessness and Poverty"
-- News from the Center for Christian Biothics
-- Operating Principles for Health-Care Institutions

The Organisation For Economic Cooperation And Development, Richard Woodward

Articles

This article reviews the role of the OECD, a much cited but little studied institution, in global governance.

Aboriginal Single Mothers In Canada, 1996: A Statistical Profile, Jeremy Hull

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

Aboriginal Development: The Process Is Critical To Success, Cynthia Chataway

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

American Indian Tribes’ Financial Accountability To The United States Government: Context, Procedures And Implications, Catherine Curtis, Miriam Jorgensen

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

Income And First Nations Elderly: Policies For A Better Future, Stephen Obeng Gyimah, Jerry White, Paul Maxim

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

Organizing In The Garment Industry In Mexico: Implications For New Social Movement Theory, Victoria Carty

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

This paper examines attempts to improve workers' rights in the Maquila Industry in Mexico by using two case studies. It analyzes the struggles that recently occurred at the Kukdong and Duro plants. The underlying question of the research is how to balance the co-existence of market economies with effective means to ensure adequate conditions for workers, and most importantly, ensuring their right to freedom of association. Under recent forms of global economic restructuring, the state is often unwilling or unable to uphold workers' rights. To combat the present form of corporate-driven global capitalism, workers in the South, in solidarity with …

Sozialpolitik Anders Denken. Das Verursacherprinzip – Von Der Umweltpolitischen Zur Sozialpolitischen Anwendung, Isidor Wallimann, Esteban Piñeiro

Books

The “polluter pays” principle in environmental law assumes that the actor would reduce or avoid adverse effects of his actions if he had to bear the consequences of those actions (internalization of effects). Such internalization can generally be done in two ways: either by avoiding or eliminating the harmful effects or by wearing the financial consequences of the injury. It is therefore on the one hand to have an incentive effect, on the other to a compensatory effect.

Pineiro and Wallimann apply these societal cost principles from the environmental world to the social realm, where social problems can be seen …

Did A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? The Nih Budget And Pediatric Research Portfolio, Daniel P. Gitterman, Robert S. Greenwood, Keith C. Kocis, Rick Mayes, Aaron N. Mckethan

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper examines National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research spending in absolute terms and relative to the doubling of the NIH overall budget between fiscal years 1998 and 2003. Pediatric spending increased by an average annual rate of 12.8 percent during the doubling period (almost on par with the NIH average annual growth rate of 14.7 percent). However, the proportion of the total NIH budget devoted to the pediatric portfolio declined from 12.3 to 11.3 percent. We offer recommendations for implementing existing commitments to strengthen the pediatric research portfolio and to protect the gains of the doubling period.