Public Policy Commons^™

The Elder Economic Security Initiative™ Program: The Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index For New York, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Wider Opportunities For Women

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report addresses income adequacy for New York’s older adults using the national WOW-GI National Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index) methodology. The Elder Index benchmarks basic costs of living for elder households and illustrates how costs of living vary geographically and are based on the characteristics of elder households, including household size, home ownership or renter status, and health status. The costs are based on market costs for basic needs of elder households and do not assume any public or private supports.

Fiscal Decentralization In Taiwan : A Case Study Of The Centrally-Allotted Tax Revenue Program And Local Financial Accountability, Nai-Ling Kuo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Fiscal decentralization has generated enormous interest in the past two decades. Despite some remaining skepticism regarding fiscal decentralization, many countries have adopted various forms in an effort to improve public service quality. The primary objectives of this dissertation are to understand fiscal decentralization in unitary countries, to gain information about the role of the equalization program in local finances, and to investigate local financial accountability issues in a unitary country. Three independent but linked studies were conducted to achieve the above objectives. They employ case studies on Taiwan's equalization transfer program, the Centrally-Allotted Tax Revenue (CATR) program, and local financial …

Thinking Beyond Performance Indicators : A Holistic Study Of Organizational Information Use, Natalie Christine Helbig

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Government agencies are continually challenged to find ways to improve the implementation of public programs in order to serve the needs of citizens and deliver public value. Governments around the world have adopted performance-related activities, primarily focused on the development and use of performance measurement as a major way to achieve these improvements. However, research to-date has focused predominately on managerial use of performance information for decision making and has narrowly defined the nature of information and knowledge. Theorizing and problematizing the relationships and impacts of information and knowledge on public organizations and public management are needed.

The Nebraska Minority Justice Committee Progress Report 2010

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The Nebraska Minority Justice Committee (MJC) is a unique statewide collaboration that works to develop and implement just and sustainable policy reforms that will not only improve the system of justice but will also strengthen public trust and confidence in our laws and court system. The Committee is a joint effort of the Nebraska State Bar Association and the Nebraska Supreme Court, appointed by the Supreme Court in May of 2003 in response to a Task Force’s two-year investigation of racial and ethnic fairness in Nebraska’s court system.

The mission of the Committee is to achieve three primary aims:

• …

2010 Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Summit Final Report

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition convened the Suicide Prevention Summit on Friday, January 29th, 2010. The event was hosted by BryanLGH West in Lincoln, and 24 sites across the state participated via videocast through the Nebraska Statewide Telehealth Network. The goal of the event was to provide an overview of suicide as a public health concern in Nebraska, present opportunities to discuss local needs related to suicide prevention, and featured an introduction to best practices in suicide prevention.

The audience of the Summit was comprised of 270 community members, professionals, suicide survivors, and youth and adults interested in promoting …

Housing And Community Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

Researchers in housing and community development design and evaluate policies regarding access to attractive, affordable and sustainable housing and improving the social, physical and economic infrastructure of communities, especially those in the urban core. Practitioners in this field confront political considerations, administrative guidelines and limited funding.

Decision science can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of market-rate housing development and provide support for policy responses to issues such as affordable housing, race and class segregation, ineffective and/or inequitable economic development, and sustainable development. This research spans many disciplines, including systems modeling, urban economics, multi-criteria decision modeling, stochastic models and decision support …

The Winners In China’S Urban Housing Reform, John R. Logan, Yiping Fang, Zhanxin Zhang

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Housing reform in China has proceeded on two tracks: privatization of public housing and development of a new private housing sector. During this period of transition, rents have remained relatively low in the remaining public housing, and purchase prices offered to occupants of public housing have been well below market prices. Although these rents and prices are partly based on known formulas, there is considerable variability in how much people pay for similar apartments. This study uses 2000 Census data to estimate the housing subsidy received by the remaining renters in the public sector and purchasers of public housing, based …

Saving Saba Bank: Policy Implications Of Biodiversity Studies, Paul C. Hoetjes, Kent E. Carpenter

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Saba Bank has always been an area of special importance to the neighboring island of Saba in the Netherlands Antilles. Sabans traditionally fished on the Bank as far back as 1907, but increasing foreign fishing pressures on the Bank in the 1970s and 1980s forced many Saban fishermen out. Concerns were compounded by the suspicion that shipping was also damaging the benthic habitat of the bank. Fishery legislation, enacted in 1996, brought an end to unlicensed fishing and established Coast Guard enforcement on the Bank, but also led to protests from neighboring countries that previously fished on the Bank.Research was …

Snapshot 2010: Maine Workers With Disabilities, Maine’S Commission On Disability And Employment, Choices Ceo Project

Disability & Aging

No abstract provided.

Iraq Mine Action Strategy (2010-2012), Gichd

Global CWD Repository

The first draft of a mine action strategy in Iraq was formulated in 2004 in line with the urgent requirement to structure and organize mine action in Iraq in order to support national development priorities in line with the National Development Strategy (NDS).

At the time of the development of this strategy it was not clear what the role of each of the involved Ministries, civil society organizations and the United Nations support program for mine action, which made it incapable of achieving it goals in a manner consistent with that stage.

And thus the current mine action strategy was …

Evaluation Of The Humanitarian Mine Action Activities Of Norwegian People's Aid, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

This report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of an evaluation of the Norwegian support to Norwegian People's Aid's mine action programmes commissioned by Norad's Evaluation Department and undertaken by COWI A/S. The evaluation provides information on the results of Norwegian People's Aid's humanitarian mine activities, and provides recommendations that can be used in future identification, design, and implementation of humanitarian mine activities.

Portfolio Of Mine Action Projects 2010, Unmas

Global CWD Repository

Since the anti-personnel mine-ban treaty was adopted in September 1997, mine action has helped an ever-increasing number of civilians reclaim their lives and restore their livelihoods. The treaty has helped mobilize the international community’s response to landmines and their impact on people. It is a testament to what can be achieved when we collectively take on a grave humanitarian and development challenge.

The United Nations pledges to assist mine-affected countries in meeting their obligations under the anti-personnel mine-ban treaty and other international norms related to mine action. The United Nations continues to clear areas known or believed to be contaminated …

Panel Data Inference Under Spatial Dependence, Badi H. Baltagi, Alain Pirotte

Center for Policy Research

This paper focuses on inference based on the usual panel data estimators of a one-way error component regression model when the true specification is a spatial error component model. Among the estimators considered, are pooled OLS, random and fixed effects, maximum likelihood under normality, etc. The spatial effects capture the cross-section dependence, and the usual panel data estimators ignore this dependence. Two popular forms of spatial autocorrelation are considered, namely, spatial auto-regressive random effects (SAR-RE) and spatial moving average random effects (SMA-RE). We show that when the spatial coefficients are large, test of hypothesis based on the usual panel data …

What’S Missing In Theories Of The Residential Energy User, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Residential energy use has been envisioned in varied ways, each highlighting different factors and capturing a partial truth. This paper outlines assumptions of core theories about household energy use. It gives an abbreviated list of major empirical findings framed by these theories. It then identifies a new set of "blind spots" created by overly-simple reliance on models and by data shortcomings that in combination may block development of a more sophisticated understanding of energy use. Policies and program strategies, in turn, can become oriented toward simplistic approaches to change. We point to the need for improved interpretation and elaboration of …

Sticky Points In Modeling Household Energy Consumption, Loren Lutzenhiser, Mithra Moezzi, David Hungerford, Rafael Friedmann

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A variety of approaches have been proposed to explaining individual household energy consumption, its variation, and its potential reduction. Some focus on technology, some on costs, and some on a combination of behaviors, attitudes, intentions, and norms. All try to make sense of a problem that, from a modeling perspective, involves hundreds of potentially important factors, yet is supported by highly inadequate or at best selective data. While there is value in "doing the best one can" with the resources at hand, building a defensible science requires a cold hard look at the quality of theory, research and data. This …

Study Of The Effects Of Aging On Landmines, Cisr

Global CWD Repository

Most of the mines that currently threaten populations were manufactured more than 50 years ago and many have been in the ground for 30 years or more. Despite the inevitable and obvious deterioration, there has been very little research into the effects of aging on landmines. In 2008, James Madison University (JMU), the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR), and C King Associates Ltd (CKA) began a study designed to understand the aging process and the range of implications for the various components of mine action. The two-and-a-half year study was funded by grants from the US Department of …

The International Center 2010 Annual Report, International-Center

Global CWD Repository

The International Center 2010 Annual Report

Humpty Dumpty Institute 2010 Annual Report, Hdi

Global CWD Repository

Humpty Dumpty Institute 2010 Annual Report

Danish Refugee Council 2010 Annual Report, Drc

Global CWD Repository

In the international area, we help displaced people with identification papers and papers documenting their right of ownership, etc. In this way, DRC advocates the cause of displaced people applying a rights-based approach.

Advocacy can be complicated and may affect our programme activities. We live in a globalised world, and therefore, what we say in Denmark will be heard far and wide. A couple of years ago, DRC was critical of the forced return of Tamil asylum seekers at a time when the war was at its highest, which was why we were concerned about the fate of the Tamil …

Evaluation Of The United Nations Mine Action Programme In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Anne Capelle, Chris Lang

Global CWD Repository

The team found that mid to long term planning was insufficient to meet the changing context of the country. There team felt that there was a clear lack of congruence between mine action strategies and the countrywide priorities and strategic direction. The team believes that there is currently too much emphasis placed on creating a functional national mine action structure to the detriment to mid to long term planning for actual clearance activities in the country. The team also found that limited consideration has been placed on ensuring a long term solution to dealing with any residual mine and UXO …