ARE IMMIGRANTS MORE MOBILE THAN NATIVES? EVIDENCE FROM GERMANY

Low rates of internal migration in many European countries contribute to the persistence of significant regional labor market differences. I use the Mikrozensus, a large annual sample of households living in Germany, to further our understanding of the underlying reasons. This paper makes two main contributions: first, the paper quantifies the disutility of migrating. To this end, I estimate conditional logit models of the migration decision across the German federal states. Second, I then focus on the differences between immigrants and natives. I find significantly higher responsiveness to labor market differentials in the immigrant population than in the native population. Unobserved moving costs for immigrants are estimated to be only about 31 percent of this same cost for natives. The findings bear on the assessment of the economic impact of immigration, and the paper contributes to the current immigration‐related policy debates that feature prominently in many European countries, and that likely will continue to be important in light of the ongoing EU expansion and the resulting east–west migration.     

WHY ARE SMART CITIES GROWING? WHO MOVES AND WHO STAYS*

ABSTRACT This paper examines why smart cities are growing by investigating who moves to smart cities and who stays. Smart cities are often centers of higher education, so students moving to pursue higher education may play an important role. I find that the greater in‐migration to smart cities is mostly due to persons enrolled in higher education. Smart cities are growing in part because in‐migrants often stay in the city after completing their education. The growth of smart cities is also mostly attributable to population redistribution within the same state and has little effect on population growth at the state level.     

REPRESENTATION IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES?

On November 8, 1978 several years of activity in the Congress and concern by the Department of Defense culminated in Public Law 95–610 when President Carter signed bill S.274. This law prohibits union organizations of the armed forces, membership in military labor organizations by members of the armed forces, and recognition of military labor organizations by the Government. Severe sanctions can be imposed for violations. Since representation is a broader concept than collective bargaining, P.L. 95–610, even should it survive possible court challenges to its constitutionality, does not settle the basic issues. These issues focus on (1) the changing demography and enlistment rules for the armed forces; (2) the response of the Department of Defense to these changes; and (3) the evolution of the various organizations of present and former military personnel into more union-like activities. This paper addresses the policy implications of the foregoing three factors and suggests approaches compatible with both our military needs and our civilian traditions.     

Who Benefited? Forty-five Years of U.S.–China Relations

Rosemary Foot. The Practice of Power: U.S.Relations with China since 1949
Robert S. Ross. Negotiating Cooperation: The United States and China, 1969–1989     

Temp to Perm: Stacking the Electoral Deck Through U.S. Senate Appointments?

One concern with allowing governors to appoint replacements for U.S. Senate vacancies is that appointees may have an advantage over their competition in seeking election. Another is that governors may use their power to further their own political ambitions. This investigation explores whether an electoral benefit is conferred through receiving or making an appointment. The analysis provides insight into how gubernatorial appointments shape electoral outcomes for quasi-incumbents and the Senate's membership. Notably, the results reveal an electoral boost for representatives who are appointed prior to making a run for the Senate. Although the results demonstrate that some appointees gain an advantage by receiving appointments, governors who run for Senate do not experience an electoral benefit from making an appointment.     

Stakeholder Involvement in the Design of U.S. Voluntary Environmental Programs: Does Sponsorship Matter?

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) promise to provide firms and facilities additional flexibility in managing their environmental affairs while increasing internal efficiencies and improving their public image. Although stakeholder input is thought to improve program development, little is known about the extent that stakeholders are involved in the VEP design process. Based on a survey of 61 program managers, this research distinguishes between the intensity and diversity of stakeholder involvement and uses these two concepts to assess VEP development relative to government, industry, and third-party sponsorship. Even in the absence of a mandate, all three sponsors include a variety of stakeholders in program design. Although there is evidence that collaborative relationships are developing between sponsors and a range of stakeholder groups, variations in the intensity of involvement among sponsors suggest that some stakeholders may have disproportionate levels of influence in the design of VEPs.     

Trading Speed for Accuracy? Managing Goal Conflict and Accommodation in the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Program

Public managers must often cope with competing and conflicting goals. The common formulation is to assume that managers must trade‐off goals against each other. But is this always true? An alternative hypothesis is that sometimes managers may instead be able to improve outcomes on multiple goals simultaneously—by altering management practices. We test this “trade‐off” notion using a panel of state‐level administrative data from the U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) system from 1997 to 2004 and qualitative interviews from selected states. The trade‐off examined is timeliness of UI benefit payments versus the quality of UI determinations. In general, we find that state administrators often adopt management practices that facilitate improved outcomes for both timeliness and quality, indicating no trade‐off but instead a synergy between outcomes. We also find evidence of a feedback effect linking higher performance on timeliness to better quality determinations.     

Exploring the Canadian‐U.S. Unemployment and Nonemployment Rate Gaps: Are There Lessons for Both Countries?

The Canadian and U.S. economies are very similar. Yet, beginning in the 1980s, Canada experienced much greater relative unemployment rates followed in the 1990s by a declining share of population employed. Using state- and provincial-level data this study assesses why U.S. labor markets have recently performed relatively better than their Canadian counterparts. The empirical results indicate that more rapid U.S. employment growth explains a relatively small proportion of its lower joblessness. Structural causes including lower U.S. unionization and less generous unemployment insurance appear to be more important, at least in the long run. The Canadian labor market also appears to be less flexible to regional economic shocks.     

A Reexamination of Output Convergence in the U.S. States: Toward Which Level(s) are they Converging?

Abstract.  This paper reexamines the issue of output convergence among the 48 states in the continental United States. Implementing multiple panel data techniques to state per capita output during the period 1929–2001 reveals little evidence of stochastic convergence in all 48 states, but some evidence among collections of states at the regional level. This observation may suggest that output convergence in the United States has proceeded among geographically neighboring states rather than among distant states, notwithstanding the nearly complete integration of product and factor markets. Our findings appear to be robust to a subsample analysis, although the intensity of convergence varies with the choice of output measure and deflator. Industrial structures and geographic proximity are considered as potential explanations for the regional pattern of output growth dynamics.     

Forcing Their Hands? Campaign Finance Law,Retirement Announcements and the Rise of the Permanent Campaign in U.S. Senate Elections

Congressional retirement decisions affect representation and campaigns. They have long interested scholars. Yet the timing of retirement announcements has not been explored. In an analysis dating to 1920 based on an original data set, I show that U.S senators now announce their retirements far earlier in their final term than they once did. Beyond documenting this little-noted trend, I propose and assess explanations for these findings, focusing on changes in campaign finance law. I discuss implications for representation and the growth of the “permanent campaign.”