CHANGING PUBLIC ATTITUDES ABOUT PUBLIC WELFARE CLIENTS AND SERVICES THROUGH RESEARCH

Research findings aye useful in interpreting the widely misunderstood services of public welfare departments to the public. This article describes three research projects that were conducted and publicized by a state welfare department primarily to clarify public understanding of welfare programs. The three projects examined the characteristics of a special allowance given families to purchase school clothing for their children, the rate of turnover of Aid to Families with Dependent Children cases, and the numbers of and reasons for public employees receiving assistance from a state welfare department. Strategies for dealing with the media in interpreting public welfare programs are also suggested.     

CRIME IN A MULTI‐JURISDICTIONAL MODEL WITH PRIVATE AND PUBLIC PREVENTION*

ABSTRACT Criminals move between jurisdictions in response to differences in the net returns to crime that depend on the opportunity for crime and the effort to prevent crime. An increase in police protection of a jurisdiction diverts crime to other jurisdictions when only public crime prevention such as police protection is available. However, residents also invest in private prevention (private security, burglar alarms, etc.), and the value of these measures depends on the level of local public protection. In a spatial context, an increase in public prevention of a jurisdiction not only alters the incentives of individuals of the jurisdiction, but also of other jurisdictions as well, and such a change in private crime prevention may end up attracting crime to the jurisdiction. An increase in public prevention of a jurisdiction thus may divert or attract crime. This ambiguous effect stands in contrast with the literature and may appear counterintuitive, but is logical under plausible conditions.     

THE OPTIMAL PROVISION OF LOCAL PUBLIC GOODS IN A METROPOLITAN AREA WITH FLEXIBLE JURISDICTIONAL BOUNDARIES*

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyze the optimal structure of a monocentric city that has multiple jurisdictions. The cost of providing a public good depends on both the area of the jurisdiction and the quality of the service, both of which are endogenous variables. We show that the optimal quality of the public good decreases as distance from the central business district (CBD) increases if the public good and the housing lot are substitutes, and may increase if they are complements. The optimal population density always decreases as distance from the CBD increases.     

THE SOURCES OF PUBLIC POLICY: WELFARE POLICY IN THE AMERICAN STATES

The conceptualization of political and economic determinants of public policy as interactive rather than sufficient causes is subjected here to a comparative state analysis. An examination of interactive effects of culture, wealth, and gubernatorial power on AFDC grants and Medicaid benefits offers empirical illustration of Stonecash's reconceptualization of the classic politics-process-policy model. The results indicate that political dispositions become more potent in combination with increasing concentrations of wealth and executive power.     

PUBLIC POLICIES FOR COMMUNITIES IN ECONOMIC CRISIS

The 1980's very likely will see a major restructuring of the nation's and the world economy. In the process industries and communities that were the growth centers of previous decades will experience economic crisis. This restructuring—presaged in this country by the decaying productivity of certain basic manufacturing industries—will mean that a number of places can no longer provide sufficient income or Jobs for their people nor maintain the quality of existing public amenities. As this process of disinvestment goes forward, these communities face the challenge of finding new economic and social roles, reducing the impacts of job losses, and maintaining the quality of life within severe fiscal limits.     

LOCATION AND SPATIAL PRICING FOR PUBLIC FACILITIES

ABSTRACT. Past analysis of public facility location has generally assumed a single goal, such as cost minimization or welfare maximization, and exogenous spatial pricing. This paper considers optimal facility location under a variety of goals. Furthermore, the facility manager is allowed to engage in freight absorption so that the delivered price to consumers need not reflect actual transportation costs. A systematic interaction among management goals, freight absorption, and the optimal size and spacing of public facilities is found.     

ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND THE WELFARE STATE: THE QUEST FOR POLICY INTEGRITY

Leslie Dunbar. 1988. The Common Interest: How Our Social Welfare Policies Don't Work and What We Can Do About Them
Charles Lockhart. 1989. Gaining Ground: Tailoring Social Programs to American Values     

THE WELFARE ASPECTS OF SPATIAL PRICING POLICIES RECONSIDERED FOR A MONOPOLY CASE*

ABSTRACT. We reexamine the price structures and their welfare implications in three pricing regimes (mill, uniform and discriminatory) for a monopoly. We show that spatial price discrimination could provide the highest social welfare and, when consumers tastes are heterogeneous enough, also the highest consumer surplus. The superiority of spatial price discrimination is partially due to the larger output produced and partially due to differential treatment for consumers with heterogeneous tastes.     

THE EFFECTS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AMALGAMATION ON PUBLIC SPENDING,TAXATION, AND SERVICE LEVELS: EVIDENCE FROM 15 YEARS OF MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATION

We study how municipal amalgamation affects local government spending, taxation, and service provision in the Netherlands. Employing different models, different control groups, and a number of robustness tests, we find no significant effect on aggregate spending or taxation, although spending on administration is reduced. We explore whether this finding might hide amalgamation effects working in opposite directions for different types of municipalities (e.g., small versus large, or homogeneous versus heterogeneous), cancelling each other out. This does not seem to be the case. We also investigate whether amalgamation leads to better public services instead of lower spending, but find no evidence.     

居民社区活动空间共享的公共接触潜力测度方法

社区内的日常活动空间共享有利于创造居民面对面的社会接触,进而增进理解、提升社区信任和社区融合。基于行为地理学理论与方法,提出“物质空间—活动空间共享—社会心理空间”的关系路径,揭示社区居民的活动空间共享的研究意义;从结构、层级、尺度和载体四个角度构建居民社区活动空间共享的公共接触潜力分析框架;从社区和个体两个层级构建公共接触潜力测度方法,基于共同活动的联系衡量社区居民空间共享的广泛程度和频繁程度。在理论框架与指标测度的基础上,使用上海市郊区调查数据进行实证检验,分析了活动空间共享的社区差异和个体差异。研究指出,提升居民空间共享对建设充满人气的活力社区具有意义,能够为郊区社区生活圈建设和社区治理提供支持。     

DEFENSE SPENDING AND STATE ECONOMIC GROWTH*

Little evidence is currently available on the regional growth effects of federal defense spending. In this study, econometric models for state personal income and manufacturing employment between 1976 and 1985 are specified and estimated. Pooled cross-sectional time-series data are used, and the estimation procedure corrects for serial correlation, heteroscedasticity, and contemporaneous cross-sectional correlation. The results indicate that aggregate defense spending has a positive effect on both growth measures. However, when defense expenditures are disaggregated, only investment-type outlays appear to consistently affect state economic growth.