Cross-city evidence on the relationship between immigration and crime

Public concerns about the costs of immigration and crime are high, and sometimes overlapping. This article investigates the relationship between immigration into a metropolitan area and that area's crime rate during the 1980s. Using data from the Uniform Crime Reports and the Current Population Surveys, we find, in the cross section, that cities with high crime rates tend to have large numbers of immigrants. However, controlling for the demographic characteristics of the cities, recent immigrants appear to have no effect on crime rates. In explaining changes in a city's crime rate over time, the flow of immigrants again has no effect, whether or not we control for other city-level characteristics. In a secondary analysis of individual data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we find that youth born abroad are statistically significantly less likely than native-born youth to be criminally active.     

International social security agreements: the U.S. experience

International social security agreements are advantageous both for persons who are working now and for those whose working careers are over. For current workers, the agreements eliminate the dual contributions they might otherwise be paying to the social security systems of both the United States and another country. They also favorably affect the profitability and competitive position of American companies with foreign operations by reducing their cost of doing business. For persons who have worked both in the United States and abroad, and who are now retired, disabled, or deceased, the agreements often result in the payment of benefits to which the worker or the worker's family members would not otherwise have become entitled. Credit for social security coverage the worker earned in the United States and the other country can be combined, if necessary, to meet eligibility requirements, and partial benefits can be paid by one or both countries. Because international social security agreements benefit both workers and employers, the agreements program is supported by organized labor and the international business community. Since the first agreement was signed 15 years ago, every Presidential administration has endorsed the program. In view of this support, and the fact that the agreements enhance the image of the United States as a socially progressive member of the international community, it is expected that totalization agreements will be concluded with additional countries in the future.     

Investing in Not‐for‐Profit Sector Capacity: The Australian Capital Territory's Community Sector Development Program (CSDP)

In 2013 the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government's Community Services Directorate (CSD) initiated a suite of projects designed to address the not‐for‐profit (NFP) community services sector's capacity to adapt to a rapidly changing policy and operational environment. In common with other Australian governments, the ACT relies upon NFP organisations to deliver a wide range of community‐based human/social services. The procurement of services rendered to, or on behalf of, government by a third party provider under contract accounts for about 94% of the CSD's investment in the NFP community services sector. The ACT government, therefore, has a vested interest in ensuring that NFP providers are operationally capable, financially viable, and economically sustainable. Accordingly, the government launched a Community Sector Reform Program (CSRP) focussing on red tape reduction, sector development, and the establishment of a community sector outcomes framework. What lessons might the CSRP offer for other jurisdictions?     

Transformation of the Rural Economy in the Philippines, 1988–2006

This research explores the changing structure of the rural economy in the Philippines from 1988 to 2006. We found that the expansion and upgrade of infrastructure such as electricity and roads and investment in secondary and tertiary education are important factors that induced the economic transformation of the rural economy. The importance of higher education as an entry requirement to the nonfarm labor market has declined over time, indicating that the rural nonfarm sector has been increasingly providing employment opportunities to the unskilled and the uneducated, who form the bulk of the rural poor.