The Influence of Homebuyer Education on Default and Foreclosure Risk: A Natural Experiment

The recent housing crisis has generated debate over the benefits and risks of policies and programs promoting homeownership for low and moderate income households. One important facet of this conversation is whether prepurchase homebuyer education (HBE) is effective in reducing default or foreclosure risk. Studies to date have primarily focused on default risk and have faced challenges in accounting for borrower selection into HBE. This study analyzes the outcomes of a natural experiment in the provision of a classroom‐based HBE program during the start‐up phase of a down payment assistance loan program at Tennessee's state housing finance agency in 2002. A competing risks analysis of monthly payment data from 2002 to 2009 for 732 mortgages indicates that, after controlling for borrower, mortgage, and economic factors, HBE did not reduce default risk, but was associated with 42 percent lower odds of foreclosure. Among borrowers who defaulted, HBE was associated with an increased probability of curing a first default and of avoiding foreclosure post‐default. Policymakers should consider the timing and intensity of HBE programs needed to influence default risk and how HBE may promote sustainable homeownership by influencing borrowers’ help‐seeking behavior and strategies for resolving defaults.     

The Impact of Federal Preemption of State Antipredatory Lending Laws on the Foreclosure Crisis

State antipredatory lending laws (APLs) are designed to protect borrowers against predatory lending that can increase the risk of default and deplete the home equity held by borrowers. Federal regulators instituted preemption that limited the scope and reach of state antipredatory lending regulations for certain lenders. Based on the variation in state laws and the variation in the regulatory environment among lenders, this paper identifies the effects of federal preemption of state APLs on the quality of mortgages originated by preempted lenders. The results provide evidence of a relatively higher increase in default risk among loans exempted from strong state antipredatory laws. These results are most robust among refinance mortgages with adjustable interest rates—a large and highly dynamic market in the period of analysis. The findings provide initial evidence that preemption of state mortgage lending regulations may result in an increase in mortgage default risk, thus limiting consumer protection in the residential mortgage market.     

Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities: Reinventing Federalism for Distressed Communities

Assisting communities to stimulate investment and to createjobs as part of a federal-state-local government and private-sectorpartnership is a key intergovernmental objective of the Clintonadministration, consistent with its agenda of reinventing government.The Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Cities (EZ/EC) Program, enactedby the Congress as part of the Omnibus Budget ReconciliationAct of 1993, reflects other federalism themes as well, themesthat predate the Clinton administration. A shift in federalpolicy during the 1980s, away from places and toward persons,set the stage for the long and difficult path of the EZ/EC programthrough the Congress. During that same decade, many states enactedtheir own enterprise-zone statutes; these initiatives were partof a second federalism trend—the general resurgence ofstates. The EZ/EC program also demonstrates the persistenceof partisanship in intergovernmental programs; empowerment-zoneand enterprise-community choices announced by the presidentin December 1994 reflected Clinton's need to satisfy his traditionalDemocratic constituencies.     

The Impact of Housing Submarkets and Urban Form on the Foreclosure Crisis in U.S. Urban Counties

In this article, the authors introduce a novel way to define and measure housing submarkets in relation to foreclosures. Instead of the traditional methods of identifying submarkets a priori, this study uses an approach that empirically delineates housing submarkets based on spatial contiguity and housing attributes. The spatial clustering algorithm developed for this study identified submarkets in each of the urban counties. A spatial regression model was then used to assess the impact of submarket structure on foreclosure rates. In addition, the study also incorporates a measure of sprawl in its analysis. It was found that sprawling counties are not more likely to have higher rates of foreclosures compared with average rates. However, the counties with smaller and more fragmented housing submarkets are likely to have lower rates of foreclosures. The results suggest that urban form is less consequential than housing market structure in affecting U.S. housing market dynamics.     

浅谈高校辅导员在贫困生心理疏导中的作用

随着高校招生规模的扩大,贫困生数量呈迅速增长趋势。贫困生心理上有先天弱势,突如其来的生活变故很容易使他们产生消极心理,从而影响学业。作为学生心理脱困的引导者,高校辅导员要扮演好这个角色,尽快帮助贫困生脱离心理苦海。     

朋辈辅导与服务型党支部建设耦合研究

服务型党支部建设是当前高校学生党建工作的重要任务。朋辈辅导作为思想政治教育特殊而有效的形式为党建工作提供了理论依据和实践平台。基于朋辈辅导与服务型党支部建设的耦合关系、耦合体系、耦合度三个角度进行探讨和分析,形成集格局、意识、形式、内容、长效性和实效性为一体的服务型党支部建设六维实践体系。     

The Implications of Framing Effects for Citizen Competence

Social scientists have documented framing effects in a wide range of contexts, including surveys, experiments, and actual political campaigns. Many view work on framing effects as evidence of citizen incompetence—that is, evidence that citizens base their preferences on arbitrary information and/or are subject to extensive elite manipulation. Yet, we continue to lack a consensus on what a framing effect is as well as an understanding of how and when framing effects occur. In this article, I examine (1) the different ways that scholars have employed the concepts of framing and framing effects, (2) how framing effects may violate some basic criteria of citizen competence, and (3) what we know about how and when framing effects work. I conclude that while the evidence to date suggests some isolated cases of incompetence, the more general message is that citizens use frames in a competent and well-reasoned manner.     

The Product and Difference Fallacies for Indirect Effects

Political scientists often cite the importance of mechanism‐specific causal knowledge, both for its intrinsic scientific value and as a necessity for informed policy. This article explains why two common inferential heuristics for mechanism‐specific (i.e., indirect) effects can provide misleading answers, such as sign reversals and false null results, even when linear regressions provide unbiased estimates of constituent effects. Additionally, this article demonstrates that the inferential difficulties associated with indirect effects can be ameliorated with the use of stratification, interaction terms, and the restriction of inference to subpopulations (e.g., the indirect effect on the treated). However, indirect effects are inherently not identifiable—even when randomized experiments are possible. The methodological discussion is illustrated using a study on the indirect effect of Islamic religious tradition on democracy scores (due to the subordination of women).     

团体辅导提升大学生生命价值观的效果研究

本研究旨在探讨团体辅导对大学生生命价值观的干预效果。对大连理工大学60名学生采用为期3周6次的团体辅导方法进行干预,建立实验组和对照组,用定性和定量的方法验证团体辅导的效果。团体辅导后,实验组在团体辅导前后测、实验组和对照组的后测绝大部分差异性显著,而对照组被试的前后测没有显著差异。团体辅导有助于提升大学生生命价值观的整体水平,有助于降低大学生的自杀意念水平,有助于提升大学生自尊水平。因而得出结论:团体辅导能够有效提升大学生生命价值观。     

The Participatory Effects of Redistricting

While the effects of legal and institutional arrangements on political participation are well documented, little attention has been given to the potential participatory effects of one of the United States' most important electoral laws: constitutionally mandated reapportionment. By severing the ties between constituents and their incumbents, we argue, redistricting raises information costs, leading to increased levels of nonvoting in U.S. House contests. Survey data from the 1992 American National Election Studies show that redrawn citizens are half as likely to know their incumbent's name as citizens who remain in a familiar incumbent's district and, consequently, significantly more likely to roll off, or abstain from voting in the House election after having cast a presidential vote. We also show that participation rates in the 2002–2006 House elections in Texas—each of which followed a redistricting—match these patterns, with roll-off increasing 3% to 8% in portions of the state that were redrawn, controlling for other factors. The findings demonstrate that scholars and policy makers ought to be concerned with the extent to which the redrawing of congressional lines affects citizens' exercise of political voice.     

The Impact of Rehabilitation and Counseling Services on the Labor Market Activity of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Beneficiaries

We use data from a social experiment to estimate the impact of a rehabilitation and counseling program on the labor market activity of newly entitled Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries. Our results indicate that the program led to a 4.6 percentage point increase in the receipt of employment services within the first year following random assignment and a 5.1 percentage point increase in participation in the Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work program within the first three years following random assignment. The program led to a 5.3 percentage point increase, or almost 50 percent increase, in employment, and an $831 increase in annual earnings in the second calendar year after the calendar year of random assignment. The employment and earnings impacts are smaller and not statistically significant in the third calendar year following random assignment, and we describe SSDI rules that are consistent with this finding. Our findings indicate that disability reform proposals focusing on restoring the work capacity of people with disabilities can increase the disability employment rate.     

团体心理辅导在谈心谈话工作中的应用研究

谈心谈话是高校辅导员的一项重要工作内容,作为高校辅导员,新形势下要努力成为"90后"大学生的知心朋友、引导学生健康成长,尤其要注重谈心谈话工作的创新形式和工作的有效开展。基于团体心理辅导的心理咨询技术原理,针对高校心理辅导由补救性辅导向预防性辅导、发展性辅导的转变新背景条件下,提出将团体心理辅导纳入辅导员谈心谈话创新模式中,不仅为高校广泛开展心理辅导提供有效途径和载体,更是高校辅导员老师开展谈心谈话工作的有力抓手和创新形式。     

The Effects of Changing Test‐Based Policies for Reclassifying English Learners

When students labeled English Learners (ELs) are reclassified as Fluent English Proficient, changes often occur in services and settings (e.g., changes in teachers, peers, and ancillary services). Policymakers play an important role in the reclassification process because they establish test‐based criteria that an EL must attain in order to become reclassified. If the criteria established by policymakers are incongruent with the instructional changes that result from reclassification, then services and settings may be denied to students who would otherwise benefit from them. In response to teachers’ and administrators’ concerns that some ELs who were reclassified were not succeeding without additional supports, California policymakers in 2006 to 2007 changed the reclassification criteria. In this paper, we examine the effects of changing these criteria using data on Latino/a students from the Los Angeles Unified School District, the U.S. district serving the largest number of ELs. Using “difference‐in‐regression‐discontinuities” approaches, we find consistent evidence that this policy change, which increased the difficulty of attaining the test‐based criteria for EL reclassification eligibility, had significant effects on high‐school students’ subsequent English language arts achievement (0.18 SDs) and graduation outcomes (11 percentage points). Specifically, when the criteria for reclassification were lower, students experienced negative effects of reclassification; but when the criteria were raised, students no longer experienced these negative effects. Highlighting the complex interplay between assessments, instruction, and policy, these findings demonstrate the important role policymakers play in the academic success of ELs and speak to policymaker considerations when implementing assessment and accountability systems.     

团体心理辅导对大学新生人际信任的实效研究

人际交往的基础起源于人际动机,良好的人际信任能够促成大学生健康心理和社会性的发展。以大一新生为对象,将被试分为实验组和对照组各16人,并对实验组实施8次团体心理辅导。问卷调查以及跟踪测量均显示,实验组被试人际信任水平超过对照组被试,并具有长期效应。     

浅谈《精神卫生法》对高校心理咨询中心工作影响

为探讨《精神卫生法》的实施对高校心理咨询中心工作开展带来的影响,通过文献研究并根据高校心理咨询中心工作的实际情况,从积极和消极两个方面进行相应的讨论并提出对策,旨在为未来高校心理健康工作改革提供参考意见。同时,高校心理咨询中心应根据《精神卫生法》调整工作重心。     

The Unintended Effects of Social Policy Measures

The unintended effects of social policy measures are frequently important, controversial, difficult to ascertain and even more difficult to quantify. Some selected aspects of four types of unintended effects are discussed in this article. First, effects due to redistribution of income as well as life chances and opportunities as determined by market forces and attitudes (sexism, ageism, racism) favor some at the expense of others. Even redistribution which increases gross domestic product (GDP) often disadvantages certain groups. Second, contingency-related benefits tend to favor population groups differently. Third, free and subsidized health services, in certain conditions, increase both the supply and demand for services—the moral hazard problem. Fourth, contingency benefits in cash and kind tend to increase the incidence of such contingencies and, if income-related, tend to result in poverty and unemployment traps. Cross-national comparative studies may be a useful device in ascertaining effects or the absence of effects.     

The Effects of Regional Sizing on Growth

In this paper, a micro-founded model dealing with the effects of regional sizing on economic growth is developed. Departing from bigger sizes, reduction involves more efficient public choices because of proximity to individual preferences and needs, but also creates the risk of underestimation of the real profitability of public expenditure by local governments due to cross border spillovers and “predator” behaviors. Hence the optimal size depends on the relative strength of both effects. Moreover, we show that different institutional arrangements between fiscal tiers involve different results for each possible size. Using data from the Spanish regions during the period 1984–1996, the relationship between productive spending and jurisdiction size is then analyzed.     

The Effects of Contraception on Female Poverty

Poverty rates are particularly high among households headed by single women, and childbirth is often the event preceding these households’ poverty spells. This paper examines the relationship between legal access to the birth control pill and female poverty. We rely on exogenous cross‐state variation in the year in which oral contraception became legally available to young, single women. Using census data from 1960 to 1990, we find that having legal access to the birth control pill by age 20 significantly reduces the probability that a woman is subsequently in poverty. We estimate that early legal access to oral contraception reduces female poverty by 0.5 percentage points, even when controlling for completed education, employment status, and household composition.