Measuring the impact of community development block grant spending on urban neighborhoods

Abstract

Regression analysis of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) spending in 17 large cities reveals strong statistical associations between spending from 1994 to 1996 and changes in three indicators of neighborhood conditions: the home purchase mortgage approval rate, the median amount of the home purchase loans originated, and the number of businesses. However, there is no consistent association between spending and indicators of subsequent neighborhood change unless CDBG spending is sufficiently spatially targeted that it exceeds a threshold of the sample mean expenditure and is measured relative to the number of poor residents. In addition, associations vary according to neighborhood trajectories before investment and changes in the local economy.

Nevertheless, even in the least hospitable contexts—highly concentrated neighborhood poverty, preexisting declines in home values, weak city job growth—our estimates are consistent with the hypothesis that above‐threshold CDBG spending produces significant neighborhood improvements. We discuss the implications for such spatially targeted spending and connections between our work and the emerging literature on the dynamics of poor neighborhoods.     

The United States,Japan, and the power to block: the APEC and AMF cases

This paper argues that the evolution of APEC and the rejection of Japan's 1997 AMF proposal reflect a failure of Japanese and US leadership. Not only have the two countries failed to exercise either individual or shared regional leadership. Instead, both have used their considerable structural power negatively to block the other's proposals for regional collective action, rather than positively to exercise leadership. After developing the concepts of leadership and blocking power, the paper provides case studies of the APEC and AMF. It concludes that if a post-hegemonic US no longer has the willingness and/or the ability to undertake collective action single-handedly, and if in a post-Cold War world neither the US nor Japan has sufficient incentives to bridge their differences and sacrifice some interests to achieve a unified stance, then continued stalemate and under-supply of regional collective goods can be expected.     

A tragedy of the anticommons: local option taxation and cell phone tax bills

When multiple taxing jurisdictions overlap and fail to account for one another’s actions, they over-tax the common base. This is a prediction of the anticommons model, in which numerous parties have authority to exclude others from using a resource. This model further predicts that when governments over-tax the base, private parties will underutilize the resource, and underutilization will be greater as the number of parties with exclusion rights rises. We test these predictions by studying cell phone taxation and local option tax authority, which allows some cities, counties, and special-purpose districts to levy taxes on cell phone use. Consistent with theory, we find that the tax rate on cell phone service is higher when local governments have the option to tax. Further, the percentage of households owning cell phones is lower when there is the local option to tax, and ownership rates fall with the number of taxes levied.     

加强对党政“一把手”监督的实践与思考

由于受干部管理体制机制和党政"一把手"特殊位置等因素的影响,对党政"一把手"监督工作仍存在着一些亟待解决的难点,主要是监督制度不完善、监督主体缺乏必要的独立性、党政"一把手"赋权过重、监督工作方法滞后等问题。加强对党政"一把手"的监督,核心是对"一把手"权力运用的监督,应将上级监督落到实处,把"人"管好;科学设计权力运行监督制度,把"权"管住;完善纪检监察监督机制,把"事"做好,从实体性制度和程序性要求上规范和监督党政"一把手"权力运行过程。     

党政机关保持和发扬党员先进性的调查与思考

各级党政机关是党的路线、方针、政策制定和实施的中枢机构 ,其党员干部能否发挥先锋模范作用 ,直接关系到党和政府在群众中的形象和执政地位的巩固。中国共产党必须站在时代的高度 ,从教育、管理、监督等方面建立一套比较科学、严密的机制 ,规范机关党组织和党员的行为 ,使其保持和发扬党员的先进性 ,从而真正实现党对全社会的领导。     

资源调控法探析

资源调控的意义在于减少资源浪费 ,提高资源利用率 ,使资源的开发符合可持续发展的要求。要搞好资源的宏观调控 ,就必须保证其立法的完善 ;其原则是经济、生态效益与社会效益相统一 ,坚持综合利用与可持续开发的结合 ,实现资源优化配置目标     

关于国家助学金工作中出现的问题及对策思考

在现行的高校助学体系中,助学金是帮助贫困生解决经济问题,顺利完成学业的一项重要资助政策。当前的高校对助学金工作十分重视,但是在助学金实际工作中存在着一些问题尚待解决,影响了助学金的效果。从助学金工作实际出发,提出当前助学金工作中存在的问题和难点,并分析问题产生原因,提出相应的解决对策,使助学金工作的顺利有效开展。     

More on the soviets and ultra

Roy Godson, Ernest R. May, and Gary Schmitt, US Intelligence at the Crossroads: Agendas for Reform, (Washington and London: Brassey's, 1995). Pp.315, no index. $25.95 £20.95. ISBN 0–02–881122–4.

Roy Godson, Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: US Covert Action and Counter‐intelligence (Washington and London: Brassey's, 1995). Pp.337, biblio. index. $24.95 £21.95. ISBN 0–02–881036–8.     

继续解放思想 贯彻落实科学发展观

贯彻落实科学发展观需要继续解放思想，继续解放思想要抓住发展第一要义，进一步解放生产力；继续解放思想要加快党的建设创新；继续解放思想要有改革创新突破所面临的障碍。     

思想解放与经济体制改革

目前关于我国经济体制改革的基本判断是:经济体制改革取得历史性成果,深化改革的思想理论观念环境不断改善,改革进入不进则退、任务艰巨、重点突破的新阶段,深层次体制问题日益成为经济发展的障碍,必须抓住重点深化经济体制改革。     

Deliberative Democracy and the Deliberative Poll on the Euro

Focus on the concept of deliberative democracy has increased rapidly within recent decades. However, the concept is weakly defined, if at all. 'Deliberation' is defined as an unconstrained exchange of arguments that involves practical reasoning and potentially leads to a transformation of preferences. Throughout the 1990s several innovative democratic experiments have flourished focusing on citizens' involvement and deliberation. The Deliberative Poll in focus here is, according to many parameters, the most ambitious one. The article presents the results from the Danish National Deliberative Poll on the single currency. In August 2000, 364 repres-entative Danish citizens assembled to deliberate on Denmark's participation in the single currency. The Deliberative Poll is described as a quasi-experiment set out to explore the empirical potentials of deliberative democracy. The focus is whether the claimed potential of deliberative democracy is present in the experimental setting. The participants' answers reflect a deliberative process dominated by considerable changes in opinion, an increase in knowledge and an improved ability to form a reasoned opinion. Mutual understanding among the participants prevailed. At the same time, self-interest and domination were also part of the deliberative process. Thus, this article encourages the development of deliberative democratic theory in order to incorporate these features of politics.     

邓小平关于东西南北的战略判断与江泽民关于各国文明多样性的重要思想

我们已经进入新的世纪,国际局势正在发生深刻变化。执政党提出具有远见卓识的战略判断和反映国际局势发展客观规律的重要思想,对于一个国家的繁荣和民族的振兴,对于维护世界和平促进共同发展是至关重要的。回顾和分析邓小平关于东西南北的战略判断和江泽民关于各国文明多样性的重要思想,具有十分重要的理论和现实意义。