The Temporal Dynamics of Neighborhood Disadvantage in Childhood and Subsequent Problem Behavior in Adolescence

Research on neighborhood effects has increasingly focused on how long children have lived in a deprived neighborhood during childhood (duration), but has typically ignored when in childhood the exposure occurred (timing) and whether neighborhood circumstances were improving or deteriorating (sequencing). In this article, the authors applied sequence analysis to simultaneously capture children’s duration, timing, and sequencing of exposure to neighborhood (dis)advantage in childhood. Logistic regression analysis was subsequently used to test how different patterns of exposure are related to teenage parenthood, school dropout, and delinquent behavior. Using register data from the Netherlands, an entire cohort was followed from birth in 1995 up until age 19 in 2014 (N?=?168,645, 48.8% females, 83.2% native Dutch). Compared to children who had lived in a deprived neighborhood throughout childhood, children who were exposed to neighborhood deprivation only during adolescence were found to be equally likely to become a teenage parent and were even more likely to drop out of school. Unexpectedly, children who had lived in an affluent neighborhood throughout childhood were most likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.     

Means to a Better World: Two Analytical Methods,Similar Policies

In different ways David Harvey’s Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism and Robert Reich’s Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few tell us what we already know about capitalism’s rigged system favoring the rich while exploiting working people. Reich bases his analysis on five building blocks of “free markets” which demonstrate government’s unbreakable connection to the shape given to those markets. Reich’s solutions move the conversation leftward from the establishment mainstream. Harvey, on the other hand, examines seventeen contradictions in today’s capitalism that need to be resolved and proposes seventeen mandates to resolve them. His “mandates” have similarities to Reich’s policy suggestions. Coming from different perspectives and relying on different methodologies, but both focusing on establishing a more just society, both Reich and Harvey wind up suggesting similar changes.     

Brief motivation enhancing intervention to prevent criminal recidivism in substance-abusing offenders under supervision: a randomized trial

The goal of this study was to assess the effect of a brief motivation enhancing intervention (MEI) on criminal recidivism. This was a multi-site, cluster-randomized clinical trial in six addiction probation offices. We randomized 73 probation officers (37 to intervention, 36 to control) and followed 220 substance-abusing repeat offenders that were allocated to them (111 intervention, 109 control). We report three measures of recidivism rate (self-report, police records, and combination of either of the two) and time to re-offending (police records) during a 12-month follow-up period. The proportion of re-offending and time to re-offending was not significantly different between offenders that received supervision plus intervention and those that received supervision-as-usual (SAU, no intervention). Our findings provide no evidence that supervision plus a brief MEI is more effective than SAU.     

Fiscal Capacity Equalisation in Tanzania

Fiscal equalisation aims at enabling decentralised governments to supply similar services at similar tax rates. In order to equalise fiscal disparities, differences in both fiscal capacities and in fiscal needs have to be measured. This paper focuses on the measurement of fiscal capacity in a developing country. The current intergovernmental transfer system in Tanzania does not take differences in fiscal capacity into account. As a result, local governments in rich areas are able to generate considerably more revenue per capita than those in poor areas. Public services in poor areas are hard to finance. We propose a way of measuring fiscal capacities of local governments in Tanzania using poverty data. We use this measure to derive an equalisation grant that would support local governments that have a low fiscal capacity.     

Book Reviews

Arran Gare: NIHILISM, INC.: Environmental Destruction and the Metaphysics of Sustainability. Como, New South Wales, Australia: Eco‐Logical Press, 1996.

David Harvey: Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

David Macauley, editor: Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology. New York: The Guilford Press, 1996.

Daniel M. Herman and John T. O'Connor: Who Owns the Sun? People, Politics, and the Struggle for a Solar Economy. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1996.

Harold Crooks: Giants of Garbage: The Rise of the Global Waste Industry and the Politics of Pollution Control. Toronto: Lorimer, 1993

Sudhir Chella Rajan: The Enigma of Automobility: Democratic Politics and Pollution Control. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.

Garrett Hardin: Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.     

Do Formulas Reduce Political Influence on Intergovernmental Grants? Evidence from Tanzania

Sub-national governments usually depend on the central government for a large share of their revenues. Therefore, a fair allocation of intergovernmental grants is essential for financing vital local services like education and healthcare. In Tanzania, and many other countries, regions that are better represented in the national parliament receive significantly more funds than others. Recently, Tanzania replaced the previously existing discretionary method of grant allocation by allocation formulas. We study whether this has reduced the effect of malapportionment on grant allocation. Surprisingly, we find that formula allocation does not significantly change this effect. This has important policy implications.     

Partisan Influence on the Local Tax Burden in the Netherlands

This paper analyses the role of partisan politics in determiningthe local tax burden. Property taxes are the most important revenuesource which municipalities in the Netherlands can decide uponthemselves. Using a new data set on Dutch local property taxes in1996, it is concluded that municipalities with a council dominatedby left wing parties have a higher tax burden. We also find thatlarger coalitions have lower levels of taxation. Finally, taxexporting increases tax rates.     

Intermunicipal cooperation,municipal amalgamation and the price of credit

In many countries, local government size is increasingly thought to be insufficient to operate efficiently. Two possible solutions to this problem are amalgamation and intermunicipal cooperation. This paper applies a novel methodology to shed light on the efficiency implications of this choice. Using a unique and rich micro-level dataset, we find that intermunicipal organisations (IOs) in the Netherlands consistently pay higher interest rates than municipalities, while there is no economic reason to do so. We interpret this as a form of inefficiency. Municipal amalgamation, on the other hand, does not result in higher interest rates. Our analysis eliminates one possible explanation, dispersed ownership of IOs, as the number of partners cooperating in an IO does not affect interest rates (no ‘law of 1/n’). This leaves the introduction of extra hierarchical layers as a result of cooperation, and the ensuing reduction in monitoring, as the most probable explanation.