Revitalizing inner‐city neighborhoods: New York city's Ten‐Year Plan

Abstract

This article examines the impact of New York City's Ten‐Year Plan on the sale prices of homes in surrounding neighborhoods. Beginning in the mid‐1980s, New York City invested $5.1 billion in constructing or rehabilitating over 180,000 units of housing in many of the city's most distressed neighborhoods. One of the main purposes was to spur neighborhood revitalization.

In this article, we describe the origins of the Ten‐Year Plan, as well as the various programs the city used to implement it, and estimate whether housing built or rehabilitated under the Ten‐Year Plan affected the prices of nearby homes. The prices of homes within 500 feet of Ten‐Year Plan units rose relative to those located beyond 500 feet, but still within the same census tract. These findings are consistent with the proposition that well‐planned project‐based housing programs can generate positive spillover effects and contribute to efforts to revitalize inner‐city neighborhoods.     

Second‐hand machinery in development,or how to recognize a bargain

In the literature on economic development and planning, much is made of the problem of ‘choice of technique'—choosing either capital or labour intensive techniques. In this paper the focus is on another aspect of this problem—the choice among capital inputs, the selection of new or second‐hand equipment. As much of the investment in the less developed countries depends on imported machinery, the problem becomes that of making the most efficient use of foreign exchange. The question is relevant as a number of developing countries have imposed prohibitions on the importation of used machinery.

First we examine the theoretical implications of the availability of both new and used machines for the production possibilities and the effects of various trade policies on the selection of production technique. Integrating this question of new versus used machines with investment criteria, we then examine situations in which used machinery might be preferable to new.     

State economic development strategy: Designing a tool for evaluating policy

In 1987, the new governor of Pennsylvania introduced a plan designed to protect “old” jobs while encouraging public and private investment in targeted “growth” industries. Recognizing that “targeting growth opportunities” was, at best, an uncertain enterprise, the Department of Labor and Industry suggested a program be implemented that would monitor these “key” sectors. To be cost-effective, this evaluation effort would need to be sufficiently timely and sensitive to allow for mid-course corrections. In this paper, we describe an effort to design and implement such a program.     

Terrorism: An Identity Theory Perspective

The present article outlines the role of personal, social, and cultural identity in religiously and ethnically motivated terrorism. It is proposed that terrorism represents the confluence of a cultural identity strongly based in collectivism and in fundamentalist adherence to religious or cultural principles, a social identity based in sharp contrasts between one's own group and groups perceived as threats, and a foreclosed and authoritarian sense of personal identity or, less often, a diffused and aimless personal identity. Examples from religious-extremist and ethnic conflicts in which terrorism has been employed are used to illustrate the tenets advanced here. Recommendations for addressing and preventing the threat of terrorism are discussed.     

A control group study of incubators’ impact to promote firm survival

It is widely unclear as to whether start-up firms supported by publicly-initiated incubator initiatives have higher survival rates than comparable start-up firms that have not received support by such initiatives. This paper contributes to the underlying discussion by performing a large-scale matched-pairs analysis of the long-term survival of 371 incubator firms (after their graduation) from five German incubators and a control group of 371 comparable non-incubated firms. The analysis covers a 10-year time span. To account for the problem of selection bias, a non-parametric matching approach is applied to identify an appropriate control group. For neither of the five incubator locations, we find statistically significant higher survival probabilities for firms located in incubators compared to firms located outside those incubator organizations. For three incubator locations the analysis reveals statistically significant lower chances of survival for those start-ups receiving support by an incubator. The empirical results, therefore, raise some doubts regarding the impacts of incubation on long-term firm survival.     

The global importance of ‘illiberal moderates’, an exchange: partners in peace to precede a concert of democracies

The following is an exchange concerning the concept of ‘illiberal moderates’ and its implications for a new global architecture as well as for a worldview that sees the evolution of a global core of shared values which favour domestic and international security, in sharp contrast to the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis. The original statement was published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Etzioni 2006). A more extensive treatment can be found in Part III of Security first: for a muscular, moral foreign policy (Etzioni 2007b), which examines texts of four religious and two secular belief systems as well as review of relevant public opinion polls and ‘traveller notes’. Here follows a brief summary of the main thesis, followed by comments from prominent scholars and Etzioni's response to these comments.     

Characterization of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) obtained from teeth subjected to various environmental conditions.

This study was designed to determine the effects of various environmental factors on the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) obtained from dental pulp. Extracted teeth were subjected to the following conditions: varying pH (3,7,10); temperature (4 degrees C, 25 degrees C, 37 degrees C, incineration); humidity (20%, 66%, 98%); various types of soil (sand, potting soil, garden soil); seawater; burying the teeth outdoors, and aging (one week to six months). In addition, teeth that had been extracted and held at room temperature for 16 and 19 years were also examined. Following isolation of DNA, the samples were analyzed on yield gels to determine the concentration and integrity of the recovered DNA. Restriction digestion with Pst I was followed by electrophoresis of the generated fragments, Southern transfer to nylon membranes, and hybridization to both human and bacterial probes. It was determined that, aside from soil, the environmental conditions examined did not affect the ability to obtain high-molecular-weight human DNA from dental pulp. Restriction fragment length polymorphic (RFLP) analysis of selected samples was performed. Dental pulp patterns were compared with bloodstain exemplars, revealing matching patterns, although an increase in band-shifting was observed with extended exposure to elevated temperatures.     

Effective handling of health-related leaves of absence

This article will address the legal obligations of employers in non-union settings toward employees who request pregnancy leave, parental or medical leave, workers' compensation leave, and other forms of disability leave. Specifically, this article will address the legal standards set forth under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, various state pregnancy and family leave acts, workers' compensation retaliatory discharge authority, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. In addition, this article will provide practical guidance for employers in formulating effective leave policies that provide the maximum amount of operational flexibility while at the same time minimizing the risk of costly and excessive litigation.