The Impact of the Housing Bubble on the Growth of Municipal Debt: Evidence from Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the recent Spanish housing boom and the subsequent burst on local public finances. Particularly, we investigate the effect of the rise and later fall in revenue from urban development on local government debt. Using a sample of the Spanish largest municipalities in the period 2003–2011, we find that debt was substituted by revenue from urban development during boom years and this substitution effect vanished after the burst of the boom. Our results also reveal that local public finances have worsened after the burst of the housing bubble since now they have larger current spending and smaller savings.     

Poderes fácticos,comunicación y gobernabilidad: un acercamiento conceptual

The category of factual powers has become a fashionable term. Beyond observable differences in the journalistic, academic or political interests of the scholarly approaches to the topic, the author considers that it is possible to affirm that this question is inextricably related to the issue of democracy, and specifically its viability and governability. This article is framed within this analytic and contextual perspective -factual powers, democracy and governability. Given that the category has not a univocal meaning, after drawing basic differences among the various interest groups, pressure groups and factual powers, it characterizes those emerging social actors capable to dispute the power of formal institutions and analyzes the particular composition of the mass media.     

Different Timelines for Different Technologies

Case studies of the first completed Advanced Technology Program (ATP) projects have shown considerable variation in commercialization patterns of ATP-funded technologies. These variations were apparent in the timing of initial revenues, commercialization in more mature and multiple applications, and diffusion of ATP technologies relative to the period of ATP funding of R&D. This study analyzes differences in commercialization patterns for different ATP-funded technologies in a systematic way.     

Competition policy for elections: Do campaign contribution limits matter?

This paper examines whether campaign contribution restrictions have consequences for election outcomes. States are a natural laboratory to examine this issue. We analyze elections to Assemblies from 1980 to 2001 and determine whether candidates' vote shares are altered by changes in state campaign contribution restrictions. We find that limits on giving narrow the margin of victory of the winning candidate. Limits lead to closer elections for future incumbents, but have less effect on the margin of victory of incumbents who passed the campaign finance legislation. We also find some evidence that contribution limits increase the number of candidates in the race.     

Mexican Democracy and Its Discontents

This article describes the first stage of a major research project on public opinion and democratic consolidation in Mexico. That project, the Mexico 2006 Panel Study, comprises approximately 7,000 in‐depth interviews with ordinary Mexicans over the course of the upcoming presidential campaign. Its purpose is two‐fold: (1) to assess the degree to which Mexican political attitudes are supportive of democratic governance, and (2) to understand the role played by voters, politicians, party leaders, and the mass media in shaping Mexico's political agenda. Ultimately, the project aims to assess how faithfully Mexico's new political system can be expected to respond to the desires and beliefs of ordinary citizens.     

A Comparison of Acculturation Measures Among Hispanic/Latino Adolescents

Acculturation has been associated with numerous health and social outcomes among Hispanic/Latino adolescents. Various self-report scales have been used to measure acculturation, making comparisons of results across studies difficult. This study administered several commonly-used acculturation scales to 221 Hispanic/Latino 9th grade students in Los Angeles. Although all of these scales purport to measure acculturation, the correlations among the scales, and their correlations with language usage measures, were modest. As expected, higher scores on Hispanic/Latino orientation scales (or lower scores on U.S./White orientation scales) were associated with higher levels of ethnic identity formation. Results indicate that these acculturation scales may measure different aspects of the complex phenomenon of acculturation. For example, purely language-based measures shared only small amounts of variance with more comprehensive measures. Additional research is needed to create and validate acculturation measures for adolescents. Jennifer B. Unger, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. She is the principal investigator of Project RED, which is examining parent-child acculturation patterns and substance use among Hispanic adolescents. Anamara Ritt-Olson, Ph.D. is a Research Associate in Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Karla Wagner, MA is a predoctoral student and research assistant in Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Daniel Soto, BA is the project manager on Project RED. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and a co-investigator on Project RED.     

Requirements Engineering Technology Transfer: An Experience Report

This paper is an experience report on an initiative to incorporate requirements engineering practices into the development process of two large corporations. The project was framed by a government program to foster collaboration between academia, industry, and government agencies. Its expected result—proposals for cooperative work—is in itself a major challenge, since it was not decided from the beginning what aspect of requirements engineering would be covered by the proposals.We describe the cooperation process followed by the project partners, three universities, and two companies, the difficulties found therein, and compare our experience with other reports on the issue of adoption of requirements engineering into the mainstream practice.     

Cocaine and homicide in Memphis and Shelby county: an epidemic of violence

In Memphis and the surrounding county, there were a record number of homicides (179) in 1986. During the same year, there was a marked increase in medical examiner cases where tests were positive for cocaine or its metabolites. Review of medical examiner and toxicology records from 1980 to 1986 found 87 cocaine related deaths; 46 of these were homicides. In 1986 alone, there were 53 cocaine related deaths, all manners, and 31 cocaine related homicides. In this year, 17.3% of the homicides were positive for cocaine or metabolite. The cocaine related homicides were similar to other homicides in terms of age, race, sex, blood ethanol concentration, and cause of death being due most often to firearms. In homicide cases in which an abuse drug was detected, cocaine accounted for the entire increase in 1986. Police records indicated that cocaine directly contributed to the homicide in 39% of the cases in which the drug was found. In other cases, we speculate that cocaine altered behavior may have contributed to the victim's being murdered either during the drug "high" or during the posteuphoric depression or withdrawal phase.