Empowerment of Whom and for What? Financial Literacy Education and the New Regulation of Consumer Financial Services

Financial regulators in many states recently have obtained statutory mandates to enhance consumer financial literacy. This paper investigates the development of policy pursuant to such mandates in the UK and Canada to identify how national regulators represent the role of the literate consumer in the financial market place. It finds that regulators in both countries represent financial education as empowering consumers but that each embeds in its policy an implicit normative ordering of responsible consumer behavior. The paper relates the tension between empowerment and responsibilization aspects of literacy enhancement to policy goals of expanding financial markets and assisting financial regulators to manage consumers' expectations of protection. It raises questions about regulators' use of consumer education to responsibilize consumption of financial products and calls for further research on the international growth of financial literacy education as a regulatory project.     

ECONOMIC THREAT AND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN INCARCERATION: THE CASE OF POSTBELLUM GEORGIA

Economic threat figures prominently in recent explanations of lethal social control directed against blacks after the Civil War. As the position of whites and blacks became more similar, racial antagonisms intensified and found expression in efforts to suppress and intimidate blacks through lynchings and executions. This paper applies the economic threat hypothesis to the exercise of nonlethal social control in Georgia between 1874 and 1936. Time series analysis indicates that declines in racial inequality slightly increased racial disparities in incarceration. More noticeably, they decreased the black male incarceration rate and increased its white counterpart. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and empirical implications of the results.     

REVIEWS

Past or Future Crimes: Deservedness and Dangerousness in the Sentencing of Criminals by Andrew von Hirsch.
Confronting Crime: An American Challenge by Elliot Currie.
The Great American Crime Myth by Kevin N. Wright. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.     

Trade Unions in Africa

The following address was given before a joint meeting of theRoyal African Society and the Royal Empire Society on June 30,1955. The Rt. Hon. James Griffiths, M.P., and former ColonialSecretary, took the Chair.     

The Politics of Forecast Bias: Forecaster Effect and Other Effects in New York City Revenue Forecasting

This paper examines the impact of forecasters, horizons, revenue categories, and forecast timing in relation to decision making on forecast bias or accuracy. The significant findings are: for the most part forecasters tend to report forecasts that are similar rather than competitive. Forecast bias (underforecasting) increases over longer horizons; consequently claims of structural budget deficit are suspect, as an assertion of structural deficit requires that a reliable forecast of revenue shows continuous shortfall compared with a reliable forecast of expenditures. There is an overforecasting bias in property tax, possibly reflecting demand for services. There is an underforecasting forecast bias in two revenue categories, all other taxes and federal categorical grants, resulting in a net total underforecasting bias for the city's revenue. There appears to be a period effect (forecasts in June are substantially biased), but this effect requires further study. The study suggests further examination of the bias associated with revenue categories, time within the budget cycle, and forecast horizon.