Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City

The Housing Choice Voucher program is currently the largest federally funded housing assistance program. Although the program aims to provide housing assistance, it also could affect children's educational outcomes by stabilizing their families, enabling them to move to better homes, neighborhoods, and schools, and increasing their disposable incomes. Using data from New York City, the nation's largest school district, we examine whether—and to what extent—housing vouchers improve educational outcomes for students whose families receive them. We match over 88,000 school-age voucher recipients to longitudinal public school records and estimate the impact of vouchers on academic performance through a comparison of students’ performance on standardized tests after voucher receipt to their pre-voucher performance. We exploit the conditionally random timing of voucher receipt to estimate a causal model. Results indicate that students in voucher households perform 0.05 standard deviations better in both English Language Arts and Mathematics in the years after they receive a voucher. We see significant racial differences in impacts, with small or no gains for black students but significant gains for Hispanic, Asian, and white students. Impacts appear to be driven largely by reduced rent burdens, increased disposable income, or a greater sense of residential security.     

Twelve-locus Y-STR haplotypes in the Flemish population

POPULATION: One hundred and thirteen unrelated Flemish men from Belgium.     

Demokratie oder Fiskalunion?

What challenges do European tax states face from fiscal integration? Which structural problems need to be overcome to deepen it? Building on insights from the literature on European integration, fiscal sociology and political economy, this article shows how the heterogeneity of European tax states sets high stakes for the legitimacy of further fiscal integration. It analyses the debate on a ‘fiscal union’, which shows a yawning gap here. The article concludes that fragmentation and ‘constitutionalization’ as well as the conflicts of interest and power around fiscal issues deem the democratizing impact of further integration unlikely, though not impossible.     

‘Sexurity’ and its effects in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Newly recognised as a threat to global peace and security, sexual violence in conflict is now a fixed item on international security agendas. This marks significant progress for women, gender equality and the integrity of peace programmes. Our aim here, however, is to reflect upon the risks that inhere in this accomplishment. Through the concept of ‘sexurity’, a tripartite amalgam of the securitisation of sexual violence, the sexualisation of security, and the language of crisis, we outline the adverse effects of tethering sexual violence to security. This article concerns itself with the material and symbolic effects of ‘sexurity’ for eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It first outlines ‘sexurity’ and the context of its emergence before, drawing on fieldwork in eastern DRC, the second part underlines the effects of ‘sexurity’ for the country.     

Nazism,Legal Positivism and Radbruch's Thesis on Statutory Injustice

The small article “Statutory Injustice and Suprastatutory Law” published in 1946 by Gustav Radbruch is one of the most important texts in 20th century legal philosophy. Until recently, its importance was said to stem from its renewal of ‘natural law’ and from its ‘formula’, according to which the value of justice should override that of legal certainty in extreme cases. In this contribution, a close examination will show that Radbruch's text is less univocal than often suggested. I argue that Radbruch deals here with the acute problems of apparent criminal legality during the Nazi-era rather than with problems of validity. In order to make this clear, I first briefly sketch Radbruch's personal history and the context into which the article fits. Secondly, I analyze the text itself and focus on how to understand the well-known grudge informer case. Finally, I pay some attention to the renewed topical interest of Radbruch's formula, owing to the fact that it was used in the trials against former-GDR soldiers who shot fugitives at the Berlin Wall,and their superiors. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Women students in the former GDR‐a research note

Drawing on longitudinal statistics on admissions, graduation, subject choices and studies in eastern European countries, the paper brings together further evidence about the unequal opportunities of women in higher education in the former GDR.     

VAT Revenues in the Russian Federation: The Role of Tax Administration in Their Decline

Value added taxes (VATs) are important major revenue sources worldwide, yet keeping these taxes as easy to administer as possible is often overlooked. A poorly administered VAT raises less revenue than possible and can change the very nature of the tax, resulting in unintended economic distortions. This article analyzes the experience with the VAT in the Russian Federation and provides evidence that poor tax administration both contributed to the decline of VAT revenues beginning in 1993 and continues to hamper VAT revenue collection today. Administrative issues must not be ignored when implementing a consumption-based tax like the VAT.     

Sexual Desire and the Importance of Marriage in Kant's Philosophy of Law

In his moral writings, Kant states that moral duty cannot be derived from “the special characteristics of human nature.” This statement is untenable if one takes seriously Kant's moral views on sexual desire. Instead close study reveals that considerations based on both morality and nature play a role here. The combination of these two elements leads to inconsistencies and difficulties in Kant's understanding of sexual desire, but they enable us to better understand the importance Kant attributes to marriage within his philosophy of law.