LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND POVERTY STATUS AMONG RURAL AND URBAN WOMEN WHO HEAD FAMILIES

This paper examines differentials in the propensity to be living in poverty among women who head families with minor children. Characteristics of mothers are examined for four subgroups: residents of central cities, suburbs, small towns, and rural areas. Using Public Use Microdata Sample data from the 1980 Census, results are presented using Multiple Classification Analysis. After controlling for the effects of mother's race, marital status, education, work status, and ages of her children, single mothers in central cities and smaIl towns have the highest rates of poverty (48% and 45% respectively), closely followed by those in rural areas (41%). Suburban single mothers are least likely to live in poverty (33%).
Results show that employment status is the strongest predictor of poverty, followed by education and marital status. A subanalysis of women who work full-time reveals major differences in earned income, with suburban women earning the highest incomes, followed by women living in central cities, then rural areas and, finally, small towns. A decomposition of this difference reveals that about two-thirds of the difference is due to pay scales, and only one-third due to the structure of occupational opportunity.     

Introduction to dalit poems

Abstract

The word dalit in Marathi, the language spoken by 50 million people in the state of Maharashtra in Western India, means “downtrodden,” “ground down,” or “depressed.” A caste-less word which ex-Untouchables have chosen for the new school of literature they have created, it includes all those who have suffered from the religio-social system. Short stories by ex-Untouchables began to appear in the 1950s, but the great swelling of creativity — poetry, novels, short stories, plays — appeared only in the late 1960s. The school is acknowledged by the Marathi literary establishment as a new and important development in the long history of Marathi literature. It represents a new voice, and its themes are protest, grievance, pride — and often revolution.     

An experimental evaluation of a nationally recognized employment-focused offender reentry program

Objectives

The need for re-entry assistance is widely acknowledged, but specifics about what services actually lead to reduced recidivism are hard to find—at least among rigorous studies. This is a critical issue: at a time when there appears to be unprecedented support for expanding rehabilitative programs for offenders, there is a dearth of rigorously vetted program options from which to choose.

Methods

Collaborating with a nationally known employment-focused reentry program in Southern California, the authors compared employment, housing, and recidivism outcomes of reentering offenders (n?=?217) who were either randomized into the program or simply provided with a list of community resources. This approach was possible because the number of applicants at the time exceeded program capacity. Outcomes were based on self-report interviews conducted 1-year post-randomization and arrest records reflecting a 2-year follow-up period. The follow-up rate for interviews was 87 %.

Results

No significant differences were found for any of the between-group comparisons on any of the major intervention outcomes.

Conclusions

Findings from the study suggest a greater need to apply randomized designs to more carefully evaluate current reentry efforts. Methodological challenges of field experiments are also discussed.     

Comparative effectiveness research under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: can new bottles accommodate old wine?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, initiated comprehensive health reform for the healthcare sector of the United States. PPACA includes strategies to make the American healthcare sector more efficient and effective. PPACA's comparative effectiveness research initiative and the establishment of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute are major strategies in this regard. PPACA's comparative effectiveness research initiative is one in a long line of federal initiatives to address the rising costs of healthcare as well as to obtain better value for healthcare expenditures. The key question is whether the governance and design features of the institute that will oversee the initiative will enable it to succeed where other federal efforts have faltered. This Article analyzes the federal government's quest to ensure value for money expended in publically funded healthcare programs and the health sector generally. This Article will also analyze what factors contribute to the possible success or failure of the comparative effectiveness research initiative. Success can be defined as the use of the findings of comparative effectiveness to make medical practice less costly, more efficient and effective, and ultimately, to bend the cost curve.     

Woman pullers: pimping and sex trafficking in a Mexican Border City

Much has been written about sex trafficking in the past decade, although empirical studies have remained few. Even less research has been done on those who make a living by facilitating the movement of women and children in the sex industry. This paper is based on a three-year study in Tijuana, Mexico, in which 92 sex trade facilitators were interviewed. Findings suggest a far more complex social process than portrayed by the anti-trafficking literature. Men and women of diverse backgrounds developed niches in Tijuana’s sex industry, by bringing women into contact with customers. This business appeared to be dominated by Mexican entrepreneurs, with no evidence of any systematic collaborations with either local criminal organizations or foreign traffickers. There appeared to be no shortage of women willing to work in the sex industry, suggesting limited prospect for coerced prostitution. Still, a small number of pimps reported using “persuasion” to recruit women of particular types from interior Mexico. Commissions or referral fees were the most common form of income received by pimps for their services, and the rules on how money was to be made and split between sex workers and venue owners appeared well established. While a few respondents could sustain a livelihood through pimping, the majority held other jobs.     

Rational fantasies

This is a case study of how (and why) the National Institute of Education used program evaluation and systematic planning, both orchestrated by guidelines and rules, for managing the implementation of one broad-aim educational innovation. The story has two main themes. The minor theme concerns uncertainty—about the goals of the innovation, how to develop them, and, indeed, NIE's survival. The major theme concerns NIE's attempt to use rational management strategies—evaluation and long-range planning—to reduce the uncertainties. It was hoped that guidelines would shape the developers' evaluation and planning efforts to produce information which would satisfy a variety of audiences—NIE top managers, Congress, oversight bureaus, the academic community. The case study will show that this use of rationality and control to direct the innovation's implementation produced a number of problems. These included invalid information, unsurfaced conflict, information which the development agencies could not share with NIE, and an unrealistic notion at NIE about what was happening in the field. Rather than producing more accurate information for managerial decision-making, then, the guidelines produced information that was far from the truth. This in turn made the development and implementation of the innovation more confused, and rather than reducing uncertainty, increased it all around.