The impact of parental homeownership on children's outcomes during early adulthood

Abstract

Whether children benefit from being raised in a home owned by their parents has important policy implications and has been the topic of much scholarly debate. We match Panel Study of Income Dynamics data with census tract data to examine the impact of childhood experiences on adult outcomes for children followed over three decades. This allows us to document a wide range of characteristics.

For children born between 1968 and 1974, we analyze data on their first 18 years and also various outcomes when they are between 25 and 31 in 1999. We control for a comprehensive set of observable parental characteristics and develop a method to control for unobservable child characteristics together with an instrumental variable for the remaining selection problems. Parental homeownership status and children's college education and home‐ownership status are closely related, although the former is generated partially by the greater residential stability associated with homeownership.     

Do Juries Meet Our Expectations?

Surveys of public opinion indicate that people have high expectations for juries. When it comes to serious crimes, most people want errors of convicting the innocent (false positives) or acquitting the guilty (false negatives) to fall well below 10%. Using expected utility theory, Bayes' Theorem, signal detection theory, and empirical evidence from detection studies of medical decision making, eyewitness testimony, and weather forecasting, we argue that the frequency of mistakes probably far exceeds these tolerable levels. We are not arguing against the use of juries. Rather, we point out that a closer look at jury decisions reveals a serious gap between what we expect from juries and what probably occurs. When deciding issues of guilt and/or punishing convicted criminals, we as a society should recognize and acknowledge the abundance of error.     

Organizational meanings of program evaluation

Program evaluation has to be understood as an organizational phenomenon: it is a way of understanding and evaluating action in and between organizations. But it rests on assumptions about organization which need to be challenged, and which have to be understood as a particular framing of organizational activity which will facilitate hierarchical control. Attention needs to be given to the way in which ‘evaluation’ are used to structure organizational activity. This raises significant questions about the relationship between the analysis of organizational activity and the activity itself. ‘Colonel Cargill envies you because of the splendid job you're doing on parades. He's afraid I was going to put you in charge of bomb patterns.’ Colonel Scheisskopf was all ears. ‘What are bomb patterns?’ ‘Bomb patterns?,’ General Peckem repeated, twinkling with self-satisfied good humor. ‘A bomb pattern is a term I dreamed up several weeks ago. It means nothing, but you'd be surprised at how rapidly it's caught on.’ Joseph Heller,Catch 22     

Crime,Irregular Warfare,and Institutional Failure in Latin America: Guatemala as a Case Study

This article examines the current crisis in Guatemala as a case study in the phenomenon of “criminal insurgency” in Latin America. Since the close of Guatemala's civil war in 1996, crime—especially violent crime—has increased dramatically, to the point that drug traffickers, organized crime syndicates, and youth gangs are effectively waging a form of irregular warfare against the state. The police, the judiciary, and entire local and departmental governments are rife with criminal infiltrators; murder statistics have surpassed civil-war levels in recent years; criminal operatives assassinate government officials and troublesome members of the political class; and chunks of territory are now effectively under the control of criminal groups. All this has led to growing civic disillusion and eroded the authority and legitimacy of the government. Rampant crime is causing a crisis of the democratic state.     

Specific Purpose Programs in Human Services and Health: Moving from an Input to an Output and Outcome Focus

The content and control mechanisms of specific purpose programs are regularly under review, currently through processes associated with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), with most proposals for reform in this area arguing for a shift to a focus on outputs or outcomes. This article reviews the place and role of specific purpose programs in the human services and health field, and identifies four issues which need to be addressed as part of any refocus onto outputs and outcomes. The four issues are: specification of objectives; measurement of outputs and/or outcomes; mechanisms for ensuring accountability to consumers; and systems of sanctions and rewards.     

Leaving home

His most recent research and writing concern the earth’s population and agricultural carrying capacity and the pressures behind the rising number of refugees in the world. He has published on topics ranging from international trade and debt to fisheries, tobacco, energy, and infant mortality, among many others, and he is a principal author of the annual Vital Signs: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future,author of Time for Change: A New Approach to Environment and Development,and coauthor with Lester Brown of Full House: Reassessing the Earth’s Population Carrying Capacity.