统筹城乡发展下的我国户籍制度改革

近年来,全国各地要求户籍制度改革的呼声不断。虽然有些地方陆续进行了改革。但由于改革正处于试验阶段,户籍制度改革面临难题。其原因在于制度上的障碍、利益集团的博弈、资源上的匮乏、政策上的阻碍等。我国应当建立全国统一的户口登记管理制度,实现公民身份的真正平等;注意改革的力度和顺序,在人事、教育、医疗等制度上进行相应的改革;剥离现行户籍制度的社会福利和其它社会功能,促进户籍管理的法制化,建立城乡统筹、行政控制和市场推进相结合的体现平等和实现迁徙自由的户籍制度。     

FDI的技术溢出效应与异质劳动收入差距评析

FDI通过竞争示范、产业联系以及人力资本流动三种溢出机制对收入差距产生影响。外购（outsourcing）可能导致母国收入不平等的增加以及东道国收入差距的缩小的结论有待商榷。不同国家,不同时期内,FDI对收入变化的影响作用均有所差别。     

论家庭承包经营制度的“三个转变”

我国农村土地经营制度的改革历程,经历了三个根本性的转变:一是从"家庭联产承包责任制"到"家庭承包经营制度"的转变;二是从债权型的家庭承包经营到物权化的家庭承包经营的转变;三是土地经营从短期承包到长期使用的转变.这三个转变确立了农民在市场经济条件下实行家庭承包经营的主体地位,赋予了农民长期而有保障的土地使用权.     

培育居民消费能量 做大经济发展正力

消费对经济发展具有极其重要的作用。要发挥消费对经济发展的正力,需要积极培育居民的消费能量,这正是拉动内需、启动消费的关键所在。基于居民消费影响因素的实证检验,得出居民收入状况是居民消费能量得以释放最大的制约因素。只有增加居民收入,藏富于民,做好社会保障等工作,才能培育居民的消费能量,做大经济发展的正力。     

Subsidized housing and neighborhood racial transition: An empirical investigation

Abstract

Popular wisdom has it that the development of project‐based assisted housing will cause whites to flee or avoid the surrounding neighborhood, leading to rapid racial transition. This article examines the question of whether the development of several types of project‐based, federally assisted housing had an impact on neighborhood racial transition during the 1980s. In general, the development of assisted housing in a neighborhood did not lead to racial transition, nor did it approach levels suggesting “white flight” in the few instances where racial transition did occur.

The results of our analysis suggest that one of the major criticisms of project‐based assisted housing—that it contributes to racial segregation by causing white flight—is not supported by empirical evidence.     

Deciding how to use scarce federal housing aid funds

Abstract

This paper assesses the major forms of federal housing assistance and compares the relative value of each in meeting the housing needs of the nation's low‐ and moderate‐income households. Programs are first identified and described. A ranking system, based on nine criteria of desirability, is then developed and used to compare the programs. The evaluation system presented in this paper represents one method of determining how to allocate scarce federal housing assistance funds. The subjective nature of the evaluation process dictates that other criteria and weighting systems may be legitimately applied. However, to provide a clear decision‐making framework, any such system should clearly explain its assumptions and rationales.     

Homeownership counseling performance: How can it be measured?

Abstract

Homeownership counseling encompasses several educational activities. Early approaches focused on reducing the risk of default and foreclosure among participants in government‐assisted mortgage programs, but more recent approaches have focused on increasing homeownership opportunities among low‐income and minority households. Unfortunately, little is known about the effectiveness of these approaches in terms of the number of new homeowners and the mitigation of default risk. To address that gap, this article presents a theoretical and methodological framework to evaluate counseling efforts.

A successful counseling program is defined as one that assists a household with a low long‐term probability of ownership in buying a home and reducing its default risk. We concede that the methodological requirements for evaluating counseling are somewhat restrictive. However, if we establish an evaluation procedure using these goals as a framework, we can more accurately determine the effects of counseling on the sustainability of low‐income homeownership.     

Judges as agents of social change: Can the courts break the affordable housing deadlock in metropolitan areas?

Abstract

Nowhere is the chasm between the races more apparent than in the physical division of metropolitan areas between inner‐city poverty and suburban affluence. Thus far, public policy efforts to introduce metropolitan perspectives into local land use regulations have been unsuccessful. The series of New Jersey Mount Laurel decisions lays out a possible path for introducing comprehensive regional planning by deploying the constitutional power of state courts. Relying on the allied professions of economics and city planning, the New Jersey Supreme Court eliminated the legal barriers to affordable housing in the suburbs.

Questions have been raised over courts’ ability to reform local government powers, but many traditional objections to the effectiveness of judicial reform seem to have been overcome in the New Jersey litigations and legislations. State courts can play an indispensable role in solving regional land use problems if they secure the support of community leadership groups.     

Comment on Sandra J. Newman and Ann B. Schnare's “'… And a suitable living environment’: The failure of housing programs to deliver on neighborhood quality”

Abstract

Newman and Schnare provide a useful portrait of where housing assistance ends up geographically. The evidence that certificate and voucher holders are less likely than public housing residents to live in the poorest neighborhoods is encouraging, as well as important for policy decisions. Unresolved in the article, and unresolvable with the data, as the authors themselves note, is the matter of how neighborhood quality is affected by housing assistance. The least popular housing developments have long been relegated to neighborhoods of least political resistance, a fact that constrains most local efforts to deconcentrate poverty. Futhermore, through the tax code, America spends about three times as much on housing assistance for middle‐ and upper‐income households as it does on assistance to low‐ and moderate‐income households. Thus far, we have not applied “fair share” principles either to the location of housing assistance or to its allocation across the income spectrum.     

Housing vouchers versus housing production: Assessing long‐term costs

Abstract

Possibly the single largest debate in the field of affordable rental housing concerns the use of tenant‐based assistance versus project‐based assistance. The accepted wisdom is that project‐based assistance costs anywhere from 50 to 100 percent more than tenant‐based assistance. This premium for project‐based housing is based on a comparison of subsidy costs at the start of a project's life rather than on a comparison of the discounted present value of the costs over the long term.

The subsidy costs of samples of Section 8 new construction projects have been compared to those of Section 8 certificates over a long period of time. The results indicate that the cost premium associated with project‐based assistance may be lower than conventionally believed, around 40 percent, and may get even lower if the cost comparison could extend to longer time periods and could control for the quality of the housing units.