High Costs and Segregation in Subsidized Housing Policy

This article examines the public policies determining the distribution of subsidized housing in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, the resulting distribution of subsidized housing, and the comparative costs associated with building in the region's central cities or in suburbs. The analysis concludes that current policies are clearly not meeting the region's responsibility to affirmatively further fair housing. The metropolitan area abandoned its role as a national leader in this area decades ago. The result is an affordable housing system that concentrates subsidized housing in the region's poorest and most segregated neighborhoods. This increases the concentration of poverty in the two central cities, in the region's most racially diverse neighborhoods, and in the attendance areas of predominantly nonwhite schools. In the long run, this hurts the regional economy and exacerbates the racial gaps in income, employment, and student performance that plague the Twin Cities.     

Iron Houses in the Tropical Heat: Decentralization Reforms in Africa and their Consequences

Abstract

Decentralization reforms introduced to Africa have not always delivered the intended outcomes. Through interaction with the broader historical, political, social and economic context, reforms seem to have engendered political consequences beyond decentralization itself. Most of the literature on decentralization and development emphasizes questions of institutional design and policy, but here we expand the focus of analysis and incorporate the harder-to-pin-down political patterns marking the workings of decentralization in Africa. Through the case-studies of Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ethiopia and Uganda we seek to connect the debates on development with the scholarly literatures on comparative federalism, comparative decentralization and local democracy. The conclusion that emerges is that no magic formula which can turn countries into peaceful, stable and prosperous democracies overnight exists. And, importing formal institutions without regard to the local historical, political, social and economic context risks leaving us with elegant but dysfunctional iron houses in the tropical heat.     

Mandatory Versus Incentive-Based State Zoning Reform Policiesfor Affordable Housing in the United States:A Comparative Assessment

To break the chain of exclusionary zoning and produce affordable housing, mandatory state zoning reform policies have been in place for a couple decades in the United States. Their success is often constrained by local resistance and noncompliance. Some scholars argue that the lack of incentives to communities for affordable housing production is one of the main reasons for their resistance to state mandates. At present, no incentive-based state zoning reform policy is at work except in Massachusetts. Inclusionary zoning policies do offer incentives to developers but not to communities. This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of mandatory state policies and Massachusetts's incentive-based policy and offers policy insights for the future.     

Psychopathic personality traits,intelligence, and economic success

A wealth of research has revealed that psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits are associated with criminal involvement. Comparatively less research, however, has examined whether psychopathic personality traits influence economic outcomes in adulthood. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results of the analyses indicate that psychopathic personality traits are negatively related to a number of economic outcomes, including household income and employment history measures. Individuals with high levels of psychopathic personality traits were found to have lower household incomes and to be fired more frequently than individuals with lower levels of psychopathic personality traits. Unexpectedly, psychopathic personality traits were also found to be negatively associated with household debt. There was also some evidence that the effect of psychopathic personality traits was moderated by intelligence in the prediction of household income. We discuss what these findings mean for the psychopathy and economics literatures.     

论WTO中的发展权

发展权是作为个体的人和作为人的集体的国家和民族自由地参与和增进经济、社会、文化和政治的全面发展并享受发展利益的一种资格或权能,是全体人类对全面发展的本质要求。发展权已超越国际人权法的特定范围,成为指导包括WTO在内的国际关系各领域的一般国际法原则。WTO规则的实体规范和程序规范均包含了有利于发展中国家和人民发展权实现的因素,但其在整体上有利于发达国家而不是发展中国家。将发展权这种综合性的人权纳入WTO,可以在整体上矫正GATT/WTO运行以来所奉行的传统发展理论对人权的漠视和侵害,并按照人权的要求对WTO进行民主化改革,强化WTO以人为本的精神,以人权的规尺推进全球公平正义的实现,而不是将其作为已有特殊和差别待遇的辅助措施。     

情报导防在经济犯罪侦查中的应用研究

为适应经济犯罪总量不断攀升、体系化、组织化等特点日趋明显的经济犯罪形势,实现对经济犯罪的有效防控和准确预警,不仅需要持之以恒地对经济犯罪进行打击,更需要防患于未然,建立由情报主导犯罪防控的经济犯罪侦查工作新机制。具体到运行流程中,在情报信息收集上报中需实现“专群”联动,针对需要的情报信息类型,拓展情报收集的来源;在分析研判中要实现“动静”兼顾,既分析个案特点和地区经济犯罪形势,又做好专项内容分析;在结果转化中要坚持“内外”结合,为政府部门、企事业单位和社会成员提供服务。     

Increasing access to rural maternal health services in Zambia through demand-side interventions

This paper examines a demand-side intervention that significantly increased access to maternal health services in rural Zambia in a context where skilled birth attendance rates had been stagnant for over two decades. Aspects of the intervention design that were crucial to the programme's success were the participatory and adult learning-centred approach used to mobilise intervention communities, the use of a community volunteer model, and the design's sensitivity and responsiveness to underlying social factors and problems. The demand-side intervention is already being scaled up in six districts, and is highly suitable for national level scale-up.     

Farmer-to-farmer extension: opportunities for enhancing performance of volunteer farmer trainers in Kenya

Farmer-to-farmer extension (FFE) is playing a complementary role to formal extension services in facilitating the spread of agricultural technologies and improving farmers’ capacities. The effectiveness and sustainability of such programmes depend on volunteer farmer trainers (VFTs) having technical skills and overcoming process-related challenges that hinder them from achieving the desired outcomes. This article uses quantitative and qualitative data collected from seven sites to explore the challenges experienced by VFTs as they share their knowledge on livestock feed innovations in a dairy development project in Kenya. Sustainable opportunities for enhancing VFTs’ performance are discussed.     

Rural development from the ground up: agro-food initiatives in Tasmania

Concerns about the decline of rural agricultural communities have recently refocused on new economic opportunities available in regional food production. This article analyses three on-the-ground case studies of rural development projects in Tasmania, Australia that aimed to develop new regional food opportunities. It analyses these projects to identify how local food producers can create viable economic alternatives in rural settings. The projects illustrate that the existence of regional food assets alone is not enough to guarantee economic development success: rural producers need connections into relevant knowledge networks if they are to identify and respond to new agro-food market opportunities.