Areas Of High Unemployment Research Articles

Strategies for Improving Economic Mobility of Workers: Bridging Research and Practice. Edited by Maude Toussaint-Comeau and Bruce D. Meyer. Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2009. Pp. 227. $40.00 (cloth); $20.00 (paper).

<i>Strategies for Improving Economic Mobility of Workers: Bridging Research and Practice</i>. Edited by Maude Toussaint-Comeau and Bruce D. Meyer. Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2009. Pp. 227. $40.00 (cloth); $20.00 (paper).

In a Lonely Place? Social Networks, Job Seeking and the Experience of Long-Term Unemployment

Combating long-term unemployment remains a central strand of policies to promote social and labour market inclusion. One area of increasing concern is that the long-term unemployed (and especially those residing in disadvantaged communities) can find themselves isolated from the diverse social networks that can contribute to effective job seeking. This article draws on interviews conducted with 220 job seekers in two areas of high unemployment within the city of Glasgow to investigate: whether long-term unemployed people in these areas struggle to access social networks for job search; and the extent to which long-term unemployment is in itself associated with a more general erosion of social/community relations and a withdrawal from what has been termed the ‘tertiary sphere of sociability’. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential role for social policy in seeking to help the long-term unemployed and other job seekers to develop and broaden social networks and activities.

Food Stamp Participation Among Adult-Only Households

Several recent changes in the Food Stamp Program have been directed toward households without children. Some, including new work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs), were intended to promote self-sufficiency, while others, including easier application and recertification procedures, were intended to increase participation among underserved groups, such as the disabled and the elderly. Despite their relevance to policymakers, adult-only households have been examined by only a few studies. We use administrative records from South Carolina and event-history methods to investigate how spells of food stamp participation for adult-only households vary with ABAWD provisions, recertification intervals, economic conditions and other characteristics. We find that households that were subject to ABAWD policies had shorter spells and lower rates of food stamp participation than other households. We also find that households were much more likely to leave the Food Stamp Program at recertification dates than at other dates. Compared to married households, exit rates were lower for households in high unemployment areas, for female- and black-headed households, for individuals with less education, and for never-married households. We further find that the time limit was associated with exits with and without earnings, suggesting that this policy increased self-sufficiency for some households but left others without support.

Evidence on Unemployment, Market Work and Household Production

Time-diary data from four countries suggest that differences in market time between the unemployed and employed represent additional leisure and personal maintenance rather than increased household production. U.S. data for 2003-2006 show that almost none of the reduction in market work in areas of long-term high unemployment is offset by additional work at home. In contrast, in those areas where unemployment has risen cyclically, reduced market work is largely substituted by additional time in household production.

Unemployment, Market Work and Household Production

Using time-diary data from four countries we show that the unemployed spend most of the time not working for pay in additional leisure and personal maintenance, not in increased household production. There is no relation between unemployment duration and the split of time between household production and leisure. U.S. data for 2003-2006 show that almost none of the lower amount of market work in areas of long-term high unemployment is offset by additional household production. In contrast, in those areas where unemployment has risen cyclically reduced market work is made up almost entirely by additional time spent in household production.

Specjalne strefy ekonomiczne jako stymulator przedsiębiorczości

One of the ways to stimulate the social and economic development is the stimulation of entrepreneurship by the creation of appropriate conditions for the activity of the enterprises.There are good reason why sometimes entrepreneurship is called the fourth factor of production,alongside with the labor, land and capital. Creation the special economic zones (SEZs) in theweakly developed or affected by problem of high unemployment areas is one of the solutionsthat facilitate doing a business. SEZs were created not only to attract the investments fromoutside, but also to stimulate the local entrepreneurship.This study should clarify the influence of SEZs on the entrepreneurship development.According to the presumptions the lands belonging to the special economic zones have bettereconomic indicators than adjacent areas. The analysis can answer the question: What is theinfluence of tax reliefs and other preferences used in the SEZs on the entrepreneurship development?

In Harm's Way? Payday Loan Access and Military Personnel Performance

Does borrowing at 400 percent APR do more harm than good? The Pentagon asserts that payday loans harm military readiness and successfully lobbied for a binding 36 percent APR cap on loans to military members and their families (effective October 1, 2007). But existing evidence on how access to high-interest debt affects borrower behavior is inconclusive. We use within-state variation in state lending laws and exogenous variation in the assignment of Air Force personnel to bases in different states to estimate the effect of payday loan access on personnel outcomes. We find significant average declines in overall job performance and retention and significant increases in severely poor readiness. These results provide some ammunition for the private optimality of the Pentagon's position. The welfare implications for military members are less clear-cut, but our results are consistent with the interpretation that payday loan access causes financial distress and severe misbehavior for relatively young, inexperienced, and financially unsophisticated airmen. Overall job performance declines are also concentrated in these groups, and several pieces of evidence suggest that these declines are welfare-reducing (and not the result of airmen optimally reducing effort given an expanded opportunity set); e.g., performance declines are larger in high unemployment areas with payday lending.

THE COMMERCE CLAUSE AS A CONSTRAINT ON WASTEFUL BUSINESS INCENTIVES: ROADBLOCK OR BUMP IN THE ROAD IN THE ‘RACE TO THE BOTTOM?’

ABSTRACTState and local economic development efforts have grown during the last three decades in the United States. Some public incentives for companies may be effective, including those for high unemployment areas; others may be wasteful, especially if they retain corporations that merely threaten to leave. As companies increasingly expect incentives, however, governments find themselves in a ‘race to the bottom’– the only way to remain competitive is to offer more. Having identified arguments for and against incentives, this paper considers the prospects for addressing wasteful competition, including, in the absence of Congressional action, the US Supreme Court's application of the Commerce Clause to strike down incentives that discriminate against interstate commerce. A review of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of incentives for the DaimlerChrysler Toledo Jeep plant finds that the Commerce Clause is not a solution for wasteful competition. Another model to consider is the European Union's regulation of incentives.

From Kreuzberg to Marzahn: New Migrant Communities in Berlin

Ethnic enclaves in West Berlin and now, East Berlin are located in denigrated areas of high unemployment, poverty, and devalued or high-rise public housing, but they are also places where immigrants are slowly integrating into the larger city and German society. Despite different national origins and different conditions and periods in which they arrived, socially excluded Vietnamese, Russian, and other migrants to East Berlin are following local incorporation paths surprisingly similar to those of the Turks in West Berlin. In both Kreuzberg and Marzahn, the rise of multicultural forms and events, economic niches, and ethnic associations make local life attractive and ultimately, contribute to immigrant incorporation and neighborhood revitalization.

Wage Spillovers, Inter-regional Effects and the Impact of Inward Investment

This paper evaluates the extent of inter-industry and inter-regional wage spillovers across the UK. An extensive body of literature exists suggesting that wages elsewhere affect wage determination and levels of satisfaction, but this paper extends the analysis of wage determination to examine the effects of inward investment in the process. Thus far the specific effect of foreign wages on domestic wage determination has not been evaluated. We employ industry- and regional-level panel data for the UK, and contrast results from alternative approaches to space-time modelling. Each supports the notion that such wage spillovers do occur, though assumptions made concerning the modelling of spatial interaction are important. Further, such wage spillovers are more widespread for skilled than for unskilled workers and also lower in areas of high unemployment.

Community unemployment and immigrants’ health in Montreal

This research examines the relationship between community unemployment and the physical and mental health of immigrants in comparison to non-immigrants in Montreal under the hypothesis that high unemployment in the community may generate more negative effects on the health of immigrants than on non-immigrants. Possible gender differences in these associations are also examined. Montreal residents were studied via multilevel analysis, using both individual survey data and neighbourhood data from 49 police districts. Individual-level data were excerpted from a 1998 health survey of Montreal residents, while neighbourhood data originated from survey data collected in the 49 Montreal police districts and the 1996 Canadian Census. The associations between community unemployment and self-rated health, psychological distress and obesity are examined, and hypotheses regarding the modifying mechanisms via which male and female immigrants may run a greater risk of poor health than non-immigrants when living in areas of high unemployment were tested. Between neighbourhoods, variations in the three health outcomes were slight, and differences in health were not associated with differences in community unemployment. The associations between community unemployment and health varied according to immigration status. At the individual level, immigrants do not differ from non-immigrants with respect to the three health indicators, except that second-generation males are slightly heavier. However, when living in areas of high unemployment, immigrants tend to report poor physical and mental health in comparison to non-immigrants. Among first-generation immigrants, community unemployment was associated with psychological distress. Among second-generation immigrants, the probability of obesity and poor self-rated health increased significantly for those living in areas with high unemployment, but these associations reached statistical significance only for men. Findings among first-generation immigrants are interpreted with respect to the effects of possible discrimination in areas with low job availability. Among second-generation men, poor physical health and obesity may be the result of poor health habits stemming from perceived lack of life opportunities.

The association between suicide and the socio-economic characteristics of geographical areas: a systematic review

Despite an extensive literature, there have been widely divergent findings regarding the direction of the association between area socio-economic characteristics and area suicide rates, with high-quality studies finding either a direct relation (higher rates of suicide in higher socio-economic areas), an inverse relation (lower rates of suicide in higher socio-economic areas) or no association. We performed a systematic review of the literature dating from 1897 to 2004 and identified 86 publications with 221 separate analyses that met our inclusion criteria. We examined the percent of direct, inverse and null findings stratified by key study characteristics including size of aggregated area, socio-economic measure used, region of study, control variables and study design. Analyses at the community level are significantly more likely to demonstrate lower rates of suicide among higher socio-economic areas than studies using larger areas of aggregation. Measures of area poverty and deprivation are most likely to be inversely associated with suicide rates and median income is least likely to be inversely associated with suicide rates. Analyses using measures of unemployment and education and occupation were equally likely to demonstrate inverse associations. Study results did not vary significantly by gender or by study design. The heterogeneity of associations is mostly accounted for by study design features that have largely been neglected in this literature. Enhanced attention to size of region and measurement strategies provide a clearer picture of how suicide rates vary by region. Resources for suicide prevention should be targeted to high poverty/deprivation and high unemployment areas.

Suburbanisation, Employment Change, and Commuting in the Tallinn Metropolitan Area

The author's aim is to analyse the role of suburbanisation and employment change in commuting in the Tallinn metropolitan area, Estonia. The author analyses changes in commuting compared with the late Soviet period, and clarifies the compositional differences between commuters and noncommuters. Data analysis is based on anonymous, individual, 2000 Census records, and bivariate and multivariate methods are employed. The major conclusions are that the commuting field of Tallinn enlarged and the intensity of commuting from the suburbs to Tallinn increased in the 1990s. Commuters differ from noncommuters both in Tallinn and in the suburbs in regard to most of the social, demographic, and housing variables studied. People who suburbanised in the 1990s were more likely to be commuters than were people who already lived in the suburbs at the end of the Soviet period; high-unemployment areas did not send more commuters to Tallinn than did low-unemployment areas.

The “Employment‐first” Welfare State: Lessons from the New Deal for Young People

Abstract New Labour is constructing an “employment‐first” welfare state. It plans through Jobcentre Plus to transform the passive culture of the benefit system by creating more explicit links between individual behaviour and engagement with labour market programmes. The New Deal for Young People (NDYP) has been at the forefront of these changes. This paper reports on the findings from four case studies that explored how the NDYP has changed young people's experience of the welfare state. It establishes that NDYP offers a mixture of employment assistance and “pressure” and has made progress in developing front‐line services and helping young long‐term unemployed people into work. NDYP does not, however, work for all. In areas of high unemployment and for some disadvantaged groups intermediate labour markets could enhance the New Deal and make real the offer of “employment opportunities for all”.

The impact of local unemployment rates on reservation wages and the duration of search for a job.

Evidence about the relationship of local unemployment rates and individuals' reservation wages and duration of search for a job if unemployed is sparse and mixed. This study uses US data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to test whether relatively high local unemployment rates reduce the reservation wages of area residents or increase the duration of search. Labour search theory provides the grounding for the sample selection corrected simultaneous equations econometric model. In neither OLS nor 2SLS results is evidence found that local unemployment rates affect either reservation wages or the duration of search. These results suggest that policies targeted at alleviating unemployment should focus on increasing the demand for labour rather than hope that such policies will be beneficial if pursued in high-unemployment areas because of their effects on labour force characteristics.

Employment

Employment

Local Development Companies and the Regeneration of Britain's Cities

Efforts to decentralise the pursuit of economic and social development have increased in recent years. The authors examine the rationale for establishing local development companies in areas of high unemployment and deprivation. The broad purpose is to establish a new style of organisation that combines attributes of the public and private sectors-to adapt and integrate economic and social services to meet local needs, to champion local interests in external arenas, and to act as enabling agents to promote local investment and development. These arguments are elaborated and illustrated with reference to one of Britain's most successful local development companies, Govan Initiative. The analysis reveals important strengths of the Initiative, including its action orientation, commitment to quality, and a local leadership role, but also certain weaknesses including its limited leverage over wider policies and resource flows. Local development companies need meaningful commitment from regional and national public organisations to fulfil their potential.

Early Childhood Education and Care in England

England has universal health care, job-protected and paid parental leave, child allowances, and universal preschool for 4-year-olds. Reform initiatives aim to decrease child poverty, increase opportunity, address social exclusion, and improve health. As a living laboratory for such reforms, England has much to teach U.S. IMAGINE a young mother in an economically depressed area in Midlands as she enters Pen Green Early Excellence Center for first time. The center is one of 100 that are being recognized by government as beacons of good practice in provision of health, education, and social services.1 The former head of center and current research director, Margy Whalley, describes how this mother and her infant could become involved: She might start to use baby clinic, which [is] run very informally with big cushions, sagbags, easy chairs, and toys for children. Volunteers [are] on hand to make coffee, health visitors [are available] to offer counseling and support; and digital scales [are] provided so that parents [can] weigh their own babies. She might then meet some other parents and decide to join an Open University study group during day; or she might work with pack on Living with Babies and Toddlers in evening. She might later want company and different kinds of play provision and join a parent and toddler session either run by nursery staff and community service volunteers or by nursery staff and parents. There, in comfortable, roomy surroundings, very young children get chance to explore with clay, sand, and paint more freely than would be possible at home. In this way, parents decide how they use center.2 As her child grows, center offers other services: a toy library run by parents, a parent-run home visiting scheme, groups for divorced fathers, immunizations and checkups for adults and children, a day care for children under three, and a nursery for children between 3 and 5 years of age. In this area of high unemployment, where many parents did not experience school success, fully 85% of mothers and up to 60% of fathers have participated in child study groups. Working with other parents and staff members, they analyze daily logs and video clips (with camcorders borrowed from center) to understand and support their children's learning. Once child enters primary school, she might attend after-school and homework club that comes to life when day ends at local primary schools and school-age children pour into center, some lugging tubas and trumpets for band practice. She might see senior citizens in computer lab, learning how to use e-mail. Her mother could take a crafts class or classes in adult basic education, or she could pursue a university degree on site. The list goes on. Pen Green is a work in progress, animated by long-standing efforts to work with rather than for parents and to base services on what people need and want. The staff members have adopted a public statement that links up close and personal with broader social goals: What a good and wise parent desires for his or her own children, a nation must desire for all its children.3 Pen Green is an example of coordinated service delivery tailored to needs of local communities. Yet Early Excellence Centers Pilot Program is but one facet of a new, broad-based social agenda. Public funds are being used to support a number of initiatives aimed at improving children's life chances, encouraging employment, and combating social exclusion. Since 1997, England has been engaged in reform of the early years. Until quite recently, however, English and American approaches to early childhood education and care (ECEC) were seen as more similar than different. In an earlier effort to make sense of cross-national differences, a team of researchers suggested four models of child-care policy, models they labeled Latin-European, Scandinavian, Socialist, and Anglo-Saxon. …

Locating the Altruistic Voter: Context, Egocentric Voting, and Support for the Conservative Party at the 1997 General Election in England and Wales

Egocentric economic voting models are widely used in studies of voting behaviour in Great Britain: they suggest that people whose standard of living has risen recently as a perceived consequence of government policies are more likely to vote for the government's return to office than are those who blame government policies for a decline in their living standards. But many people whose living standards have increased vote against the government. Analyses reported here, using specially constructed bespoke neighbourhoods around the homes of respondents to the 1997 British Election Study, show that the latter group mainly live in areas of high local unemployment. This suggests a pattern of altruistic voting, of people who are prospering personally, but whose neighbours are not, voting against the incumbent government—a pattern confirmed by statistical analyses of both egocentric and sociotropic voting.

Examining 1991 travel-to-work patterns in the Belfast Urban Area as a context for urban employment policy

This paper looks at the locations and occupations of jobs taken by residents of socially deprived areas in Belfast using travel-to-work data from the 1991 Census of Population. It also examines the locations and occupations of jobs taken by residents of other parts of Belfast and Northern Ireland as part of the wider context. These data are used as a background for the discussion of the spatial targeting of jobs to areas of social deprivation and high unemployment. Although policies of this kind are increasingly important in Northern Ireland and in other parts of the UK, the analysis highlights two important problems. First, the well-known problem of ‘spatial leakage’ means that not all jobs located in deprived areas, particularly those in professional occupations, go to local residents. Secondly, residents of socially deprived areas have a greater representation in non-professional occupations in comparison with those who live in non-deprived locations. The implications of these findings are twofold. First, spatial units for labour market interventions might be more appropriately delimited to take account of observed travel-to-work flows. Secondly, to maximize job uptake by local residents of deprived areas, the jobs located there might be ‘appropriate’ in terms of existing occupational structures of the residents. However, this second recommendation might reinforce existing spatial and occupational divisions in the labour market since socially deprived areas could become, in a worst-case scenario, ‘sinks’ for low-grade employment. Because of this potential danger, supply-side education and training measures are also appropriate, as a supplement to job location policies, to enable residents of deprived locales to compete for a wider range of jobs wherever they are located.