Sound Housing Research Articles

Measures of association of some air pollutants, natural ionizing radiation and cigarette smoking with mortality rates

Two methods are employed to estimate the association of hydrocarbons, sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, natural ionizing radiation, and cigarette smoking with some age stratified and disease specific United States mortality rates for white males. The first method is based on a ridge regression technique and the second on a sign constrained least squares analysis. The measure of association between these environmental factors and mortality are quantified as elasticities; i.e., the indicated percentage change in the average mortality rate corresponding to a 1 % change in the average level of the environmental factor. Elasticities are estimated for age specific and disease specific mortality rates, and these values are then aggregated and compared to estimates corresponding to total mortality rates. Overall, consistent results are obtained using the above methods for sulfur compounds and cigarette smoking. Many of these results differ considerably from corresponding results obtained from the ordinary least squares regression analysis, highlighting the need for applying the appropriate estimation methods. In addition to the variables already specified, these analyses take into consideration the following groups of explanatory variables: • Climate — Precipitation, January temperature, July temperature, humidity, and solar radiation. • Socioeconomic — Age, education, sound housing, population per household, population density, % non-white, % white-collar, income, and city size.

Path analysis of socioeconomic correlates of county infant mortality rates.

Relationships between selected socioeconomic characteristics of counties and infant mortality rates are examined. There are two research objectives: to determine the extent to which low family income, low education, sound housing, and the percentage of blacks "directly" and "jointly" relate to neonatal and postneonatal mortality rates; and to determine the degree to which a zero-order correlation between a given socioeconomic measure and general infant mortality is transmitted by neonatal and postneonatal mortality rates, respectively. Data corresponding to 2237 counties in the United States are analyzed by path analysis. Results show that the percentage of blacks and low education are two variables which have appreciable direct effects on both components of infant mortality. These two factors are also responsible in large measure for gross associations between low family income, sound housing, and rates of infant loss. On the basis of this study it is estimated that approximately two-thirds of the zero-order correlation between a given county measure of socioeconomic status and infant mortality occurs through the postneonatal component. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Constraints on the Uptake of Improvement Grants

The Housing Act, 1969, introduced more generous financial assistance for people wishing to improve and modernise ‘sound older houses’. The standard grant now covers half the cost of improvement up to a normal maximum of £200. Discretionary grants aiming at a more generous level of improvement or the conversion of houses of unsatisfactory size into, say, flats, were increased to maxima of £1000 for improvement and £1200 for conversion. Additional finance, whilst important in explaining the recent increase in the numbers of both types of grant is, however, only one of the relevant factors to be considered when looking at the possibilities of yet further and needed increases in the rate of improvement. Increases in finance presuppose both a knowledge of possibilities and an incentive to realise them on the part of the householder, as well as an assumption of a capacity or at least an elasticity in the supply of other relevant factors of production. The purpose of this article is to identify and examine those factors which may act as constraints upon the speed with which improvement policies can be implemented, and therefore we look at both the demand and the supply side.