Uneven Capacity and Delivery of Human Services in the Chicago Suburbs: The Role of Townships and Municipalities

Examines the social services suburban townships and municipalities deliver, their ability to expand their role to meet rising demand during the economic crisis, and the need to strengthen the nonprofit infrastructure. Urges collaboration and coordination

Race, Place, and Information Technology

What role does environment play in influencing information technology access and skills – over and above individual characteristics such as income, education, race, and ethnicity? One of the puzzles that emerged from our recent research on the “digital divide” was that African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, Latinos, had more positive attitudes toward information technology than similarly-situated whites. And yet, African-Americans and Latinos are less likely to have information technology access and skills, even when controlling for other factors such as income and education (Mossberger, Tolbert and Stansbury 2003). The research presented in this paper takes a first step toward explaining this paradox by unraveling the impact of place

A New Measure of Digital Economic Activity and its Impact on Local Opportunity

Online businesses and platform work can create the impression that the digital economy is ephemeral and placeless. But the digital economy is experienced locally, and its effects are spatial. Measuring them requires better community-level data on economic activities online. While new government data measures broadband subscriptions down to neighborhoods, existing public data do not measure how broadband is used in local communities, and whether this digital activity affects economic outcomes. We analyze new monthly data on over 20 million domain name hosts/websites in the United States from November 2018 to November 2020 drawing on customer data. Surveys show that 3 out of 4 of these domains are commercial, including microbusinesses as well as websites for both online and brick-and-mortar establishments. How is the density of domain name hosts in a community (the number in a zip code or county divided by the population) related to local economic opportunity, controlling for other known factors? Using statistical matching and time series data, results show the density of domain name hosts positively predicts community economic prosperity, recovery from the 2008 recession, and change in median income. Interactions between the density of these hosts and broadband subscriptions also predict lower monthly unemployment rates over time, including after the March 2020 pandemic. Commercial data can improve our understanding of broadband\u27s impacts, including its potential for inclusive growth in diverse communities

Predicting Online and Offline Civic Participation among Young Czech Roma: The Roles of Resources, Community Perceptions and Social Norms

Roma in the Czech Republic represent a large ethnic minority that faces intolerance and social exclusion. This study aims to describe factors that boost civic participation among Roma adolescents and emerging adults. Specifically, it asks whether different factors apply to Roma and members of the majority, and whether different factors boost offline and online participation. Survey data were analysed from Roma (n = 157) and majority (n = 573) participants between the ages of 15 and 28. Hierarchical regression models suggested that certain factors (a sense of collective influence and peer participatory norm) predict all forms of civic participation, regardless of ethnicity. For Roma youth, in contrast with the majority, offline participation was associated with a perceived lack of opportunities and unmet needs in their communities, which suggests that their offline civic participation might be a reaction to perceived communal problems. Finally, a lack of education was identified as a major explanation for lower rates of online participation among Roma

The Effect of E-Government on Trust and Confidence in Government

This paper surveys literature relevant to e-government and its effect on civic trust, and summarizes our previous research on citizen attitudes on e-government. We propose further research using an Internetbased experiment that will expose a random sample of respondents to government web sites that are chosen to represent best practices for different types of sites. Surveys administered before and after exposure to the sites will measure any significant changes in attitudes about government in general, as well as perceptions of e-government. Oversampling of low-income and minority respondents will allow us to explore any differential impact across demographic groups. Recent research suggests that e-government may have a positive effect on citizen confidence in government. Using a 2000 commercial survey, West (forthcoming) finds that knowledge about egovernment does not increase citizen trust in government, but does increase perceptions of effectiveness. While intriguing, these findings are based on information provided to survey respondents about egovernment, rather than actual experience with e-government. More recent surveys (Mossberger, Tolbert and Stansbury, 2003; Larson and Rainie, 2002) show that use of government information online is growing. (Our survey showed 40 percent of all respondents had looked up information on government services online, and Pew (Larson and Rainie, 2002 reported that 58 percent of Internet users have visited a government web site.) Such growth provides new opportunities to explore confidence in government based on actual experience with e-government. At the same time, because of lower interest in government online among the poor and lesseducated, e-government may only serve to magnify existing disparities in knowledge, participation, an..