Immigrant Integration in Los Angeles: Strategic Directions for Funders

Provides an overview of the immigrant population; their contributions and challenges; the need for leadership development and other efforts to support their economic mobility, civic participation, and integration; and strategies for funding such efforts

Citizen Gain: The Economic Benefits of Naturalization for Immigrants and the Economy

Citizenship brings many benefits to immigrants, the opportunity to participate more fully in our democracy through the right to vote being primary among them. But beyond the clear civic gain is an often overlooked economic benefit: for a variety of reasons, naturalized immigrants are likely to see a boost in their family incomes that can benefit their children, their communities and the nation as a whole.Why is the economic importance of naturalization -- the process by which immigrants become citizens -- so often overlooked? Part of the reason is that much of the heated debate around the economic effects of immigration in the U.S. tends to focus on the unauthorized (or "illegal") population. The economic evidence in this arena points in multiple directions -- positive gains at an aggregate level, negative effects on specific sectors of the labor market, mixed impacts on government coffers -- but lost in that discussion is the fact that nearly three-fourths of all immigrants are either naturalized citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs), those who have legal status and may be eligible to naturalize but have not yet done so. What would happen if those individuals who were eligible to naturalize actually chose to do so? How much would their economic situation improve -- and what would be the effects on the overall economy? If such gains are possible, how could policymakers help to encourage even higher rates of naturalization? In this policy brief, SIIS tackles these questions by combining individual-level data from the Census Bureau's 2010 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) with the most recent data on the number of LPRs eligible to naturalize from the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS). This brief begins with a review of the literature, drawing out both theory and evidence on why naturalization might be associated with a higher earnings trajectory. The authors then discuss the data used and the regression models developed; and make a number of choices along the way to insure that the estimates presented here are as conservative as possible. The brief then discuss how the wage trajectory might change over time -- benefits would actually accrue over a number of years -- and then examines the possible impacts on aggregate earnings and the overall economy.The brief concludes with a discussion of the policy implications, particularly how these benefits might be made clear to those who have not yet naturalized and how new financial and other vehicles could be used to induce higher levels of naturalization

Making Change: How Social Movements Work and How to Support Them

Provides guidance for funders and activists on funding and sustaining a successful social movement. Details key elements of success, organizational capacities that need to be developed, areas for effective foundation investment, and issues to consider

- EFFICIENCY AND RISK MANAGEMENT IN BANKING FIRMS: A METHOD TO DECOMPOSE RISK

Traditional efficiency measures neglect bank risk and, even when risk is accounted for, do not differentiate between the portion subject to managerial control (¿internal¿) versus the portion that is exogenous and is part of a changing environment (¿external¿). This paper proposes a new sequential DEA procedure which decomposes a major indicator of bank risk --provision for loanlosses (PLL)-- into internal and external components. Our decomposition methodology is contrasted with three alternatives to judge how different approaches to this problem may affect the results. The analysis is illustrated by application to the Spanish banking system where deregulation, imposed by the Single Market Program of the European Community, has affected banks¿ conduct in terms of efficiency and risk. Las medidas tradicionales de eficiencia no consideran el riesgo y aquellas que pretenden incluirriesgo no distinguen la parte que sí es debida a la gestión empresarial (interna) de la parte que esexógena a las empresas y que depende del ambiente económico (externa). En este trabajo sepropone un nuevo procedimiento DEA secuencial que descompone uno de los principales indicadoresde riesgo -las provisiones por prestamos de dudoso cobro (PLL)-en sus dos componentes interno yexterno. La metodología propuesta se contrasta con tres alternativas diferentes para valorar sidiferentes enfoques a la medición de este problema pueden afectar a los resultados. El método seilustra con una aplicación para el sistema bancario español, donde la desregulación, impulsada por elMercado Unico ha afectado a la conducta de los bancos en términos de la eficiencia y riesgo.Riesgo, entorno, DEA. Risk, environment, DEA.

- CREDIT RISK AND EFFICIENCY IN THE EUROPEAN BANKING SYSTEMS: A THREE-STAGE ANALYSIS

Increased competition and the attempts of European banks to increase their presence in other markets may have affected the efficiency and credit risk. The first of this aspects is based on the incentive to the banks to reduce cost in order to gain in competitiveness. The second is associated to their lack of knowledge of such markets and/or acceptance of a higher risk in order to increase their market share. Despite the importance of these aspects, banking literature has usually analyzed the effects of competition on the efficiency of banking systems without considering these aspects. The few studies that attempt to obtainrisk adjusted efficiency measures do not consider that part of the risk is due to exogenous circumstances. This article proposes a new three stage sequential technique, based on theDEA model and on the decomposition of risk into its internal and external components, for obtaining efficiency measures adjusted for risk and environment. It is seen that the technique allows the use of any existing technique of incorporation of environmental variables in DEA analysis. El incremento de la competencia y los intentos de los bancos europeos por aumentar supresencia en otros mercados pueden haber afectado tanto al nivel de eficiencia bancaria como alriesgo de crédito. El primero de los aspectos se fundamenta en el incentivo que tienen los bancosa reducir los costes para ganar competitividad. El segundo, está asociado a la ausencia decompetencia en tales mercados y/o a la aceptación de niveles mayores de riesgo con el fin deincrementar la cuota de mercado. A pesar de la importancia de estos aspectos, la literaturabancaria tradicionalmente ha analizado los efectos de la competencia en la eficiencia de lossistemas bancarios sin considerar estos efectos sobre el riesgo. Los escasos estudios queintentan obtener medidas de eficiencia ajustadas por el riesgo no consideran que parte del riesgoes debido a circunstancias exógenas. Este artículo propone una nueva técnica secuenciencial entres etapas, basado en el modelo DEA y en la descomposición del riesgo en sus componentesexterno e interno, para la obtención de medidas de eficiencia ajustadas por el riesgo y elambiente. La técnica se aplica al análisis de la eficiencia de los sistemas bancarios europeos ypermite el uso de cualquiera de las tecnicas existentes para la incorporación de variablesambientales en un contexto DEA.DEA, riesgo de crédito, morosidad, eficiencia, variables ambientales DEA, credit risk, bad loans, efficiency, environmental variables.

There's Something Happening Here: A Look at The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities Initiative

In 2011, TCE commissioned PERE to help capture some of the dynamism happening in each of the sites as they were pivoting from the initial planning phase, which started in 2009, to early implementation.Our focus was on the over-arching story of BHC rather than on the narrative of each site, which would have required many more interviews, many more site visits, and many, many more pages to convey. And while we touch on some of the interactions between BHC and the communications and policy work done under the statewide umbrella of Health Happens Here, our emphasis in this report is on BHC and the sites themselves.Through the course of this research, we have become increasingly convinced that TCE is indeed onto something -- if not big, at least important. In order to clarify exactly what it is, we use a simplifying three-part storyline linked together by an overarching concept of Just Health

Transactions, Transformations, Translations: Metrics that Matter for Building, Scaling, and Funding Social Movements

This report provides an evaluative framework and key milestones to gauge movement building. Aiming to bridge the gap between the field of community organizing that relies on the one-on-one epiphanies of leaders and the growing philanthropic emphasis on evidence-based giving, the report stresses three main insights. The first is that any good set of movement metrics should capture quantity and quality, numbers and nuance, transactions and transformations. They are related -- an energized leader with a clear power analysis (a transformative measure) may turn out more members for a coalition rally (a transactional measure) -- and the report offers a matrix that weaves together both types of metrics across ten different movement-building strategies. The second is that a movement is more than one organization -- and if the whole is to be greater than the sum of its parts, we must measure accordingly. While report includes measures of success at the organizational level, it attempts to move beyond and focus on whether groups can align and work together to create a more powerful force for social change -- suggesting that in the same way that movements need to scale up to face the challenges of our times, metrics, too, must expand to capture the whole. The third is that metrics must be co-created, not imposed. Recognizing the gravity of the times and hoping to gauge their effectiveness, movement builders are eager to come up with a common language and framework for themselves -- and are developing the tools and capacities to do so. The report suggests that the funder-grantee relationship can build on this wisdom in the field and develop a set of evaluative measures that are not onerous requirements but tools for mutual accountability. The report also offers a set of recommendations to funders and the field, ranging from practical steps (like building a new toolbox of measures, improving the capacity to use them, and documenting innovation and experimentation) to more far-reaching suggestions about leadership development, the connection of policy outcomes with broader social change, and the need to generate movement-level measures. We, at USC PERE, hope this report contributes to a conversation about how to best capture transformations as well as transactions in social movement organizing, and how to build the broader public and philanthropic support necessary to realize the promise of a more inclusive America

Extracellular Vesicle-Mediated Communication between the Glioblastoma and Its Microenvironment

The glioblastoma is the most malignant form of brain cancer. Glioblastoma cells use multiple ways of communication with the tumor microenvironment in order to tune it for their own benefit. Among these, extracellular vesicles have emerged as a focus of study in the last few years. Extracellular vesicles contain soluble proteins, DNA, mRNA and non-coding RNAs with which they can modulate the phenotypes of recipient cells. In this review we summarize recent findings on the extracellular vesicles-mediated bilateral communication established between glioblastoma cells and their tumor microenvironment, and the impact of this dialogue for tumor progression and recurrence.España MINECO grant number PGC2018-094654-B-10