After the doors close: assisting laid-off workers to find jobs

Displaced workers ; Wages ; Unemployment

Cross-sectional analysis of public infrastructure and regional productivity growth

An analysis of the relationship between local public capital stock and regional manufacturing output, inputs, and productivity between 1965 and 1977. Results show that the effect of public capital stock on regional productivity, although limited, cannot be dismissed, and that public infrastructure appears to be a major factor in explaining growth rates of inputs.Infrastructure (Economics) ; Productivity ; Regional economics ; Manufactures

Estimating the contribution of urban public infrastructure to regional growth

An estimation of components of public capital stock for 38 metropolitan areas from 1953 to 1981, using the perpetual inventory method. These series are used to estimate the effect of public capital stock on regional manufacturing production.Regional economics ; Infrastructure (Economics) ; Capital investments

Urban Labor Markets

Urban labor markets are characterized by the spatial proximity of households and businesses, which offers firms and workers advantages that lead to more efficient markets, enhanced productivity, and greater economic success. Nevertheless, the nation's city, while generating a large proportion of the nation's wealth, houses much of the nation's economic disadvantaged workers. This paper describes the current conditions of urban labor markets and outlines a national urban policy agenda that addresses these concerns by taking into account cities' spatial dimension. The paper argues that a national urban labor policy should emphasize the effects of physical and informational proximity on growth, the benefits of efficient urban markets, and the importance of the access of workers to urban labor markers. These characteristics distinguish a national urban policy from simply a national policy targeted at people who happen to live in cities.local, labor, market, urban, Eberts

Public infrastructure and regional economic development

A review of recent empirical studies concerned with how investment in public infrastructure affects various types of state- and local-level economic activity. The relationships between public and private investment are examined and assessed.Infrastructure (Economics) ; Regional economics

The Use of Profiling to Target Services in State Welfare-to-Work Programs: An Example of Process and Implementation

The purpose of this paper is to provide preliminary information about the design of a pilot project to test the efficacy of profiling and referring welfare-to-work participants. Welfare reform requires welfare recipients, with few exceptions, to participate in work activities and ultimately become economically self-sufficient. Welfare recipients possess a wide variation in job readiness skills, ranging from those who are ready and able to work to those who face significant barriers to employment. The challenge of the local administrator of welfare-to-work programs is to target services to those who need them the most. Yet, most programs provide the same services to all participants, regardless of their past work history or skills. Profiling is a management tool that statistically identifies individuals as to the probability that they will obtain employment. The probability is derived from a statistical model using information commonly collected at enrollment interviews. The model estimates the relationship between an individual's propensity to find and hold a job and that person's attributes, work and welfare histories, and local labor market conditions. The paper describes the model and shows how it can be incorporated into existing welfare-to-work programs that emphasize work-related activities.welfare-to-work, profiling, FDSS, Eberts, reemployment

An Examination of Student Achievement in Michigan Charter Schools

Since their inception in 1991, the number of and the student enrollment in charter schools have burgeoned. However, little attention has been paid to their effects on student achievement. Proponents hypothesize direct and indirect positive impacts of charter schools on student achievement. The direct effect is through the restructuring of teaching and learning processes. The indirect effect operates through peer effects on learning and through the market forces of competition. This paper focuses on student achievement in charter schools in Michigan. The analyses presented here suggest that students attending charter schools in Michigan are not reaching the same levels of achievement as students in traditional public schools in the same districts. Using several different models to estimate the difference between test score levels of students attending charter schools versus those from traditional public schools in the same districts, we find that students attending a charter school scored around 2 to 4 percent lower on the state's mandatory fourth grade reading and math assessments; the fifth grade students in charter schools scored about 4 percent lower on the science test and about 6 to 9 percent lower on the writing test. The models control for student, building, and district characteristics. The results are robust to several different specifications. However, many caveats are in order. Test scores are imperfect indicators of achievement. Furthermore, while we examine test scores of individual students, we are able to control for student and teacher characteristics in only a limited way and some of our explanatory variables are based on aggregate building-level and district-level information. Nevertheless, our analyses suggest that despite the fact that charter schools have the ability to introduce competition and new innovations in the provision of education, the evidence from this study implies that they will need to make up considerable ground as they become more established in order to overtake the test score levels and gains of students at traditional public schools.charter, schools, education, Michigan, Eberts, Hollenbeck

Impact of Charter School Attendance on Student Achievement in Michigan

Proponents of school reform have argued that charter schools and vouchers can provide adequate market pressure to improve the performance of traditional public schools. While the number of charter schools and student enrollment have burgeoned, relatively little attention has been paid to their effects on student achievement. Proponents of charter schools suggest a direct effect on student achievement through the restructuring of teaching and learning processes and an indirect effect through peer effects on learning and through the market forces of competition. Of course, competitive pressures may result in higher achievement in traditional public schools as well. This paper focuses on student achievement in charter schools in Michigan. The analyses presented in the paper suggest that students attending charter schools in Michigan are not reaching the same levels of achievement as students in traditional public schools in the same districts. In order to analyze the effectiveness of charter schools relative to their traditional public school counterparts, we examine the difference in student outcomes, as measured by the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). The State makes available the MEAP results each year along with limited demographic data that are self-reported by students when they take the tests. We rely mainly on this data set together with additional building- and district- level data that are supplied by local districts and made available on the Michigan Department of Education's (MDE's) website. Five years of MEAP scores from 1996/97 through 200/01 for individual fourth and fifth grade students are analyzed. By pairing charter schools with their "host" (meaning geographically co-located) districts, we attempt to create the local "market" for educational services in which both the charter schools and the public school districts compete. Several models of the difference between test score levels of students attending charter schools versus those from traditional public schools are estimated. In virtually all specifications, each of which controls for student, building, and district characteristics, students attending charter schools have lower test scores than students in traditional public schools. The magnitudes of the results vary by grade, year, and subject matter, but are generally on the order of 3 10 percent. We argue that our estimates of the negative differentials may be biased toward zero because we have not controlled for selection bias.charter, schools, Michigan, achievement, Hollenbeck, Eberts, Upjohn

Do the earnings of manufacturing and service workers grow at the same rate over their careers?

A study indicating that service workers begin employment at a lower wage than comparable manufacturing workers, and then experience similar wage growth.Wages ; Service industries ; Manufactures

Cyclical versus Secular Movements in Employment Creation and Destruction

This paper offers an analysis of cyclical and secular patterns in job turnover using establishment-level data. We provide evidence from multiple data sets that show that the job turnover process is markedly different over time and across regions. Over time, we find that employment fluctuations are associated primarily with job destruction. Across regions, employment differences are associated more with job creation. Differences were found between the cyclical (within) and secular (across state) responses in job creation and destruction to output shocks. Movements in job creation and destruction were also found to be related to the types of human capital externalities or technological spillovers used to explain long-run differences in regional or national growth rates.