Do We Know What We Think We Know About Payday Loan Borrowers? Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances

The field of social work is becoming increasingly savvy regarding the financial lives of people, but despite seeming conclusive and resolved, knowledge about payday loan borrowing is still nascent. To understand it more thoroughly, this study employed descriptive and inferential multivariate quantitative methods using cross-sectional secondary data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (n = 6015). Results revealed that many of the simple differences found in descriptive analyses of demographic characteristics no longer predict differential payday loan borrowing when controlling for other characteristics. Contrary to prior research, results showed that payday loan borrowers are not more likely to be female, younger, unmarried, lower income, or Hispanic. They are, however, more likely to be African-American, to lack a college degree, and to live in a home they do not own. Recipients of social assistance were approximately five times more likely (OR = 5.2) to be payday loan borrowers than those who did not receive social assistance. The absence of statistically significant differences in the proportion of payday borrowers in income quintiles is notable. Thispaper contributes to addressing the Social Welfare Grand Challenge of building financial capabilities

Selling Zoning: Do Density Bonus Incentives for Moderate-Cost Housing Work

This Article reviews the housing affordability problem, the California legislation, and previous research findings. The Article outlines our methods, presents our results, and recommends program improvements

Representativeness of observed couple interactions: Couples can tell, and it does make a difference

Research evidence suggests that people's public self-presentations may be biased in socially desirable directions. Using videotaped samples of couple interactions, this study examined the extent to which self-presentational bias occurs in such samples and the impact of such bias on the predictive validity of observed behavior. Each member of 239 couples rated the typicality of their partner's taped socially supportive and undermining behaviors. Separate multi-item, internally consistent measures of typicality of support and undermining were found. Analyses showed that these measures did not appear subject to bias and could identify subgroups that varied notably in the criterion validity of their observational data. These effects appeared for typicality of social support but not for typicality of social undermining. Partner ratings may be a promising tool for isolating invalid samples of observed behavior. One of the most challenging tasks in psychological research is the collection of valid observational data on people in normal social interactions. Such observations are usually interpreted as reflections of more general patterns of behavior because they occur in natural settings, and they are considered valid if they are such reflections. Scientists who conduct observational research, however, have long been aware that various characteristics of the research design can affect participants' behavior during such data collection. For example, Gottman (1979, p. 248) has found evidence that couples' behavior is more negative, with more negative affect reciprocity and less agreement, when assessed in the home rather than in a laboratory setting. A large body of evidence suggests that such effects may occur because people tend to bias their self-presentations of private behavior in socially desirable directions during public interac

Millennials, Equity, and the Rule of Law: 2014 National Lawyers Convention, \u3ci\u3eHow First Amendment Procedures Protect First Amendment Substance\u3c/i\u3e

A panel, at the National Lawyers Convention, discussed procedure as it relates to First Amendment rights. The panel set forth how First Amendment procedures have historically protected First Amendment substance and discussed modern applications of the issue. For example, the prior restraint doctrine, overbreadth doctrine, the allocation of the burden of proof and relaxation of ripeness rules have important implications for challenging restrictions on speech and defending against libel and defamation. The interaction of free speech and due process is often seen in litigation involving civil harassment orders, or civil protection orders. In many jurisidictions the definition of harassment permits the finding that harassment can be based solely on speech, meaning speech itself can provide a basis for liabilty. In addition, speech may be restricted as a remedy in litigation addressing harassment. Investigations of wrongdoing in the realm of campaign finance law and political speech cases can also have serious implications for speech, both reputational and legal. Further cases involving political speech and campaign finance once exclusively litigated in the civil arena, are now the subject of criminal investigations and prosecutions. This is particularly problematic where many issues in this area remain unsettled. Good lawyering is particularly important in First Amendment cases. Ineffective assistance of counsel can be considered as great an evil in First Amendment cases as in criminal cases. Unfortunately, practicing lawyers often do not understand the process by which constitutional facts are pleaded and proved in First Amendment cases and this problem begins with the way Constitutional Law 101 is taught in law schools. In proving facts in First Amendment litigation the question becomes how does the government prove its justification of a restriction on speech or how does one opposing the government’s restriction on speech respond when the government asserts certain interests as being their justification. In First Amendment litigation the government often relies on legislative facts – newspaper reports, television stories, and criminal cases discussed in the media, arguably the government should be obligated to present more than rumors and speculation

Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence

Observations of star formation rates (SFRs) in galaxies provide vital clues to the physical nature of the Hubble sequence, and are key probes of the evolutionary properties of galaxies. The focus of this review is on the broad patterns in the star formation properties of galaxies along the Hubble sequence, and their implications for understanding galaxy evolution and the physical processes that drive the evolution. Star formation in the disks and nuclear regions of galaxies are reviewed separately, then discussed within a common interpretive framework. The diagnostic methods used to measure SFRs are also reviewed, and a self-consistent set of SFR calibrations is presented as an aid to workers in the field.Comment: 41 pages, with 9 figures. To appear in Volume 36 of the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysic

The effects of dust in simple environments: Large Magellanic Cloud HII regions

We investigate the effects of dust on Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) HII region spectral energy distributions using arcminute-resolution far-ultraviolet (FUV), H-alpha, far-infrared (FIR), and radio images. Widely-used indicators of the amount of light lost to dust (attenuation) at H-alpha and in the FUV correlate with each other, although often with substantial scatter. There are two interesting systematic discrepancies. First, H-alpha attenuations estimated from the Balmer decrement are lower than those estimated from the H-alpha-to-thermal radio luminosity ratio. Our data, at this stage, cannot unambiguously identify the source of this discrepancy. Second, the attenuation at 1500 angstroms and UV spectral slope, beta, correlate, although the slope and scatter are substantially different from the correlation first derived for starbursting galaxies by Calzetti et al. Combining our result with those of Meurer et al. for ultra-luminous infrared galaxies and Calzetti et al. for starbursting galaxies, we conclude that no single relation between beta and 1500 angstrom attenuation is applicable to all star-forming systems.Comment: 15 pages; 11 embedded postscript figures; 1 GIF figure; to appear in ApJ on 20 January 2002, vol. 565, no. 1. Section 5.1 (the discussion of the discrepancies between Balmer-derived and Radio-derived H alpha attenuations) has changed considerably to take into account small number statistics for high-mass stars in the model HII region IMFs. The abstract and conclusions have been modifie

The Incidence of Highly-Obscured Star-Forming Regions in SINGS Galaxies

Using the new capabilities of the Spitzer Space Telescope and extensive multiwavelength data from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), it is now possible to study the infrared properties of star formation in nearby galaxies down to scales equivalent to large HII regions. We are therefore able to determine what fraction of large, infrared-selected star-forming regions in normal galaxies are highly obscured and address how much of the star formation we miss by relying solely on the optical portion of the spectrum. Employing a new empirical method for deriving attenuations of infrared-selected star-forming regions we investigate the statistics of obscured star formation on 500pc scales in a sample of 38 nearby galaxies. We find that the median attenuation is 1.4 magnitudes in H-alpha and that there is no evidence for a substantial sub-population of uniformly highly-obscured star-forming regions. The regions in the highly-obscured tail of the attenuation distribution (A_H-alpha > 3) make up only ~4% of the sample of nearly 1800 regions, though very embedded infrared sources on the much smaller scales and lower luminosities of compact and ultracompact HII regions are almost certainly present in greater numbers. The highly-obscured cases in our sample are generally the bright, central regions of galaxies with high overall attenuation but are not otherwise remarkable. We also find that a majority of the galaxies show decreasing radial trends in H-alpha attenuation. The small fraction of highly-obscured regions seen in this sample of normal, star-forming galaxies suggests that on 500pc scales the timescale for significant dispersal or break up of nearby, optically-thick dust clouds is short relative to the lifetime of a typical star-forming region.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; emulateapj style, 30 pages, 18 figures (compressed versions), 3 table

The Nature of Infrared Emission in the Local Group Dwarf Galaxy NGC 6822 As Revealed by Spitzer

We present Spitzer imaging of the metal-deficient (Z ~30% Z_sun) Local Group dwarf galaxy NGC 6822. On spatial scales of ~130 pc, we study the nature of IR, H alpha, HI, and radio continuum emission. Nebular emission strength correlates with IR surface brightness; however, roughly half of the IR emission is associated with diffuse regions not luminous at H alpha (as found in previous studies). The global ratio of dust to HI gas in the ISM, while uncertain at the factor of ~2 level, is ~25 times lower than the global values derived for spiral galaxies using similar modeling techniques; localized ratios of dust to HI gas are about a factor of five higher than the global value in NGC 6822. There are strong variations (factors of ~10) in the relative ratios of H alpha and IR flux throughout the central disk; the low dust content of NGC 6822 is likely responsible for the different H alpha/IR ratios compared to those found in more metal-rich environments. The H alpha and IR emission is associated with high-column density (> ~1E21 cm^-2) neutral gas. Increases in IR surface brightness appear to be affected by both increased radiation field strength and increased local gas density. Individual regions and the galaxy as a whole fall within the observed scatter of recent high-resolution studies of the radio-far IR correlation in nearby spiral galaxies; this is likely the result of depleted radio and far-IR emission strengths in the ISM of this dwarf galaxy.Comment: ApJ, in press; please retrieve full-resolution version from http://www.astro.wesleyan.edu/~cannon/pubs.htm

Spitzer View of Young Massive Stars in the LMC HII Complexes. II. N159

The HII complex N159 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is used to study massive star formation in different environments, as it contains three giant molecular clouds (GMCs) that have similar sizes and masses but exhibit different intensities of star formation. We identify candidate massive young stellar objects (YSOs) using infrared photometry, and model their SEDs to constrain mass and evolutionary state. Good fits are obtained for less evolved Type I, I/II, and II sources. Our analysis suggests that there are massive embedded YSOs in N159B, a maser source, and several ultracompact HII regions. Massive O-type YSOs are found in GMCs N159-E and N159-W, which are associated with ionized gas, i.e., where massive stars formed a few Myr ago. The third GMC, N159-S, has neither O-type YSOs nor evidence of previous massive star formation. This correlation between current and antecedent formation of massive stars suggests that energy feedback is relevant. We present evidence that N159-W is forming YSOs spontaneously, while collapse in N159-E may be triggered. Finally, we compare star formation rates determined from YSO counts with those from integrated H-alpha and 24 micron luminosities and expected from gas surface densities. Detailed dissection of extragalactic GMCs like the one presented here is key to revealing the physics underlying commonly used star formation scaling laws.Comment: 60 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa