Housing and labor market distortions in Poland : linkages and policy implications

Poland's housing and macroeconomic policies have restricted investments in housing and urban infrastructure to a level well below that of other European countries. This has resulted in a shortage of housing typified by 15 to 20 year waits for government sponsored housing. Shortages of this magnitude are likely to cause distortions with impacts on patterns of savings and consumption, the price level, and on the functioning of labor markets. This paper focuses particularly on how housing market distortions are transmitted to labor markets, with impacts on rates of migration, relative wage levels among different regions, and, by implication, on the productivity of the Polish work force. The basic thesis of the paper is that if housing markets are prevented from reaching their competitive equilibrium that labor markets will similarly be prevented. Evidence is examined on the extent of housing and labor market disequilibria, and estimates econometric models that relate internal migration and relative wages to alternative measures of housing market disequilibria. From these analyses it is concluded that labor markets are in fact distorted by housing market distortions, with potentially major macroeconomic costs.Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Housing&Human Habitats,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Urban Housing

Art Speaks! Connecting Visual Arts and Language Arts A Program for Fourth-Grade Students in The School District of Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) received a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support a partnership among PMA, Pennsylyania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Barnes Foundation, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania. These five art institutions collaborated with each other, and with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), to develop a literacy-based museum visit program called Art Speaks! that is open to all 13,500 fourth-grade students in SDP public schools. The program features a museum visit to one of the five collaborating institutions and includes teacher resources for use before and after the visit. While multiple-visit programs have shown significant benefits for the students served, they have an inherently limited capacity. In contrast, this project\u27s goal was to develop a single-visit program that is available to every class in one grade level throughout a large urban school district. This study explains how the team worked with SDP teachers and administrators to maximize the educational benefits of the program\u27s classroom resources and museum visit. An Advisory Committee provided guidance throughout the project\u27s development and two pilot phases have been conducted. Evaluation consisted of written surveys and two teacher focus group meetings. Based on the results, this study proposes a model for collaboration among diverse art institutions and a large urban school district

On the Successful Prediction of Radioactive Decay

We describe an experimental setup involving a single radioactive atom which decays in unit time with probability ½, but such that it is possible to successfully predict whether the atom decays with probability greater than ½.  We also describe a strategy which correctly predicts with probability greater than ½ which of two radioactive atoms is more likely to decay in unit time, given that we can only observe one of the two species.  These ideas are mathematical in nature but are very likely to have applications in physics as well as other areas

A study of algorithms for obtaining best uniform approximations

M.S.William J. Kammere

Examining Migration Flows Across Kentucky\u27s Counties

The state of Kentucky is home to many rural counties which experience high levels of outward migration due to their relatively unfavorable economic conditions. While migration trends nationally have begun to plateau, migration flows from county to county show a much more volatile story. This study will examine the relationship between economic opportunity and migration flow estimates in Kentucky’s counties through a multiple regression approach with the response variable being annual migration flow estimates, with multiple predictor variables showing the economic composition of the county. Variables used in this regression include annual unemployment rates, educational attainment levels, county poverty rates, and the percentage of a county’s population that is of the prime working age, 25-54. Based on the results of this regression, it was determined that there are a few counties in Kentucky that despite relatively unfavorable economic conditions, have been able to stem the flow of outward migration and either maintain their existing working population, or attract new citizens to their county. At the heart of this research is the question of why some of these counties have been more successful than others in retaining their young people despite these existing economic hardships. Due to this finding, interviews with public officials, organizations, and agencies associated with these “bright spot” counties were conducted and the results of these interviews were used to highlight the strategies used by these counties to stem the flow of outward migration, while also providing other county, state, and national leaders with recommendations based on the success stories of these few Kentucky counties

Predicting the Fate of Schrodinger's Cat

We describe a simple experiment in which a radioactive atom in a box decays in unit time with probability equal to ½, but such that the probability of a correct prediction of whether or not the atom decays is greater than ½