Time is of the Essence: What the past 500 years means for the future of Black Male Achievement

This timeline seeks to shed light on how 500 years of slavery, discrimination and disenfranchisement has contributed to the current employment and economic crisis faced by African American men in the United States. In 2012, there were almost 6 million African American men and youth unemployed or not actively seeking work. Of this number, nearly 3.5 million were low income - below 200% of the federal threshold. From the 1960's until today, unemployment rates for black men have been 2 to 2.5 times the white unemployment rate. At the height of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for black men peaked at 14%, which was nearly double the national average of 6.6% and higher than the national average during the great depression. As of May 2014, there were 717,000 unemployed black youth between the ages of 16-24 in the United States. Recognizing the implications of the historical, social, and political factors and decisions that have contributed to the current employment crisis faced by African American men and youth is critical to shaping future policy

Capital market expectations and the London office market

The analysis of office market dynamics has generally concentrated on the impact of underlying fundamental demand and supply variables. This paper takes a slightly different approach to many previous examinations of rental dynamics. Within a Vector-Error-Correction framework the empirical analysis concentrates upon the impact of economic and financial variables on rents in the City of London and West End of London office markets. The impulse response and variance decomposition reveal that while lagged rental values and key demand drivers play a highly important role in the dynamics of rents, financial variables are also influential. Stock market performance not only influences the City of London market but also the West End, whilst the default spread plays an important role in recent years. It is argued that both series incorporate expectations about future economic performance and that this is the basis of their influence upon rental values

TILAPIA: BOTH FISH AND FOWL?

Tilapia aquaculture production is now around one million tonnes and is widely tipped to become an even bigger player in the international arena. This paper considers the case for such claims by reviewing the production environment, costs, the key characteristics of the product and its marketing with particular reference to the emergent EU markets and the increasingly established North American market. It is concluded that tilapia has quite distinct comparative advantages, not least being its diverse production scenarios, low cost, and product attributes which are commonly sought by consumers. Coupled with potentially green marketing attributes, it is concluded that this species is likely to appear in a broadening product range including more added value products.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Capital Market Expectations and the London Office Market

The analysis of office market dynamics has generally concentrated on the impact of underlying fundamental demand and supply variables. This paper takes a slightly different approach to many previous examinations of rental dynamics. Within a Vector-Error-Correction framework the empirical analysis concentrates upon the impact of economic and financial variables on rents in the City of London and West End of London office markets. The impulse response and variance decomposition reveal that while lagged rental values and key demand drivers play a highly important role in the dynamics of rents, financial variables are also influential. Stock market performance not only influences the City of London market but also the West End, whilst the default spread plays an important role in recent years. It is argued that both series incorporate expectations about future economic performance and that this is the basis of their influence upon rental values.

Student Veterans/Service Members' Engagement in College and University Life and Education

Since the passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, also known as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the enrollment of active-duty service members and veterans in American colleges and universities has increased substantially. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than three-quarters of a million veterans have used their earned benefit to enroll in postsecondary courses. In response to the influx of veteran student enrollment, a group of higher education associations and veterans' organizations collaborated in 2009 and 2012 on a study that asked college and university administrators whether their institutions had geared up campus programs and services specifically designed to support the unique needs of veterans.1 The results indicated that administrators had indeed increased support levels, sometimes by quite significant margins.But how do student veterans/service members perceive their experiences at higher education institutions? To date, there is little or no information to assess whether the efforts by institutions to provide targeted programs and services are helpful to the veterans and service members enrolled in colleges and universities. Similarly, not much is known about the transition to postsecondary education from military service experienced by student veterans/service members, or whether these students are engaged in both academic programs and college and university life to their fullest potential. In this context, this issue brief explores student veteran/service member engagement in postsecondary education. The brief utilizes data from the 2012 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), an annual survey of students enrolled in four-year universities, to assess how student veterans/service members perceive their integration on campus.A key finding is that student veterans/servicemembers are selective about the campus life and academic activities in which they invest their time. Student veterans/service members are morelikely to be first-generation students -- the first in their families to attend a college or university -- and older than nonveteran/civilian students; they therefore tend to have responsibilities outside of higher education that put constraints on their time.Student veterans/service members report placing greater emphasis on academic areas that they find essential for academic progress than on college and university life and activities -- academic or otherwise -- that are not essential for success in the courses in which they are enrolled. Student veterans/ service members are less likely to participate in co curricular activities, and they dedicate less time to relaxing and socializing than nonveteran/ civilian students