Community Mobilization and Credit: The Impact of Nonprofits and Social Capital on Community Reinvestment Act Lending*

Objective. Recent trends in urban research emphasize the importance of local nonprofits and social capital in the revitalization of poor and minority neighborhoods. This article tests the idea that urban communities able to mobilize themselves by establishing development nonprofits and overcoming collective action problems will be better able to make use of urban‐development policies. Methods. Measures operationalizing nonprofit presence and social capital are used in an empirical test to see if they can, through the medium of the Community Reinvestment Act, increase the number of mortgage and business loans in Washington, D.C. Results. These variables show only weak effects on mortgage lending, but very strong results for small‐business lending in all types of communities. Conclusions. The results suggest that nonprofits and social capital may have only limited benefit in the revitalization of urban neighborhoods and researchers and practitioners should be careful when relying on them.     

Racial Disparities in Access to Mortgage Credit: Does Governance Matter?*

Objectives. This article examines the effect of community organizing on the likelihood that minority borrowers pursue home mortgage credit from regulated lenders. Methods. Governance perspectives suggest that community organizations exert significant influence on policy outcomes. We use logistic regression with interaction terms to test the effect of community organizing on the lending outcomes of minority borrowers. We use a matched control sample of cities, drawing on 2004 loan data from two midwestern cities similar in racial and economic composition but with different histories of organizing around the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Results. We find differential effects based on an applicant's race or ethnicity. Overall, African‐American applicants are less likely to pursue mortgage credit for home ownership from regulated lenders than their white, non‐Hispanic counterparts. However, African Americans seeking mortgage credit in a city with a history of CRA organizing are more likely to apply to regulated lenders than their racial counterparts in a city without CRA organizing. However, while organizing reduces the disparities between white and African‐American applicants, a gap still remains. Conclusion. African‐American borrowers living in cities with a history of community organizing around CRA appear more likely to pursue mortgage credit from traditional, regulated lenders, suggesting that governance matters.     

An estimate of the effects of age,taxes, and other socioeconomic variables on the alcoholic beverage demand of young adults

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects that age, taxes and other socioeconomic variables have on the alcoholic beverage demand of young adults. OLS regression analysis, in combination with a Chow Test and a pooled data set, is used to determine the effects of age, taxes and other socioeconomic variables on alcohol consumption. NLSY-Geocode data is used in the analysis. Results suggest that taxes have minor effects on alcohol consumption, and the only factors that are statistically significant in all analyses are marital status, sex, race, and level of education. In addition, statistical tests indicate that the factors that affect alcohol consumption change as a person ages.     

Does Relationship Lending Still Matter in the Consumer Banking Sector? Evidence from the Automobile Loan Market*

Objective. This article examines the role of relationship lending in the automobile loan market at a community development credit union (CDCU) and at a traditional community bank. Method. Data collected from actual car loan applications are used in a probit analysis to estimate the importance of selected demographic, financial, and loan‐specific variables on the probability of loan approval at the two types of financial institutions. Results. We first show that the community bank relies on credit scoring, not relationship lending. Relationship lending is, however, a critical factor in the loan decision at the CDCU. Low‐income households with strong ties to the CDCU are likely to receive loans, despite poor credit histories. Conclusions. If consolidation, deregulation, and technology move mainstream financial institutions away from relationship lending and toward credit scoring, CDCUs will occupy an increasingly critical niche for low‐income households.     

我国推行住宅抵押贷款证券化问题分析

目前,在我国推行住宅抵押贷款证券化存在着抵押贷款规模过小、房地产开发融资渠道不宽、商业银行积极性不高、信用制度不健全、法律环境不完善等问题。我国还不具备大规模推广住宅抵押贷款证券化的条件。     

Working U.S. Adults without Paid Sick Leave Report more Worries about Finances

Using the National Health Interview Survey 2015 data release, an analytic sample of 17,897 working U.S. adults in current paid employment were examined to determine if there was a relationship between not having paid sick leave and worry about finances. A series of nine indicators of financial worry were regressed on paid sick leave status with ten control variables. U.S. workers who lack paid sick leave are more likely to report worry about: medical bills from a potential future sickness or accident, retirement, current medical costs from an illness or accident, maintenance of standard of living, medical costs for normal health care, normal monthly bills, rent, mortgage, or other housing costs, and credit card payments. Based on this set of nine multinomial multivariable regressions equations, findings indicate a positive association between not having paid sick leave and reporting financial worry after controlling for gender, age, marital status, education level, race and ethnicity, personal health status, full time work status, insurance coverage, family size, and annual family income. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are set forth.     

Buying into the American Dream? Mexican Immigrants,Legal Status,and Homeownership in Los Angeles County*

Objectives. Contemporary patterns of homeownership reflect the continuing racial and ethnic stratification that exists in nearly all areas of American society. Of particular interest, especially within the context of recent immigration legislation, are the homeownership experiences of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Methods. The current study employs unique data from the 2001 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC‐MIRSS) to examine the association between diverse forms of legal status and homeownership for Mexican immigrants. Results. Analyses indicate that the relationship between legal status and housing tenure is not statistically significant, after accounting for economic, life‐course/life‐cycle, and assimilation/social capital characteristics. Conclusions. The lack of a significant relationship is contrary to past research, perhaps explained by the explosive growth of the subprime mortgage market in the United States; the increasing recognition by financial institutions of Latino immigrants as a largely untapped, yet emerging, market in the mortgage industry; the availability of alternative forms of identification; and the institutionalization of unauthorized immigration in Los Angeles.     

The Personal Costs of Subprime Lending and the Foreclosure Crisis: A Matter of Trust,Insecurity, and Institutional Deception*

Objective. Research on widespread loan failures suggests that many of the mortgage loans that were made since 2000 were of a deceptive or predatory nature. This study explores the experiences and sentiments of those who are at risk of foreclosure within a broader framework of trust, individualization, and ontological security. Methods. Interviews examine families' lending experience and how they have coped with their personal troubles that resulted from their housing crisis. Results. As many of these loans were of a deceptive or predatory nature, individuals are likely to reflect on the psychological consequences of their predicament. Although these findings suggest that these individuals have lost trust in the housing market, many have internalized their situation as a personal failure. In addition, feelings of anxiety, stress, insecurity, and uncertainty have come to characterize their experiences. Conclusions. This research calls for policy recommendations that seek to restore confidence and to ensure greater consumer protection in financial markets.     

Residential Patterns of Black Immigrants and Native‐Born Blacks in the United States*

Objective. Although high levels of black‐white residential segregation have long been observed, relatively little is known about the residential patterns of black immigrants. This analysis examines the role of nativity and Hispanic ethnicity for the residential patterns of blacks in the United States. Methods. This article uses data from the 2000 Census to calculate dissimilarity indexes and conduct regression analyses. Results. We find differences in the extent of segregation of blacks from whites, with Hispanic blacks and non‐Hispanic black immigrants exhibiting higher levels of segregation from whites than U.S.‐born non‐Hispanic blacks. Conclusions. The strength of nativity and socioeconomic status provides some support for spatial assimilation theory. Metropolitan context also plays a role in explaining residential patterns: one reason foreign and Hispanic blacks are very segregated from whites is that they tend to reside in metropolitan areas where black‐white segregation has generally been high. Despite the role of these factors, race itself remains of great importance in explaining residential patterns, as segregation from whites is high among all black subgroups.     

First Names and Crime: Does Unpopularity Spell Trouble?*

Objective. We investigate the relationship between first name popularity and juvenile delinquency to test the hypothesis that unpopular names are positively correlated with crime. Methods. To compare the names of juveniles in a state's population with the names of juveniles who received substantiated charges in that state's juvenile justice system, we construct a popularity name index. Regression analysis is used to examine the relationship among names, crime, and socioeconomic background of juveniles. Results. The distribution of first names in the state's population is different from the names of juvenile delinquents. Our results show that unpopular names are positively correlated with juvenile delinquency for both blacks and whites. Conclusions. Unpopular names are likely not the cause of crime but correlated with factors that increase the tendency toward juvenile delinquency, such as a disadvantaged home environment and residence in a county with low socioeconomic status.     

Hindu-Muslim differential fertility: how much religious and how much socio?

Data from the Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS) of 1975 were used to test the hypotheses that the higher the socioeconomic status, the lower the fertility and the narrower the difference in fertility between Muslims and Hindus; and the lower the socioeconomic status, the higher the fertility and the greater the difference in fertility between Muslims and Hindus. The core group for analysis in this study of women married only once and reported to fecund includes 3914 Muslims and 824 Hindus. Actual analysis was based on fewer than these 4738 because of nonresponse to 1 or more pertinent interview questions used in this study. Multiple classification analysis (MCA) was used to analyze the data. Prior to adjustment for the effect of other variables, the fertility of Muslims was a little lower than that of Hindus. The average number of children born to Muslims was 3.89; it was 3.95 for Hindus. Fertility tended to decline with improvement in socioeconomic status, i.e., increase in the level of education, i.e., no formal and primary level, and this almost converged at the middle and higher educational levels. At the lower levels of education, i.e., no formal and 1-5 grades, Muslims had .19-.34 children more than Hindus. This difference was reduced to .07 children at the middle level education, i.e., 6-9 grades. At the higher level of education, Muslims had .09 fewer children than Hindus, and this difference was statistically significant. Prior to adjustment for the effect of other variables, the fertility of Muslims was higher than that of Hindus at almost every level of age at marriage. This picture was reversed when adjustment was made for the effect of other variables. At the lower levels of age at marriage, Muslims has .23-.20 more children than Hindus. At the middle age at marriage, Muslims had .08 fewer children than Hindus. This difference was statistically significant. There was virtually no difference between the 2 groups at the higher age at marriage, i.e., 20-21 years. The effect of urbanization on fertility by education differed for Hindus and Muslims. For Hindus, fertility at each level of education was higher in urban than in rural areas. For Muslims, fertility at each level of education, particularly at higher levels, was lower in urban than in rural areas. No significant difference was found in the use of contraception between Muslims and Hindus at higher levels of education, but at lower levels of education contraceptive use among Hindus was significantly higher than for Muslims. The findings suggest that with an improvement in education, fertility will decline with a corresponding increase in the use of contraception and the difference in fertility and use of contraception between Muslims and Hindus will disappear. The findings also support the tenet that development, especially education, is the best formula for reducing fertility in poor countries.     

Human Security in Communities in Costa Rica and the United States

This study has three aims: to create and validate a measure for the experience of human security, to begin exploring how the experience of security relates to the socioeconomic status of the community in which one resides and the emotional climate and culture of peace of one's nation, and to examine what personal factors influence the experience of security within different communities. To assess the security experienced by individuals, we developed a self-report questionnaire based on seven objective aspects of human security outlined by the United Nations: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political security. We compared middle and lower class communities in the United States and Costa Rica and examined the extent to which individuals depend upon themselves and others in these different communities. Our results show that it is possible to measure the experience of human security, that this experience depends more on national emotional climate than socioeconomic status, and that for community samples, a large part of human security depends on support from family and friends.     

主观社会经济地位如何影响社会成就归因?——基于社会公平感的中介效应分析

通过武汉市社会状况综合调查 (CSSR2014) 的数据,运用Amos23.0软件建立的基础中介模型与SPSS22.0软件的Process插件程序建立的控制中介模型,综合测量了社会公平感在主观社会经济地位与社会成就归因之间的中介效应.研究结果显示,在控制了相关变量后,主观社会经济地位分别对社会公平感与社会成就归因中的个人因素起到显著的正向影响;社会公平感对社会成就归因中的个人因素产生显著的正向作用,但对家庭因素则发挥显著的负向影响;社会公平感仅在主观社会经济地位与社会成就归因中的个人因素间具有中介效应.政府应努力构建平等公正的社会环境,逐步恢复主观社会经济地位较低者的社会公平信心,使得其个人能力的效用发挥至最大.     

小额贷款公司与中小企业融资解析

从混合策略博弈模型的视角出发,分析小额贷款公司在中小企业融资中的作用,对小贷公司放贷和中小企业需贷的动态互动行为模式进行了描述。研究发现小额贷款公司自身的经营能力、项目收益以及预期坏账率具有至关重要的作用,为小额信贷公司支持中小企业融资提出相应的政策建议。     

Young maternal age and low birth weight risk: An exploration of racial/ethnic disparities in the birth outcomes of mothers in the United States

This study considers how low birth weight (LBW) prevalence varies by race/ethnicity and maternal age and explores mechanisms that explain disparities. Results show that maternal age patterns in LBW risk for African Americans differ from Whites and foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanics. Background socioeconomic disadvantage, together with current socioeconomic status and smoking during pregnancy, explain almost all of the LBW disparity between white teenage mothers and their older counterparts. These findings suggest that social disadvantage is a primary driver in unfavorable birth outcomes among white teenage mothers compared to older white mothers. Alternatively, background disadvantage and other social characteristics explain very little of the LBW disparities among African Americans and U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics. Overall, these results indicate LBW disparities by maternal age are a complex product of socioeconomic disadvantage and current social and behavioral factors, such that LBW risk does not operate uniformly by race/ethnicity or maternal age.     

Adolescent Leisure Activities: Social Class,Sex and Ethnic Differences

It has been suggested that leisure is increasingly important to quality of life, and that patterns of awareness of and participation in leisure activities are established in adolescence. A study of 520 fifteen-year-olds mapped their awareness of leisure opportunities in school and community, explored patterns in the forms of leisure they see as possible for themselves, and examined differences in awareness associated with sex, social class and ethnicity. In all dimensions significant variations were associated with gender; in most cases these tended to diminish, however, with decreasing socioeconomic status. Variations on the basis of ethnicity were limited mainly to home activities.     

Socioeconomic forces as determinants of childhood mortality decline in Rhode Island, 1860-1970: a comparison with England and Wales

The author tests McKeown's hypothesis that socioeconomic improvement was the most important cause of mortality decline in England and Wales. First, McKeown's basic work is replicated using data on childhood mortality in Rhode Island between 1860 and 1970. "Then the effect of socioeconomic change on mortality change is examined in ways that differentiate it from other effects. Next, socioeconomic and public health effects on disease are differentiated by computing case-fatality and incidence rates." The results provide support for McKeown's argument.     

An American Dream Unfulfilled: The Limited Mobility of Mexican Americans

Objective . We build on past research regarding immigrant group adaptation by examining the wages of first–, second–, and third–generation Mexican–American men and women and empirically evaluating if past theories of immigrant incorporation apply to the Mexican–American case. Methods . We use the 1989 Latino National Political Study and the 1990/1991 Panel Studies of Income Dynamics and OLS regressions to estimate the effects of generation and human capital on wages. Results . Immigrant men and women report lower wages than their second– and third–generation counterparts, but once human capital controls are added, the wage pattern becomes one of steady decline across generations for men, and stagnation or marginal decline across generations for women. Conclusions . Our results generally contest the applicability of linear assimilation hypotheses to the Mexican–American experience, while lending some credence to the selectivity and immigrant optimism hypotheses. Results also indicate the importance of developing more contextualized immigrant adaptation frameworks.     

Gender and the Internet: Causes of Variation in Access,Level, and Scope of Use*

Objective. The article examines differences in the use of the Internet by gender, with a consideration of access to the web, use of communication facilities related to email and chat rooms, frequency of use, and types of websites used. The study considers the impact of socioeconomic status and social, geographic, racial, and ethnic variables for explaining variations in the use of the web by men and women, and how these factors are mediated by knowledge of how to use the web. Methods. The study employs data collected by the General Social Survey (GSS) in 2000, and relates access, communication levels, frequency of use, and types of sites used to gender and other relevant variables. The relevant variables are analyzed by multivariate analysis. Results. Access to the web was independent of gender, but was related to education, race, income, age, and marital status. Women were less likely than men to chat on the web, but were slightly more likely to use email, and they utilized different types of sites than men. Conclusions. Women access the web as frequently as men, but they communicate on the Internet differently than men, are online less than men, and utilize different types of websites than men. Knowledge related to web use is an important independent variable that influences Internet use by men and women.     

The Irish macroeconomic response to an external shock with an application to stress testing

The Irish economy has recently endured a period of turbulence as a result of the collapse of the domestic property market bubble and the onset of the global financial crisis. There are two critical vulnerabilities in the Irish economy at present. The first is the potential for sluggish economic growth due to a slowdown in external demand, which impacts on the government's ability to meet budgetary targets. The second concern relates to the financial stability of the banking system given the escalating mortgage crisis. Our results show that Irish economic growth is highly sensitive to the performance of its trading partners and any international slowdown will hinder Ireland's growth prospects. The model used suggests that the appropriate policy response is to pursue further gains in competitiveness. We estimate the impact of an external slowdown on mortgage delinquency using a new dataset on the loan books of the commercial banking sector. The results suggest that a negative one standard deviation shock to US GDP growth leads to an increase of 1600 in the number of mortgages in arrears for at least 90 days. Arrears are driven by unemployment and negative equity in the model. We discuss policies to contain the mortgage crisis by improving these intermediate target variables.