Natural disasters and local demographic change in the United States

Classic studies on local demographic consequences of natural disasters in the United States are now more than 30 years old, raising questions about how and to what extent relevant patterns have changed over intervening years, as the number and cost of recorded environmental hazards have increased. This study examines these questions at the county level for the nation as a whole, using recent census and hazards data in conjunction with statistical methods that account for spatial dependencies among neighboring counties. Results indicate a positive correlation between cumulative disaster impact during the 1990s and changes in local population and housing units; they also reveal patterns of increased socioeconomic polarization among local residents. These findings differ from earlier studies and put recent case studies in broader context, suggesting that current disaster recoveries contribute to the growth of larger and more unequal populations in environmentally hazardous places.     

Connections with banking institutions and diverse asset portfolios in young adulthood: Children as potential future investors

A central hypothesis of Child Development Accounts (CDA) suggests that savings accounts in childhood lay a foundation for connecting to mainstream banking institutions and diversifying asset portfolios in young adulthood and beyond. While children may have limited savings to invest initially, they are financial actors who may increasingly invest money into different types of savings products over time. This paper uses propensity score weighted, longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its supplements to examine the types of financial and nonfinancial assets owned by young adults and whether or not they are more likely to own these assets when they have savings accounts as children. The most commonly owned assets in young adulthood included savings accounts (89%), vehicles (54%) and credit cards (51%). Smaller percentages owned stocks (9%), bonds (6%), and homes (8%). On average, young adults owned two to three different assets. Having savings accounts in childhood was associated with being two times more likely to own savings accounts, two times more likely to own credit cards, and four times more likely to own stocks in young adulthood, compared to not having savings accounts in childhood. Young adults' ownership of more total financial assets was also associated with having savings accounts in childhood. Findings provide some supporting evidence of demand for children's savings accounts. Policy endeavors that remove barriers to account ownership may be advantageous for children and mainstream banks.     

The Regional Journal in Sociology: Recent Trends and Observations

We investigate the historical trajectories of several sociological journals published by regional associations, focusing our attention on one of the first regional journals published by the Pacific Sociological Association, Sociological Perspectives. We begin with a discussion of the journal’s origins and look at its professional and geographical development over time. Through a comparative-historical analysis of author affiliations of articles published in regional journals, we find geographic ties are important in shaping the early content of regional journals. However, as time passes, regional ties are stretched to include work from a broadening spectrum of regions and nations. So, while regional sociological journals do appear to maintain their original geographical connections, they also tend to expand their relative geographical influence over time.     

Business Continuity Management: Time for a Strategic Role?

Against a background of increasing threats, business continuity management (BCM) has emerged in many industries as a systematic process to counter the effects of crises and interruptions, although its potential to play a more strategic role is still largely under-explored. This article examines the organisational antecedents of BCM and develops a conceptual approach to posit that BCM, in actively ensuring operational continuity, has a role in preserving competitive advantage. Such value preservation is central to the business continuity/business strategy relationship, and gives rise to the central purpose of the paper; to discuss whether firms’ BCM can be seen as strategic rather than purely functional.If so, what form does such provision take in terms of planning, organisation and culture? Evidence from six UK-based financial services firms illustrates differing approaches to business continuity, with two firms showing BCM provision more clearly aligned towards a mission-critical strategic role. Practical precepts for implementation are presented, together with a diagnostic drawing attention to the key determinants of enhanced value preservation.     

Nearly Optimal Tests When a Nuisance Parameter Is Present Under the Null Hypothesis

This paper considers nonstandard hypothesis testing problems that involve a nuisance parameter. We establish an upper bound on the weighted average power of all valid tests, and develop a numerical algorithm that determines a feasible test with power close to the bound. The approach is illustrated in six applications: inference about a linear regression coefficient when the sign of a control coefficient is known; small sample inference about the difference in means from two independent Gaussian samples from populations with potentially different variances; inference about the break date in structural break models with moderate break magnitude; predictability tests when the regressor is highly persistent; inference about an interval identified parameter; and inference about a linear regression coefficient when the necessity of a control is in doubt.     

Accident Epidemiology and the U.S. Chemical Industry: Accident History and Worst-Case Data from RMP*Info

This article reports on the data collected on one of the most ambitious government-sponsored environmental data acquisition projects of all time, the Risk Management Plan (RMP) data collected under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This RMP Rule 112(r) was triggered by the Bhopal accident in 1984 and led to the requirement that each qualifying facility develop and file with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a Risk Management Plan (RMP) as well as accident history data for the five-year period preceding the filing of the RMP. These data were collected in 1999-2001 on more than 15,000 facilities in the United States that store or use listed toxic or flammable chemicals believed to be a hazard to the environment or to human health of facility employees or off-site residents of host communities. The resulting database, RMP*Info, has become a key resource for regulators and researchers concerned with the frequency and severity of accidents, and the underlying facility-specific factors that are statistically associated with accident and injury rates. This article analyzes which facilities actually filed under the Rule and presents results on accident frequencies and severities available from the RMP*Info database. This article also presents summaries of related results from RMP*Info on Offsite Consequence Analysis (OCA), an analytical estimate of the potential consequences of hypothetical worst-case and alternative accidental releases on the public and environment around the facility. The OCA data have become a key input in the evaluation of site security assessment and mitigation policies for both government planners as well as facility managers and their insurers. Following the survey of the RMP*Info data, we discuss the rich set of policy decisions that may be informed by research based on these data.     

The Power of Perception: Health Risk Attributed to Air Pollution in an Urban Industrial Neighbourhood

This paper describes a multi-stakeholder process designed to assess the potential health risks associated with adverse air quality in an urban industrial neighborhood. The paper briefly describes the quantitative health risk assessment conducted by scientific experts, with input by a grassroots community group concerned about the impacts of adverse air quality on their health and quality of life. In this case, rather than accept the views of the scientific experts, the community used their powers of perception to advantage by successfully advocating for a professionally conducted community health survey. This survey was designed to document, systematically and rigorously, the health risk perceptions community members associated with exposure to adverse air quality in their neighborhood. This paper describes the institutional and community contexts within which the research is situated as well as the design, administration, analysis, and results of the community health survey administered to 402 households living in an urban industrial neighborhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. These survey results served to legitimate the community's concerns about air quality and to help broaden operational definitions of health. In addition, the results of both health risk assessment exercises served to keep issues of air quality on the local political agenda. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the environmental justice process as well as the ability of communities to influence environmental health policy are discussed.     

Protective Responses to Household Risk: A Case Study of Radon Mitigation

This study analyzes the effectiveness of a mass-media radon information and testing campaign conducted in the Washington, D.C. area in the winter of 1988. Although an impressive number of test kits (approximately 100,000) were sold, the ultimate mitigation rates resulting from the campaign were extremely low. Analyses show that low mitigation rates cannot be explained by postulating that people's responses to radon are insensitive to the level of objective risk. They may instead be due to characteristics of the protective response required to reduce radon risk. Radon may be thought of as one of a family of household risks which have risk response profiles that make them particularly difficult for people to manage and remediate. Traditional information campaigns for such risks are likely to be ineffective; instead, they may require regulatory strategies or programs which provide active guidance and assistance.