PARENTAL SUBSTANCE USE AND FOSTER CARE: EVIDENCE FROM TWO METHAMPHETAMINE SUPPLY SHOCKS

Foster care caseloads have nearly doubled over the last three decades. Parental methamphetamine (meth) use grew significantly during the same period. While child welfare workers and law enforcement claim that parental meth use contributes to foster care growth, the evidence for a causal effect has not been determined. This paper presents the first evidence of a causal effect of meth on foster care admissions using two exogenous supply‐side interventions in meth markets from the late 1990s for identification. First, we find that restrictions on meth precursor distribution caused meth use (proxied by white meth self‐referred treatment cases) to decline 4.1%. Second, using two‐stage least squares, we estimate a positive elasticity of foster care cases with respect to meth use of 1.54. We also estimate elasticities of 1.03 and 1.49 for cases of child neglect and parental abuse, respectively. These results suggest that child welfare policies should be designed specifically for the children of meth‐using parents. (JEL I12, J13, K42)     

Common property rights and regional subordination in a staples economy: the rise and decline of the British Columbia coastal fishing community, 1880–1981

L'émergence et le déclin de la société de la pêche côtière de L'arrière-pays de la Colombie-Britannique entre les années 1880 à 1981, est examiné dans le but de découvrir les raisons de son existence et de son éclipse. Le modèle de subordination de L'arrière-pays, basé sur des explications de dépendance de modèles de développement régionaux inégaux au Canada, est présenté et critiqué. Il est argumenté que L'affaiblissement de la théorie de deéendance de pouvoir tenir compte de facon satisfaisante des modèles de sous-développement régionaux est associé avec le besoin de situer ces sortes d'analyses à L'intérieur du contexte de sa denrée principale et de ses uniques propriétés de ressources. L'évidence historique des pêcheries de la Colombie-Britannique démontre comment la propriété commune et les qualités périssables des ressources des pêches en combinaison avec le capital du traitement et de la moisson ont alimenté une économie brève au long des côtes rurales au début du siècle, résultant à la création d'un bon nombre de communautés côtières de pêche. Le déclin tardif de cette région et sa glissade dans un état de subsistance marginale et de sous-développement retranché sont vu comme supportant un modèle sectoriel de dépendance régionale. L'évidence courante de cet état dans les pêcheries de la Colombie-Britannique est fournie, et la pertinence des explications de la théorie de dépendance dans le contexte du développement social canadien est discuté. The emergence and decline of the British Columbia hinterland coastal fishing society between 1880 and 1981 is examined for the purpose of discovering reasons for its existence and eclipse. The model of hinterland subordination, based upon dependency explanations for the pattern of uneven regional development within Canada, is presented and criticized. It is argued that the failure of dependency theory to account satisfactorily for patterns of regional underdevelopment is associated with the need to situate such analyses within the context of the particular staple and its unique resource properties. Historical evidence from the British Columbia fisheries demonstrates how the common property and perishable qualities of the fishing resource combined with processor and harvesting capital to fuel a brief economic heyday along the rural coast earlier in this century, resulting in the creation of a number of coastal fishing communities. The later decline of this region and its slide into a state of marginal subsistence and entrenched underdevelopment are seen to support a sectoral model of regional dependency. Current evidence of this state in the B.C. fisheries is provided, and the relevance of dependency theory explanations in the context of Canadian social development is discussed.     

AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO PROCESS PARAMETER SELECTION

This case study of a process improvement project from the Hewlett-Packard Analytic Products Group illustrates a number of important approaches for operations strategy. First, we show how process control in capillary tube manufacturing led to a significant improvement in tubing strength, a quality measure that relates to the frequency of tube defects at a particular stress level. Next, we show how one particular approach used for experimental design and process improvement was considerably more economical than another standard method. In conclusion, we link the process characteristics such as defect frequency to strategic measures such as company revenue and investment to underscore the strategic importance of process control.     

CONSTRAINED BY HOURS AND RESTRICTED IN WAGES: THE QUALITY OF MATCHES IN THE LABOR MARKET

This paper examines the explicit loss born by workers who face constraints in their working hours by analyzing differences in actual and desired hours and wages. Men tend to be underemployed while women are evenly split between over- and underemployment. Losses in surplus are generally small, but 10% of underemployed men and women experience losses of more than 34% or 50% of surplus, respectively. The loss measure is also an important determinant in predicting labor market transitions, meaning increases in surplus losses generate a higher probability of changing from workers' present jobs or changing the number of hours. ( JEL J22, J41)     

INFORMATION AND THE PROVISION OF QUALITY DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS

Governments often enact information provision policies to overcome asymmetric information of product qualities. We show that increasing awareness among consumers of the quality of a good can (but will not always) encourage firms to produce goods with higher levels of quality. Even if product qualities increase, social welfare may fall as information provision results in too much product differentiation. We show that the effectiveness of emission taxes and output subsidies are affected by the level of consumer knowledge of product quality, and we identify conditions under which information provision is welfare enhancing relative to these price instruments. ( JEL L1 5, Q58)     

The Effort Involved in Finding Employment for White-Collar Offenders

Summary Ex-offenders are notoriously difficult to place into employment.However, the efforts needed to help such clients find work varyenormously and an important question to consider is whetherit is more appropriate to help a larger number of clients bylimiting the amount of placing effort for each client or tocontinue to try to assist those who prove much more difficultplacing propositions. The present study indicates some of thepotential dangers in concentrating upon short-term aid and thefindings have relevant implications for other areas of socialwork where there is a need to ration efforts made on behalfof clients. The present paper also stresses that the difficultiesof while-collar es-offenders finding work have not been fullyrecognized by other comtnentators.