Chemical Accidents in the United States, 1990–1996

Objective. Much of the empirical work on environmental justice centers on the geographic distribution of potential chronic health risks (e.g., planned toxic releases or treatment storage and disposal facilities). Far less attention has been devoted to the geographic distribution of acute health risks that cause immediate harm. The purpose of this work is to examine environmental justice in terms of potential acute health risks by examining the distribution of serious chemical accidents across diverse subpopulations. Methods. We draw upon 1990 census data for the United States to study the relationship between the racial, ethnic, and economic characteristics of census block groups ( N = 226,398) and the presence or absence of chemical accidents that caused at least one injury, death, or evacuation for the time period of 1990–1996. The data used to map the location of the chemical accidents were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency's Accidental Release Information Program (ARIP) database. Results. Our results indicate that the acute risk associated with chemical accidents at fixed facilities is greater for individuals living in low–income census block groups, especially when comparisons are made within the counties where the chemical accidents occur. Our results concerning race and ethnicity are less consistent and somewhat weaker. Conclusions. Although these results do not show large and dramatic effects, as have often been found in the study of the social distribution of chronic environmental risk, they do stand as one of a relatively few social analyses of social variation in exposure to acute environmental risk.     

Job Skill and Black Male Wage Discrimination*

Objective. Debate over the causes of wage inequality have raised suggestions that, rather than discrimination, skill differences may be the reason for racial wage disparities. The purpose of this research is to examine what impact on‐the‐job skill differences have on wage inequality. Method. I regress the log wage onto race and a measure of skill. The Multi‐City Study of Urban Inequality Employer Survey is particularly useful in this analysis because it contains the employer's evaluation of the worker's relative skill against other workers. Result. When white and black men have the same employer's competitive performance rating, rather than decreasing racial wage differences, the differences actually increase. Conclusion. The wage gap is not a skills gap, but evidence of racial discrimination in the labor market.     

Aging in the Third World

The relationships between the generations in Third World countries are changing as migration and industrialization erode traditional family responsibilities for supporting the elderly. It is no longer possible to assume that, as a matter of course, old people will be looked after by their families. Social change leads to an eroding of the support systems. The author finds growing evidence of this breakdown in Asia, particularly in Singapore, Hong Kong, and other highly industrialized centers. Singapore, for example, has reinstituted the compulsory study of filial piety in an attempt to push the younger generation into assuming its traditional responsibility toward the old. There has also been a significant decline in the status, prestige, and support given old people in Indonesia, although politicans insist that the family will always take care of its elderly. 2 reasons for this breakdown are 1) the impact of the mass media and 2) the increasing involvement of the younger generation in non-agricultural jobs which often involve a move to the city and away from dependence on a patriarch. Many Third World countries are in a twilight stage, between the traditionally strong structure of family support and government systems of social security.     

The Possibility of Promoting User Participation in Working with High-risk Youth

Summary Advocacy for promoting user participation in the helping processof social work has been reported in the literature since the1970s, but the practicality of the concept for different clientelesof social work has been rarely explored. This paper presentsa recent qualitative study on exploring the applicability ofuser participation in work with high-risk youth in the streetswho are usually regarded as immature and low in both self-confidenceand the ability to make the ‘right’ decisions. Thefindings of the study support the promotion of the concept ofuser participation in working with high-risk youth. Positivechanges and growth were observed among this group with the applicationof user participation in the helping process. Ways for promotingthe implementation of this concept in work with high-risk youthare suggested.     

A macroeconomic potential describing structural change of the economy

For the purpose of describing change in an economy's structure, and addressing issues of transformation, the notion of a time-dependent macroeconomic potential function is introduced. It penalizes deviations from equilibrium (entrepreneurial error) and induces moves toward equilibrium. Thus, from the concept of a potential function is derived the concept of short-term and long-term change forces. We focus here on the long-term structural changes of an economy as distinct from short-term cyclical variations, and we represent economic transformations as phase-transitions between monostable and ambiguous bistable states of the economy. One important feature of the potential function approach is that the parameter of the potential can be determined from empirical data. In particular, the parameters can be regressed for input variables. Hence, a relationship has been established between the structural change force and a set of input variables, some of which are controlled in part by either public or private sector agents. The method has been applied to West German and United States industry data for 1950–1980.     

Political confrontation over fiscal processes: The impact of the U.S. Congressional Budget Act

In July 1974 the U.S. Congressional Budget Act was signed into law. This legislation was the result of a heavily fought political confrontation between President Nixon and Congress over who controlled the Federal budget. In addition to the issue of control, the Act was prompted by dissatisfaction with the procedures used by Congress to determine Federal receipts and expenditures. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact this legislation had on the U.S. economy in its early years.The first section of the paper sets up a simple modeling framework. The model is specified so as to illustrate how a change in the budget process resulting from the Congressional Budget Act could potentially produce changes in the level of total output. This section also explains the derivation of a tax and expenditure series used in the model's empirical testing. The second section addresses some of the theoretical issues, and presents the results of simulations based on the Chase, Wharton, and Data Resources econometric models. Broad conclusions are gathered in the final section.