Racial differences in high school dropout rates: An analysis of U.S. Metropolitan areas

In this paper, we explore the differences in high school dropout rates among white, black and Hispanic students in 275 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in 2000. Our analysis focuses on the impact of community and labor market conditions, in hopes of providing insight into the relationship between place and educational outcomes. The explanatory power of our regression models is mixed across racial groups, performing best for whites and Hispanics. Our results also indicate that community factors – most importantly, same-race adult educational attainment in the community, teenage birth rates and residential stability – have a greater impact on dropout rates than labor market factors. Our results suggest that as education reform moves toward broad-based solutions to improve student outcomes including dropout rates, it will be increasingly important to address the structural origins of inequality outside of schools.     

Vertical Axes on the Long-Term Care Continuum

Abstract

As the continuum of long-term care has expanded, public funding has not accompanied new care options. I detail access, provider profits and resources, and care quality in two types of residential care that fall in the center of the continuum, assisted living and board and care. These two options provide examples of how limited public funding leads to vertical axes, which represent access to services, the resources providers draw on to give care, and the quality of long-term care services, at each service point on the long-term care continuum.     

Carleman不等式的加强

利用幂级数相关理论和一些初等不等式,建立了 Carleman 不等式的一序列加强不等式。     

Problem Solving is Often a Matter of Cooking Up an Appropriate Markov Chain*

Abstract. By means of a series of examples, from classic contributions to probability theory as well as the author's own, an attempt is made to convince the reader that problem solving is often a matter of cooking up an appropriate Markov chain. Topics touched upon along the way include coupling, correlation inequalities, and percolation.     

试论闲暇偏好的效用和对收入分配的影响

提出了闲暇剩余这一概念,并计算了劳动者闲暇偏好对闲暇剩余的影响,同时分析了劳动者闲暇偏好对收入分配不均等性的影响.针对不同群体适当引导对闲暇的偏好,可以满足不同群体的需要,缩小收入差距的不均等性.这对解决我国当前劳动力供需紧张、人们收入差距逐渐拉大具有较强的现实指导意义.     

互联网在中国人口中的普及状况及其不均衡程度分析

一、引言自1994年中国接入互联网以来,中国互联网用户(即网民,CNNIC将其定义为平均每周使用互联网至少1小时的中国公民)的数量增长迅猛。据中国互联网络信息中心(CNNIC)最新的调查结果显示[1]:截止到2004年12月31日,中国网民人数已达9 400万人,与2003年同期相比增长了18.24%,是     

Social capital and the reproduction of economic inequality in polarized societies

This paper explores the idea that the distribution of wealth across social groups fundamentally affects the evolution of economic inequality. By providing microfoundations suitable for this exploration, this paper hopes to enhance our understanding of when social forces contribute to the reproduction of economic inequality. In tackling this issue, this paper offers contributions in two domains. First, it models social capital as a real capital asset with direct use and collateral values. Second, it extends the concepts of identity, alienation and polarization originally advanced by Esteban and Ray (Esteban, J.M. and Ray, D.: On the measurement of polarization, Econometrica 62(4) (1994), 819–851). This generalization permits us to consider the multiple characteristics that shape social identity, inclusion and exclusion. It also underwrites a higher-order measure of socio-economic polarization that permits us to explore the hypothesis that economic inequality is most pernicious and persistent when it is socially embedded. Holding constant the initial levels of economic polarization and wealth inequality, we show that higher socio-economic polarization increases subsequent income and wealth inequality. Far from being a distributionally neutral panacea for missing markets, social capital in this model may itself generate exclusion and deepen existing economic cleavages.     

Has the national minimum wage reduced UK wage inequality?

Summary.  The paper investigates the effect on the wage distribution of the introduction, in April 1999, of the national minimum wage (NMW) in the UK. Because of the structure of UK earnings statistics, it is not straightforward to investigate this and various methods for adjusting the published statistics are discussed. The main conclusions are that the NMW does have a detectable effect on the wage distribution and that compliance with the NMW is widespread but the effect is limited because the NMW has been set at a level such that only 6–7% of workers are directly affected and the NMW has had virtually no effect on the pay of workers who are not directly affected. Furthermore, virtually all the changes occurred within 2 months of the introduction in April 1999 and its effect declined over time from April 1999 to September 2001 as the minimum wage was not uprated in line with the increase in average earnings. The more substantial increase in the NMW in October 2001 partially, but not wholly, restored some of this decline in impact.     

亚正定阵上的Minkowski不等式

对亚正定阵证明了一个Ｍｉｎｋｏｗｓｋｉ不等式，从而推广改进了一些文献的结果．     

关于农民的财政不公平与公平财政的改革

长期以来,农民负担十分沉重,其主要原因是财政的不公平待遇。虽然经济体制改革前后农民交纳的形式不同,但其实质均体现为农民的财政不公平。解决此问题的关键是通过实施针对农民的公平财政改革。在现阶段,统一城乡税制的改革不能急于求成,可先行建立“社会补偿”制度与“逆向税制”政策。