A model for measuring the need for services in a district

Administrators of social programs are often faced with decisions regarding how to distribute available funds. An important factor in this decision is the geographic location of the population in need of the agency's services. One would assume that those areas of the community where there are more people in need of the agency's support would receive a larger portion of the budget. However, in many cases, dollars are apportioned without adequate knowledge of what parts of the community are in the greatest need of services.This paper presents a method that can be used by most agencies for making a determination of the service need in different parts of the community. The agency used in the model construction is the Office of Community Services (OCS). The mandate of OCS is to implement a comprehensive plan for the delivery of social services in New York City. The “community” (New York City) is divided into forty Human Resource Districts (HRD's). In each of these districts there are outstations that provide a range of social services.In the past, misleading population characteristics of the districts were used to represent the need for OCS services. The characteristics were misleading because they did not represent the number of persons who would be in need of the services. For example, the number of persons receiving public assistance would not adequately represent the number of persons who needed child health services. This is especially true because some persons who are not eligible for public assistance are eligible for child health services.     

Inequality in Exchange: The Use of a World Trade Flow Table for Analyzing the International Economy

Whether or not the terms of trade between two countries may be unequal is a controversial question in the theory of international economics. In practice, the issue is resolved through statistical observation of the terms of trade. This measurement of the terms of trade follows a long tradition and produces impressive detail. It is, however, restricted in scope, because the first derivative, the change of the terms over time is observed only. Absolute levels depend on which year is chosen as the base year, a choice that is rather arbitrary and carries no theoretical meaning. Equality in the levels of terms of trade remains thus undefined. More precisely, it is always assumed to exist implicitly for whichever base year is being nominated. The paper proposes an answer to this ambiguity based on the relatively new statistical tool of international purchasing power compilation. The terms of trade are crucially dependent on the rate of foreign exchange (for which exports are traded against imports), which is predominantly governed by financial rather than commodity markets. Hence, the paper proposes to separate the two factors of influence and to call terms of trade ‘equal’ if the effective real exchange rate (as derived from the nominal exchange rate by means of purchasing power parities) equals one. On that basis a world trade flow table is constructed, putting the compiled equalities and inequalities in trade into a coherent, global perspective.     

Are Minimum Wage Effects Greater in Low‐Wage Areas?

Empirical work on the minimum wage typically estimates effects averaged across high‐ and low‐wage areas. Low‐wage labor markets could potentially be less able to absorb minimum wage increases, in turn leading to more negative employment effects. In this article, we examine minimum wage effects in low‐wage counties, where relative minimum wage ratios reach as high as 0.82, well beyond the state‐based ratios in extant studies. Using data from the American Community Survey, the Quarterly Workforce Indicators, and the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages, we implement event study and difference‐in‐differences methods, estimating average causal effects for all events in our sample and separately for areas with lower and higher impacts. We find positive wage effects, especially in high‐impact counties, but do not detect adverse effects on employment, weekly hours, or annual weeks worked. We do not find negative employment effects among women, Blacks, and/or Hispanics. In high‐impact counties, we find substantial declines in household and child poverty. These results inform policy debates about providing exemptions to a $15 federal minimum wage in low‐wage areas.     

Becoming a high-performance work organization: the role of security,employee involvement and training

The emerging employment system characterized by a high degree of employment security with flexible job assignments, employee involvement in problem solving and continuous improvement, and continuous training of employees is discussed. This model is called the SET system (for Security, Employee involvement and Training) and it is examined by means of case studies of five US firms that are attempting to establish or maintain a SET system. It is found that SET systems are difficult to implement in a gradual and partial manner. The three elements of SET reinforce one another and firms that are successful in adopting SET have made an investment to implement all three SET elements simultaneously. Four factors that impede implementation of a SET system are then identified.     

Erklärung der persuasiven Wirkung von Werbung

This article summarises the results of previously discussed and analysed advertising effects using a model of these effects. The model presented includes three mediating variables (attitude toward the advertisement, advertisement cognitions, and brand cognitions) and two moderating variables (involvement and frequency of exposure). We also discuss the relevance of these five concepts. In addition, we present empirical studies to support particular elements of our model. We see the contribution of this model in the fact that it represents a basis for investigating the direct and indirect effects of advertising concepts (e.g. advertisement variation in the case of increasing exposure) and for analysing the impact of recipients’ characteristics (e.g. their familiarity with advertising object or their mood) on attitudes toward the brand. Furthermore, such a model provides an informative basis with regard to the question of which dimensions of advertising effects should be considered when optimizing advertisements.