Month: March 2014

The Social Costs of Population Ageing: Is health care for older populations sustainable?

01/03/2014

Public discourse in recent years has been dominated by doom and gloom predictions that the social costs of ageing populations are like a tsunami which will engorge the health and pension systems in North America and Europe. We are told that our systems are unsustainable, that countries will go bankrupt if they don’t reduce their … More The Social Costs of Population Ageing: Is health care for older populations sustainable?

What happens to persistent and serious young offenders when they grow up?

01/03/2014

A follow-up study of the first recipients of intensive supervision and surveillance; Emily Gray, Keele University Since its inception, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) of the UK has initiated several innovative programs to try to reduce youth crime and to reduce re-offending. Consistent with the principles of evidence-based policies, favoured by the governments of the … More What happens to persistent and serious young offenders when they grow up?

Evaluation: How effective is exercise as a treatment for depression?

01/03/2014

The following information is summarized from the Cochrane Collaboration review of evaluations of programs using exercise as a treatment for depression. (You may find the results a bit depressing.) This review of evaluations which met the criteria to be included (high-quality trials using randomized processes for inclusion and control) sought to determine if exercise helps … More Evaluation: How effective is exercise as a treatment for depression?

Have the US “Empowerment” and “Enterprise” areas benefited from federal intervention?

01/03/2014

The first of these programs, the “Empowerment Zones,” was launched in the early 1990s, followed a few years later by the “Enterprise Zones.” We present first an analysis carried out of the Enterprise Zones by US academics. The study showed positive results in the short run, but was equivocal on the potential for long-term benefits. … More Have the US “Empowerment” and “Enterprise” areas benefited from federal intervention?

Local Interventions to Reduce Poverty: Obama’s new initiative

01/03/2014

In an earlier volume, Politudes reported on President Obama’s announcement of a new program of local intervention, called “Promise Zones.” We have carried some material describing initiatives in Canada and France which have comparable objectives, if not all of the same components. The following brief contributions address the socio-economic context, the objectives of Promise Zone … More Local Interventions to Reduce Poverty: Obama’s new initiative

Stanford Social Innovation Review Commentary on barriers to targeted collective action among non-profits

01/03/2014

“Collective Impact” by John Kania and Mark Kramer The authors point out that collective action to create change on a community level is a very tough challenge for non-profit organizations. Funders tend to choose one organization to fund for a particular task, and have difficulties dealing with multiple organizations. The competition process has each organization … More Stanford Social Innovation Review Commentary on barriers to targeted collective action among non-profits

Helping low-end workers: Minimum wage adjustment or income supplementation?

01/03/2014

Public concerns about increasing inequality appear to be reaching the ears of legislators in North America and Europe. President Obama recently announced that he would adjust the minimum wage for federal contractors to just over $10 per hour, and called upon congressional and state legislators to do the same for wages in their jurisdictions. There … More Helping low-end workers: Minimum wage adjustment or income supplementation?