Robert Schwab - US grants

It is the contention of this project that the theory of local public finance is based on a misspecified "production function" for local services--one that omits the important role that community characteristics play in determining levels of public output. This misspecification has both important positive and normative implications. The positive implications concerning biased estimates of price and income elasticities have been the subject of some attention in the literature. But the normative implications have been largely ignored. In particular, the central results of the Tiebout model, namely that an optimal system of jurisdiction is characterized by communities that are homogeneous in the demand for local services, no longer holds in a world in which community composition is an important determinant of outputs of local public goods. This study develops a general theory of local finance in a setting where community composition influences local public outputs. The focus here is determining how the optimal composition of local jurisdictions depends on the interaction of individuals in the provision of local public goods. This project investigates in econometric terms the production function of public safety. It uses existing data sets to explore the form of the relationship between community composition and the levels of public safety. Finally, a series of simulation studies are made using specific utility and production functions to examine the optimal structure of local jurisdictions where community composition matters in the production of local services.

Four major problems have dominated recent discussions of U.S. economic growth: the productivity slowdown that began in 1973, the dramatic differences in growth across regions throughout the postwar era, the relationship between productivity and U.S. international competitiveness, and the impact of the deterioration of the public infrastructure on the nation's economic performance. The analysis of regional productivity growth from this project could potentially offer important insights into all of these issues. In this project, the growth rate and level of productivity in twenty one industries for each of nine regions over the 1951-1986 period will be estimated. This approach parallels the trend in national productivity research toward disaggregation. Although this disaggregation has focused on narrower industry detail, it is likely that focusing on regional growth will lead to further gains. The results of the project will allow several important questions to be answered: (1) Has productivity grown more rapidly in some regions than others? (2) Was the productivity slowdown limited to a small number of regions, or was it more pervasive? (3) Is there any evidence that regional productivity levels are converging? (4) Are regional differences in productivity correlated with industrial characteristics, the degree of urbanization, education expenditures, regional investment in public infrastructure capital, and other public policies?

The purpose of this project is to analyze three sets of major policy issues in education: 1) the distribution of education resources, 2) the distribution of educational outcomes, 3) and the distribution of the benefits of education reform. Regarding the distribution of educational resource, special attention will be paid to the move in recent years to equalize school expenditures across taxing jurisdictions. The questions to be addressed include to what extent has the inequality of spending been reduced, and what evidence is there that changing the distribution of spending has had important education benefits. With respect to the second issue, the distribution of educational outcomes has changed significantly over the past 25 years. For example, the gap between black and white test scores and high school graduation rates has narrowed sharply. Special attention will be focused on the determinants of these patterns. The third issue of education reform will focus on the implication of increasing school choice and increasing the role of the private sector in providing public education. In particular, little is know about who the likely winners and losers would be if the choice movement continues. Special attention will focus on the analysis of the distribution of benefits from expanded choice.

This research analyzes s a number of interrelated issues in school finance reform. The first part of the project continues a study of court mandated reform, but in this work the focus shifts from the impact of the courts on the distribution of dollars to the real consequences of successful school finance litigation. This part has three components, all of which share a common theme: what are the consequences of education finance reform for schools and students? First, the project looks at the impact of court ordered reform on the demand for private schools. Using matches of demographic data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 Census of Population with school funding data from the 1972, 1982, and 1992 Census of Governments, it is possible to look at how private school enrollment changes as schools receive more funds because of finance reform. The unit of observation is the district. The panel nature of our data set allows the investigators to purge their estimates of the effects of permanent differences across districts. Second, the question is asked: what do schools do with the money they receive as a result court mandated reform? Do they lower teacher pupil ratios? Increase teacher salaries? Hire better educated, more experienced teachers? Expand course offerings? Increase use of computers? To address these questions, the study uses unique matches of the Common Core of Data to both the Schools and Staffing Survey and the 1988 National Educational Longitudinal Survey. Third, a case study is undertaken of finance reform in Kentucky. The Kentucky Supreme Court's 1989 decision in Rose v The Council for Better Education, Inc. was far reaching, holding that the entire state education system governance and curriculum as well as finance was unconstitutional. This part of the project involves a careful analysis of the Kentucky experience in the aftermath of Rose. This project also includes two research projects on school finance that go beyond court mandated reform. One is the impact of expanding labor market opportunities for women. At one time, teaching was one of the few occupations that welcomed women, and as a consequence schools could pay teachers far less than they were worth. While occupation segregation persists, women now have more options in the labor market than they once did. Consequently, the education finance system will have to raise additional funds in order to attract capable people to teaching. This part of research will study the hypothesis that the combination of stagnant wages for teachers and new opportunities for women may lead to a significant decline in the quality of people entering the teaching profession. The other project is fiscal federalism, demographics, and the demand for education. Previous research has found that support for public schools is negatively correlated with the fraction of the population that is 65 and older. The project will analyze the impact of the interaction of the aging population and increased centralization on public spending for education. This work will differ from past efforts in that it will allow for the possibility that the influence of an aging population on school spending depends in part on the organization of local government and the state's role in education.

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SES-0548858
Henry Frierson
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

SES-0549031
Robert Schwab
University of Maryland, College Park

SES- 0548909
Steven Ullmann
University of Miami

SES-0549057
Anne Donnelly
University of Florida

SES-0548986
Orlando Taylor
Howard University

The goal of the Atlantic Coast Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (AC-SBE) Alliance, consisting of Howard University, the University of Florida, the University of Maryland at College Park, the University of Miami, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is to increase the number of under-represented minority students receiving PhD degrees in the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences and ultimately entering the professoriate. All five universities are among the nation's leaders in awarding PhDs in the SBE fields to underrepresented minority students. The plan for the AC-SBE Alliance includes elements designed to help students at each step as they move from undergraduate school into graduate programs and onto the professoriate. The consortium has four objectives: (1) Recruit and prepare undergraduates to pursue a PhD in SBE fields, (2) Assist students in the transition from undergraduate to graduate study, (3) Retain PhD students and increase degree completion rates, and (4) Prepare future SBE faculty for success. Although each of the five schools in the AC-SBE alliance has unique features, the AC-SBE Alliance will include a number of overarching activities that will involve all five universities. For one example, the Alliance will build upon Howard University's Summer Institute that prepares future faculty in the STEM disciplines to launch a parallel SBE component. Also, entering AC-SBE students will be invited to participate in a one-week course Introduction to Data Analysis for the Social Sciences at the Odum Institute for Research in the Social Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Odum Institute will also offer a number of videoconference short courses for AC-SBE students. Efforts will be made to ensure that the students in the SBE Alliance have further opportunities to interact and network at conferences such as the NSF-supported EMERGE.

Broader Impacts. Through integrating the resources of the five AC-SBE Alliance institutions, AC-SBE will have a broad impact across a wide region of the country in the eventual production of SBE PhD recipients. Thus, AC-SBE will serve as a comprehensive project for recruiting, mentoring, and graduating URM students in SBE PhD programs, and to carry out strategies to identify and broadly support URM students who want to pursue graduate studies and academic careers. The norms of inclusiveness at the AC-SBE Alliance institutions and the relationships that have been forged will endure well past the termination of grant support to continue efforts to ensure the significant numbers of minority students pursue and receive PhD degrees and enter the professoriate.

SES-0750385
Henry Frierson
Anne Donnelly
Carolyn Tucker
University of Florida

SES-0750663
Kim Nickerson
Johnetta Davis
Robert Schwab
University of Maryland, College Park

SES-0750657
Steven Ullmann
University of Miami

SES-0549057
Anne Donnelly
University of Florida

SES-0750683
Orlando Taylor
Florence Bonner
Angela Cole
Howard University

The grant provides three years of continued support to the Atlantic Coast Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (AC-SBE) Alliance. AC-SBE, comprised of Howard University, University of Florida (lead institution), University of Maryland at College Park, University of Miami, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to complete a range of activities with the goal of increasing the number of under-represented minority students receiving doctorate degrees in the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences and ultimately entering the professoriate. All five universities are currently among the nation's leaders in awarding PhDs in the SBE fields to underrepresented minority students. The AC-SBE Alliance includes elements designed to help students at each step as they move from undergraduate school into graduate programs and onto the professoriate. The Alliance will continue to: (1) recruit and prepare undergraduates to pursue a PhD in SBE fields, (2) assist students in the transition from undergraduate to graduate study, (3) retain PhD students and increase degree completion rates, and (4) prepare future SBE faculty for success. Although each of the five schools in the AC-SBE alliance has unique features, the AC-SBE Alliance includes a number of overarching or "value-added" activities that involve sharing resources across the five universities. For example, the Alliance builds upon Howard University's Summer Institute that prepares future faculty in the STEM (science, engineering and technology) fields, adding a parallel SBE component. Also, entering AC-SBE students participate in a one-week course--Introduction to Data Analysis for the Social Sciences--at the Odum Institute for Research in the Social Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Odum Institute also offers a number of videoconference short courses to AC-SBE students.

Broader Impacts. Through integrating the resources of the five Alliance institutions, AC-SBE has the potential to realize a broad impact across a wide region of the country in the production of SBE PhD recipients. Thus, AC-SBE serves as a comprehensive project for recruiting, mentoring, and graduating underrepresented students in SBE PhD programs, and further to more broadly support students who want to pursue graduate studies and academic careers. It is anticipated that the norms of inclusiveness at the AC-SBE Alliance institutions and the relationships that have been forged will endure well past the termination of grant support to continue efforts to ensure the significant numbers of minority students pursue and receive PhD degrees and enter the professoriate.