Cost of Services and Incentives in the UK Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) Demonstration: Preliminary Analysis

This report presents a preliminary analysis of the cost of operating Britain's Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration, which is being evaluated though a large-scale randomised control trial. This assessment of costs will become an important element of the full cost-benefit analysis to be presented in future ERA reports. Aimed at helping low-income individuals sustain employment and progress in work, ERA is distinguished by a combination of job coaching and financial incentives that it offers to participants once they are working. The ERA demonstration project began operations in late 2003 as a pilot programme administered by Jobcentre Plus in six regions of the country

Welfare-to-Work Program Benefits and Costs: A Synthesis of Research

Most welfare programs seek to ensure that poor families have adequate income while at the same time encouraging self-sufficiency. Based on studies of 28 programs involving more than 100,000 sample members, this synthesis compares the costs, benefits, and returns on investment of six welfare program strategies -- from the perspectives of participants, government budgets, and society as a whole

The Double Bind of Redevelopment: Camden During Receivership

This working paper finds that successful redevelopment efforts in Camden, New Jersey, under state receivership were able to build on groups' existing capacities and their past work in neighborhoods, were marked by more effective participatory dynamics and the limited use of eminent domain, and benefited from good relationships with the State of New Jersey and with private-sector partners. It concludes that attempts to build public capacity to revitalize cities may need to be complemented by efforts to build civic capacity, or the ability to solve problems in coordination with major partners

A sweep algorithm for massively parallel simulation of circuit-switched networks

A new massively parallel algorithm is presented for simulating large asymmetric circuit-switched networks, controlled by a randomized-routing policy that includes trunk-reservation. A single instruction multiple data (SIMD) implementation is described, and corresponding experiments on a 16384 processor MasPar parallel computer are reported. A multiple instruction multiple data (MIMD) implementation is also described, and corresponding experiments on an Intel IPSC/860 parallel computer, using 16 processors, are reported. By exploiting parallelism, our algorithm increases the possible execution rate of such complex simulations by as much as an order of magnitude

Rural Competitiveness: Results of the 1996 Rural Manufacturing Survey

Establishments in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations are surprisingly similar in their adoption of new technologies, worker skill requirements, use of government programs and technical assistance, exports, and sources of financing, according to the results of a nationwide survey of 3,909 manufacturing businesses. The most widespread concern of both metro and nonmetro businesses appears to be with quality of labor. Survey respondents report rapidly increasing skill requirements, and many report problems finding qualified workers. Quality of local labor is the most frequently cited problem associated with nonmetro business locations. Access to credit, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure is a problem of secondary importance for both metro and nonmetro respondents. Rural communities face a considerable challenge in supplying workers with needed skills. The fastest-growing skill requirements -- computer, interpersonal/teamwork, and problem-solving skills -- are not central to traditional academic instruction.rural manufacturing, sample survey, worker skills, manufacturing location, credit availability, technology adoption, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Glacial cycles promote greater dispersal, which can help explain larger clutch sizes, in north temperate birds

Earth’s glacial history and patterns in the life history traits of the planet’s avifauna suggest the following interpretations of how recent geological history has affected these key characteristics of the biota: 1) Increased colonizing ability has been an important advantage of increased dispersal, and life history strategies are better categorized by dispersive colonizing ability than by their intrinsic growth rates; 2) Birds of the North Temperate Zone show a greater tendency to disperse, and they disperse farther, than tropical or south temperate birds; 3) Habitat changes associated with glacial advance and retreat selected for high dispersal ability, particularly in the North; and 4) Selection for greater dispersal throughout the unstable Pleistocene has also resulted in other well-recognized life history contrasts, especially larger clutch sizes in birds of North Temperate areas