Search

Begin New Search Topic Human Welfare

321. Afghan Update: Jan. 1 - Feb. 7, 2006

Author:
Francis Rheinheimer
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
Four U.S. soldiers were killed on Feb. 13 when their vehicle hit a bomb in central Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. It was the deadliest single-day loss of American troops since September, when five died in a helicopter crash. On Feb. 19, the Pentagon announced that 215 U.S. soldiers had been killed since the conflict began in late 2001. Of those, 129 were killed by hostile action. On Feb. 23, a man driving a truck filled with explosives was shot and killed by coalition forces after the material failed to explode. He managed to throw one grenade but no soldiers were hurt.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and America

322. Afghan Update: Nov. 28 - Dec. 31, 2005

Author:
Joseph Button
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
On Nov. 30, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a U.S.-led convoy in Helmand province. U.S. warplanes and troops responding to the attack killed two militants. On Dec. 4, two U.S. Chinook helicopters facing enemy fire made emergency landings. The first landed harshly north of Kandahar, injuring five U.S. soldiers. The second aircraft made a came down at a forward base in Uruzgan province, injuring an Afghan soldier.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and United States

323. Housing and American Recessions

Author:
John H. Makin
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
A weak housing sector has accompanied every American recession since 1965, but not every episode of housing weakness has accompanied a recession. An annual drop in the growth rate of residential investment (a good measure of homebuilding activity) of more than 10 percent has coincided with a recession five of the seven times it has occurred since 1965. (In 1967 and in 1995, declines in residential investment occurred without a recession.) A significant drop in residential investment therefore appears to be a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition, for a U.S. recession.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States and America

324. Two Cheers for Welfare Reform

Author:
Douglas J. Besharov
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
It has been nearly ten years since President Bill Clinton signed the landmark 1996 welfare reform law. The anniversary has been the occasion for various news stories and opinion pieces, most of them praising the law's success in reducing welfare dependency. And it is true: welfare caseloads have fallen an astounding 60 percent since reform efforts began. But even as a strong supporter of welfare reform, I find it difficult to muster unqualified enthusiasm for the law and how it has been implemented.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Human Welfare

325. Striking a Balance: Drug Labeling and the FDA

Author:
John E. Calfee
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
With the fourth Vioxx lawsuit currently under way, a fourth jury is in the thick of trying to determine whether Merck is indeed liable for any injuries that may or may not have arisen from the use of its blockbuster arthritis drug. The trials have highlighted bad tort bar science in all its dubious glory—from questionable pathology reports to seriously exaggerated claims about the dangers of Vioxx—but they also raise a deeper issue. Every drug presents patients and doctors with a trade-off between benefits and risks. But how can physicians and drug companies strike a balance in the age of a hyperactive litigation? Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) weighed in on that question when it published a long-awaited rule to simplify drug labels. Up to now, extensive, cringe-inducing lists of every imaginable side effect of a medicine were a drug company's best hope of immunizing itself from lawsuits down the road. The FDA wants to simplify those impenetrable reams of fine print by preempting state-court lawsuits claiming that an FDA-approved label failed to warn patients of a potential danger.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Health, and Human Welfare

326. A Plan to Replace the Welfare State

Author:
Charles Murray
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
This much is certain: the welfare state as we know it cannot survive. No serious student of entitlements thinks that we can let federal spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid rise from its current 9 percent of GDP to the 28 percent of GDP that it will consume in 2050 if past growth rates continue. The problems facing transfer programs for the poor are less dramatic but, in the long term, no less daunting; the falling value of a strong back and the rising value of brains will eventually create a class society making a mockery of America's ideals unless we come up with some- thing more creative than anything that the cur- rent welfare system has to offer. So major change is inevitable—and Congress seems utterly unwilling to face up to it. Witness the Social Security debate of last year, a case study in political timidity. Like it or not, we have several years to think before Congress can no longer postpone action. Let's use this time to start thinking outside the narrow proposals for benefit cuts and tax increases that will be Congress's path of least resistance.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Health, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
America

327. High Rises and Low Wages: Expatriate Labor in Gulf Arab States

Author:
Simon Henderson
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On March 21 and 22 as many as three thousand foreign construction workers rioted in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai in protest at conditions on the site where the world's tallest building is being built. Cars and construction machinery were wrecked and office windows broken as the workers demanded higher wages and improved conditions. The unrest highlights the desperate conditions faced by the expatriate labor that performs most of the manual work in the oil-rich Gulf Arab states.
Topic:
Economics, Health, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Arab Countries, Dubai, and Persia

328. Food Retailing, Supermarkets and Food Security: Highlights from Latin America

Author:
Mehmet Arda
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The importance of supermarkets in the world food economy has increased radically since the early 1990s. They are now major sellers and buyers of food items not only in developed but also in developing countries. Urbanization and the liberalization of the services sector have been important facilitators of this process.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Latin America and Central America

329. The Public Distribution Systems of Foodgrains and Implications for Food Security: A Comparison of the Experiences of India and China

Author:
Guanghua Wan and Zhang-Yue Zhou
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
A comparative study of the public distribution systems of foodgrains in India and China is expected to reveal lessons and experiences that are valuable to policymakers. This is particularly important for developing countries in their endeavour to ensure food security. This paper undertakes such an exercise. The main features and developments of the two public distribution systems are first highlighted. This is followed by a comparative analysis of their similarities and differences. The role of public foodgrain distribution systems in ensuring food security is then evaluated. Finally, policy implications are drawn.
Topic:
Human Welfare and Poverty
Political Geography:
China, India, and Asia

330. Measures of Food Insecurity at the Household Level

Author:
Prasanta K. Pattanaik, Craig Gundersen, and Indranil Dutta
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Food insecurity and hunger have traditionally been measured by aggregate food supplies or by variables correlated with food insecurity. Because these measures often poorly reflect individuals' true deprivation, economists have turned to surveys with direct questions about food insecurity. Using these surveys, households have then been classified into broad categories, a classification system which ignores the richness of the multiple questions. In this paper, we propose food insecurity measures, along the lines of the well established poverty measures, which incorporates this richness and allow us to reflect the depth and severity, in addition to the incidence, of food insecurity. Using these indices, we calculate the extent of food insecurity and hunger in the United States. Along with giving a richer picture of food insecurity in the US, these food insecurity measures demonstrates that the ordering of various demographic categories differs depends on the choice of measure.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Human Welfare, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States