The Parents Role in Children Education - Assignment Example

PLAN 303: Planning Economics Summer 2010 Final Exam Study Questions Respond to the following questions based on the assigned readings in your textbook and our class discussion. 1. How does the presence of other children affect the quality of a child’s education? How do these factors affect a parent’s perception of the benefits and costs of sending their child to a specific school? Children teach each other information while at school. They also teach each other how to learn. The group establishes expectations for learning together and also a certain kind of moral and cultural development. Parents may look at a school with a higher cost and higher achieving students, and compare it with a school which involves a lower cost for the family but which offers lower achieving student classmates. They may decide that the short term financial cost is worth the long term gain for their child. 2. Can we rely on markets to efficiently set the quantity, quality and price of K-12 education? Explain. The short answer is no. In some areas of low population schools have a monopoly and so need regulation. All schools have problems of observability and verification and this makes a free market an unreliable choice. Also the users (i.e.) children are not able to make choices very well, so a market in the usual sense is not appropriate for them. 3. What is the Index of Dissimilarity? Hamilton County has an Index of Dissimilarity of 0.6796. What does this mean? This measures how far a city is from an ideal segregation mix (i.e. a situation where all racial groups are fully integrated and there is no segregation). It ranges from zero to one. The higher the number, the greater the amount of segregation present. 4. What is the Index of Isolation? Hamilton County has an Index of Isolation of 0.6020. What does this mean? This measures the probability that the neighbour of a minority resident will also be of that minority. Again it ranges from zero to one. And again, the higher the number, the greater the amount of segregation present. 5. What are some of the causes of residential segregation, as identified in Mark Carrozza’s report? One possible cause is that minorities have some preference for being together. Another is that they may find it easier to set up local businesses there or find jobs. This is disputed. Childre may however be more successfully socialized in segregated areas. Some whites have hostility against moving to a black area, or lack trust in their minority neighbors. Racial covenants prevented properties being bought by minority citizens. Realtor treat minorities less well, and so they move less, and imbalances remain. 6. What is the Index of Centrality? In 1980, northern US cities had an Index of Centrality of 0.88. What does this mean? This measures the closeness of minorities to the traditional central business districts of a city. It measures from one to minus one with one being all minorities closer to the center than whites, minus one with all whites living closer to the center than minorities, and zero being the ideal mix with both being the same distance. 7. What are some of the policies discussed in the book that could be used to promote racial integration? Making house moves easier for minorities; making minority neighborhoods more attractive; integration maintenance through subsidies, housing counselling, active enforcement of housing codes etc. 8. Your textbook says that a case can be made that we have too much housing in the US. Explain what this means. Most people live in groups of 6 or less in America, which means that a large number of small size units have to be built. This is not very cost effective. It is, however, how our society prefers to live. 9. What are some of the positive externalities associated with owner-occupied housing? Owner occupiers tend to maintain their living environment better, and to get more involved in the local community. They have more of a stake in the place. 10. How does the US tax code encourage owner-occupied housing? Through exemption of imputed income from services of owner-occupied housing; deductability of state and local property taxes; the almost complete exemption of housing from capital gains taxation; the exemption of imputed income from spousal services. 11. What are rent controls? What are the advantages and disadvantages of rent controls? Rent controls forbid price rises for longer periods than leases. They stabilize the market and encourage people to stay in the same house for longer. This in turn increases their stake in the community. It circumscribes the power of the landlords. These are advantages. The disadvantages are that they allocate property to the wrong people, and they discourage landlords from maintaining properties and investing in more properties. 12. What are some of the “supply-side” housing programs described in your textbook? Urban renewal programs, section 236 in 1997 and Section 8 which built new units. Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) of 1986. 13. What are some of the “demand-side” housing programs described in your textbook? Section 8 existing house program. Subsidies of fixed sums. 14. What does your textbook conclude about the effects of growth control policies on providing housing for the poor? Growth control raises prices, and this makes good housing even more unaffordable for the poor. 15. What does your textbook conclude about the effects of the Section 8 program on providing housing for the poor? It makes housing units smaller and also raises rents. The poorer people receive subsidies, but the rents go up and so they lose out. 16. What are the three different ways of understanding the basic problem of homelessness that we discussed in class? a) if you are rootless and unattached. (hobo) b) if you don’t have a right to occupy the residential space you are sleeping in (squatter) c) if you live like a vagrant. 17. What are the implications our understanding of the causes of homelessness for the economic efficiency of policies to address homelessness? We need to examine the causes carefully so that we can target resources in the right place. 18. What are some of the policies for diminishing the threat of crime? More police; better directed patrolling; problem oriented policing; community policing; zero tolerance policing. 19. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of incarceration as a crime fighting policy, as discussed in your textbook? It is an expensive option, both for the state and the families of the incarcerated and it does not rehabilitate prisoners well (disadvantages). But on the plus side it removes crime from the streets by deterring some criminals and incapacitating others. 20. What are the major crime-related reasons given in your textbook for regulating drugs, guns and alcohol? People who use drugs guns and alcohol are more likely to be involved in violent crime and theft. Focusing on this behavior is easier because the guns drugs and alcohol can be more easily identified an followed up than the actual criminal acts. Thus it indirectly regulates activities. Guns drugs and alcohol can also be used as tools for criminals. Drugs bring a lot of money and this can be a motive. 21. What are some of the findings of the empirical evidence about how drugs, guns and alcohol affect crime? The majority of homicides are committed by guns. Having guns at home makes juveniles more likely to commit crimes. Decreasing cost of drugs leads to more total amount being spent on them, therefore more crime being committed. Alcohol makes people more violent. 22. What are the major “other social cost”-related reasons given in your textbook for regulating drugs, guns and alcohol? There is a greater risk of accidents. Behavior is noisier and rowdier. Medical costs are higher. Children and families are damaged. There are more suicides. 23. What are the advantages and problems of “ideal regulation” of drugs, guns and alcohol? Quality of the substances would improve for the users, health would improve, and the users would disturb others less. But it would not work in practice because people don’t act in their own best interest and the law enforcement system cannot track and deal with crimes perfectly. 24. What are some of the economic development incentive programs offered by the City of Cincinnati? More spending on public services . 25. What do we mean when we talk about urban economic development in US cities? It is not just activity for the sake of it, but something which adds value to the city. 26. What are some of the policies for promoting urban economic development discussed in your textbook? Lowering taxes. Tax abatements. Infrastructure construction. Free training programs. 27. What does your textbook conclude about the effectiveness of tax abatements to promote increased market activity? They do not achieve this goal. 28. Your textbook says that tax abatements and TIFs have similar economic development effects. Explain. Both in essence take money from the government to allow an individual to make investments, and so in the end they have the same result. 29. What does your textbook mean by “linkages” as an economic development policy, and how do linkages work? They are efforts to tie developments to specific outcomes, like for example creating jobs, but they do not often work. 30. What does your textbook conclude about the effectiveness of building sports stadiums and arenas as an economic development tool? They bring little benefit to the local economy, and most of the money that is generated goes to coaches and players, who spend it outside the region. It is not a good economic development tool. Read More