The concentration index is widely used to measure income-related inequality in health. No insight exists, however, whether the concentration index connects with people's preferences about distributions of income and health and whether a reduction in the concentration index reflects an increase in social welfare. We explored this question by testing the central assumption underlying the concentr...

This issue brief seeks to explore the ways in which a differential response-organized Child Protection System (CPS) might help to mitigate disparate outcomes in child welfare while highlighting current gaps in knowledge and indicating areas for further research. It builds on discussions started at the Information Summit on Disproportionality sponsored by the National Quality Improvement Center ...

This article describes the problem of homelessness in Japan, and contrasts the status of the problem between the United Kingdom and Japan. Demographic characteristics of the homeless, including age and gender, vary across the two countries (for example, there are very few homeless women in Japan). Factors contributing to the development of homelessness in each country are discussed and contrast...

This paper presents findings from a structured review of treatment models that are relevant to group care and residential treatment settings for children involved with the child welfare system. Initiated and guided by The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, five treatment models - Positive Peer Culture, Teaching Family Model, Sanctuary Model, Stop-Gap Model, and Re-ED - w...

Food price increases and the introduction of radical social welfare and enterprise reforms during the 1990s generated significant changes in the lives of urban households in China. During this period urban poverty increased considerably. This paper uses household level data from 1986 to 2000 to examine what determines whether households fall below the poverty line over this period and investiga...

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that entry of new firms reduces not only prices but also costs. However, it is far from clear how this cost-reduction works. In this paper I investigate three models of how entry may cause cost reduction: managerial incentives, survival of the fittest, and imitation. The models have somewhat different implications for social welfare.

The new "Children's and Family Services Reviews" (CFSR) process focuses on the effectiveness of services to children and families by measuring client outcomes. This article reviews the research literature related to child welfare outcomes in order to provide a context for federal accountability efforts. It also summarizes the 2001 federal mandate to hold states accountable for child welfare out...