Benjamin Widner

Crimes and violence in Mexico: Evidence from panel data

Abstract Drug-related violence is now an everyday occurrence in Mexicos northern border-states. While it often appears that all crimes are on the rise in the border region, the actual number of alleged offenders caught and brought to court differs significantly for different types of crime. Using panel data for Mexicos 31 states plus the Federal District from 2004 to 2008, it was found that there were more alleged offenders caught per 100,000 inhabitants involving theft, property damage, and carrying prohibited arms, in Mexicos northern border-states compared to interior states. The effects of other socioeconomic variables on crime in Mexico, such as GDP, incarceration rates, births to single mothers and expenditures on public security, were also examined.

Understanding the Retail Business Potential of Inner Cities

Inner city areas are often significantly “under-stored” (Loukaitou-Sideris 2000), with inadequate opportunities for residents to shop near their homes. More residents are transit dependent in inner cities than in the general metro area, making them even more constrained to local choices. But which types of establishments are needed in which locations? Given their isolation from the economic mainstream, marginalized communities may be the least able to provide information regarding development possibilities. Yet they would also be likely to benefit substantially from such knowledge, given that inner city markets are the focus of less attention than those of economically successful communities. This paper develops methods to bridge this informational gap. Such gaps produce particularly regressive forms of market failure, where economic isolation and stagnation reinforce each other. Business opportunities are likely to exist in the inner city, but private capital’s focus needs to be reoriented to such possibilities. Public entities may help more by analyzing and providing information than by organizing and implementing top-down programs. Universities may be particularly well suited to bridging informational gaps (Weiler 2000a). In that spirit, this study represents a further effort in con

Class Size Effects on Student Performance in a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Overlooked in higher education student retention policies is the effect of class size on student achievement. Decreasing constant-dollar legislative appropriations and growing undergraduate enrollments will continue to strain instructional budgets. One obvious administrator response is to increase class sizes, which raises concerns of negative effects on minority student achievement. Reported are findings that class size does exercise negative effects on the academic performance of Hispanic students.