John Portz

Plant Closings and Advance-Notice Laws: Putting the Pieces Together

In 1988, the federal government passed the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Previous to this action, several states approved their own laws requiring advance notice of plant closings and mass layoffs. Implementation and enforcement of advance-notice laws have been weak and limited, due primarily to a policy design that includes numerous criteria for legal exclusion, as well as reliance on adjudication as the primary means of such implementation and enforcement. Advance-notice laws have had limited impact in averting plant closings and mass layoffs, but appear more successful in assisting displaced workers find new employment. For employers, advance notice entails some costs, although they do not appear excessive; less is known about costs in the larger economy.

State Economic Development Programs: The Trials and Tribulations of Implementation

During the 1980s, state governments initiated an array of economic development policies and programs. Although plans were numerous, obstacles to implementation were equally evident. This article considers such obstacles by focusing on three programs in Massachusetts and Michigan—the Massachusetts Social Compact and the Reemployment Assistance Benefits Program and the Michigan Modernization Service. An implementation framework that includes four elements—problem definition, program capacity, political support, and state ecology—is used to analyze the trials and tribulations that led to the demise of these programs. The Massachusetts and Michigan experiences are also placed in the broader context of distributive, redistributive, and regulatory policies. As these case studies demonstrate, each policy type poses a different set of challenges for public policymakers and administrators.