Marilyn Marks Rubin

Urban Enterprise Zones: Do They Work? Evidence from New Jersey

Budgetary pressures have made it necessary to consider the effectiveness of urban enterprise zones. These geographically targeted tax incentives programs are widespread. But whether and to what extent these programs spur economic development is not known. The article presents an evaluation of urban enterprise zones in New Jersey in terms of costs and economic impacts, including industrial output, tax revenue, and job creation.

Can Reorchestration of Historical Themes Reinvent Government? A Case Study of the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Act of 1993

Reinventing government is rapidly becoming the orchestral theme for public sector officials who must face the music of increasing demands on, and a decline in, available resources. Generally associated with issues of productivity and efficiency, the theme of reinventing government has been extended by the Clinton administration to redefine the relationship between the federal government and local communities. Illustrative of this extension is the administrations Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Program enacted by Congress as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. President Clinton has orchestrated the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Act (EZEC) as dominant themes in his administrations reinventing government symphony. This dominance is clearly enunciated in his memorandum to the Presidents Community Enterprise Board, which is chaired by Vice President Gore and includes the secretaries of all major departments and councils in the administration. In his memorandum, the President directs the board to implement the EZEC program so that it reflects the principles of the National Performance Review, the vice presidents blueprint for streamlining and reinventing government (Clinton, 1993). The primary tones of the EZEC--enterprise zones and local community planning and empowerment--are not new melodies. The enterprise zone, with its geographically targeted tax reductions and regulatory relief, has been a federal and state refrain for almost 15 years. Community planning and empowerment are dearly repetitions of motifs that linger from the 1960s Model Cities program. Is, then, the EZEC program merely a reorchestration of earlier enterprise zone pieces composed during the Reagan-Bush years, with a Clinton spin from Lyndon Johnsons Great Society? If so, does the EZEC reinvent government? To answer these questions, the concepts of enterprise zones and of the Model Cities program, as well as the lessons learned from them, must be clearly understood. This article begins with the origins of enterprise zones in England and traces their historical development in the United States, on both federal and state levels. After presenting the history of enterprise zones, and the lessons to be learned from them, I proceed to review the lessons to be gleaned from the Model Cities program and close by addressing the question, can reorchestration of historical themes be reinventing government? The Origins of Enterprise Zones: The British ]Experiment The concept of using enterprise zones to encourage economic development did not begin in the United States, but is based on a British experiment in urban revitalization of the late 1970s. Coined as a phrase by geographer Peter Hall, and derived from the apparent economic success of enterprise-zone-type policy precedents established in Hong Kong and in Taiwan, the first public pronouncement of the zone concept is generally traced to Englands Sir Goeffrey Howe, a Conservative member of Parliament. Howes 1978 pronouncement was made in Londons dockland district, an area then typical of Britains distressed urban communities. Howe and his supporters saw the implementation of enterprise zones as a way to alleviate urban distress by allowing entrepreneurs to pursue profit with minimum governmental restrictions. This free-market approach, with its emphasis on tax and regulatory relief, stood in stark contrast to Britains centrally planned economic development programs, which Howe felt were dismal failures. Howe was given the opportunity to implement enterprise zones when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Margaret Thatchers Conservative administration. His 1980 legislation authorized by Parliament provided for geographically targeted tax incentives and regulatory relief It provided for contractual agreements between the central government and local governments that were to establish zone boundaries and the procedures for granting these tax incentives and regulatory relief to local entrepreneurs. …

Financial Management Grades for the States: A Prospective Use

This research examines whether financial management grades awarded to the states by the Government Performance Project (GPP) can provide some prospective gauge of fiscal performance in proximate years, particularly on the downside of the business cycle. Our findings confirm the weaker fiscal condition in both 2002 and 2003 of states that received lower financial management grades from the GPP in 2001, suggesting that these grades have the potential to be prospective as well as retrospective. These results, however, are tempered by several concerns that inform our suggestions for additional research to further assess the prospective potential of financial management performance grades.

Women in ASPA: The Fifty-Year Climb toward Equality

In the 50 years since the founding of ASPA, vast changes have taken place in the economic and social fabric of American society. One of the most dramatic changes has been the increased participation of women in the labor force. In 1940, only 28 percent of all adult women were members of this nations civilian labor force; by 1987 that proportion had doubled to 56 percent. In contrast, from 1940 to 1987 the labor force participation rate of men declined from 83 percent to 76 percent. In 1987, of the 54 million women in the labor force, 8.6 million or 16 percent were employed by federal, state, and local governments.

Using Cross-National Studies to Illuminate the Crime Problem: One Less Data Source Left Standing

As a result of the 2005 decision by Interpol to no longer collect and disseminate police crime data, the UN biennial crime survey is now the only source of publicly available police data for studying crime trends extending over many years and covering a wide range of crimes and countries. This article assesses the effect of this “and then there was one” phenomenon through an analysis and comparison of member nation responses to the UN and Interpol crime data surveys for the year 2002. The article takes advantage of having two data sets covering police-recorded crime to analyze the quality of the UN survey data and to suggest ways to improve it. Better UN data not only will provide the basis for more robust scholarly comparisons of crime across national borders but can also yield results to illuminate crime problems worldwide.

An Executive MPA Program for China: Lessons from the Field

Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs are offered in more than 100 universities in China. All require applicants to pass a competitive national entrance exam in five subject areas. This requirement significantly discourages senior-level public administrators, many of whom graduated from college several years ago and have work schedules that do not allow time to prepare for an academically focused examination. These senior-level administrators need an Executive MPA (EMPA) or similar program with more realistic entrance requirements and a curriculum designed for people with significant professional experience. Drawing on the data collected from surveys of MPA students enrolled in six MPA programs in China and students enrolled in an EMPA program in Singapore specifically designed for Chinese public servants, this article reports how the demographic differences between MPA students and EMPA students affect their preference for professional public administration education in terms of knowledge components, managerial competencies, teaching modalities, and examination methods. The findings of the study significantly challenge not only Chinese universities that would like to adopt the existing MPA education model for EMPA education but also universities outside of China that are establishing EMPA or joint EMPA programs with Chinese governments or universities.

Measuring Government Performance: The Intersection of Strategic Planning and Performance Budgeting

In the United States, recommendations that public budgeting systems incorporate performance information can be tracked back at least to the beginning of the 20th century when the New York Bureau of Municipal Research suggested that the New York City budget show the objectives and activities of government rather than just itemizing planned purchases (Williams, 2004). Most government budget experts, while acknowledging the many challenges to performance budgeting, posit that presenting performance information alongside budget amounts introduces a different rationality into budget decision-making by focusing funding choices on results rather than on political bartering (Willoughby, 2011: 352).