Thomas D. Boston

The Effects of Revitalization on Public Housing Residents: A Case Study of the Atlanta Housing Authority

Abstract This research uses administrative data to examine the long-term socioeconomic status of households that relocated from public housing projects in Atlanta as a result of mixed-income revitalization. The research spans 7 years, covering the period before relocation and demolition had begun and ending after mixed-income redevelopment was completed. Residents who lived in three public housing projects that were revitalized are compared to a control group of residents who lived in three projects that were not revitalized, showing that mixed-income revitalization greatly accelerated the residential mobility of public housing residents and that households displaced by revitalization did not experience a statistically significant loss of housing assistance. Households that relocated by using vouchers or by moving to mixed-income revitalized communities experienced significant improvements in their socioeconomic status, and they moved to higher quality neighborhoods. Additionally, their long-run socioeconomic status was similar to the status of households who moved from housing projects voluntarily, i.e., not in response to a planned demolition. This is one of few empirical studies of the effects of HOPE VI revitalization on public housing residents, and its conclusions argue against the elimination of funding for HOPE VI as called for in the presidents budget for 2006.

Secrets of Gazelles: The Differences between High-Growth and Low-Growth Business Owned by African American Entrepreneurs

The research findings are based on a national survey of 350 African American business owners whose companies had ten to one hundred employees. Each quarter of 2002 and 2003, owners were randomly selected and interviewed. Companies were classified into three groups according to their annual employment growth over five years: gazelles (20 percent or greater rate of growth), growth-oriented firms (1 to 19 percent), and no-growth firms (less than 1 percent or negative). In comparison to no-growth firms, gazelles were more likely to market to the government sector, less likely to compete on the basis of price, more likely to serve regional and national markets, and more likely to have fewer African Americans workers. CEOs of no-growth companies were more likely to have entered business because they lost a previous job. Surprisingly, no statistically significant differences appeared in thirty-nine other variables that defined owner attributes, firm characteristics, and business strategies of gazelles and no-growth firms.

Characteristics of black-owned corporations in Atlanta: With comments on the SMOBE undercount

Black-owned corporations are only 3 percent of all black-owned businesses in the nation, but account for almost half of all revenue and employment of these businesses. Even though their rate of growth greatly exceeds that of proprietorships and partnerships, very little is known about the characteristics of black-owned corporations. TheSurvey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises (SMOBE) is published every five years by the Department of Commerce and is the most comprehensive source of information on black-owned businesses. Yet, most researchers fail to realize that this survey does not include all corporations in its survey universe, but only 1120 S corporations. This study uses primary data collected on 722 of the most successful blackowned businesses in the Atlanta metropolitan area. We analyze the characteristics of black-owned corporations and the human capital attributes of their owners, and we comment on the SMOBE undercount of 1120 subchapter C corporations. We find that in Atlanta, not only do black-owned subchapter C corporations greatly outnumber S corporations, but they also have a much greater financial capacity.

Do Megaregions Produce Greater Regional Convergence or Divergence? Implications for Spatial Planning and Infrastructure Investment

AbstractThe population and economic activities encompassed by megaregions are ever expanding. As this occurs, investments are often recommended to ensure the regions are globally competitive from an economic standpoint. However, although such investment may accelerate growth in megaregions, that growth may have an uneven impact on the national economy. To date there has been very little empirical research on the relationship between the internal growth characteristics of megaregions and their effects on surrounding areas and the national economy. This paper examines the growth of megaregions within the context of regional convergence and divergence theory. U.S. counties are reorganized by megaregion to compare the inequality of counties and the extent to convergence in each megaregion. In particular, it uses the Theil index and conditional β convergence for measuring the relationship between growth, inequality, mobility, and social welfare. The results show a process of conditional β convergence at the na...

Racial Inequality and Class Stratification: A Contribution to a Critique of Black Conservatism:

This analysis challenges central propositions of black neoconservatives. To them class position, and not race, is the determining factor in life chances of blacks and racial inequality can be explained almost completely by differentials between blacks and whites in class position, family structure, human capital endowment, and other factors. This study analyzes the contemporary structure of black classes, its changes over time, and the interplay between racial subordination and racial protest in determining class stratification. I conclude that class position is a function of racial inequality.

Nea presidential address, 1991: Sixteenth-century European expansion and the economic decline of Africa (in honor of Walter Rodney)

Prior to the sixteenth century, the Indian Ocean trading network was one of the wealthiest commercial regions in the world. It included states of East Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. By circumnavigating Africa, Portugal was the first European nation to gain access to the region. Through the exercise of naval superiority, blockading of strategic shipping lanes, imposition of duties and expulsion of Swahili and Muslim merchants, Portugal exercised a mercantile monopoly which ultimately led to the region’s rapid economic decline. Using rare historical documents from Po rtugal and Africa, this study traces the effects of Portuguese expansion on the economies of East Africa and trade in the Indian Ocean.

An employment and business strategy for the next century: A comment

As the twentieth century comes to a close, it is a good time to take stock of the economic progress of blacks. Another reason to do this is because the economy is experiencing one of the most vigorous and longlasting periods of growth in peacetime history. The current recovery, which began in 1991, has brought unemployment to its lowest level in a quarter of a century. Equally important, growth has accelerated while core inflation, now just 2.2 percent, is the lowest in thirty-two years. Overall, the economic status of blacks has improved during this current period of growth. In particular, poverty among blacks is at the lowest level since the government began tracking the figures in 1959, and over the past year, the average household incomes of blacks increased by 3.6 percent, while the income of whites increased by 2.2 percent. But these general improvements hide the fact that there are still large employment and income disparities between blacks and whites. Consider this; even though average household income among blacks has improved, it is still only 63 percent of whites. Furthermore, the poverty rate among blacks might be the lowest on record, but 30 percent of black families still live below the poverty line. Finally, while the unemployment rate among whites is 3.7 percent, it is 9.2 percent for blacks. Twenty years ago, blacks comprised 20 percent of all unemployed workers. Today they comprise the same percentage even though they constitute only 11.2 percent of the labor force. It hardly matters to the racial employment gap that the economy is experiencing the longest peacetime expansion in history. Indeed, racial disparities have not changed significantly over the last twenty years. As long as the employment of