We study how the employment effects of enterprise zones vary with their location, implementation, and administration, based on evidence from California. We use new establishment-level data and geographic mapping methods, coupled with a survey of enterprise zone administrators. Overall, the evidence indicates that enterprise zones do not increase…

Public service employment is a cost-effective fiscal remedy in terms of jobs created within the first 12 months. Its effectiveness is enhanced if participants come from welfare or unemployment compensation programs. Other positive attributes are low inflationary impact and ability to be targeted to areas or groups. (SK)

New York representatives Jack Kemp and Robert Garcia have introduced a bill in Congress that proposes to entice business to and create jobs in blighted urban areas by offering federal tax breaks. While the bill has gained some support, the suspicion remains that the plan will ultimately benefit business at the expense of the poor. (Author/MJL)

Analysis of 101 projects in 7 public works programs (PWPs) in Western Cape Province in the mid-1990s estimated the public expenditure needed to transfer resources to the poor. Comparison of the result with that generated by a hypothetical, untargeted transfer showed that most of the PWPs outperform the benchmarks. (Contains 26 references.) (JOW)

The concept of full employment must relate government policy to the following: (1) improved quality of life; (2) private-public relations; and (3) the data needed for accountable decision making. Seven elements are suggested which will lay the groundwork for change. Historical government action on full employment is reviewed. (PS)

Compares federal job creation efforts of the 1970s to the Work Project Administration (WPA) program in the 1930s. Traces the development of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and stresses the need to unite public and private resources to achieve both balanced economic growth and full employment. (SK)

Discusses why U.S. cities are imperiled, and suggests reasons for this dilemma. The author lists the motives for turning attention toward the problems of the modern city and the factors that have contributed to the present theory: current urban problems stem from policies generated in the 1960s and 1970s. Suggestions for reversing this trend are…

Proposes a policy where money currently being spent on subsidies for poor families and on the effects of illnesses resulting from poverty and crime would be spent instead on preventive health care, day care, education, and job training programs. Advocates helping people become self-sufficient as society's most cost-effective option. (CJS)