This special issue bridges inquiry on intelligence and scholarship on social policy by exploring the constraints that differences in intelligence may impose in fashioning effective social policy. The authors discuss a range of behaviors, but focus primarily on the noneducational outcomes of crime, employment, poverty, and health. (SLD)

Diversification of rural economies and changes in financial markets and world trade have broken down many barriers that insulated rural areas in the past. United States rural areas--the rural South and Northeast in particular--now appear to be affected slightly more than urban areas by national monetary and fiscal policies. (JHZ)

Farm policy alone is no longer a sufficient development policy for today's rural America. Rural economies have changed over the last 30-40 years from reliance on farming to greater reliance on manufacturing and service industries. Rural economic development policies need to reflect today's changed rural economy. (Author)

This report examines workforce preparation in the state of Illinois within the following general areas: (1) the current and future workforce preparation needs of business; (2) higher education's role in relation to the roles of secondary education, business, labor, and government in providing workforce preparation programs; and (3) the…

Children are among the poorest of Maine's residents. Nearly 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, 19.3%, lived in families below the federal poverty line in the early 1990s. Most of these poor children lived in working families. The working poor are often missing from policy debates, but their numbers are likely to increase with welfare reform…

Reducing poverty and social exclusion is an important objective for all French governments. Even though conventionally measured poverty is in fact lower than in most other countries, it is still higher than can be easily accepted. The current policy approach involves a large number of measures tailored to different circumstances. Some policies…

A study examined the earnings losses suffered by a group of experienced workers who separated from their firms in the early and mid-1980s. The quarterly earnings histories of a large number of Pennsylvania workers covering the period 1974 through 1986 merged with employment information about their firms served as the data set. Workers' earnings…

Unemployment compensation in the United States is provided through a federal-state system of unemployment insurance (UI). UI provides temporary partial wage replacement to active job seekers who are involuntarily out of work. For older workers, UI is an important source of income security and a potential influence on work incentives. For example,…

This book presents results of a major study of the policies and programs that affect whether people with disabilities take part in the Canadian labor force. It concludes that people with disabilities are excluded, not primarily because of their disability nor its severity, but rather because of barriers resulting from public policy and program…

The need for a national policy for the development and use of human resources is evident. One part of the human resource development issue centers around the needs of adult workers who are unemployed or threatended with unemployment because of structural changes in the labor market. The issue of retraining adult workers was examined in detail in…

This report provides a statistical profile for thinking about education and development decisions in North Carolina. It profiles the state primarily in terms of population patterns, economy, labor force, education, and environment; secondarily in terms of health and social services, infrastructure and aspects of government performance. State and…

Argues that it is easy to overestimate the additional emigration from rural Mexico that could occur as a result of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) related economic restructuring in Mexico. Four major reasons why Mexican emigration may not increase dramatically are suggested. Phase-in recommendations related to implementation are…

This study was conducted to determine how many workers are in low-wage jobs; their characteristics and changes in their characteristics over time; the characteristics of the low-wage jobs; gender, sex, and racial factors influencing participation in low-wage jobs; and the relationship of low-wage work to family poverty and welfare receipt. The…

The labor market effects of employment protection were examined in a study of Germany's employment protection regulations and their impact on employment practices and patterns. The following topics were considered: (1) the question of whether Germany's labor market problems are a result of regulations; (2) employment security as a subject of labor…

This paper is concerned with the strategies being adopted for vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and the lessons that could be learned for them from policies in other countries. Six issues are considered in the paper, each relates to or more of the objectives and particular strategies in the Australia's National Strategy for…