"Striving to Save will inform and inspire social policy with its breakthrough approach in understanding how low-income families make ends meet while striving to make a better life for themselves and their families. Scholarly work in savings, debt, household finance, and behavior economics will benefit from this pioneering study that provides real-life context for some of the most important issues of our day."---Tom Shapiro, Brandeis University "The central contribution of the book is to use original qualitative research to provide readers with a nuanced understanding of the financial difficulties facing low-income households, their financial decision-making processes, and their paths to saving and building assets over time. Thebook provides an essential corrective to the unidimensional... Less

Learn how public policies can help families provide the care their elderly relatives needFamily and Aging Policy examines how public initiatives to assist the elderly in the United States, Canada, Singapore, Denmark, and Sweden can impact families who provide them with long-term care. For the majority of older people, the aging experience involves their families directly and indirectly, affecting income security, housing, and health care. This unique book addresses the aging issues that matter most to families struggling to deal with the demands of care giving and provides answers on how the public sector can help.As the traditional nuclear family becomes a memory and the notion of extended family disappears, the need for public interventions to help the elderly increases. A significant... Less

This book focuses on women and retirement. Women aged 65 and over will account for a growing segment of the U.S. population over the next several decades. Despite increases in women's workforce behaviour in the past 65 years, elderly women have persistently high rates of poverty. Thus, it is important to understand the differences between men's and women's retirement income, and how women may fare given future reforms to Social Security and pensions. Preparing for retirement and achieving financial security are daunting tasks for all Americans to be sure; however, women face many unique challenges. Women still perform the primary caretaker role in our society. As a result, many women spend significant periods of time out of the workforce raising children or taking care of elderly parents,... Less

PART OF THE NEW JONES & BARTLETT LEARNING INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY & ASSURANCE SERIES! The study of information system security concepts and domains is an essential part of the education of computer science students and professionals alike. Security Policies and Implementation Issues offers a comprehensive, end-to-end view of information security policies and frameworks from the raw organizational mechanics of building to the psychology of implementation. It presents an effective balance between technical knowledge and soft skills, and introduces many different concepts of information security in clear simple terms such as governance, regulator mandates, business drivers, legal considerations, and much more. With step-by-step examples and real-world exercises, this book is a... Less

Public policy texts need to give a thorough explanation of the policy process, but why do so many relegate policy analysis to a single, final chapter or not cover it at all? In the third edition of their innovative text, Kraft and Furlong take a decidedly different tack. They introduce and integrate an evaluative approach to policy throughout their text, encouraging critical and creative thinking on issues ranging from economic policy and the financial bailout to homeland security and natural disasters.Public Policy starts with the basics and concisely reviews institutions, policy actors, and major theoretical models. The authors then discuss the nature of policy analysis and its practice, and show readers how to employ evaluative criteria in six substantive policy areas. At its core,... Less

Everyone agrees that Social Security's future is in jeopardy-or is it? Long viewed as the "third rail" of American politics, Social Security is a major political issue, and many experts and politicians would like to restructure this program. But too few of us, young and elderly alike, really understand the origins and workings of this popular program. Daniel Béland answers the call for objective information with a short history that provides context and clarity for the current debates. Covering six decades through the beginning of the current century, Béland chronicles how Social Security and the controversy surrounding its solvency have evolved, offering along the way new insights into its past, present, and future. His balanced perspective will help readers understand and evaluate... Less

The gold-standard for introductory public policy texts, Understanding Public Policy is designed to provide students with concrete tools for both understanding and analyzing public policy.The new fourteenth edition of Understanding Public Policy focuses on the policy challenges confronting the Obama administration. This edition provides students with a close up look at the American healthcare system, current economic policies, issues of homeland security and defense policy among many other current event and issues shaping public policy today.Teaching & Learning ExperiencePersona lize Learning- MySearchLab, which delivers proven results in helping students succeed, provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep... Less

In an increasingly risky world the need for social security support is greater than ever. Benefits and tax credits aim to provide protection against economic risks, help families with the costs of bringing up children, enable people to save for retirement, and provide support in old age. Key goals are to redistribute income to alleviate poverty and help people maintain living standards across the lifecourse. Reform of the social security and tax systems has been at the heart of the UK Labour government's aspirations to modernise the welfare state since 1997 with major changes in both policy and administration. This second edition of the important text, Understanding Social Security, reviews these policy developments, giving readers the information and analytical tools to make sense of... Less

The events of September 11, 2001, combined with a pattern of increased crime and violence in the 1980s and mid-1990s in the Americas, has crystallized the need to reform government policies and police procedures to combat these threats.  Public Security and Police Reform in the Americas examines the problems of security and how they are addressed in Latin America and the United States.  Bailey and Dammert detail the wide variation in police tactics and efforts by individual nations to assess their effectiveness and ethical accountability.  Policies on this issue can take the form of authoritarianism, which threatens the democratic process itself, or can, instead, work to “demilitarize” the police force. Bailey and Dammert argue that although attempts to apply generic models such as the... Less

This study of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) explains in detail how public officials in the executive branch and Congress overcame strong opposition from business and organized labor to pass landmark legislation regulating employer- sponsored retirement and health plans. Before Congress passed ERISA, federal law gave employers and unions great discretion in the design and operation of employee benefit plans. Most importantly, firms and unions could and often did establish pension plans that placed employees at great risk for not receiving any retirement benefits. In the early 1960s, officials in the executive branch proposed a number of regulatory initiatives to protect employees, but business groups and most labor unions objected to the key proposals. Faced... Less

This book is a concerted attempt by economists to investigate and offer remedies for some of the difficulties associated with an ageing labor market. The economic problems of ageing combined with a declining population manifest themselves most acutely in the present Japanese economy. Demographic trends present serious social and economic problems for Japan, and the rest of the global community is affected by the ways in which it copes with these difficulties. The contributors to this book study Japan's experience, which is crucial for understanding the nature of ageing problems and for developing feasible policies to address them. Ageing labor markets could distort the employment mechanism, create youth unemployment, and disrupt incentives for human capital formation in younger workers... Less

In the past few decades, the field of transportation has changed dramatically. Deregulation and greater reliance on markets and the private sector has helped to reconfigure the transport industries, while the rise of intermodal goods and global commerce has produced efficiencies of operation and a greater interdependence among transport modes. In addition, security issues have moved to the forefront as officials struggle with the challenge of protecting the vast transportation system while maintaining its operational efficiencies and effectiveness. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the Handbook of Transportation Policy and Administration addresses the changes facing the field of transportation. Organized into five sections, it describes and analyzes major modes of transportation and... Less

Taxing Wages provides unique information on income tax paid by workers and on social security contributions levied upon employees and their employers in OECD countries. In addition, this annual publication specifies family benefits paid as cash transfers. Amounts of taxes and benefits are detailed program by program, for eight household types which differ by income level and household composition. Results reported include the marginal and effective tax burden for one- and two-earner families, and total labour costs of employers. These data on tax burdens and cash benefits are widely used in academic research and in the preparation and evaluation of social and economic policy making. Taxing Wages 2008 includes a Special Feature entitled "Consumption Taxation as an Additional Burden on... Less

Distributional issues may not have always been among the main concerns of the economic profession. Today, in the beginning of the 2000s, the position is different. During the last quarter of a century, economic growth proved to be unsteady and rather slow on average. The situation of those at the bottom ceased to improve regularly as in the preceding fast growth and full-employment period. Europe has seen prolonged unemployment and there has been widening wage dispersion in a number of OECD countries. Rising affluence in rich countries coexists, in a number of such countries, with the persistence of poverty. As a consequence, it is difficult nowadays to think of an issue ranking high in the public economic debate without some strong explicit distributive implications. Monetary policy,... Less

Just a decade ago security had little claim to criminological attention. Today a combination of disciplinary paradigm shifts, policy changes, and world political events have pushed security to the forefront of the criminological agenda. Distinctions between public safety and private protection, policing and security services, national and international security are being eroded. Post-9/11 the pursuit of security has been hotly debated not least because countering terrorism raises the stakes and licenses extraordinary measures. Security has become a central plank of public policy, a topical political issue, and lucrative focus of private venture but it is not without costs, problems, and paradoxes. As security governs our lives, governing security become a priority. This book provides a... Less

An array of techniques and applications are used in the analysis and valuation of the principal debt market instruments. The basic analytical techniques are applicable in all bond markets, but as the instruments being valued become more complex, additional techniques are required. In order to succeed, today's financial practitioners need to be fully up to speed on how these derivative products and their underlying securities are structured and valued. In Fixed-Income Securities and Derivatives Handbook, respected practitioner Moorad Choudhry provides a concise and accessible overview of the main elements of the markets, the techniques used, and their applications. Covering a wide range of market instruments, the book examines both simple and complex products and the mathematics behind... Less

The evaluation of labour market and other public policies has become increasingly important in recent years. In an era of tight government budgets, a thorough analysis of these measures is imperative. This book provides a comprehensive overview and assessment of the most relevant microeconometric evaluation methods. It focuses on the popular propensity score matching method and gives extensive guidance for its implementation. In the second part of the book, this method is used to evaluate the employment effects of job creation schemes on the participating individuals in Germany. Based on a large administrative dataset of over 11,000 participants, the study allows to draw policy-relevant conclusions for the first time.

EU securities regulation has embarked on an unprecedented movement towards regulatory convergence, which is seen as necessary to facilitate a single capital market. The relevant new Directives generally provide for comprehensive coverage of regulatory standards, as distinct from the old approach of minimum harmonization. The rationale is that, in order to encourage freedom of movement for issuers, intermediaries and investors, the EU needs to provide a level playing field with a sufficiently robust regulatory regime that is sufficiently comforting to investors. The pursuit seems to envisage a level of similarity in securities regulation in all EU Member States that approximates to uniformity. However, to what extent Member States A| laws should achieve uniformity or near-uniformity is not... Less

Delivering IT projects on time and within budget, while maintaining privacy, security, and accountability, remains one of the major public challenges of our time. In the four short years since the publication of the second edition of the Handbook of Public Information Systems, the field of public information systems has continued to evolve. This evolution has elucidated many issues that public sector managers face as they wrestle with the information age. Completely revised and updated, the third edition addresses all aspects of public IT projects while emphasizing a common theme: Information technology initiatives are neither simple nor routine. These initiatives carry substantial implications for democratic values, policy development, strategic planning, and the mobilization of human... Less

Empirical measurement of impacts of active labour market programmes has started to become a central task of economic researchers. New improved econometric methods have been developed that will probably influence future empirical work in various other fields of economics as well. This volume contains a selection of original papers from leading experts, among them James J. Heckman, Noble Prize Winner 2000 in economics, addressing these econometric issues at the theoretical and empirical level. The theoretical part contains papers on tight bounds of average treatment effects, instrumental variables estimators, impact measurement with multiple programme options and statistical profiling. The empirical part provides the reader with econometric evaluations of active labour market programmes in... Less

This work argues that economists know the secret of prosperity: that the optimum conditions for private enterprise are achieved when taxes on the earned incomes of labour and capital are abolished. This complements the fairest and most efficient way to finance the public sector out of unearned income from land. This policy, as Professor Nicolaus Tideman explains, has been developed and endorsed by economists in a theoretical tradition that stretches from some of today's Nobel prize-winners back to Adam Smith. Why, then, have governments ignored the policy? A century ago, neo-classical economists obscured the distinctive qualities of land as the natural source of public revenue. This theoretical revisionism had the effect of confusing governments, as Vic Blundell explains in his review of... Less

A Comprehensive Guide to All Aspects of Fixed Income SecuritiesFixed Income Securities, Second Edition sets the standard for a concise, complete explanation of the dynamics and opportunities inherent in today's fixed income marketplace. Frank Fabozzi combines all the various aspects of the fixed income market, including valuation, the interest rates of risk measurement, portfolio factors, and qualities of individual sectors, into an all-inclusive text with one cohesive voice.This comprehensive guide provides complete coverage of the wide range of fixed income securities, including:U.S. Treasury securitiesAgencie sMunicipal securitiesAsset- backed securitiesCorpora te and international bondsMortgage- backed securities, including CMOsCollateralize d debt obligations (CDOs)For the financial... Less

Free Worldwide Delivery : Fixed Income Markets and Their Derivatives : Hardback : Elsevier Science Publishing Co Inc : 9780123704719 : 0123704715 : 01 Apr 2009 : Presents explanations for fixed income securities, pricing, and markets. This book emphasizes on institutions, analytics, selected segments of fixed income markets, and fixed income derivatives. It includes material on Credit Default Swaps, Collateralized Debt Obligations, and an integrated discussion of the Credit Crisis.

The term homeland security hardly existed before September 11, 2001, yet today it dominates public policy and the economic agendas of world governments. The transportation industries have been subjected to unprecedented scrutiny and regulatory mandates in recent years, and the port and maritime sector are no exception. Port Security Management reflects this altered landscape of the post-9/11 era, providing real-world guidelines for strategic security planning and implementation processes. Balance security with business needs The book begins with a historical and organizational perspective on maritime and port security. It then discusses the management of risk assessment, presenting it within the context of the unique vulnerabilities within the maritime and port environments. The... Less

Information Security Policies Made Easy, Version 11 is the new and updated version of the gold standard information security policy resource used by over 7000 organizations worldwide. Based on the 25 year consulting and security experience of Charles Cresson Wood, CISSP, CISA, CISM, ISPME is the most complete policy resource available. ISPME has everything you need to save money while building a due-care security policy environment, including: 1. A complete policy library with over 1400 individual pre-written security policies including: Coverage of the latest technical, legal and regulatory issues. ISO 27001/27002 outline format, allowing for easy gap-analysis against existing standards and security frameworks. Expert commentary discussing the risks mitigated by each policy. Target... Less

In Unmarried Couples, Law, and Public Policy, Cynthia Grant Bowman explores legal recognition of opposite-sex cohabiting couples in the United States. Unmarried cohabitation has increased at a phenomenal rate in the U.S. over the last few decades, but the law has not responded to the legal issues raised by this new family form. Although a majority of cohabiting unions dissolve within the first two years, many are longer in term and function like other families; a large number of children also reside in these households. If one partner dies, is injured, or leaves the family, the remaining family members are left in an extremely vulnerable position in almost every state without any type of survivors' benefits, compensation for loss of a wage-earning partner, or remedies similar to those... Less

Women in the United States Armed Forces: A Guide to the Issues covers over a century of accomplishments of military women, from the Civil War to the current wars in the Middle East. Readers will learn, for example, that during World War II, 565 women in the Women's Army Corps stationed in the Pacific theater received combat decorations, proving that women had the courage, strength, and stamina to perform in a combat environment. They will also learn that, perhaps surprisingly, it wasn't until the mid- to late 1970s that women had their first opportunities to serve at sea and as aviators (crew as well as pilots), albeit on noncombatant ships and aircraft. The book's final four chapters discuss the issues that continue to plague women in the military, including sexual harassment, noting... Less