Summer 2011
Complete Issue

Contents

• State Pensions in Changing Times
  by Richard Woodbury, Maine State Senator
  The impact that demographic changes are having on New England state employee pension plans suggests that plans for future workers should take account of current life expectancy.
• The Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Education
  by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman, Harvard University
  Does unequal school spending perpetuate income inequality? The researchers show that spending on early education affects later wage-earning competence.
• The Impact of Credit Card Policies on Small Business
  by Margaret Somer, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center
  Often entrepreneurs, unable to access a bank loan, borrow on their credit cards. Confusion about card policies, however, has led some small businesses into trouble, even bankruptcy.
• Artists as Revitalization Agents
  by Lyz Crane, Partners for Livable Communities
  The revitalization that occurred when artists moved into a community once seemed accidental. Now local governments purposely leverage the arts for economic and social development.
• Mapping New England: Arts-Based Economic Development
  by Emily Mytkowicz, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
  Where numerous arts-based businesses are located, economic benefits may also exist.
• School Testing, 1-2-3: Getting It Right
  by Karen Kurzman
  A Rhode Island educator details the history leading to today's increased focus on testing and asserts that innovations to make tests meaningful in classroom teaching are bearing fruit.
• Keeping the Baby, If Not the Bathwater
  by Prentiss Cox, University of Minnesota Law School
  The author shows that policymakers' new antipathy to all subprime loans is unfortunate, given that state housing finance agencies' affordable housing programs have been successful. Thomas Callahan, Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, adds Massachusetts data.
• Mass Imprisonment: Long-Term Harm versus Short-Term Good
  by Robert DeFina and Lance Hannon, Villanova University
  People believe prisons prevent crime, but that may be because the crime-generating effects of community reentry have not been calculated. The authors reexamine the data.
• Chelsea Combats Foreclosure
  by Lynn Fisher, Lauren Lambie-Hanson, and Paul S. Willen
  Despite a housing-price collapse, low-income Chelsea has homeowners investing in their properties. Proximity to Boston may partially explain that resilience.
• Economic Education and Financial Literacy
  by Bob Jabaily, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
  The complexity of modern living calls for a reexamination of economic education and financial literacy efforts. Most important are the thinking skills for handling unexpected situations.
• Survey of Community Banks Explores Credit Crunch
  by Jiyhe Jeon, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
  The Boston Fed surveyed local community banks in 2010 to assess changes in bank-credit supply and demand after the 2008 downturn. The results confirm small businesses' perceptions.

Articles may be reprinted if Communities & Banking and the author are credited and the following disclaimer is used: "The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System. Information about organizations and upcoming events is strictly informational and not an endorsement."  

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