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A study evidencing the presence of a structure of social ties and interpersonal relationships built through economic behavior in small groups of people like work teams, neighborhoods, social networks, boards of directors, etc. is presented. The study examines the development of such economic behavior based social ties structure in public good environment.

The study presents a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) example investigating intergenerational dependence on welfare and its relation to child academic achievement. Results show that HLM is a robust and flexible tool that can effectively test various types of research hypothesis, particularly those concerning multilevel influences and macro-to-micro relations.

Research into the effects mergers of health maintenance organizations has on welfare is given. The research shows that the effects of these mergers on welfare are the highest on health plans ability to realize efficiencies.

Research reveals increased population in New York City family shelters from 1986-1993 occurred for several reasons, such as reduced placements into subsidized housing, an increased number of families in Tier II shelters, and a fall in welfare benefits. Topics include a history of the New York City family shelter system, and implications of the study.

Some views on donation mechanisms that were presented by P.A. Champ, R.C. Bishop, T.C. Brown and D.W. McCollum in their article entitled 'Using donation mechanisms to value non-use benefits from public goods' are criticized. Champ and his co-authors' conclusion on actual donations as a theoretical lower bound on Hicksian values is inaccurate because it was found that donations can either be over, equal or below Hicksian values. This is dependent on the strength of warm glow and method of provision.

A model of participants' take-up of welfare benefits is developed using welfare fraud and welfare stigma as reference points. Results of the model showed stigma as the significant factor that determines participation in a welfare program, underscoring the effects of informal controls, even under conditions of differing stigma perception and honesty characteristics of participants. The result implies that informal controls can be used in the formulation of effective screening strategies to ensure that the qualified needy enters the welfare program.

Reforms to the UK National Health Service were introduced in Apr. 1991 to cut too much vertical integration by implementing a quasi-market where incentive structures and greater availability of information would allow decision makers to more effectively use resources. However, a general framework with which to examine the welfare gains or losses resulting from the quasi-market is yet to be implemented. To correct the situation, an analytical framework of a quasi-market within which distortions such as cream skimming and local monopoly can be investigated.

The factors that influence the length of time people avail of housing assistance should be identified because the present policy focuses on promptly helping physically able individuals attain self-sufficiency. Knowing who gets housing assistance for short periods can help determine the right residential composition of housing projects and targeting meager training budgets through the self-sufficiency programs of HUD. It is because of this that a study was conducted focusing on the duration of housing assistance spells. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation was used to develop a hazard model. Findings indicate that several individuals will continue receiving assistance for relatively long periods although some leave housing assistance after short spells. Results also show that there is no duration dependence in housing assistance spells.

The Kaldor compensation test can sometimes inconsistent in the sense that it leads to contradictory or cyclical recommendations in some situations. However, the consistency of this test has a close relationship with the rationalizability of choices from given utility possibilities sets. Given this observation, it is suggested that social decisions can be made using a social welfare ordering in the first place if the Kaldor test is consistent. Thus, the consistent application of the Kaldor test depends on the acceptance of the information assumptions in some social welfare ordering.

A research effort showed that people with higher incomes are on average happier. However, increasing everybody's incomes will not increase the happiness of all because the material standards used as basis for well-being also increase proportionately along with society's actual income. The results are based on happiness, material norm and income date gathered through surveys conducted in several countries since the middle of the 20th century.

A study was conducted to examine public service level and the utility of wealthy families as they are affected by the growth in number of poor families in a community dominated by wealthy families. A model for analyzing these issues was developed, in which it was asssumed that local public service level was funded by a property tax and determined by majority voting. The model suggested that the expansion of a predominantly wealthy neighborhood to include more poor families may lead to fiscal deterioration. This situation, in turn, may result in the increase in 'price' of public service and in the maximization of the wealthy resident's utility.

In this paper we relax the unrestricted domain condition of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem to allow the consideration of domains of econimic preferences--i.e., continuous monotonic preferences on some positive orthant [R.sup.M.sub.+]. The impossibility result remains in effect after all but the most drastic reductions in the size of the domain, in the sense that any domain admitting an Arrow SWF must be nowhere dense in the usual topology on the set of admissible preference profiles.

Research is presented describing the study of teenage births and the influence of economic benefits on the choices made by teenagers whether to have children or not.

A model is developed that helps estimate the effects of welfare benefit levels, salaries, and tax rates on domicile choices made in female-headed households. It is assumed in the empirical model that women simultaneously select both residence location and whether or not to be in the welfare system, based on how much income they expect to gain and the possible number of work hours available. These hours and income expectations vary in turn on the wage, tax rate, and welfare benefits available. It is revealed that both wage rates and regional welfare levels have a significant influence on this population's location decisions. A typical female-headed household that has little outside income is as much as 12% more likely over a four-year span to leave an area in which welfare payments and wages are both low as it would be to make the same decision in a place where wages and welfare are higher.

Research is presented concerning the effects of immigration on welfare in an economy where employers and unions participate in wage bargaining. The effects of immigration on a small and large scale are discussed.