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Children are conceptualized many ways by economists—as sources of utility for their parents, investments, recipients of care, and public goods. Despite the understanding that children are also people, the economic literature is lacking in analysis of children as actors, making choices with consequences for economic development. Using a capability-driven approach and an emphasis on co-evolutionary processes of institutional and individual change, with mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, my dissertation analyzes the role of children in long-term economic development at the community level. I use a case study of community-based, out-of-school time (OST) programs for low-income youth funded through the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) to analyze the role of youth in economic development. OST programs provide community-level benefits such as reductions in juvenile crime and foster economic development by creating linkages between the state, the market, the community, and the family. My study contributes to the body of interdisciplinary research on OST programs, and is situated in the middle ground between case studies with very small samples and quantitative studies with a narrow focus on academic performance as measured by grades. The 21 st CCLC programs in New York State are unique in their emphasis on partnerships between schools and community-based organizations. An analysis of the costs and benefits of OST programs shows that the benefits of programs such as 21st CCLC substantially outweigh the costs. Using Geographic Information Systems and statistical analysis, I examine the relationship between eligibility for 21st CCLC funding, demographic characteristics related to the need for free or low-cost OST programs, and the presence of 21st CCLC programs, and find that the presence of these programs cannot be explained solely through the characteristics of people who will be served by them. Additionally, it is clear that there are not enough 21st CCLC programs to serve all eligible communities, raising questions about the scale of funding as well as its distribution.

This dissertation examines the gender differences among the homeless. Although women with dependent children comprise the fastest growing subgroup among the homeless population, most of the homeless are still single adults. The vast majority of these single adults are men, though the number of single women has increased notably in recent years. The second purpose of the dissertation is to examine who is most vulnerable to homelessness. The analysis strategy was to examine the literal homeless comparing three subgroups, unattached men, unattached women, and women with dependent children, and then to examine the very poor who are housed comparing the corresponding subgroups. Comparisons were made of the characteristics of and the financial and social resources available to the literal homeless and the domiciled poor. The descriptive analysis of the gender differences among the homeless are based on empirical data collected from the Chicago Homeless Study in 1985. Data on unattached men and women who are housed come from the General Assistance Study conducted in Chicago in 1984 and data on women with dependent children come from a 1985 study of welfare families in Chicago. The findings indicate that homeless men are poorer, more disabled, and more socially isolated than homeless women. In particular, their levels of poverty, disability, and social isolation are substantially higher than that of homeless women with dependent children. Their high levels of disabilities make it extremely difficult for the homeless men to find employment or to reciprocate in social relations. Most of them have had their social networks destroyed or exhausted and few receive needed social services. The absence of social and public resources means that homeless men have difficulty extricating themselves from homelessness. For these reasons, the men are more vulnerable to chronic homelessness. There is a subset of homeless single women whose conditions are not very different from homeless men. Women with dependent children have the best chances of extricating themselves from homelessness. Policy implications are discussed.

This study was designed to examine the unanticipated changes that occur for single organizations that participate in Interorganizational Relationships (IORs). Its purpose was to discover the unanticipated effects that organizations participating on one IOR known as the Neighborhood Center Association (NCA) experienced. It was focused to examine effects at an organizational level and to take into consideration NCA development over time. Through the use of participant observation, in-depth interviewing and document analysis methods it was intended to provide an insider's viewpoint of the case. This combination of purpose and focus was shown to be unique and lacking in the general literature on IORs. The NCA was a partnership of neighborhood centers which delivered human services to their neighborhood residents. All centers were located in the same small city and shared four common funders. The author was involved as a consultant to the partnership for several years. The NCA was seen to proceed through a series of developmental stages over its lifespan from 1980-89. Those stages of increasing then decreasing intensity were named as Networking, Coordination, Collaboration and Decline (Loughran, 1982). The results of the study identified five general areas of unanticipated changes that occurred for neighborhood centers participating in the NCA. (1) The NCA tended to impair the ability of neighborhood centers to adapt to their changing environment and eventually facilitated the forced consolidation of centers by their funders. (2) The existence of the NCA acted to unify neighborhood center funders together which in turn affected both neighborhood centers and the NCA in many ways. (3) The NCA served to intensify relationships between neighborhood centers and their directors which led to unexpected complications in those relationships. (4) The NCA required commitments of its members and thus tended to reduce their autonomy. (5) Consultants (including the author) were involved in nearly all key NCA development issues and thus strongly influenced that development and the subsequent effects on neighborhood centers.

With the merger of judicial supervision and mandated treatment, drug courts have given rise to therapeutic jurisprudence and attempt to address those issues which have plagued corrections policymakers for several decades. The evaluation literature indicates that drug courts tend to produce lower recidivism rates, increased retention rates and lower costs when compared to traditional programs. However, as drug courts approach their second decade, there is a void in the literature regarding the implementation of drug court programs. This study specifically examined those factors which either facilitate or challenge the implementation of drug court programs. This study examined implementation issues from a bottom-up and top-down perspective. In order to examine these issues, the perceptions of drug court judges and administrators in five states were obtained through the administration of a survey instrument. Examination of the influence of government factors upon the implementation of drug court programs yielded interesting findings. A host of factors appear to influence the implementation of drug court programs, including federal, state and local agencies and actors. Respondents consistently identified state and local actors as being the most supportive and influential of the efforts to create and implement drug courts. Of those, the most common actors were public defenders and the district attorneys. If opposition to drug courts existed, the respondents indicated that local law enforcement or the general public were generally the sources of the opposition. In addition, there is clearly a more positive view of the influence of state and local actors when compared to their federal counterparts. From a policy perspective, the results of this research reveal that innovative programs for criminal offenders can thrive in conservative states. Four states in the sample are southern states with Utah being the only non-southern state, yet one which is typically regarded as conservative in terms of social policy and political values. Despite the conservative character of these states, drug court programs are thriving. Moreover, actors and agencies within these states appear supportive of innovative programming within the criminal justice system which is markedly different from the traditional approaches supported by conservatives.

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