<p>Income inequality - a measure of how equally the income pie is divided among all members of society - has increased dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. To determine whether California trends have mirrored those of the nation, the authors analyze annual changes in income distribution from the late 1960s through 1994. Using five measures of inequality, 26 definitions of income, and two data series, they compare income levels and trends in California with those of the nation. Their analyses provide the most comprehensive picture ever assembled on income inequality in California.</p>

The Distribution of Income in California

Business & Money

Melissa Glenn Haber

Deborah Reed

Laura Mameesh

Economics

Public Policy Institute of California

California leads every state in the nation as a destination for undocumented immigrants. The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that almost half of the undocumented population in the United States resides in California. Yet, the precise numbers remain elusive, and estimating the annual change in the size of this population is even more difficult. Using a variety of data and assumptions about population change, the author develops the first systematic estimates of annual changes in the net flow of undocumented immigrants to California. Although the range of the various estimates is sizable, the pattern over time is consistent across a widely differing set of assumptions.

Undocumented Immigration to California: 1980-1993

Politics & Social Sciences

Hans P. Johnson

Social Sciences

The public cost of immigration is a matter of ongoing and sometimes intense political debate in California.  One of the least understood issues in the debate is whether many of those who come to the United States return home and, if so, whether they differ from those who remain.  Return migration has important ramifications for a number of policy concerns, including the composition of the immigrant population, the use of social services, and the potential for assimilation.  To shed light on this issue, the author analyzes  data on return migration for a sample of more than 42,000 immigrants from western Mexico - an area that accounts for a large percentage of California's immigrants.

Dynamics of Immigration: Return Migration to Western Mexico

Belinda I. Reyes

This volume provides a comprehensive profile of welfare use in California. The authors examine the changes imposed by the 1996 federal reform legislation, identify and describe those who receive public assistance in California and the extent to which they rely on such assistance, and explore how those who will be most seriously affected by the reforms differ from other welfare recipients and the working poor. This is the first time this type of analysis has been undertaken for California. It has two unique features. First, it uses families and family income to develop a picture that more truly reflects the economic situation of welfare recipients. Second, it considers the total income a family may be receiving from different welfare programs and in periods on and off welfare.

Who Will Be Affected by Welfare Reform in California?

Thomas E. Macurdy

Margaret O'Brien-Strain

This book provides an overview of postwar transportation policy at the federal and state levels, focusing in particular on the evolution of metropolitan planning organizations, which have played a major role in urban transportation planning since the early 1960's. The authors examine the regional issues facing urban areas and the effect of intergovernmental relations on transportation planning in California. Although the authors focus specifically on transportation policy, their findings also illuminate a central issue in the devolution of government responsibility - namely, that incentives and outcomes may vary considerably, depending on the level of government making the decisions.

Federal Transportation Policy and the Role of Metropolitian Planning Organizations in California

Paul G. Lewis

Mary Sprague

Creating an effective welfare system is a daunting challenge. The primary goals of welfare—providing adequate support, modifying the behavior of recipients, and limiting program costs—are linked in a relationship that David Stockman (President Reagan’s budget director) christened the iron triangle: We cannot change one element of the relationship without affecting the other two. The authors examine the conflicts that exist among the goals of welfare and discuss the compromises and tradeoffs those conflicts require in the reform process. Although the analysis focuses on welfare reform in California, the implications are relevant to welfare design in other states as well.

Welfare Reform: A Primer in 12 Questions

Eugene Smolensky

Eirik Evenhouse

Siobhan Reilly

Exactions are payments made by a developer to local governments for the right to proceed with a project. Exactions can include development fees, the dedication of public land, the construction or maintenance of public infrastructure, or the provision of public services. Developers complain that exactions have become excessive, stifling economic growth. Local government officials argue that these levies are essential to growth: Without them, local government could not provide the infrastructure necessary for new development. Although California leads the nation in imposing fees on new residential development, surprisingly little is known about the nature and effects of these fees—for example, the extent to which they are passed on to consumers in the form of higher home prices. This volume presents the results of an econometric analysis of development fees in Contra Costa County—a county in the San Francisco Bay area that has experienced rapid growth in recent decades.

Who Pays for Development Fees and Exactions?

STEVEN M. SHEFFRIN

Marla Dresch

Subsidizing Redevelopment in California

Michael Dardia

Nursing Staff Trends in California Hospitals

Joanne Spetz

<p>Immigration has always been an important policy issue for California, However, researchers and policymakers have focused most of their attention on low-skilled immigrants. This study focuses, instead, on the highly skilled immigrant entrepreneurs who are managing high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. Chinese and Indian computer scientists and engineers were running one-quarter of the region's high-tech firms in 1998. In that year alone, these firms accounted for nearly $17 billion in sales and over 58,000 jobs.</p>

Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Annalee Saxenian

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Books by Public Policy Institute of California