Digital Commons Network^™

Selection Bias In College Admissions Test Scores, Jesse Rothstein, Melissa Clark, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Data from college admissions tests can provide a valuable measure of student achievement, but the non-representativeness of test-takers is an important concern. We examine selectivity bias in both state-level and school-level SAT and ACT averages. The degree of selectivity may differ importantly across and within schools, and across and within states. To identify within-state selectivity, we use a control function approach that conditions on scores from a representative test. Estimates indicate strong selectivity of test-takers in "ACT states," where most college- bound students take the ACT, and much less selectivity in SAT states. To identify within- and between-school selectivity, we …

Youtube: Spotlight On Policy, Dr. Greg Hill On Educational Attainment, Greg Hill

Gregory C. Hill

In this episode of SPOTLIGHT ON POLICY, Dr. Greg Hill, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration discusses educational attainment measures for the Boise MSA and Idaho. Spotlight on Policy is a production of the Public Policy Center at Boise State University. http://ppa.boisestate.edu/centerppa/

An "Act Of God": Race, Religion, And Policy In The Wake Of Hurricane Katrina, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

This essay addresses how characterization of Hurricane Katrina as an “act of God” exposed historical racial cleavages and policy challenges in post-Katrina America. Act-of-God rhetoric not only stemmed from religious history but was also largely informed by America's racial legacy. Usage of the term often absolved individuals and institutions from personal responsibility and economic liability, especially when the specter of race could be invoked. The term also revealed generational ideological differences within the Black community itself, posing significant questions about the discourse of race and religion in post–civil rights America.

Organized Crime In West Africa: Options For Eu Engagement, Emmanuel Aning

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

Worldwide, organized crime is considered a major threat to human security. Organized crime impedes social, economic, cultural and democratic developments globally, with disproportionate effects on developing and fragile states. The threat and challenges of organized crime in Africa in general and West Africa in particular is enormous because of the high presence of fragile states serving as potential breeding grounds for such activities (Commission of the European Communities 2007: 5). In Africa, as in the rest of the world, organized criminal activities take the form of drug trafficking, advanced fee and Internet fraud, human trafficking, diamond smuggling, forgery, cigarette smuggling, …

Keeping National Health Insurance (Nhi) Accessible For All. 台北時報論壇, Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Media reports say that Taiwan Health Insurance Bureau and the Department of Health are proposing an amendment to the health insurance laws to require every returned overseas Taiwanese who has been abroad for more than six months be resident in Taiwan for four months before he or she becomes eligible to re-enroll in the National Health Insurance (NHI) program. The proposed amendment arose from a small portion of overseas Taiwanese who are have allegedly played medical tourists, returning to Taiwan for medical treatments under the NHI plan. The amendments’ proponents urged “restoring equality” in the NHI. However, the proposal could …

Self-Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, And Support For Public Policy: A Multilevel Analysis, Richard Lau, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

This paper examines the role of self-interest and symbolic attitudes as predictors of support for two domestic policy issues—guaranteed jobs and incomes and national health insurance—in the American National Election Survey (ANES) between 1972 and 2004. As was the case in 1976 when Sears, Lau, Tyler, and Allen (1980) first explored this topic, symbolic attitudes continue to be much more important predictors of policy attitudes than various indicators of self-interest over the 30 years we analyze. We explore this finding further to determine whether any individual/internal and external/contextual variables affect the magnitude of self-interest effects on policy support. Five possible …

Consulting And Evaluation With Nonprofit And Community-Based Organizations, Judah J. Viola, Susan D. Mcmahon

Judah J. Viola, Ph.D.

The Politics Of Cultural And Ethnic Pluralism, Zheng Wang

Zheng Wang

No abstract provided.

What Bush Did Right - On China, Zheng Wang

Zheng Wang

No abstract provided.

Race, Place, And Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina: Struggles To Reclaim, Rebuild, And Revitalize New Orleans And The Gulf Coast, Robert Bullard, Beverly Wright

Robert D Bullard

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans leaving death and destruction across the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf Coast counties;The lethargic and inept emergency response that followed exposed institutional flaws, poor planning; and false assumptions that are built into the emergency response and homeland security plans and programs. Questions linger: What went wrong? Can it happen again? Is our government equipped to plan for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from natural and manmade disasters? Can the public trust government response to be fair? Does race matter? Racial disparities exist in disaster response, cleanup, rebuilding, reconstruction, and …

Responsibility To Protect In Africa: An Analysis Of The African Union's Peace And Security Architecture, Emmanuel Aning, Samuel Atuobi

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

In this paper we argue that, since its birth, the African Union (AU) has established a set of norms and principles that mirror the tenets of R2P as agreed to by the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit. These norms and principles coupled with the AU's peace and security architecture make it proactive in conflict prevention and the management of crisis situations on the continent. Collaborative ventures between the African Union (at the continental level), the regional economic communities (RECs) at the (sub-regional level) and the UN (at the global level), we argue, are thus the best options for …

Using Facility-Location Models To Optimally Locate Hierarchical Community-Based Health Facilities In Davao City, Myra Silva, Michael Johnson

Michael P. Johnson

Alternative hierarchical location-allocation models are used to locate two types of community-based health facilities in Davao City relative to population locations. Accounting for factors such as politics and resource availability, different optimization approaches were implemented to locate a mix of health centers and nutrition posts across the rural and urban areas of the city. The results were evaluated based on operating costs, average travel distance and population coverage. Computational results revealed that, by optimally locating barangay health centers and health posts, the current level of public investment in the health delivery infrastructure can be sufficient to cover a significant proportion …

Developing Conditions For Environmentally Sustainable Consumption: Drawing Insight From Anti-Smoking Policy, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

This paper starts from the premise that, particularly in industrialized countries, the consumption decisions made by individuals and households are a major source of environmental strain. Several international organizations and national governments have addressed this issue, but, thus far, their efforts have had minimal effect. This paper examines the conditions necessary for the implementation of policy able to effectively reduce the environmental impact of household consumption. It draws from the experience of American tobacco control, a relatively rare example of a public effort that succeeded in reducing the negative consequences of an entitled consumer behaviour.

An extensive review of the …

Contemporary Cases: Policy, Privatization And Networks, Tony Carrizales, Andrew Ewoh

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Editor's introduction.

Environmental Challenges And Opportunities: Local-Global Perspectives On Canadian Issues, Christopher Gore, Peter Stoett

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Local Government Responses To Climate Change: Our Last, Best Hope?, Christopher Gore, Pamela Robinson

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Broad Impacts And Narrow Perspectives: Passing The Buck On Science And Social Impacts, Barry Bozeman, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

We provide a critical assessment of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) “broader impacts criterion” for peer review, which has met with resistance from the scientific community and been characterized as unlikely to have much positive effect due to poor implementation and adherence to the linear model heuristic for innovation. In our view, the weakness of NSF's approach owes less to these issues than to the misguided assumption that the peer review process can be used to leverage more societal value from research. This idea, although undoubtedly well-meaning, is fundamentally flawed. Retooling or refining the Broader Impacts Criterion does not alter …

Making Change: A Six-Month Review, Gregory Koger

Gregory Koger

This article surveys President Obama's policy agenda-setting for the first six months of his term. I consider whether the conditions ripe for an ambitious policy agenda and summarize the logic of Presidential agenda-setting. I use this framework to explain the Democrats' agenda for 2009, summarize their progress thus far, and discuss the implications for the Democratic Party in 2010 and after. Although the Democrats have made significant progress on their policy goals, they have not reaped the full political rewards from this success. Instead, the majority party will likely be judged on the pace of economic recovery and whether they …

Situating Race And Nation In The U.S. Context: Methodology, Interdisciplinarity And The Unresolved Role Of Comparative Inquiry, Mindy Peden

Mindy Peden

Philosophers and social theorists of color examine how racism can creep into defensive forms of nationalism.

Toward Understanding Work Motivation: Perceived Public Service Efficacy As A Predictor Of Job Satisfaction, Role Ambiguity And Organizational Commitment In The Public Sector, Craig Boardman, Eric Sundquist

Craig Boardman

Government reformers in the United States have recently focused on running public agencies more like private firms by emphasizing economic rewards, such as merit pay. Meanwhile, a body of literature has grown that indicates that public servants respond to factors that financially based reward initiatives tend to ignore. We introduce a new explanatory variable, perceived public service efficacy (PPSE), which quantifies public servants' perception about the benefit their employing agencies provide the public. We present empirical evidence demonstrating that as PPSE rises—that is, as public servants more strongly perceive their agencies to be benefiting the public—reported levels of role ambiguity …

University Researchers Working With Private Companies, Craig Boardman, Branco Ponomariov

Craig Boardman

Despite the growing interest in university–industry interactions, there has been little systematic assessment of the university scientists who work with private companies. This study uses a national survey of tenured and tenure-track scientists in the US to identify personal and professional characteristics that affect whether university scientists interact with private companies and, if so, the ways in which they interact. We account for a broad range of professional and personal predictors of scientists’ interactions with the private sector, including funding sources, institutional affiliations, tenure status, support of students, scientific values, and demographic attributes. The motivation for this broad-based analysis is …

Are Satisfied Citizens Willing To Pay More? Public Sector Consumerism As Equitable Social Exchange., Brian Collins, Hyun Kim

Brian K. Collins

Treating citizens like customers is a common prescription for public managers, but citizens differ from customers —citizens engage in equitable social exchange that balances individual preferences and assessments with willingness-to-pay for public amenities. This article examines whether citizen satisfaction with the quality and quantity of public amenities drives a citizen’s willingness-to-pay for more public provision. Analysing data from a Texas municipality’s satisfaction survey, the authors found that a decrease in satisfaction with the quantity of public amenities is associated with an increase in willingness-to-pay, but quality assessments show no relationship. Such behaviour highlights differences between customers and public sector consumers, …

Reinventing Libraries For Next Generation Of Library Users, La Loria Konata

La Loria Konata

The article calls for the need to reinvent libraries for the next generation of library users. It stresses the value of being able to provide customer satisfaction, building and maintaining loyalty as well as resolving customer complaints so as to compete with other libraries. It also points out the importance of branding as a marketing strategy and encourages libraries to adhere to the liaison model or subject specialist model in providing specialized service. Also suggested are steps for marketing library services.

Technology & Uncertainty: The Shaping Effect On Copyright Law, Ben Depoorter

Ben Depoorter

This Article examines the symbiotic relationship between copyright law and technology. I describe how an environment characterized by rapid technological change creates two conditions that determine the direction and evolution of copyright law: legal delay and legal uncertainty. I explain how uncertainty over the application of existing copyright law to newly emerging technology catalyzes the actions of copyright owners and users. I argue that uncertainty and delay (1) have an enabling effect on anticopyright sentiments, (2) lead to a greater reliance on self-help efforts by content providers and users, and (3) induce legislative involvement in copyright law. In the final …

Government Centrality To University-Industry Interactions, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

This paper uses data from a national survey of academic researchers in the US to detect how different types of university research centers affect individual-level university–industry interactions. The results suggest that while affiliation with an industry-related center correlates positively with the likelihood of an academic researcher having had any research-related interactions with private companies, affiliation with centers sponsored by government centers programs correlates positively with the level of industry involvement, no matter whether these centers additionally have ties to private companies. The analysis takes the “scientific and technical human capital” approach, which draws from theories of social capital and human …

Explaining Responsiveness In Collaboration: Administrator And Citizen Role Perceptions, Thomas Bryer

Thomas A Bryer

Between 2003 and 2006, researchers facilitated a collaborative learning process with representatives of Los Angeles neighborhood councils and officials from city agencies. In two cases, each involving a large city agency, the quality of responsiveness on the part of agency officials to participating citizens was substantially different. This study considers the reasons why agency officials differed in their responsiveness. Using an inductive qualitative and quantitative content analysis across three sources of data, the study develops theory pertaining to bureaucratic responsiveness to citizens in collaborative processes. Specifically, the case findings are generalized to theory through seven propositions for future study. The …

An Interface-Driven Analysis Of User Behavior Of An Electronic Health Records System, Kai Zheng, Rema Padman, Michael Johnson, Herbert Diamond

Michael P. Johnson

Objectives: This study sought to investigate user interactions with an electronic health records (EHR) system by uncovering hidden navigational patterns in the EHR usage data automatically recorded as clinicians navigated through the system’s software user interface (UI) to perform different clinical tasks. Design: A homegrown EHR was adapted to allow real-time capture of comprehensive UI interaction events. These events, constituting time-stamped event sequences, were used to replay how the EHR was used in actual patient care settings. The study site is an ambulatory primary care clinic at an urban teaching hospital. Internal medicine residents were the primary EHR users. Measurements: …

Organizational Culture, Professional Ethics, And Guantanamo, Greg Mcneal

Greg McNeal

In this symposium essay I draw attention to the intersection between the social scientific literature on organizational culture and the legal ethics literature. Drawing from the organizational theory literature I detail a framework for assessing organizational culture and explain how organizational culture reflects more than rules and structure within an organization, but rather represents deeper values, practices, and ways of thinking. While organizational culture is difficult to change, it can be modified or sustained through power, status, rewards, and other mechanisms. After establishing a baseline for assessing organizational culture I highlight efforts by the Bush administration to exercise control over …