Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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: …