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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Beyond Community Characteristics: A Leader's Gender And Local Government Adoption Of Energy Conservation Practices And Redistributive Programs, George C. Homsy, Kristina T. Lambright
Beyond Community Characteristics: A Leader's Gender And Local Government Adoption Of Energy Conservation Practices And Redistributive Programs, George C. Homsy, Kristina T. Lambright
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
Most research examining factors associated with local government adoption of sustainability practices focuses on the impact of community characteristics. Little is known about whether adoption is also related to the characteristics of the leaders in these jurisdictions. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study uses data from a national survey of U.S. local governments (n = 1,672) to examine the potential correlation between adoption of certain sustainability practices and the gender of a jurisdiction’s highest elected official. Our regression models find that jurisdictions led by women were more likely to have adopted redistributive programmes and practices encouraging …
Which Us Municipalities Adopt Pay-As-You-Throw And Curbside Recycling?, Raymond Gradus, George C. Homsy, Lu Liao, Mildred E. Warner
Which Us Municipalities Adopt Pay-As-You-Throw And Curbside Recycling?, Raymond Gradus, George C. Homsy, Lu Liao, Mildred E. Warner
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
This study investigates the drivers of curbside recycling program adoption and Pay as You Throw (PAYT) program adoption in 1,856 US local governments using a 2015 survey. While 50% of municipalities and counties adopt curbside recycling programs, we find that the adoption curbside recycling is limited by capacity constraints; local governments with lower per capita expenditures and more poverty are less likely to implement curbside recycling. PAYT programs are less common overall (10% of municipalities) and less common in richer communities and more common in communities with higher education levels. Local official political affiliation is not significant in either model. …
Sustainability And Disaster Planning: What Are The Connections?, George C. Homsy, Lu Liao, Mildred E. Warner
Sustainability And Disaster Planning: What Are The Connections?, George C. Homsy, Lu Liao, Mildred E. Warner
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
In this paper, we examine the connections between resiliency and sustainability by asking: can disaster planning lead to more sustainability actions? In a survey we conducted of 1,899 cities, towns, and counties across the United States in 2015, we found that disaster plans are three times more common than sustainability plans. Our regression models find both types of plans lead to sustainability action as does regional collaboration across the rural-urban interface. However, we find that hazard mitigation planning may be done without including sustainability staff, citizens, and other officials. After controlling for motivations, capacity, and cooperation, we find rural communities …
The Development Of County Hr Policies: The Perspectives Of Counties In Two States, Willow S. Jacobson, Kristina T. Lambright
The Development Of County Hr Policies: The Perspectives Of Counties In Two States, Willow S. Jacobson, Kristina T. Lambright
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with county HR directors (20 in New York, 20 in North Carolina) to learn more about the development of internal HR policies. Key resources used by directors in both states include other jurisdictions, colleagues in other county departments, state and federal agencies, laws and statutes, professional associations, and information gathered from general internet searches. More than half of the HR directors reported using internal working groups, and almost two-thirds indicated that they systematically reviewed the implications of policies for specific departments. Yet, only a handful of HR directors reported utilizing other promising practices such as …
Capacity, Sustainability, And The Community Benefits Of Municipal Utility Ownership In The United States, George C. Homsy
Capacity, Sustainability, And The Community Benefits Of Municipal Utility Ownership In The United States, George C. Homsy
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
Most literature on utility sustainability focuses on internal operations; this misses the role that utilities cold play within a community. This study measures the impact of municipal ownership of water and electric utilities on the sustainability policymaking of local governments. I find that municipalities with government-owned water utilities adopt more sustainability measures than those with investor-owned service. Similarly, municipally-owned electric utilities have higher levels of energy sustainability in the community, but not in government operations. The utilities provide fiscal and technical capacity to municipalities. This study brings potential community benefits to the discussion of private investment in public service delivery.
Expanding The Classroom: Investigating Local Government Practitioners’ Use Of Academic Resources, Willow S. Jacobson, Kristina T. Lambright
Expanding The Classroom: Investigating Local Government Practitioners’ Use Of Academic Resources, Willow S. Jacobson, Kristina T. Lambright
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
Drawing on Boyer’s scholarship of teaching, we propose that public affairs education could be conceptualized as not just including the education of current students but also the education of public affairs practitioners throughout their careers. To explore knowledge diffusion from academics to public affairs practitioners, we conducted 40 phone interviews with county human resources (HR) directors in New York and North Carolina and examined the extent to which this population directly used academic resources. There was moderate use of academic resources from higher education institutions across the sample, with many North Carolina HR directors consulting publications and personnel from one …
Unlikely Pioneers: Creative Climate Policymaking In Smaller U.S. Cities, George C. Homsy
Unlikely Pioneers: Creative Climate Policymaking In Smaller U.S. Cities, George C. Homsy
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
With the U.S. federal government stepping away from climate change, a number of cities have indicated that they will continue efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Broad statistical analysis and case studies of larger and often progressive cities have provided some insight into what drives local governments to act on climate change mitigation. However, the vast majority of U.S. municipalities, most of them small, do nothing. Understanding what might drive smaller, poorer, and less progressive places is important if local governments are expected to take the lead on this global commons issue. In this exploratory study, I examine a group …
Size, Sustainability, And Urban Climate Planning In A Multilevel Governance Framework, George C. Homsy
Size, Sustainability, And Urban Climate Planning In A Multilevel Governance Framework, George C. Homsy
Public Administration Faculty Scholarship
In the United States, the absence of federal leadership on climate change and a strong tradition of localism has created a system in which many greenhouse gas reduction efforts fall to the discretion of municipalities. This often leads to uncoordinated action across jurisdictional boundaries. Despite the widespread notion that cities can lead on climate policy from the bottom up, I find, using a logistic regression analysis of data from 1,837 municipalities, that local governments are more likely to enact climate change policies in an environment where higher levels of government have acted rather than in a decentralized one. Smaller municipalities, …