Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Terrorism In Africa: An Analysis Of The Efficacy Of U.S. Counterterrorism, Max Yong

Global Tides

This paper seeks to identify whether United States aid to Africa has impacted violent terrorist activity on the continent. The existing literature has produced a range of critiques. Many have voiced concern about foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) growing and blame ineffective efforts by the U.S. for this reality. Instances of African nations, in the face of persisting security challenges from FTOs, turning to political adversaries of the U.S. for assistance is evidence of this sentiment. Furthermore, terror attacks since the onset of the U.S. Global War on Terror (GWOT) have only remained higher than in the previous era. Others have …

How Much Does It Cost To Operate Tiny Home Villages For People Experiencing Homelessness, Celeste Benitez, Cooper Conway, Declan Maddern

School of Public Policy Capstones

Los Angeles is in a homelessness crisis. Millions of dollars are poured into preventing its causes and curtailing the increased medical costs and crime rates that stem from it. The solutions vary, but one new solution in the form of tiny home villages hopes to provide a cheap and effective way to get people experiencing homelessness off the streets.

In 2021, Los Angeles began opening tiny home villages, also referred to as cabin communities, for unhoused people during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are currently 11 tiny home villages in Los Angeles, operated in a joint effort between the government and …

She Speaks For Millions: The Emergence Of Female Diplomatic Voices In The Russo-Ukrainian War, Amber Brittain-Hale, Amber Brittain-Hale

Education Division Scholarship

This research critically investigates the public diplomacy strategies deployed by a cohort of influential female European leaders on Twitter during the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022-2023. The study comprises eight leaders - Kallas (Estonia), Marin (Finland), von der Leyen (President of the European Commission), Metsola (President of the European Parliament), Sandu (Moldova), Simonyte (Lithuania), Zourabichvili (Georgia), and Meloni (Italy) - representing millions of constituents. By mirroring the analytical attention given to Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this study scrutinizes the distinct approaches and dif erences in emotional, cognitive, and structural language use between these influential female figures and President Zelenskyy in their …

Subject-Matter Coursework Vs. Subject-Matter Exams (A Situational Analysis), Dennis Douglass

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Year after year, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing receives a significant number of applicants from those who want to teach in the State of California. Focusing on one of the critical concerns of low student performance and academic achievement begins with identifying potential problems within the education system, such as a lack of quality or best-fit educators in California. Becoming a teacher in the State of California has demonstrated many areas where the credentialing criterion may contain the answers to achieving higher standards and expectations from our youths in California. Incorporating subject-matter exams onto the list of teacher credentialing criteria …

Governing The Pandemic: A Comprehensive Policy Analysis Of The $4.1t Strategy, Sean D. Jasso

Education Division Scholarship

From January 2020 to March 2021, the U.S. Government implemented five laws to marshal the federal response to the December 2019 outbreak of the Coronavirus. For context, past federal emergency policies include the New Deal $1T, World War II $4T, Hurricane Katrina $120B, AIDS $100B, $2.4T Iraq War, $90B Ukraine War, $44B Climate Change, Covid Vaccines $30B and, the largest emergency spending allocation in U.S. history, Covid-19 $4.1T. An evaluation of the government’s strategy to confront the pandemic is framed into two segments: legislative function – how the Congress mobilizes emergency legislation; and, executive function – how the administration manages …

Effectiveness Of Plastic Ordinances In Santa Monica, Ca: Do Regulations At The Municipal Level Reduce Plastic Waste?, John W. Hayes

School of Public Policy Capstones

Plastic is a cheap, robust and versatile material with numerous practical uses that contribute to the convenience of modern day life. However the very same properties that make it uniquely diverse and hardy also contribute to the hazards it poses to the ecosystems and human health. If current consumption and manufacturing practices remain unchanged, there will be hundreds of millions of additional tons of plastic introduced into the environment over the coming decades. To mitigate this issue, some cities, such as Santa Monica, have implemented ordinances and policies directly aimed at this growing problem, albeit with ambiguous results. To better …

An Exploration Of Successful Housing Outcomes After Homelessness: An Experience Captured Through The Lens Of U.S. Veterans, Janice Filer

Theses and Dissertations

Homelessness is experienced by veterans at a higher percentage than nonveterans. Veterans represent eight percent of the homeless population (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2019). Also, the mortality rate of younger homeless veterans is higher than non-homeless veterans (Schinka et al., 2018). Veterans experience the lack of affordable housing, the lack of affordable health care, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and a lack of family or social support (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 2018). The purpose of this qualitative research study was to interview prior homeless veterans from Gulf War Era I (1990 - 2001) and/or Gulf …

Educational Equity In Independent Schools: A Phenomenographic Study Of School-Wide Equity Practices, Barriers, And Leadership Behaviors Necessary To Achieve Diversity, Inclusion, And Cultural Competence, Christopher Gerard Lemieux

Theses and Dissertations

Independent schools are facing equity changes that had long been avoided, consequently, schools are now faced with adopting equity practices designed to produce equitable outcomes. Equity practices adopted have not been realized without corresponding leadership behaviors necessary to change cultural norms as well as overcoming associative barriers. This study explored how Heads of school in Southern California described the school-wide equity practices they utilized, barriers encountered, and the leadership behaviors that were necessary for achieving diversity, inclusion, and cultural competence at their school. This study used a phenomenographic design and included 11 Heads of school identified as having exemplary school-wide …

A Contemporary Study On The Impact Of Regulations On Business Performance, Brian C. Mulligan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines Nobel Prize Laureate Hayek's ominous warning that economic liberty in the U.S. is at risk, due to regulations, of becoming an unplanned administrative state. The research seeks to understand the effects of regulations on business performance and how to right-size them for a healthy business environment. These objectives are accomplished with two papers: (1) a macro cross-discipline literature review and call for research on the impact of regulations on business performance, and (2) a qualitative grounded theory study from interviews from elite business executives on their perspectives on the impact of regulations on business performance. The findings …

Synergies And Competition: Export Survival In Africa And Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Jesse Mora, Michael Olabisi, James E. Prieger

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Using firm-level export data from six African (Burkina Faso and Senegal) and Latin American (Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay) countries, we examine factors that determine the survival of export flows. We explore the effects on export survival of changes in the number of home-country exporters serving the same destination, firm-level export diversification, and country-level factors. Unlike previous studies, we find that export survival rates decrease with the number of co-exporters selling the same product to the same country. We also find that the relationship between firm-level product diversification and export flow survival is hump-shaped: firms that do not diversify or …

Resolving The Water Pollution Crisis In The Philippines: The Implications Of Water Pollution On Public Health And The Economy, Gabriella Andrews

Pepperdine Policy Review

Imagine being told that the water in all your faucets, the water you drink and use to bathe, contains toxins such as mercury and feces. Now imagine that your local government knew about these dangers but actively refused to share them until most of the people you knew and loved had fallen ill.

This hypothetical scenario is the current reality in the Philippines. An eighth of the country’s rivers are considered too toxic for human and animal ingestion or contact and are unable to support most forms of life. Moreover, fewer than half of the total number of rivers in …

The Feasibility Of Road User Fees And Other Alternative Sources Of Transportation Funding, Joshua R. Amberg

Pepperdine Policy Review

The nation faces an approaching crisis in transportation funding. This is a critical issue that is both relevant and essential to public administration. It affects all levels of government and extends across the nation. Rapidly declining sources of transportation funding pose short-term and long-term challenges for politicians, public administrators, and everyday citizens. In the face of inadequate revenues, new forms of funding are necessary to keep the transportation system solvent. This paper will briefly outline the history of transportation funding that created this problem and examine various proposed solutions. It will focus specifically on the emerging theory of road user …

Reflecting Back On The Ebola Outbreak And The Future Of Bioterrorism, Christian Pedersen

Pepperdine Policy Review

In the wake of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, policy makers have focused on the public health components which led to the outbreak, the efforts to control it, and mitigate the impact of the outbreak. Some of the most enlightening aspects of the outbreak, pertain to National Security. The crisis demonstrated some crucial challenges the United States would have to plan for to effectively respond to a bioterrorist attack.

The Impact Of Research And Development On Economic Growth And Productivity In The U.S. States, Luisa Blanco, Ji Gu, James E. Prieger

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Research and development (R&D) has a large effect on both state output and total factor productivity (TFP) in the long run. Our estimates for the private sector of the U.S. states from 1963 to 2007 show that the R&D elasticity averages 0.056 to 0.143. The implied returns to state Gross Domestic Output (GDP) from R&D spending are 82% to 211%. There are also positive R&D spillovers, with 70% to 80% of the total returns accruing to other states. We also find that states with more human capital have higher own- and other-R&D elasticities, and those in lowest tier of economic …

Economic Growth And The Optimal Level Of Entrepreneurship, James E. Prieger, Catherine Bampoky, Luisa R. Blanco, Aolong Liu

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), we examine data from developed and developing countries to estimate the ‘‘growth penalty” over 2003–11 when a country’s entrepreneurship deviates from its optimal level. We account for heterogeneity among countries in the optimal entrepreneurship rate, in the growth penalty from deviating from that optimum, and in other factors affecting growth. Notwithstanding that developing countries have more of their population running nascent small firms than in developed countries, a marginal increase in the entrepreneurship rate in developing countries has a positive effect on growth. On the contrary, in developed countries, there is no …

Unintended Consequences Of Cigarette Prohibition, Regulation, And Taxation, Jonathan D. Kulick, James E. Prieger, Mark A. R. Kleiman

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Laws that prohibit, regulate, or tax cigarettes can generate illicit markets for tobacco products. Illicit markets both reduce the efficacy of policies intended to improve public health and create harms of their own. Enforcement can reduce evasion but creates additional harms, including incarceration and violence. There is strong evidence that more enforcement in illicit drug markets can spur violence. The presence of licit substitutes, such as electronic cigarettes, has the potential to greatly reduce the size of illicit markets.

We present a model demonstrating why enforcement can increase revenues in the illicit market, show that states with higher tobacco taxes …

Multimarket Contact And Strategic Entry Decisions, James E. Prieger

All Faculty Open Access Publications

This work examines the relationship between multimarket contact (MMC) and entry in the US broadband service industry. I examine unique data on entry into ADSL broadband over the years 2005-2008 in the US. Results indicate that MMC increases the probability of entry into local broadband markets by incumbent local telephone companies, which is consistent with the firms’ expectations that competition will be softer in such markets. Thus, the evidence is consistent with the notion that MMC facilitates mutual forbearance. A deeper investigation uncovers evidence consistent with firms using MMC to help build “spheres of influence” to limit competition. Evidence for …

The Palermo Protocol: Why It Has Been Ineffective In Reducing Human Sex Trafficking, Christina A. Seideman

Global Tides

This paper analyzes why the UN’s efforts against human trafficking, specifically regarding the Palermo Protocol, have been ineffective in preventing the spread of, and reducing, the human sex trafficking network. It concludes that the broad wording of the Palermo Protocol and the UN’s lack of ability to enforce its legislation, along with statistical irregularities due to self-reporting problems, have made the Palermo Protocol ineffective, and that destination countries (countries that victims are trafficked to) have a large share of the burden to create effective legislation against trafficking. Proposed solutions include holding Palermo Protocol signatory countries accountable to change their legislation, …

Agricultural Patenting: A Case Study Of Monsanto, Shannon Moran

Pepperdine Policy Review

In 2012, genetically-modified crops reached 170 million hectares around the globe. The ability to patent basic forms of life such as plant properties and the legal history of those intellectual property rights gives biotechnological companies such as Monsanto immense power in the vital agricultural sector. This article outlines the concerns over genetically-modified products and the implications for follow-on advancements within biotechnology by using Monsanto as a case study. The article finds that patent policies similar to those within the United States severely restrict competition and stifle innovation in not only the agricultural sector but also within research and humanitarian projects. …

Much Ado About Cyber-Space: Cyber-Terrorism And The Reformation Of The Cyber-Security, Christian Pedersen

Pepperdine Policy Review

The threats residing in cyber-space are becoming well understood by policymakers and security experts alike. However, cyber-security defenses and strategies cannot solely be directed towards nation states, as non-governmental actors – such as transnational crime groups and terrorist organizations are becoming increasingly reliant upon internet technologies. Attacks on the digital components of the critical infrastructure, have the potential to unleash devastation on the United States. In a time when reliability and ethnicity of the National Security Administration, the Nation’s leading digital intelligence organization, are becoming increasingly questioned; defensive measures need to be improved to prevent future attacks and improve the …

Federal V. State Effectiveness: An Analysis Of The Endangered Species Act And Current Potential Attempts At Reform, Nicholas Primo

Pepperdine Policy Review

In November 2013, several Congressional leaders drafted a new bill to reform the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). While the Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act (ESMSDA) was the first major attempt at updating the crucial U.S. environmental policy in decades, it also inflamed environmentalist defenders of the original bill. More importantly, it raised several questions as to whether state or federal-oriented approaches to endangered species protection and environmental policy more broadly is ultimately more effective. This article analyzes the original 1973 ESA, followed by an analysis of the ESMSDA currently being considered. It will discuss the various strengths and …

The Impact Of Clean Energy On Economic Growth: An Econometrics Approach, Cheng Zhang

Pepperdine Policy Review

This paper reviews the relationship between economic performance and clean energy using country level data. A combined instrumental variable and fixed-effect regression model is adopted to determine the relationship. By examining data in the past 50 years, we conclude that developing alternative energy will harm GDP growth, but to a relatively small degree. Thus, policymakers can take advantage of alternative energy research and development as a long-term investment that will reduce reliance on traditional energy sources.

James Q. Wilson And Public Policy Education, Adam Crepelle

Pepperdine Policy Review

This paper provides an overview of the "Character and the Moral Sense: James Q. Wilson and the Future of Public Policy" Conference held at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy on February 28 and March 1, 2014. The conference invited experts and educators to discuss the legacy of James Q. Wilson, his book, The Moral Sense, and his emphasis of character within policy education. The paper analyzes several major themes which emerged in several panels and describes how they can and should be applied in public policy programs.

The Role Of Health Care In A Democratic Capitalist Society, Barbi Appelquist

Pepperdine Policy Review

What is the government’s role in health care? On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare.” Did the government’s hand reach too far into the health care economy of our nation? This paper focuses on the Affordable Care Act’s general application to the capitalist tradition as framed by Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, with a limited analysis of the federal mandate to purchase individual health insurance. First, I will provide an overview of our nation’s health care system and the Affordable Care Act. Then, I will analyze …

The Korean Conflict And The United States National Security, Matthew Smith

Pepperdine Policy Review

The United States has a substantial interest in the Korean Conflict concerning its own national security. It is based primarily on the potential outcomes of the policies deriving from North Korea. The United States must maintain its relationship with South Korea in order to address any situation that arises on the Korean peninsula.

Regulation Of Hydraulic Fracturing Of Shale Gas Formations In The United States, Fatemeh Bagheri

Pepperdine Policy Review

The practice of hydraulic fracturing has become increasingly common over the years since it has been looked at to replace energy derived from coal. Though hydraulic fracturing may be one of the better forms of obtaining energy, it comes with its own set of problems ranging from environmental problems to health problems if the appropriate safeguards are not implemented when completing the process. Regulations at the local, state, and federal level are assessed to determine which entity should regulate the practice and many technologies are reviewed in order to offer suggestions which allow the process to be completed without significant …

Preparing For The Inevitable: Us Climate Change Preparation, David Ernenwein

Pepperdine Policy Review

There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the global climate is changing. Increasing average global temperatures are expected to increase both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which will affect human civilization. However, these events do not need to become disasters. Analysis of past extreme weather disasters in the United States shows that failures in policy, specifically in terms of disaster preparedness, are the real culprit and not the actual weather event. Given the increasing destructiveness of storms and the projected increase in frequency, it makes formulating a coherent and effective national response a priority.

Oil Sands Extraction: Lessons From Alberta Can, And Should, Inform American Policies, Victoria Lopez

Pepperdine Policy Review

Enclosed is a final empirical project on foreign direct investment as impacted by (or impacting) infrastructure development levels in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

No Music In Timbuktu: A Brief Analysis Of The Conflict In Mali And Al Qaeda’S Rebirth, Nicholas Primo

Pepperdine Policy Review

State Department officials stated at the end of 2011 that after a careful review of year's events concerning the terror group Al Qaeda, the threat of terrorism was now greatly diminished with little chance of retunring. Less than four months later, Al Qaeda affiliate group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) staged a coup in the West African country of Mali, effectively splitting the country in half. The article will analyze the conflict in Mali as an example of how Islamic fundamentalism and global terrorism of Al Qaeda has not dissipated, despite the best hopes of American foreign policymakers. …

Mobile Health Technology In Developing Countries: The Case Of Tanzania, Shruti Modi

Pepperdine Policy Review

Mobile technology is one of the fastest growing industries. In rural parts of the world, mobile phones are more accessible than sanitation facilities and electricity. Mobile phones can be used to transmit health information, promote health awareness, track the spread of diseases, and ultimately decrease the prevalence of diseases. In particular, this study focuses on how mobile health technology, m-health, can reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Tanzania.