Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Counting The Impossible: Sampling And Modeling To Achieve A Large State Homeless Count, Jennifer L. Priestley, Jane Massey

Jennifer L. Priestley

Objective: Using inferential statistics, we develop estimates of the homeless population of a geographically large and economically diverse state -- Georgia.

Methods: Multiple independent data sources (2000 U.S. Census, the 2006 Georgia County Guide, Georgia Chamber of Commerce) were used to develop Clusters of the 150 Georgia Counties. These clusters were used as "strata" to then execute traified sampling. Homeless counts were conducted within the sample counties, allowing for multiple regression models to be developed to generate predictions of homeless persons by county.

Results: In response to a mandate from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the State …

Analysis Of The Higher Education Act Reauthorizations: Financial Aid Policy Influencing College Access And Choice, Robin L. Capt

Administrative Issues Journal

The original goal of the Higher Education Act of 1965, the amendments to that act in 1972, and reauthorizations through 1998 was to increase accessibility of higher education to all. Initially these system-level efforts substantially enhanced equity, but recent enrollment trends raise the question: Is our system becoming more or less equitable? By conducting a policy analysis of the HEA reauthorizations and other legislation, in respect to policy decision-making and policy implementation on federal and state levels, this paper examines how financial aid policy influences college access and choice for low- to moderate-income undergraduate students. Key elements in the federal …

Public Administration Education In Latin America—Understanding Teaching In Context: An Introduction To The Symposium, Nadia Rubaii, Cristian Pliscoff

Public Administration Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Community-Based Analytics: Big Data And Decision Making For Community-Based Organizations, Michael P. Johnson

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

Community-based organizations face significant challenges in identifying data needs, and assembling data resources for service provision, strategy design and advocacy. We develop principles by which CBOs can develop and share large datasets in order to formulate and solve decision problems that improve the well-being of localized, often marginalized or distressed communities. We illustrate these ideas using field research from Boston, MA.

Editor's Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

This issue of the journal publishes the proceedings of the two “Youth at Risk” seminars the Family Impact Institute conducted at the Massachusetts State House in April 2012 and March 2013, for state policy makers, including legislators, legislative aides, the governor’s staff, and agency representatives. What makes these seminars unique is that they focus researchers’ attention on what policy makers want and not on what researchers think they should want.

Among the hardest hit by the recession were the poor, whose numbers swelled when tens of thousands of the new jobless and their families joined them. Many of these families, …

Feasibility Study Of Consolidating Public Safety Answering Points In South Euclid, Beachwood, Euclid, Shaker Heights, And University Heights, Ohio, Daila Shimek, Kyle Johnson, Eugene L. Kramer, Nathaniel Neider

Daila Shimek

The study conducted by the Center for Public Management (PM) found that, for two of three scenarios analyzed, it is legally, technologically, and financially feasible to consolidate public safety answering points (PSAPs) in South Euclid, Beachwood, Euclid, Shaker Heights, and University Heights, Ohio. Of the scenarios found feasible, the study estimates a decrease in costs ranging from almost $687,700 to $1.1 million, depending upon the configuration of the PSAP. When factoring in capital costs, the savings ranges from $555,000 to $898,000, but lead to an increase in costs of $189,000 in a PSAP dispatching for police only. At the local …

Interest Group Scorecards And Legislative Satisfaction: Using Ratings To Explore The Private Bias In Public Policy, Daniel E. Chand

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite their importance to our system, the study of interest groups has produced few concrete findings compared to other actors such as administrative agencies and political parties in the policymaking process. The absence of generalizable findings is partly explained by the unpopularity of the topic, but is primarily due to a deficiency of easily accessible data and lack of agreement over how to operationalize important concepts. In the following dissertation, I employ interest group "scorecards" (ratings of members of Congress) as an approach to examining interest groups in a generalizable manner. Specifically, I use scorecards to test the pluralist assumptions …

Feasibility Study For Consolidation Of Public Safety Answering Points In Perry County Ohio, Daila Shimek, Kyle Johnson, Eugune L. Kramer, Patrick Johnson, Nat Neider

Daila Shimek

This report provides an assessment of the feasibility of consolidation of the public safety answering points (PSAPS’s) in Perry County, Ohio and the Village of New Lexington (in Perry County), Ohio. The report describes the methodology used to assess the feasibility of consolidating these PSAPs. The findings are that consolidation of PSAPs and dispatch services among the participating entities would not be feasible if the decision is made purely on costs. However, a consolidated PSAP would reduce the duplication of services and redundant capital projects. This in turn would free up funds to maintain and replace capital items as they …

The Shadow Economy, Colin C. Williams, Friedrich Schneider

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

Conservatism, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of late 20th and early 21st century conservatism and its impact on western U.S. politics and national politics. Stresses the roles played by individuals such as Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan,and George W. Bush and their influence on western conservatism. Analyzes how conservatism has been influenced by policy research institutions and advocacy groups such as the Claremont Institute and Focus on the Family. Reviews areas of collaboration and contention in western conservatism between economic, national security, and social conservatives and more libertarian elements. Examines the rise of the Tea Party movement in response to Obama Administration policies and …

Disruptive Transformations In Health Care: Technological Innovation And The Acute Care General Hospital, D. Pulane Lucas

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in medical technology have altered the need for certain types of surgery to be performed in traditional inpatient hospital settings. Less invasive surgical procedures allow a growing number of medical treatments to take place on an outpatient basis. Hospitals face growing competition from ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The competitive threats posed by ASCs are important, given that inpatient surgery has been the cornerstone of hospital services for over a century. Additional research is needed to understand how surgical volume shifts between and within acute care general hospitals (ACGHs) and ASCs. This study investigates how medical technology within the hospital …

Center For Rebuilding Sustainable Communities After Disasters: Partnerships In Teaching And Research, Adenrele Awotona, Center For Rebuilding Sustainable Communities After Disasters, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

CRSCAD assists local, national, and international agencies as well as the victims of disasters to develop practical, sustainable, and long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental consequences of disasters.

We also host international conferences and workshops at UMass Boston to provide a space for partners to network, exchange ideas, and share best practices.

Multi-Level Governance Processes - Citizens & Local Budgeting: Comparing Brazil, China, & The United States, Aimee Franklin, Dale Krane, Carol Ebdon

Public Administration Faculty Publications

Modifications to policy-making processes and actors are crucial when transitioning to multi-level governance. Civic engagement in budgeting processes, where crucial policy decisions are determined, is an important component of shared governance. Understanding the new roles for citizens in the budget process, then, can extend our knowledge of multi-level governance. This research explores the ways in which the budget process incorporates citizen participation to foster an ideal of civil society in the United States, Brazil, and China. The comparative case analysis probes the extent to which institutional changes have occurred, why they have occurred, and the degree to which municipal budget …

The Economic Context: Growing Disparities Of Income And Wealth, Chuck Collins

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last few years, poverty rates have remained constant in the New England states. The effort to reduce poverty in New England and the United States has been thwarted by trends of growing income and wealth inequality. Since the late 1970s, the real incomes for the majority of U.S. households have remained stagnant or fallen. During the same time, asset ownership has become dramatically more unequal, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has increased. The causes of this accelerated inequality are complex, but underlying the picture are a series of rule changes, both public …

Attracting Fdi: The Chilean Government's Role Promoting Renewable Energy, Kyle Herman

Dr. Kyle S. Herman

The development and implementation of renewable energy power plants is important for Chile in order to increase energy security, supply remote mines with electricity, and eventually decrease energy costs. The Chilean government has promoted renewable energy and attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to develop large-scale renewable energy projects. However, the policies cannot sufficiently attract FDI in unproven renewable energies such as Concentrated Solar Power, though it is proven elsewhere. This paper examines the Chilean government’s renewable energy policies, related government agencies, and the extent that these provide a stable backdrop for FDI in large-scale renewable energy projects. Following that summary, …

Drug Trafficking And Threats To National And Regional Security In West Africa, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, John Pokoo

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

In less than one and a half decades West Africa has become a major transit and repackaging hub for cocaine and heroin flowing from the Latin American and Asian producing areas to European markets. Drug trafficking is not new to the region; the phenomenon rapidly expanded in the mid-2000s as a result of a strategic shift of Latin American drug syndicates towards the rapidly growing European market, leading UNODC to state in 2008 that "…the crisis of drug trafficking … is gaining attention. Alarm bells are ringing …West Africa has become a hub for cocaine trafficking. This is more than …

Syllabus: Experiential Reflections On Public Policy, With A Spotlight On Sustainability, Marissa Carrere

Sustainability Education Resources

In this course, students will study a theoretical model for understanding and analyzing public policy, and they will apply this model to their professional and life experience. This course focuses on the application of theoretical material to narrative accounts of a student’s experience, with the goal of informing experience through interdisciplinary research. With a collaborative work environment and through regular small-group and full-class discussions, this course critically investigates real world public policy issues.

Land Restitution, Traditional Leadership And Belonging: Defining Barokologadi Identity, Robin L. Turner

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

How do government policies and practices affect struggles over collective identity and struggles over land? Examining the interconnections among collective identity struggles, land struggles and state policies and practices in post-apartheid South Africa, this paper argues that the government's contradictory policies and ambivalent practices have aggravated collective struggles over the boundaries of belonging. Specifically, the differing definitions of community set forth in traditional leadership, land tenure and land restitution policies exacerbate existing divisions among ‘communities’ concurrently subject to these policies and create practical policy dilemmas for decision-makers. This paper illustrates the interplay between public policies and collective identity struggles through …

Making Solution Pluralism In Policy Making Accessible: Optimization Of Design And Services For Constituent Well-Being, Margeret A. Hall, Steven O. Kimbrough, Wibke Michalk, Jefff Schneider, Christof Weinhardt

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Policy makers are increasingly turning to computational support mechanisms for managing uncertainty, and constituent focused-decisions. Utilization and standardization of human-computer interaction principles to create solution pluralism (the condition of having a consideration set containing a multiplicity of credible solutions) is a fundamental to fulfilling this need. There is a need for standardized applications and user interfaces to deliver a higher quality of service, which assists policy makers in maintaining or increasing constituent well-being.

The Persistence Of Bullying At School And Public Policy Responses: What Ails?, Rajeet Guha

Master in Public Administration Theses

No abstract provided.

Innovations In Citizen-State Interaction In Vanuatu: Grassroots Approaches To Maintaining Bio-Cultural Diversity, Thomas Dick, Cherise Addinsall

Thomas Dick

Many countries in the South Pacific are currently failing to adequately address issues in regards to bio-cultural diversity, which is leading to escalating environmental and health problems for Pacific Islanders (Morrison & Munro, 1999). These issues have the potential to undermine the Pacific way of life, which requires healthy ecosystems and continued access to natural resources for livelihoods and cultural enrichment (SPREP, 2011). The disposal of waste in small island developing states is limited due to small land areas, shallow water tables and population pressures. The consequences from insufficient waste management can consist not only of obvious aesthetic problems but …

“But My Lease Isn’T Up Yet!”: Finding Fault With “No-Fault” Evictions, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Faculty Publications

Historically, tenants could be evicted when their actions put them “at-fault.” Grounds for “at-fault” eviction (i.e., evictions for cause) include a tenant’s failure to pay rent, a tenant’s holding over after termination of the lease, a tenant’s material noncompliance with the lease agreement, and a tenant’s failure to maintain the premises materially affecting health and safety. Recently, some landlords have been evicting tenants for no fault of their own.

This article focuses on three reasons for attempted “no-fault” evictions: foreclosure of the premises, proposed sale of the premises, or intended re-occupancy by the landlord. Part II of this article provides …

Book Review: 'Living Legislation' By Jeffery A. Jenkins & Eric M. Patashnik (Eds), Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

No abstract provided.