Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Environmental Sustainability In A Sraffian Framework, Robin Hahnel

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article expands the Sraffian framework to address environmental sustainability by showing how to define and measure what ecological economists call “throughput” and increases in throughput efficiency. In the process it clarifies issues that are often muddled in the steady-state and de-growth literatures.

Three Bridges, Robert Liberty

PSU Transportation Seminars

In the last decade, three important new bridges in the Portland area were the subject of intense discussion and analysis: the Tilikum Crossing, the Sellwood Bridge and the Columbia River Crossing. One of those bridges is completed, the second is under construction and the third one was canceled.

As a Metro Councilor, Robert Liberty was involved in the decision making process for all three projects. The way in which those projects were analyzed and presented to the public revealed to him a great deal about the many weaknesses in the way we make major transportation investment decisions. Those insights are …

Webinar: Transportation Academy: Lessons From The Portland Traffic And Transportation Course, Nathan Mcneil

TREC Webinar Series

Community involvement and outreach is an important part of any planning effort, but as planners often find, many times the conversation is a difficult one to carry on. Residents may lack the technical knowledge to understand the intricacies of the system, or they may show skepticism toward the planning process in general. “Transportation Leadership Education,” a NITC education project, offers a guide for communities to stimulate the development of a more involved, educated citizenry.

The Portland Traffic and Transportation course is taught each year to 30-40 Portland residents who want to learn more about how the local transportation system developed …

Strategic Planning Development Team Meeting Notes 11/16/2015, Strategic Planning Development Team

Resource Archive

The group reviewed and dsicussed a Word Cloud of the latest version of the draft strategic plan, and proceeded to begin a line-by-line reconciliation of the redlined version of the draft plan.

Note: This issue of the meeting notes is erroneously dated 11/9/15.

Fathers Caring For Children With Special Health Care Needs: Experiences Of Work-Life Fit, Claudia Sellmaier

Dissertations and Theses

Research about employed fathers of children with special health care needs (SHCN) is still limited, leaving fathers without the necessary workplace and community supports to better integrate work and life. Caregivers with exceptional caregiving responsibilities report greater levels of work-family conflict and considerable caregiver strain, as well as negative employment and financial consequences related to their caregiving responsibilities. These caregivers often struggle to access community supports such as childcare, after-school care, and support from friends and neighbors.

This study provides insights into the types of job, home, and community resources that are relevant for fathers of children with SHCN in …

Summary Of 2015 Estimates Findings, Based On Preliminary Estimates, Portland State University. Population Research Center

Oregon Population Estimates and Reports

Summary of the 2015 estimates findings.

Beyond Fruit: Examining Community In A Community Orchard, Emily Jane Becker

Dissertations and Theses

The Fruits of Diversity Community Orchard, located in Portland, Oregon in an affordable housing neighborhood, is a site of alternative food provisioning in which a group of people, organized by two nonprofits, work together to manage fruit and nut producing plants. Through conversations with volunteers who participate regularly and participant observation, this study explores the questions: What does community mean in the context of a community orchard? In what ways does partnering with a nonprofit from outside the neighborhood influence community and the way the project is operationalized?

This thesis situates community orchards within the literature on alternative food networks …

Strategic Planning Development Team Meeting Notes 11/9/2015, Strategic Planning Development Team

Resource Archive

An overview of the Equity Lens Panel, and the introduction of its co-chairs, Ann Curry-Stevens, Ben Anderson-Nathe and Gita Mehrotra. The Strategic Planning Development Team starts to discuss what impact the words “competitiveness”, “diversity” and “equity” have on the equity lens.

Model-Based Analytics And Processes For Transportation Investment Alternatives Analyses: From Least Cost Planning To Multi Criterion Evaluation, Jeff Frkonja

PSU Transportation Seminars

Many public and private organizations that make decisions regarding whether and how to invest in transportation assets or programs do so via a structured decision-support process. This talk will address the technical aspects of the family of such processes that use travel demand model outputs—and other sources of quantified performance data—as inputs to analytic tools including benefit cost analysis (BCA) and multi criterion evaluation. Example applications of this framework have included tolling and pricing studies, capital investment alternatives analyses, and programmatic evaluations. Example processes include "Least Cost Planning" frameworks borrowed originally from the power generation industry.

The talk will also …

Inside An Open Educational Resource Initiative: Pdxopen At Portland State University, Karen Bjork

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

As the rising cost of textbooks continues to burden students, some libraries have begun to facilitate the creation and sharing of Open Educational Resources. At Portland State University, Head of Digital Initiatives Karen Bjork has worked with faculty on campus to publish five new open textbooks in their repository, PDXScholar, all as part of a Provost-backed initiative. The initiative aligns with their institutional mission of better serving the student body: in their first term of use, the open textbooks saved students nearly $24,000!

Over the course of the presentation, Karen will discuss the Provost’s initiative and how the library continues …

Priming, Rap News And Public Diplomacy: Reporting On An Ngo-Led Media Initiative In Uganda, Lee Shaker, Paul Falzone

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mediated public diplomacy campaigns are proliferating around the world. Governments are joined by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), terrorists, and others that seek to effect change on the international stage by speaking directly to global populations. As these initiatives spread, they also use new and creative communication tactics. This study contributes to the evolving public diplomacy literature in two key ways. First, it explores the design and effects of an NGO-led intervention that employs a novel message format—rap news—in Uganda. Second, it reports on the integration of priming theory and entertainment-education strategies into this intervention and its evaluation. Experimental results indicate that …

Emerging Market Currency Composition Of Reserves, Denomination Of Trade And Currency Movements, Robert N. Mccauley, Hiro Ito, Tracy Chan

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article analyses the relationships among the unit of account and means of exchange functions of an international currency, on the one hand, and its store of value in official use, on the other hand. Historical evidence links the currency composition of reserves to currency movements. The currency composition of reserves is strongly related in the cross-section to both currency movements and the currency denomination of trade. Data limitations make it hard to distinguish these two factors. A panel analysis of 5 countries from central and eastern Europe shows that both trade invoicing and currency movements drive changing official reserve …

The Neoliberal Politics Of “Smart”: Electricity Consumption, Household Monitoring, And The Enterprise Form, Anthony M. Levenda, Dillon Mahmoudi, Gerald Sussman

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article investigates how digital technologies in the energy sector are enabling increased value extraction in the cycle of capital accumulation through surveillant proceesses of everyday energy consumption. We offer critical theory (Gramsci, Foucault) and critical political economy (Marx) as a guide for critical understanding of value creation in ICT through quotidian processes and practices of social reproduction. In this regard, the concept of the "prosumer" is extended beyond notions of voluntary participation in Web 2.0 to the political economy of energy use. Within this broad framework we investigate national and local level "smart grid" campaigns and projects. The "smartening" …

Gresham-Barlow School District Enrollment Forecast 2016-2017 To 2025-26, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Scott Stewart

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

This report presents a range of three scenarios of district‐wide enrollment forecasts by grade level for the Gresham‐Barlow School District (GBSD) for the 10 year period between 2016‐17 and 2025‐26. Each enrollment forecast scenario is related to population forecasts that incorporate different assumptions about growth within the District, with the primary differences being the contribution of net migration to the District’s population and age distribution. Individual school forecasts consistent with the middle range scenario are also presented for the 10 year period.

Gathering The Needles Evaluating The Impact Of Gold Open Access Content With Traditional Subscription Journals, Jill Emery, Alison Bobal

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Investigating the use of gold open access content within subscription content has been a near impossible task until the adoption of the COUNTER 4 statistics in 2014. By reviewing the COUNTER JR1 GOA 2014 reports, two librarians evaluate the gold open access usage at their respective institutions from the following publishers: Elsevier, NPG, Sage, Springer, and Wiley. This initial investigation will be a benchmark for future studies to see if there is any impact on subscribed content or if usage is limited to non-subscribed content from these providers. Attendees will become familiar with the JR1 GOA reports from COUNTER as …

Monetary Policy Spillovers And The Trilemma In The New Normal: Periphery Country Sensitivity To Core Country Conditions, Joshua Aizenman, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate why and how the financial conditions of developing and emerging market countries (peripheral countries) can be affected by the movements in the center economies - the U.S., Japan, the Eurozone, and China. We apply a two-step approach. First, we estimate the sensitivity of countries’ financial variables to the center economies [policy interest rate, stock market prices, and the real effective exchange rates (REER)] while controlling for global and domestic factors. Next, we examine the association of the estimated sensitivity coefficients with the macroeconomic conditions, policies, real and financial linkages with the center economies, and the level of institutional …

Measuring Risk Preferences In Rural Ethiopia: Risk Tolerance And Exogenous Income Proxies, Ferdinand M. Vieder, Abebe D. Beyene, Randall Bluffstone, Sahan T.M. Dissanayake, Zenebe Gebreegziabher, Peter Martinsson, Alemu Mekonnen

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Risk-aversion has generally been found to decrease in income. This may lead one to expect that poor countries will be more risk-averse than rich countries. Recent comparative findings with students suggest the opposite, potentially giving rise to a risk-income paradox. Findings with students, however, may result from selection effects. We test whether a paradox indeed exists by measuring the risk preferences of over 500 household heads representative of the highlands of Ethiopia. We find high degrees of risk tolerance, consistent with the evidence obtained for students. We also find risk tolerance to increase in income proxies, thus completing the paradox. …

Towards Effective Design Treatment For Right Turns At Intersections With Bicycle Traffic, David Hurwitz, Mafruhatul Jannat, Jennifer Warner, Christopher M. Monsere, Ali Razmpa

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The overall goal of this research was to quantify the safety performance of alternative traffic control strategies to mitigate right-turning vehicle-bicycle crashes at signalized intersections in Oregon. The ultimate aim was to provide useful design guidance to potentially mitigate these collision types at the critical intersection configurations. This report includes a comprehensive review of more than 150 scientific and technical articles that relate to bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. A total of 504 right-hook crashes were identified from vehicle path information in the Oregon crash data from 2007-2011, mapped and reviewed in detail to identify the frequency and severity of crashes by …

National Study Of Brt Development Outcomes, Arthur C. Nelson, Joanna Ganning

TREC Final Reports

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is poised to become the “next big thing” in public transit. From virtually no systems a generation ago, there are now 19 lines operating with at least seven under construction and more than 20 in the planning stages. BRT is gaining popularity because of its combination of low capital cost and potential for high levels of benefits. But are BRT systems effective in attracting development?

To answer this and many more trending BRT questions, the Metropolitan Research Center (MRC) reviewed multiple studies using data from the United States Census Bureau, Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics, and CoStar data …

Examining The Right To Bicycle: Synergies And Tensions Between Human Rights, Civil Rights, And Planning For Cycling, Aaron Golub

PSU Transportation Seminars

Securing and expanding the broad right to bicycle, including the right to adequate and safe street space and related infrastructure for cycling along with other policies and protections for cyclists, is the obvious goal of cycling advocacy efforts in their various forms. All rights are situated within frameworks for promulgating and insuring they are honored, and the right to cycling is no different. This project investigates how the right to bicycle falls within various rights frameworks, focusing on broad human rights and civil rights frameworks while reflecting as well on traffic safety codes and transportation planning frameworks. While certain aspects …

Portland Needs A Higher Minimum Wage, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Webinar: Transport Cost Index: A New Comprehensive Performance Measure For Transportation And Land Use, Liming Wang

TREC Webinar Series

Recent federal and state policies are placing increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making processes covering policy areas ranging from mobility, safety, economy and livability, to issues of equity and environment. While it is relatively easy to build consensus on mobility measures that center on the transportation system alone, it is much harder for performance measures to incorporate both transportation and land use, loosely defined as accessibility measures, even with continuous efforts to catalog and design such measures.

Two projects at PSU sponsored by Oregon DOT and National Institute of Transportation Communities (NITC) aim …

The Trade-Offs Between Population Density And Households' Transportation-Housing Costs, Haizhong Wang

PSU Transportation Seminars

As metropolitan area governments and others promote density-promoting “smart growth” policies, finer analysis is needed to quantify the impact of such policies on households' transportation and housing costs. Existing research suggests that households in urban areas trade-off between housing costs and transportation costs, but does not explore how policies to increase urban densities might explicitly impact this balance. Furthermore, the research does not adequately distinguish between the effect of urban area density and the effects of other factors associated with urban area density (e.g metropolitan area size and household incomes) on housing costs. This research uses the 2000 Census Public …

It Takes A University: Oer And The Psu Reduce Student Costs Initiative, Marilyn K. Moody

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

OER have a major role to play in student affordability efforts. Portland State University’s Reducing Student Costs Initiative is a broad-based effort to reduce student textbook and course materials costs. This presentation looks at the opportunities and challenges of involving stakeholders from across the campus in this initiative, including faculty, staff, students, administrators, donors, and external partners. OER related strategies of the Initiative, including plans for increasing OER use in courses and programs are described.

The Initiative’s work and implementation plans involving the adoption, use, and creation of OER include:

• Developing courses and programs that utilize OER, including online flexible …

The Backstory: How Livablestreets Advocates Changed Boston, Jeffrey Rosenblum

PSU Transportation Seminars

Local grassroots advocacy organizations play a critical role in shaping the future of cities but receive very little attention in research, especially insofar as understanding the most effective tactics that should be used by these organizations to achieve their objectives. When LivableStreets Alliance was founded in 2005, The City of Boston had 3/8 of one mile of bicycle lanes. Over the past decade, we have seen a sea change. Boston has published a nationally-recognized Complete Streets Guide, MassDOT has incorporated cycle-track designs into several federally-funded projects, and highway overpasses are slated for removal. What is LivableStreets’ role in shifting policy, …

Affordable Housing As A Prerequisite For A Safe, Healthy, Equitable Transportation System: Evidence From A Nationwide Evaluation Of Location Efficiency Within The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Lihtc) Program, Arlie Steven Adkins

PSU Transportation Seminars

Mountains of research over the last several decades show that how we get around and how much physical activity we get are closely linked with the built environment of the neighborhoods where we live. This means that the health, economic, and environmental benefits associated with active travel and transit are place-based and that affordable housing in walkable, location efficient places needs to be thought of as a critical component of planners’ efforts to provide safe, healthy, and equitable transportation systems. This talk will provide an overview of the links between affordable housing and transportation planning and present research findings from …

Strategic Planning Development Team Meeting Notes 10/5/2015, Strategic Planning Development Team

Resource Archive

The group continued discussions on the strategic plan's goals and initiatives, as well as how the next phase of the planning process, implementation, would be handled.

Evaluation Of A Shared Space Alternative In Morgantown, Wv, Avinash Unnikrishnan

PSU Transportation Seminars

Pedestrian and vehicle movement conflicts and the associated safety and efficiency issues have always been addressed in traffic engineering based on the principle of separation through bridges, tunnels, or signals. Pioneered by Hans Monderman, shared space is a new approach in transportation design which inverts this paradigm of separation and designs streets with no demarcations or access restrictions. Shared space has been implemented in a number of cases in Europe with improved efficiency and safety. This research focuses on a specific case study for analyzing the possible implementation of shared space in the United States on the West Virginia University …

Transportation Leadership Education: Portland Traffic And Transportation Course A Case Study And Curriculum, Nathan Mcneil

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Portland Traffic and Transportation course serves a number of different purposes. On one hand, it is designed to develop citizens who are informed about the transportation system, including how it got where it is today, what agencies and actors play a role in its operation and development, and how they, as citizens, play a role in its future. In this sense, there is a goal of broadening and deepening the existing knowledge about the system among the general population. On the other hand, there is an implicit goal of encouraging participation in the system with the understanding that doing …

State Of The Economy 2015, Portland State University. Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The first comprehensive report from Greater Portland Pulse was entitled The Path to Economic Prosperity: Equity and the Education Imperative. Published in July 2011, that report summarized the findings from the initial benchmarking of desired outcomes articulated by stakeholders and tracked on Greater Portland Pulse. The purpose of this briefing is to update some of the findings from the July 2011 report.