Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons^™

Periodic Atlas Of The Metroscape: Planning For Our Aging Society, Alan Kenneth Delatorre, Tomoko Delatorre, Margaret Neal, Paula C. Carder, Jenny Weinstein, Michael Deshane, Keren Brown Wilson

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The fact that the U.S. is aging is not new; many headlines in 2011, while not heralding the coming of the Boomers, were related to the demographic phenomenon of population aging, including those concerning the government's failed efforts to find solutions to budget deficits, questions pertaining to the future solvency of Social Security, and the extended debate over our nation's health care system. The aging population presents both challenges and opportunities for our region, state, and country in the coming years. The challenge for leaders and policymakers now is to better understand the dynamics that we are facing and to …

Nutrition Policy, Nonmarket Failure, And The Obesity Epidemic, James Woodward

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are based on the Dietary Goals for the United States, represent the federal government’s first attempt to improve the nation’s health by recommending that Americans avoid certain foods. The Guidelines were based on what was perceived, by the government and nutritionists alike, to be solid scientific evidence that consumption of fat and saturated fat in particular, increase the risk of developing heart disease. They also emphasized, and continue to emphasize, the importance of exercise and calorie restriction as the primary means of maintaining a healthy weight. In short, the Guidelines sought to …

Corporate Income Tax Credits: Examining The Relationship Between Tax Credits And Employment, Elena Yatskovskaya

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Tax incentives - in particular, corporate tax credits - have been a prominent topic of discussion among government administrators, public economists, and political scholars. This capstone project will contribute to the discussion by addressing the relationship between tax credits and employment, and provide an empirical analysis to aid in determining the effect that tax credits may have on employment.

The study uses aggregate data spanning ten years, from 1999 to 2008, and representing 18 industrial sectors with 180 observations. The data are analyzed with the help of the two panel data regression models: Fixed Effects and Between Effects. The …

Federal Tax Policy And Charitable Giving: Revisiting The 1985 Study By Charles T. Clotfelter, Mary Catherine Tinnon

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This study was inspired and given its basic research design by a study conducted in 1985 by Charles T. Clotfelter, which sought to explain charitable giving by both individuals and corporations in relation to federal tax policy. Clotfelter determined that federal tax policy did influence charitable giving by corporations. The issue to be addressed here is, do the Clotfelter findings still hold true today?

The focus of this current study is on charitable giving by corporations only and the dataset was built from the same IRS Statistics of Income that Clotfelter used. Additional data were added from the Bureau of …

Do Political Contributions Purchase Regulatory Discretion In Mining Inspections?, Neil K. Malani

CMC Senior Theses

A vast literature acknowledges the corruptibility of regulators; however, empirical tests on the matter have been limited to two-agent models examining the rulemaking process and price regulation of natural monopolies. It remains an open question whether political contributions, by driving legislative pressure, can entice laxity from regulators in their application of the rules. To remedy this issue, I observe the highly-regulated coal mining industry for which there exists several points for inspector discretion. By comparing the outcomes with Congressional coal mining contribution levels, I am able to ascertain capture across several dimensions. Specifically, I find that contributions are associated with …

“It’S All Political, But Public Policy Is Irrational”, Jaquelyn King

Pepperdine Policy Review

No abstract provided.

A Reply To David Richards’ Review Of Measuring Human Rights, Todd Landman, Edzia Carvalho

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Professor Richards highlights, in his generous review of our book Measuring Human Rights that one of the aims of the book is to bring to the forefront the importance of conceptualization before operationalization – that conceptual clarity (or lack of it) is at the heart of the problems concerning the measurement of human rights. He draws out three key issues from the book as the springboard for further discussion on measurement of the concept – a) the “Respect, Protect and Fulfill” (RPF) framework, b) the lack of reliable data sources, and c) the conceptual links between human rights, human development, …

The Eu Polity And Foreign Policy Coherence, Clara Portela, Kolja Raube

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present article examines the character of the European Union (EU) as a polity by looking at the mechanisms it employs to ensure the coherence of its foreign policies. It first contrasts three ideal polity types. The methods chosen to ensure coherence in foreign policy actions differ according to each of the three polity types. The article then explores how the EU ensures coherence through institutional reform, and subsequently looks in detail at two illustrative policy fields: aid sanctions and civilian crisis-management. The investigation concludes that the organisation of EU foreign policies combines elements from different polity types.