Public Policy Commons^™

Lessons Learned: Alejandro Latorre, Maryann Haggerty

Journal of Financial Crises

At the time of the 2007-09 global financial crisis, Alejandro Latorre was an assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). He was active in the bailout of American International Group (AIG) from its inception to the end, when AIG repaid its outstanding obligations to both the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. This Lessons Learned summary is based on a Feb. 26, 2020, interview. He emphasized that the views discussed here are his own, not the views of anyone else currently or previously within the Federal Reserve System or the views of his current employer.

Lessons Learned: Sarah Dahlgren, Alec Buchholtz, Rosalind Z. Wiggins

Journal of Financial Crises

Sarah Dahlgren was the Executive Vice President and head of the Financial Institution Supervision Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) during the crisis and instrumental in the rescue of American International Group (AIG). This Lessons Learned summary is drawn from a March 22, 2018, interview in which she gave her take on how central bankers can prepare for future crises.

The Rescue Of American International Group Module F: The Aig Credit Facility Trust, Alec Buchholtz, Aidan Lawson

Journal of Financial Crises

In September 2008, American International Group, Inc. (AIG) experienced a liquidity crisis. To avoid the insurance giant’s bankruptcy, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) extended an $85 billion emergency secured credit facility to AIG. In connection with the credit facility, AIG issued 100,000 shares of preferred stock, with voting rights equal to and convertible into 79.9% of the outstanding shares of AIG common stock, to an independent trust (the Trust) set up by the FRBNY. Three trustees held the stock for the sole benefit of the US Treasury, exercised the rights, powers, authorities, discretions, and duties of the …

The Rescue Of American International Group Module E: Maiden Lane Iii, Lily S. Engbith, Devyn Jeffereis

Journal of Financial Crises

Starting in mid-2007, American International Group (AIG) faced increasing collateral calls from counterparties looking to protect their positions in credit default swap (CDS) contracts that AIG had written on residential and commercial collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) (US COP 2010, 28-30). Per these agreements, the AIG parent company was responsible for insuring the value of the CDOs against the risk of a negative credit event, such as default (GAO 2011, 5; US COP 2010, 29-30). AIG’s immediate need for liquidity on September 16, largely driven by a securities lending program and those collateral calls, prompted the Federal Reserve to lend the …

Tractorcade: Investigating The Relationship Between Group Theory And The American Agriculture Movement's Attempt At Policy Change, Hanna M. Metzler

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between The American Agriculture Movement (AAM) and group theory, with a focus on AAM’s usage of Tractorcade as a tool to promote policy change. Gathering data through a myriad of sources - including existing literature, oral histories, newspaper articles, documents, and journal entires - this thesis analyzes AAM’s Tractorcade demonstration as a social movement aimed at influencing policy change. Utilizing Charles Tilly’s worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment (WUNC) social movement framework, we find that although AAM employed strong unity and numbers, they failed in displaying substantial worthiness or commitment, ultimately leading to a …

Does Frequency Or Amount Matter? Testing The Perceptions Of Four Universal Basic Income Proposals, Leah Hamilton, Mathieu Despard, Stephen Roll, Dylan Bellisle, Christian A. Hall, Allison Wright

Social Policy Institute Research

The concept of universal basic income (UBI) first gained traction in the United States in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and again recently due to the 2008 recession and COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the idea lags in popularity in comparison to existing cash transfer policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit and COVID relief packages. We hypothesize that this disparity is related to predicted uses of a UBI in comparison annual or lump sum cash programs. In this survey of 837 American Amazon MTurk workers, we explore whether predicted behavioral responses to four randomly assigned hypothetical cash transfer scenarios vary across …

The Biden Climate Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

President Obama had an aggressive climate plan that included regulation of carbon emissions from power plants. Hillary Clinton would have continued with aggressive policies to slow and reverse global warming but was defeated by Donald Trump in 2016. President Trump sought to undo most of President Obama’s climate policies and pursued a fossil-fuel friendly energy and climate policy. The 2020 election of President Biden marks a resumption of ambitious policies to slow and ultimately reverse global warming. This newsletter identifies three major policies the Biden administration is expected to pursue and attempts to explain what policy implication might look like.

Child Care Costs In The Mountain West, Saha Salahi, Kristian Thymianos, William E. Brown Jr., Caitlin J. Saladino

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines the cost of child care using data from the Care Index, a collaboration between New America, Care.com, and other organizations. Data for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are included in this document.

Explaining The Economic Impact Of Covid-19: Core Industries And The Hispanic Workforce, Aaron Klein, Ember Smith

Policy Briefs and Reports

As the United States prepares for a COVID-19 recovery, policymakers need to understand why some cities and communities were more vulnerable to the pandemic’s economic consequences than others. In this paper, we consider the association between a city’s core industry, its economic susceptibility to the pandemic, and the recession’s racially disparate impact across six select metropolitan areas. We find that areas with economies that rely on the movement of people—like Las Vegas with tourism—faced substantially higher unemployment at the end of 2020 than cities with core industries based on the movement of information. Further, we find the hardest-hit areas have …

Gendered Entrepreneurship Contextualization In Egypt: An Empirical Study On Policies For Women Entrepreneurship Empowerment, Sarah El-Fiky

Theses and Dissertations

The proportion of women entrepreneurs has increased dramatically over the past decade, not just in the developed world but also in developing countries. This led to a significant increase in the governments’ attention towards designing and implementing female-focused policies to allocate adequate resources for empowering women entrepreneurs in Egypt. This paper examines one main question: How does the Egyptian government empower women entrepreneurs through key policy interventions? This is only possible through testing the proposed research hypotheses and investigating Egypt’s publicized policies and governmental interventions. Based on a gender-lens perspective, this research tries to close the gaps in previous research …

Venture Capital In Nevada, Peter Grema, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet provides an overview of venture capital in the State of Nevada. Venture capital is an essential part of economic diversification and business startup development. The Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah are used for comparative purposes to add context to Nevada’s venture capital ecosystem. The differing nature of venture capital funds in Northern and Southern Nevada is delineated.

Nevada's Plan For Recovery And Resilience, Sri International, Rcg Economics, Brookings Mountain West

Policy Briefs and Reports

The report that follows contains the following components:

• An economic forecast from RCG Economics on the situation expected for Nevada—GDP and employment—in the fall of 2021 (subject to all the present uncertainties faced by Nevada and the country as a whole).
• A series of immediate actions, in which GOED plays a leadership role, to shelter and prepare for recovery key components of Nevada’s economy. The particular focus is on “Main Street” and small and medium sized businesses.
• A set of visionary strategies, firmly grounded in Nevada’s underlying assets, that will accelerate the diversification of the state’s economy and the transition …

All Over The Map: A Systematic Literature Review And State Policy Scan Of Medicaid Buy-In Programs For Working Individuals With Disabilities, Dan Ferris, Mpa, Yueh-Ya Hsu, Mph, William Liem, Msw, Meredith Raymond, Msw, Mary Acri, Phd

Social Policy Institute Research

While supports for people with disabilities have increased, significant healthcare and financial barriers persist. State-administered Medicaid Buy-In programs for working people with disabilities, distinct from broader buy-in discussions that have emerged as some states consider expanding access to health insurance, are intended to incentivize employment and protect against a loss of Long-Term Services and Supports. Loss of these services would be detrimental to a person’s ability to access daily living and workforce participation supporting services. This paper explores identified drivers of and barriers to participation, outcomes, and the current state of programs that are currently in place. Authors conducted a …

Pay Your Debts: Moral Dilemmas Of International Debt, Alessandro Del Ponte, Peter Descioli

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Should a government repay its international debts even if this imposes severe hardships on its citizens? Drawing on moral psychology, we investigate when people think a government is morally obligated to pay its debts. Participants read about a government that has to decide whether to default on its debt payments or cut vital programs. Across conditions, we varied the number of jobs at stake and whether a full or partial default is required to save them. Overall, most participants judged that a government should pay its debt even when the damage to the debtor is greater than the benefit to …

Reimagining China’S Transportation Funding Investments In Africa In The Context Of Covid-1, Clovia Hamilton, Sira Maliphol

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Africa has not invested enough in its healthcare system, and China has been investing in and financing much of Africa’s transportation system. Many African countries’ fragile health and transportation systems have been further weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This literature review confirms the interdependence of the key functional areas of comprehensive development planning and the importance of building and maintaining a sound transportation infrastructure. With respect to partnerships with China, African nations need to strengthen government functional areas more comprehensively, considering all of the areas of development planning including trade as well as transportation and aid issues. It is all …

Addressing Food Insecurity In Egypt: Towards Sustaining Food Access For All/ الأمن الغذائي في مصر نحو استدامة وصول الغذاء للجميع, Alaa Mazloum, Abdelrahman Rizk, Norhan Muhab, Zainab Asal

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

This policy paper sheds light on the current challenges that Egypt faces to ensure food access for all. In attempts to underscore the root causes of food insecurity in Egypt, this paper looks at the country’s geographical and agricultural national policies, food pricing, household expenditures on food as well as the challenges imposed on the country by climate change. These factors directly challenge the country’s ability to achieve food security for all by 2050. Although the Government of Egypt (GoE) launched pro-poor policies that aim at reducing the economic burden on vulnerable groups, the government needs to explore other feasible …

The Exploitation Or Protection Of Communities And Exploited Persons?, Spencer Boldt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study was intended to dissect the inner workings of the newly implemented Bill C-36 in Canada, The Protection of Communities and Exploited Peoples Act through a mixed methods approach. This was done through comparing statistical research (demographics, crime data, and overall economic state) within Regina to interviews conducted with those individually involved in prostitution and the community of the city. This study was meant to draw out the differences between what the statistics depict, a growth in the overall safety of Regina, versus the perspectives gained from multiple interviewees. With this mixed method approach I have deduced that Bill …

Three Essays On Tax Compliance In Indonesia, Himawan Saputro

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation studies the impacts of major tax reforms designed to improve tax compliance, particularly in the context of developing countries with limited enforcement capacity due to informality and lack of third-party data using the Indonesian tax administrative data as well as relevant empirical research methods. In order to describe this dissertation, I discuss each essay as the following.

The first essay is titled "How Do Small Taxpayers Respond to Tax Simplification? Evidence from the Indonesian Turnover Tax Reform." This essay studies the firms' behavioral responses to tax simplification in Indonesia by exploiting the implementation of turnover tax in 2013 …

China-Africa Relations: The Northern Nigerian Textile Industry, Afolabi Toye

International Studies (MA) Theses

This project takes a critical look into China’s policy in Africa. The work assesses the significance and challenges of China-Africa cooperation focusing on Nigeria. The paper argued that analyzing the nexus between Beijing and Africa should not center on China’s investments and financial aid. Instead, it should reflect on the competitive hedge China enjoys through these investments in terms of direct access to each market sector of the African economy, and it impacts on local businesses. The study examines the impacts of China’s approach on the textile industry in Kano and Kaduna states in northern Nigeria, to provide an insight …

Establishing An Institutional Framework For The Handicrafts Clusters In Egypt/ إنشاء إطار مؤسسي لتجمعات الحرف اليدوية في مصر, Dina Elkhishin, Mariam Walid, Nada Kassem, Noheir Khairy

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The Egyptian handicrafts sector, which employs more than a million Egyptians, and contributes to local economic growth and to the export market, has a lot of potentials but faces numerous challenges. Aware of the potential of the sector, the Egyptian government is currently focusing on the development of handicrafts, mostly organized as clusters. Nevertheless, artisans face numerous challenges, some of which are related to access to financial resources and raw materials, access to markets especially international ones, access to marketing opportunities, access to technical know-how, among others. Whilst handicrafts production is mostly cluster-based in Egypt, it is highly informal. One …

Education Inequality In The United States: A Wicked Problem With A Wicked Solution, Lincoln Bernard

CMC Senior Theses

A problem wicked in its complexity and detriment; the United States has failed most of its students in its inability to address the unashamedly rampant inequality throughout its public education system. The inequality in American public schools appears evident and boundless, but the causes of that inequality, and especially its solutions, are not as obvious. It is easy to explain away the system’s failures as a product of the United States’ ultra-varied environment, but further investigation reveals much of the systems problems are self-caused, resulting from the United States’ uniquely local approach to supporting its schools. A misguided fear of …

From The Legal Literature: Covid And The Criminal Law, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Increasing Successful Completion Of Practical Engineering Diploma Programs, Naomi Gershoni

Social Policy Institute Research

This brief summarizes the results from an experiment that focused on increasing the percentage of college students who submitted and successfully defended their final projects and thus were eligible to earn a professional degree from a technical college.

The experiment focused on three study fields: architecture, electrical engineering, and software engineering.

In the study, a random group of college departments introduced pre-specified deadlines for the final project submission and defense, as well as sent students personalized text messages that provided reminders, encouragements, and additional information on the benefits of completing program requirements in a timely manner.

Study findings show that …

Nudging Parents To Improve Children's Oral Health: A Field Study, Deborah Marciano, Ariel Tikotsky, Merav Kynam Orenstein, Hadas Goldberg, Yuval Vered

Social Policy Institute Research

This brief presents the results from a field experiment that tested strategies for improving parental participation in an oral health promotion workshop.

In this study, daycare centers, in which a team of dental hygienists provided oral health workshops for parents, were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions.

Specifically, daycare centers were randomly assigned to introduce the Teeth Brushing Board (TBB)—i.e., an interactive poster board to report whether parents brushed their child’s teeth the previous day—into daycare classrooms in the two weeks before the oral health workshop. Further, parents were randomly assigned to receive invitation letters to the workshop …

[Withdrawn], Social Policy Institute, Washington University In St. Louis

Social Policy Institute Research

This paper was withdrawn per the request of the authors, May 23, 2024.

Research article available at Jabbari, J., Jackson, J., Roll, S., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2024). Pinching Pennies or Money to Burn? The Role of Grit in Financial Behaviors. Social Psychology, 55(2). https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1864-9335/a000545?journalCode=zsp

A Refined Experimentalist Governance Approach To Incremental Policy Change: The Case Of Process-Tracing China’S Central Government Infrastructure Ppp Policies Between 1988 And 2017, Huanming Wang, Bin Chen, Joop Koppenjan

Publications and Research

This article was originally published in Journal of Chinese Governance, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2021.1898151

This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Human Centeredness: The Foundation For Leadership-As-Practice In Complex Local/Regional Food Networks, Maryann Martinez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Our local and regional food systems are predominately modeled on a failed capitalist market-based economy. In the absence of corporate accountability, and/or support on the federal policy level, local and regional leadership and self-organized networks are critical to the scaling across and evolution of a moral and equitable food system. Networked food systems leaders are developing the capacity to solve wicked problems, and spark change. Understanding the values and practices of local food systems leadership that initiate, influence, and support activities is essential to understanding how to foster conditions for local and regional food network growth. My dissertation research is …

Latinx Population Hit Hard In The Covid-19 Recession: Mounting Hardships And One Big Idea For An Inclusive Recovery, Trevor Mattos, Bansari Kamdar, Phillip Granberry, Fabián Torres-Ardila

Gastón Institute Publications

Back before the COVID-19 crisis hit and the economy was relatively strong in the aggregate, Massachusetts’ Latinx population—a diverse and growing community that makes valuable economic and cultural contributions—had the lowest incomes and lowest homeownership rate among racial/ethnic groups in Massachusetts. Latinx working-age adults tended to have lower levels of educational attainment and were more likely to have limited English language proficiency. These, in part, contributed to higher levels of unemployment and food insecurity before the pandemic. Then the COVID crisis hit in March of 2020, serving to compound many of these pre-existing challenges, as Latinx workers were more likely …

Covid-19 Educational Inequities: Shining A Light On Disparities In A Graduate School Of Social Work, Jason Jabbari, Dan Ferris, Tyler Frank, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

In the wake of COVID-19, universities and schools of social work face unprecedented challenges and uncertainty in aligning their academic models with public heath protocols and best practices, while prioritizing the safety and well-being of their students. In order to best respond to these challenges and uncertainty, more research is needed to advance a greater understanding of (1) what challenges students face, (2) who is most at risk and impacted by these challenges, and (3) how universities can best support students. Through a survey administered during the spring 2020 semester at a large research university in the Midwest, we explored …

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Housing Instability During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Yung Chun, Stephen Roll, Selina Miller, Hedwig Lee, Savannah Larimore, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Stable and adequate housing is critical in the midst of a pandemic; without housing, individuals and families cannot shelter in place to prevent the spread of disease. Understanding and combating housing hardships in vulnerable populations is therefore essential to a sound public health response. This study aims to explore the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on housing-related hardships across racial/ethnic groups in the United States as well as the extent to which these disparities are mediated by households’ broader economic circumstances; namely, their pre-pandemic liquid asset levels and the experience of COVID-19-related job and income losses. Using a national survey of over …