Public Policy Commons^™

An "Act Of God": Race, Religion, And Policy In The Wake Of Hurricane Katrina, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

This essay addresses how characterization of Hurricane Katrina as an “act of God” exposed historical racial cleavages and policy challenges in post-Katrina America. Act-of-God rhetoric not only stemmed from religious history but was also largely informed by America's racial legacy. Usage of the term often absolved individuals and institutions from personal responsibility and economic liability, especially when the specter of race could be invoked. The term also revealed generational ideological differences within the Black community itself, posing significant questions about the discourse of race and religion in post–civil rights America.

Employment In Construction And Distribution Industries: The Impact Of The New Jobs Tax Credit, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

Excerpt] The New Jobs Tax Credit (NJTC) offers a tax credit of fifty percent of the first $4200 of wages per employee for increases in employment of more than two percent over the previous year. Economic theory predicts that such a tax credit should stimulate employment, decrease hours worked per week, and reduce product prices of the subsidized industries. A time series analysis of the construction, retailing, and wholesaling industries finds strong support for these hypotheses. Our results suggest that the NJTC was responsible for 150,000-670,000 of the more than 1-million increase in employment that occurred between mid-1977 and mid-1978 …

The Status And Future Of Government Documents, James T. Shaw

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Depository libraries have traditionally enjoyed a pretty sweet deal—we receive free copies of documents in return for space, processing, and staff to help people use them. Depository libraries have served as key players in two areas of public policy: 1) public access to government information for the needs of today; and 2) widespread distribution of documents helps them survive to form a historical record.

Geopolitics Of Global Change: The Melting Of The Arctic, Charles K. Ebinger

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Arctic Melt:
- Climate change, feedback loops
- More than one million square miles of ice melted in 2007
- We could have ice-free Arctic summers as early as 2013 or 2015
- New environmental and strategic challenges

Stages Of Judgment Citizen Court Experiment Report, Courtney Breese

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

Over the past several years, the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution and Public Collaboration (MODR) has worked with the Kettering Foundation to establish a Public Policy Institute (PPI) for public deliberation at the University of Massachusetts Boston. In June 2008, the Kettering Foundation invited MODR to join other research partners across the country in a research experiment influenced by Daniel Yankelovich‟s Seven Stages of Public Understanding. The purpose of this experiment is to test how effectively a citizen court process model communicates public opinion on contentious public policy issues to public officials and the media.

MODR agreed to join in …

Slides: Rethinking Western Water Law: Restoring The Public Interest In Western Water Law, Mark Squillace

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Mark Squillace, Director, Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado Law School

20 slides

Holding The Line: Labor’S Safety & Health Movement, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Is OSHA finally enforcing the law after years of laxity? Or, as most activists and analysts involved in safety and health believe, do the high-profile penalties constitute an attempt by OSHA to shore up its reputation? A recent independent federal study, the conclusions of which were confirmed by the agency's own consultants, found OSHA in a state of "total paralysis." Another, private, study by the National Safe Workplace Institute showed that OSHA's inspections are inadequate and untimely, that the agency consistently fails to insure that what hazards it does uncover are corrected, and that it often and unjustifiably reduces …

The Effect Of Teachers' Unions On Issues In School Reform, Katie Reed

Public Administration & Policy

The thesis is divided into a number of sections. Part II examines some of the relevant literature on teachers’ unions and reform in education (specifically, merit pay, charter school, and school voucher reforms). The literature review presented in Part II is split up into two sections itself; Section A which examines the actual effectiveness of the aforementioned school reform programs on student achievement, and Section B, which examines literature showing the ways in which teachers’ unions impact school reform. In Part III, primary sources, including direct statements and information from teacher union websites and newspaper articles, are analyzed to determine …

Job Loss: Causes, Consequences, And Policy Responses, Kristin F. Butcher, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

From 2001 to 2003, 5.3 million workers were displaced. Beyond quantifying the numbers of jobs lost lie important questions about gains and losses from these changes and what policies may affect them. These questions will be addressed at an upcoming Chicago Fed conference.

Assessing The Impact Of Job Loss On Workers And Firms, Kristin F. Butcher, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

Many economists agree that the United States’ openness to competition and technological change raises our living standards, but sometimes results in job losses. This article summarizes “Job Loss: Causes Consequences, and Policy Responses,” a conference which was cosponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank Chicago and the Joyce Foundation.

Scientific Advice And Public Policy: Expert Advisers' And Policymakers' Discourses On Boundary Work, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Exploring Early Childhood Education And Care Policy In Ireland: Critical Discourse Analysis As A Methodological Tool, Rachel Kiersey

Conference Papers

The Irish government have invested considerably in the broad early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector over the last decade. However, a distinction persists within Irish policy between childcare and early education, both structurally and conceptually. Early education frequently refers to intervention based pre-school services; conversely childcare frequently refers to the broad spectrum of care services for 0-12 year olds, from family based child care through to centre-based provision (Hayes & Bradley, 2006; NESF, 2005; OECD, 2004). As a result of this, ‘early childhood services in Ireland are fractured across the welfare (childcare) and educational (early education) domains and … …

The Perils Of Forgetting Fairness, Michael B. Dorff, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.