Public Policy Commons^™

The Spectrum Of Federal Funding's Impact: A Texas-Vermont Case Study, Nicholas Lupone

Washington Semester Program

This multivariable analysis of the Economic Development Administration’s allocation decisions examines the EDA’s post-pandemic impact through cross-state funding discrepancies. This research uses a comparative case study design focusing on two states, Texas and Vermont, that have different economic characteristics and receive varying levels of EDA funding. The key variables analyzed include the amount and programmatic category of EDA funding received, and the relationship between funding and broad economic indicators, such as employment statistics, economic output, and industry growth. Additional variables will be impact-based and include private leveraged funding, jobs created or retained, and industrial base pre- and post-funding. The study …

Indigenous Water Rights: Navigating Sovereign Waters, Cynthia N. Pina

Master's Projects and Capstones

The issue of Native American water rights and the sovereignty of their land on reservations is gaining increasing prominence, making it the focal point of this thesis as an environmental justice concern. Native Americans face disproportionate public health challenges related to water accessibility, contamination, sanitation, outdated infrastructure, and other social determinants of health. The legal framework that governs the coexistence of Native Americans in the United States is rooted in a settler colonial perspective. Consequently, this has created a dependent relationship between Native Americans and the United States federal government. Despite the long-standing advocacy of Tribes for sovereignty since the …

Policy Implications Of Managing Biodiversity And Natural Resources Across International Boundaries, Dillon Brown

Dissertations

Fisheries Management under the best of scenarios is a complex action. It requires thoughtful consideration of resources that tend to be out of sight, widely distributed, highly variable both spatially and temporally, and present dramatic variation in life history and ecology. No one management approach has been developed which can effectively incorporate all these variables. Add to this the issue of transnational boundary movements of these resources, and one discovers that this complex issue needs to be addressed by multiple entities, agencies, and nations to have any chance of success.

This research set out to discover ways in which fisheries …

Impacts Of Immigration Detention On Sub-Saharan Africa Asylum Seekers In The United States, Felix Vescovi Ogunsuyi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Detaining asylum seekers has become an established practice in many countries. There is a large body of research suggesting that immigration detention causes asylum seekers harm. However, the focus of these studies has been on diagnosable disorders and mental health, with no descriptive understanding of how detention and resettlement are experienced and conceptualized by asylum seekers. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how formerly detained asylum seekers from sub-Saharan African countries perceive the impact of detention on their resettlement experience in the United States. Ager and Strang’s conceptual framework of refugee integration was used as the study’s …

The Poverty In Usa: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Last Two Decades, Sara Negri

Economics Theses & Dissertations

Poverty is a global problem that affects not only the undeveloped states but also the most developed ones. This research paper will analyze this problem in depth, trying to summarize several definitions, several causes that can lead to an increase in the poverty rate, and policies implemented by the government in order to reduce the total number of poor people. The author analyzed the poverty rate in each state of the United States from 1990 to 2019 using a panel data analysis. She found out that California is the state with the highest value of poor people in the U.S. …

A Transdisciplinary Analysis Of Just Transition Pathways To 100% Renewable Electricity, Adewale Aremu Adesanya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transition to using clean, affordable, and reliable electrical energy is critical for enhancing human opportunities and capabilities. In the United States, many states and localities are engaging in this transition despite the lack of ambitious federal policy support. This research builds on the theoretical framework of the multilevel perspective (MLP) of sociotechnical transitions as well as the concept of energy justice to investigate potential pathways to 100 percent renewable energy (RE) for electricity provision in the U.S. This research seeks to answer the question: what are the technical, policy, and perceptual pathways, barriers, and opportunities for just transition to …

Dismantling Of Obesity-Related Policies, Alexandra Borosova Morshed

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation fills an important research gap in the study of obesity policymaking by characterizing to what extent the phenomenon of dismantling is happening at the state level for obesity-related policies targeting the context of consumption, identifying determinants, and characterizing actors and processes involved. The five-year rate of dismantling of these policies is close to one-third for any attempts and one-tenth for enacted dismantling. Food and beverage tax policies face a particularly high rate of dismantling. Case studies and news coverage of state- level dismantling identified actors, motivations, and strategies used in the process of dismantling. Review of health-related empirical …

Beyond The Sentimental Cliche: How Local Communities Impact Residents And Shape Public Opinion, Kate Brunk

Theses and Dissertations

The Trump administration has recently established a rule that will prohibit abortion services providers from receiving Title X funds for the non-abortion family planning services they provide. Little public opinion research has focused on family planning and reproductive health topics outside of abortion. I find statistically significant experimental evidence that increasing perceptions of local need for a local reproductive health clinic caused subjects to be more supportive of federal reproductive health funding for local clinics. I did not find statistically significant correlational evidence that objective measures of poor reproductive health at the county level influence public opinion on federal reproductive …

Evaluating U.S. Counterterrorism Policy On Domestic Terrorism Using The Global Terrorism Database, Colleen Michelle Kennedy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has a long history of domestic terrorism, yet U.S. counterterrorism policy has focused almost completely on the threat from international terrorism. The gap in the literature was the absence of an empirical evaluation of U.S. counterterrorism policy on domestic terrorism in general. The purpose of this quantitative study was to describe the impact of 21st century U.S. counterterrorism policy on incidence, lethality, and cost of domestic terrorism using data from the Global Terrorism Database. The multiple streams framework and the power elite theory were used. In this longitudinal trend study using secondary data analysis, domestic terrorism data …

Perceptions About The Asylum-Seeking Process In The United States After 9/11, Keith Nalumango

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Asylum seekers in the U.S. have faced a plethora of impediments leading to some of them abandoning their applications, which may deny them their rights under the United Nations convention on refugees. Despite the abundance of literature on the plight of these persons, no study has examined the lived experiences of asylum seekers in the U.S. from the time they apply for asylum to the time their applications are adjudicated. Using Benet's polarities of democracy as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this single participant narrative study was to explore these experiences in order to provide policy makers with a …

Human Trafficking: Flying Under The Radar, Amber L. Hulsey

Dissertations

The global hegemon, the United States encompasses roughly 57,000 to 63,000 of the roughly 45.8 million slaves present across the world today (Walk Free Foundation 2016a). This dissertation research uses the theoretical lens of Human Security as a unique approach in that it is people-centered, focusing on the individual, rather than the more traditional theories in international relations that emphasize the state as the central actor. This dissertation focuses on the understudied area of human trafficking into and within the United States. More specifically, the objective of this research examines the movement of trafficked persons via air and details actions …

The Need For Enhanced Physical Infrastructure In The United States, Tanvi Gandham

CMC Senior Theses

An examination of necessary infrastructure improvements in the United States.

A Multidimensional Poverty Index For The United States, Nate Kratzer

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

A multidimensional poverty index for the United States is designed, evaluated, and defended as a useful measurement tool for policymakers to evaluate poverty. Chapter 1 presents a normative case for the index. Chapter 2 reviews the literature on poverty measures. Chapter 3 constructs the proposed index. Chapter 4 is a statistical examination of the internal structure of the index. Chapter 5 explores the index across states, over time, and among population subgroups, as well as presenting policy applications.

Medicaid Expansion In The United States: A State Comparative Study Examining Factors That Influence State Decision Making, Tiffany J. Henley

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and a Supreme Court ruling that the federal government cannot compel states to expand Medicaid, a policy window has opened for states to change Medicaid policy. States are now faced with the option to expand Medicaid. Although the literature on Medicaid expansion indicates that politics plays a determining role on states’ decisions on Medicaid expansion, comprehensive analyses of dominant factors that affect these decisions on Medicaid is lacking in the field of Medicaid policy. This study will explore the decision making process of state level policies and the …

Caught In The Immigration Cross-Fire: The Changing Dynamics Of Congressional Support For Skilled Worker Visas, Maryam Tanhaee Stevenson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project examines the congressional politics associated with legislation on skilled foreign workers, specifically the H-1B visa which was created by the Immigration Act of 1990. It attempts to explain why legislative policies were successful on a small scale between 1998 and 2004 and completely unsuccessful after 2004.

Specifically, this study is a longitudinal qualitative analysis that uses Krehbiel's pivotal politics model (1998), Cox and McCubbins' party politics models (2005; 2007), Sinclair's (2007) unorthodox lawmaking theory, and Gilmour's (1995) strategic disagreement model to explain four key periods of H-1B legislation: (1) the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990; (2) …

An Analysis Of Regularizations Of Undocumented Residents In Spain And The Underground Economy: Insight For United States Policy Makers, Jon R. Davis

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

There were an estimated 11 million undocumented residents in the United States in 2010. The issue of undocumented migration and how it should be addressed is a contentious topic in the United States. However, the discussions about how to address illegal migration into the United States rarely include any comparisons to other measures that have been taken in other countries. There are many countries, such as Spain, that have large undocumented resident populations.

This analysis looks at policies that have been enacted in Spain since 1985 to enable undocumented residents to receive legal resident status, referred to as regularizations and …

Army Transformation: What Does It Mean?, David Jerome

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The way in which senior U.S. Army leaders such as the chiefs of staff define transformative change is important, especially if the meaning of that term is to be interpreted as originally intended by Army field grade officers. An Army chief of staff is responsible for creating a vision and establishing goals for the future, and field grade officers are responsible for pursuing that vision and those goals by implementing objectives that endeavor to arrive at the desired ends. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research analyzes what each of the three chiefs of staff, who have served …

Essays On Population Aging And Social Security In The U.S., Shantanu Bagchi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the past few decades, falling birth rates and increasing life expectancies have threatened the viability of social security programs all across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In this dissertation, I attempt to shed some light on the extent of the crisis that the social security program in the United States (U.S.) currently faces, and I also recommend one possible reform policy. In the first essay, I provide an alternative estimate of the impact of population aging on the future social security benefits in the U.S., while accounting for the household-level and macroeconomic adjustments to population aging. …

Majority Tyranny Or Minority Power? Impact Of Direct Democracy On Same-Sex Relationship Rights, Jylisa Renea Doney

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This research study examined the conditions under which direct democracy advanced versus impeded gay relationship rights. Many policy makers argue that direct democracy works to create a “tyranny of the majority” in which the majority impedes the rights of minority citizens. However, other researchers disagree and note that direct democracy contests advance gay rights as seen in Switzerland (Frey & Goette, 1998). I hypothesize that direct democracy advanced gay relationship rights legislation when influenced by non-traditional norms regarding family and gender, and/or the contests occurred in states or cantons that were heterogeneous in their values, while direct democracy hindered gay …

Private Or Public Insurance? The Institutional History Of Health Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Karin M. Abel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to …

Policy Priorities Of The Epa: A Proposed Agenda And Budget Initiative, Kendra E. Perkins

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

This paper summarizes priorities for the Environmental Protection Agency's federal environmental policy agenda. Ten issue areas are investigated, and major issues, problems and proposals are addressed for each of the areas. The proposed policies range in scope from recommendations for research, new legislation and amending existing legislation to new regulatory approaches and changes in existing regulations. Each policy recommendation identifies environmental policy measures that deserve priority status and a rationale for each proposal. These measures include changes to existing policy, reaffirmation of important existing policies, and the elimination of unwise policies. The policy recommendations also state whether the proposals will …