Public Policy Commons^™

Three Essays In Program Evaluation, Jungtaek Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

I evaluate a wider range of public policies with program evaluation methods, difference-in-difference regression method and regression discontinuity design. The first chapter considers the causal relationship between the expansion on dependent coverage of the Affordable Care Act and risky behaviors including smoking and drinking. I also examine the effect of coverage on preventive care and health care utilization. To overcome the endogeneity problem, I exploit a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of losing health insurance. I find that young adults those who turned 26 are 8 to 10 percent more likely to lose health insurance than young …

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program And Home Food Availability : The Role Of Depression And Household Characteristics, Marta D. Hernandez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although about 47 million low-income people participated in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) program at the end of 2012, the effect of SNAP participation on some nutrition related outcomes is controversial or unknown. Particularly, the effect of SNAP on food availability at-home has not been examined despite its association with food consumption. In addition, little is known about individual and social factors influencing this relationship. This study examined the effects of the interaction between SNAP participation and depression and the effects of the interaction between SNAP participation and the presence of children under 17 years of age on food …

Legislating For American Empire : The U.S. Congress And Territorial Policy, Timothy Lindberg

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The United States has always administered territorial governments and the primary entity entrusted with this authority is the United States Congress. This dissertation, using an American Political Development framework, seeks to uncover the variety of ways in which Congressional decision-making over territorial policy has shifted. The goal is to understand how the United States Congress worked toward establishing and maintaining an American Empire via the use of territorial policy. A variety of causal mechanisms causing are investigated, including the demographic targets of policy, partisan conflicts, changing norms and rules of Congress, pressures from other branches or the states, national security …

Predicting Job Performance In Correctional Officers With Pre-Employment Psychological Screening, Shelley S. Hyland

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

There is substantial cost in the hiring and training of a correctional officer, with a high rate of turnover compounding these costs. While pre-employment psychological screening is suggested as one method to prevent these losses, mandates to screen are not as common in corrections as they are in law enforcement. Further, minimal research has examined the validity of psychological testing in correctional officers. This dissertation examined pre-employment psychological screening for 421 correctional officers hired by one of three upstate New York sheriff's departments. Assessments were conducted by Public Safety Psychology, PLLC from March, 1997 to June, 2012. T scores and …

Expecting The Unexpected : A Precautionary Principle Addressing Unconsidered Dangers, John Raymond Milanese

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Most precautionary principles discussed in the regulatory literature argue that one ought to be more risk averse when one is uncertain about the probability of some sig- nificant danger. I explore a new kind of precautionary principle, one that addresses avoiding dangers we did not explicitly consider at all. Since it is unclear how uncon- sidered dangers could be avoided, I sketch a methodology for identifying situations where unconsidered dangers seem especially likely, by drawing from the literature in psychology on heuristics and biases and evaluating our cognitive “blind spots.”

The Relationship Between Hospital Safety Culture And Variation In Adverse Events : What Is The Evidence From Nys Hospitals?, Kathleen Ciccone

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: There is widespread acknowledgement that patients often suffer from adverse events that occur in the provision of medical care (Leape et al., 1991; Kohn et al., 2000). A notable percentage of these events stem from poor practices and unreliable hospital safety systems (Leape et al., 1991; Kohn et al., 2000; Chassin, 2013). Although the literature has been mixed regarding the association between perception of safety culture in hospitals and rates of adverse events, policy makers and healthcare thought-leaders have called on hospital leadership to improve safety culture as one strategy for decreasing harm to patients.

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Seniors Aging In Place, Magaly C. Dante

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Baby boomers are living longer, and as they age, they will need more supportive services that may include housing, mobility, nutrition, personal care, or health care. Despite the studies that have been conducted on baby boomers aging in place (choosing to stay in their home versus move to an institution), the focus has been on the old and frail and very little has been done to address the lifestyle of active (physically functioning) baby boomers. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived, shared experiences of active baby boomers regarding their beliefs and attitudes about aging in …

Data Note: State Intellectual And Developmental Disability Agencies' Service Trends, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

In FY2013, an estimated 607,959 individuals received day or employment supports from state IDD program agencies. This number grew from 457,405 in FY1999. The estimated number of individuals in integrated employment services increased from 108,680 in FY1999 to 113,271 in FY2013. State investment continues to emphasize facility-based and non-work services, rather than integrated employment services. Figure 1 shows the trends in the percentage of people served in integrated employment and facility-based and non-work settings between FY2004 and FY2013.

Data Note Plus: Federal Data Snapshot Of Puerto Rico On Individuals With Disabilities, Daria Domin, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Prior to 2012, four data projects funded by the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD)—Access to Integrated Employment, Family and Individual Information Systems Project, Residential Information Systems Project, and the State of the States in Developmental Disabilities—only collected data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. However, a 2012 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) from AIDD requested that applicable AIDD data projects include the five U.S. Territories (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) in their data collection and analysis efforts. This Data Note represents an expansion of our …

Statedata: The National Report On Employment Services And Outcomes, 2015, John Butterworth, Frank A. Smith, Jean Winsor, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Alberto Migliore, Daria Domin, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This report provides statistics over 25 years from several national datasets that address the status of employment and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The authors use abbreviations for both intellectual disability (ID) and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in this report. We do this because data sources vary in the specific target groups that can be described.

We provide a comprehensive overview that describes national trends in employment for people with IDD, and the appendices provide individual state profiles with data from several sources. These include the ICI’s IDD Agency National Survey of Day and Employment …

The Impact Of Disability: A Comparative Approach To Medical Resource Allocation In Public Health Emergencies, Katie Hanschke, Leslie E. Wolf, Wendy F. Hensel

Faculty Publications By Year

It is a matter of time before the next widespread pandemic or natural disaster hits the United States (U.S.). The international response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza stands as a cautionary tale about how prepared the world is for such an emergency. Although the pandemic fortunately proved to be less severe than initially anticipated, it nevertheless resulted in shortages of medical equipment, overburdened hospitals, and preventable patient deaths, particularly among young people.

A pandemic will inevitably lead to difficult decisions about the allocation of medical resources, such as who will have priority access to ventilators and critical care beds when …

Toward Coherent Federal Oversight Of Medicine, Patricia J. Zettler

Faculty Publications By Year

The conventional wisdom in U.S. health law and policy holds that states regulate medical practice – the activities of physicians and other health care professionals – while the federal government regulates medical products. But relying on states as the principal regulators of medical practice has, at times, driven law and policy in directions that are problematic from a public health perspective, as demonstrated by a deadly 2012 outbreak of fungal meningitis that was linked to a state-regulated practice known as drug compounding. This Article argues that the federalism concerns underlying the conventional wisdom are misplaced. It demonstrates that, contrary to …

Investing In The Arts As A Regional Economic Development Tool: A Case Study Of Suny Buffalo State College Arts Students, Dinash Lal Mpa

Public Administration Master’s Projects

The intent of this study was to determine the financial needs of the art students attending Buffalo State College when considering producing their art. In order to establish this need, this case study required the opinions of arts students on their current and future potential financial circumstances including, prospective income supplementation to produce their art work, ability to produce art work given their current and future financial outlooks, the importance of their financial circumstances in relation to the production of their art, the degree to which they currently or foresee the use of financial products and services to produce their …

Consumer Protection And Cybersecurity: The Consumer Education Gap, David Serabian

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Consumer cyber protection as it relates to the threat of cyber insecurity is an increasingly critical issue with cyberattacks on major businesses such as Target and Sony. Over 100 million Americans to date have had their financial information compromised, and in the ten-year history of Verizon’s Payment Card Industry investigations no companies were compliant with Payment Card Industry standards at the time of the attack. In March 2015, the FCC fined AT&T $25 million for failing to adequately provide cybersecurity that resulted in almost 300,000 people having their personal and financial information compromised. It was the largest in FCC history …

Gender Differences In The Use Of Assistance Programs, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in factors influencing use of entrepreneurial assistance programs by male and female entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach – Data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics I are used to determine drivers of assistance program use by men and women using logistic regression. These drivers include size and composition of the start-up team and personal network, experiences of the entrepreneur, team and network; support provided by the team and network, and other factors. Findings – In total, 31 percent of female entrepreneurs and 24 percent of male entrepreneurs in the sample used entrepreneurial assistance …

The Burqa Ban In France And Its Potential Implications On Islamic Terrorism, Ifeanyi Valentine Madu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Islamic terrorism has become a global problem which has resulted in human, social, political, and economic costs. Many Islamic terrorist organizations have focused their attacks on the West and its interests. They justify these acts by making reference to policies of the West, which they believe are inimical to Islam. France, a Western country, recently introduced a law which bans the Islamic face veil (the burqa) in public places in the country. This study examined the implications of this law. The research question focused on the perceived relationship between this law and increased acts of Islamic terrorism. The theoretical construct …

Relationship Between Modality And The Degree Of Knowledge Retention In Bioterrorism Training, Gaylon Rashun Crawford

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A public health workforce must be trained to react quickly, especially in the case of terrorist attack. Political leaders and emergency management experts have often cited inadequate emergency training as a contributing factor in the public health system's failed preparations for a bioterrorist event. As a result of these failures, billions of dollars have been allocated towards correcting infrastructure deficiencies including training for public health nurses (PHNs), who are critical to a communitywide medical response. This quantitative study used Pearson's correlation and a multivariate regression analysis to evaluate the most effective modality of bioterrorism training (BTT) for PHNs working in …

Differences Between For-Profit And Nonprofit Hospitals: Perceived Quality And Access, Michael Ray Eiland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a large body of literature addressing the issue, questions remain about whether nonprofit hospitals provide more community benefit than do for-profit hospitals. This lack of information impacts governments, hospitals, and the healthcare industry, as stakeholders attempt to generate requirements to which hospitals should adhere to maintain nonprofit status, and thus tax exemption. This study addressed this lack of information by examining U.S. hospitals through the lens of stewardship theory to determine whether nonprofits are better stewards of the public good than for-profits, and thus likely to provide higher quality and access. The study applied logistic regression to Centers for …

Knowledge Of Overdiagnosis And The Decision To Participate In Breast Cancer Screening, Kimberly T. Nembhard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2014, breast cancer was the second leading cause of death among Canadian women, with women over age 50 years making up 82% of the identified cases. To address this issue, the Ontario Breast Screening Program developed a media campaign that promoted the benefits of mammogram screening, but not the associated risks (i.e., false-positive, false-negative, radiation exposure, and overdiagnosis). This study was designed to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between knowledge of overdiagnosis and participation in mammogram screening. This cross-sectional, correlational study used schema theory supported by the effective health communication model. Forty-one women were invited to …

Student Visa Control And Information Exchange, Lisa Bellamy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Expired student visas can contribute to illegal residence in the U.S. and may also be a valuable source of information for Homeland Security. Although the reason for remaining in the U.S. might be for nonthreatening purposes, threatening actions could occur as an individual gets lost in the country. The purpose of this study was to determine how visas were issued, the reasons an individual may remain beyond the approved visa date, and the mechanisms intelligence and law enforcement agencies use to exchange information with each other. This research was based on the new war theory and the Lockwood Analytical Method …