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Policy Research
Big Data Sensors of Organic Advocacy: The case of Leonardo DiCaprio and Climate Change
Eric C. Leas, Benjamin M. Althouse, Nick Obradovich, James H. Fowler, Seth M. Noar, Jon-Patrick Allem, John W. Ayers
August 2016
The research in this article suggests that “top-down advocacy” is becoming less effective compared to “organic advocacy” as a result of social media platforms that make it easier to create and disseminate information. This organic advocacy refers to members of the general population who become advocates for a certain issue. In this case it is climate change. When actor Leonardo DiCaprio used his 2016 Oscar acceptance speech to speak out about the effects of climate change he caused an increase in online discussion about climate change that eclipsed that of the Conference of the Parties and Earth Day. His speech and the subsequent online chatter cast a light on how social media, the Internet, and globalization have made organic advocacy more effective than planned advocacy
The End of Men and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market
Guido Matias Cortes, Nir Jaimovich, Henry Siu
September 2016
In this article analyzing changes in the high skilled labor market between men and women, the authors explore possibilities behind what’s driving the change. By measuring variations in employment outcomes among men, outcomes for women, and the ratios of labor supply between men and women since the 1980s, they discover that the likelihood of a college-educated woman being employed in a “good job” is much higher than for a college-educated man. Through modeling occupational data over this period the authors find that driving this change is a higher demand for “female” skills (or social skills) in high wage employment.
How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star
Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Emmanuel Saez, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Dany Yagan
November 2011
In Tennessee 11,571 students were randomly assigned classrooms for Kindergarten through Grade 3. The students were tracked later in life, to determine outcomes associated with the classrooms. Students in small classes were significantly more likely to attend college and students with a more experienced teacher had higher earnings later in life. Class size had an effect on educational performance but not on earnings.
Peer Effects and Alcohol Use among College Students
Michael Kremer, Dan Levy
August 2008
By using data from a large state university that randomly assigns roommates, the authors were able to reach conclusions regarding the effect a roommate has on academic performance. They found that male students assigned a roommate who drank prior to college had lower grade point averages than those assigned roommates who didn’t drink. This was in contrast to the data on roommate academic performance and socioeconomic status, which they found to have no effect.
Estimating the Effect of Unearned Income on Labor Supply, Earnings, Savings, and Consumption: Evidence from a Survey of Lottery Players
Guido W. Imbens, Donald B. Rubin, Bruces Sacerdote
March 1999
The authors attempt to understand the effect of knowledge of unearned income through studying a sample of random sample of lottery winners of differing amounts. They find a significant difference in the effect of a modest winning (defined as $15,000 annually) and a significant winning. Those who won a modest prize did not change the amount they worked, earned, or saved. Those who won a significant prize reduced their hours worked and earnings, and increased their “big ticket” expenditures such as houses and cars. They also found a small positive effect of a modest winning on labor supplied for those with zero income prior to the winning.
Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects
Jeffrey R. Kling, Jeffrey B. Liebman, Lawrence F. Katz
January 2007
A sample of primarily female headed minority families, living in public housing in high poverty neighborhoods were offered vouchers to cover moving costs. They were interviewed by the researchers 4 to 7 years after receiving the vouchers. The study found mixed results. While the families lived in safer neighborhoods with lower rates of poverty than the families in the control group, they themselves were not significantly more self-sufficient or physically healthier. The adults in the families, as well as the female children, had better mental health, but the male children were worse of psychologically than those in the control group, and performed worse in school.
Measuring Site-level Success in Brownfield Redevelopments: A Focus on Sustainability and Green Building
G. Christopher Wedding, Douglas Crawford-Brown
October 2007
The article argues that measurement of site-success per brownfield redevelopment, historically, does not utilize adequate tools to comprehensively evaluate. Their suggested evaluation method hinges upon four categories: environment-health, finance, livability, and social-economic. This evaluation was done with the creation of a Sustainable Brownfields Development (SBR), consistent with the framework of a multi-attribute decision method (MADM) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). Since no indicator framework of that magnitude existed at that time, the authors selected appropriate indicators that could reduce comprehensible data into workable number sets. These indicators included interviews with developers and leaders in national brownfield redevelopment, a review of significant literature, creating objective hierarchies, and the ability for indicators to serve more than just one of the aforementioned categories.
Evaluating the Impacts of Local Economic Development Policies On Local Economic Outcomes: What Has Been Done and What is Doable?
Timothy Bartik
November 2002
The working paper argues that local economic development policies can be analyzed and rigorously evaluated in ways to ensure a comprehensive understanding of their local economic outcomes. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) can be evaluated via experiments. These experiments would selectively chose SME’s to target with marketing strategies, while the other SME’s would still be eligible, but not receive specialized target marketing. Experimental efforts can also be used in distressed local areas, focusing the scarce resources on one local area over another. A selective policy of this nature could be evaluated citing economic outcomes from the two areas. When an experiment is not feasible, data is not available or experimenting is not feasible, statistical analyses can be used to analyze differences in similarities in economic outcomes between various groups is due to local economic development policies, which have no effect. Bartik further argues that these methods of evaluating policies need to go beyond the effects of business growth and include the outcomes on the general public.
Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on the Health of the Michigan Adult Population
C. Fussman, P. McKane
September 2016
Data from the 2013 Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System shows that current adults who suffered with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more likely to have poor mental health, depression, asthma, and to currently smoke. The MiBRFSS asked adults if they experienced ACEs, including verbal, physical, psychological, or sexual abuse, violence in the home, substance abuse in the home, mental illness in the home, separation or divorce of parents, a family member incarcerated, or a combination of these. These ACEs impact adult’s later physical health, mental health, and health behaviors, especially among those who claimed to have suffered from 4+ ACEs.
A Closer Look at the Remaining Uninsured Population Eligible for Medicaid and CHIP
Robin Rudowitz, Samantha Artiga, Anthony Damico, Rachel Garfield
February 2016
This article explores the key characteristics of those, who after implementation of the ACA in 2014, are eligible for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) but are still uninsured. 27% of uninsured, non-elderly adults are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, and 77% live in states that expanded Medicaid coverage