UMBC School of Public Policy
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The UMBC School of Public Policy includes the master of public policy (MPP) and PhD degree programs, and the Maryland Institute for Public Policy and Analysis Research (MIPAR). Established after four decades of sustained growth, the School consists of nine full-time faculty, more than 30 affiliated faculty from the departments of economics, sociology, political science, and policy analysis. MIPAR, with $23 million in active research grants, links the analytical resources of the University with policymakers in the state and region, conducting opinion research, policy analyses, and program evaluations on a variety of topics. MIPAR activities are supported by federal, state, and local governmental agencies, foundations, and corporations.
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Item A Cross-national Comparison of COVID-19 and Mental Health: Understanding Social Trust.(2024/01/01) Hunter-Cevera, Jonathan; McLaren, Zoe ZM Adler, Marina MA; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyThe COVID-19 pandemic caused a global challenge that many countries were not well equipped for. The present study examined why certain countries did better in terms of deaths caused from the novel virus and mental health outcomes during the first 17 months of the pandemic. Current research has examined many government and policy related variables at an attempt to explain differences of COVID-19 outcomes between and within countries. Studies also examine the complicated changing concept of social capital as well. The goal of this research was to examine countries (N=50) in a cross-national setting testing government/economic, welfare states, Non-pharmaceutical intervention policies, and social trust variables on deaths from COVID-19 and adverse mental health. Various multiple regression series were run using mediation, moderation, and quadratic techniques. The results suggested that having higher social trust in the form of trusting other citizens and trusting government and public institutions may have had a strong influence in reducing countries COVID-19 deaths and adverse mental health outcomes. Countries’ public health officials and government should take into account the public levels of social trust before implementing NPIs and vaccination rollout. A country’s level of social trust may be an important factor to successfully navigate through a pandemic.Item Bouncing Forward: Exploring Nonprofit Resilience Through Emergency Management(2024/01/01) De Oro, Grace Catherine; Hamilton Edwards, Lauren; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyResilience is often associated with the ability to recover quickly or bounce back. However, often, recovery does not look like a return to "normal" or homeostasis. Nonprofit organizations are essential to providing services in response to emergencies, and their involvement builds communities' capacity to deal with future disasters. Nonprofit organizations' response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has grown almost as quickly as the news and fear of the virus spreading across all continents. The pandemic challenged nonprofits' limits, management, and preparedness everywhere, often exposing limited capacity to bounce back while helping the populations and communities they serve. This dissertation research focuses on two major exploratory questions by utilizing a systematic literature review and a case study on emergency management nonprofits. First, what is resilience, and how can we measure it? and second, what does organizational resilience look like in nonprofit organizations? The systematic literature review and theoretical background of interdisciplinary literature establish this study of resilience from the perspective of nonprofit organizations. The literature is used to develop a framework in which resilience is a process, not a characteristic of an individual, organization, or community. By conducting a case study on emergency management nonprofits, this dissertation examines how the experience and response to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the organization through primary data collection and interviews with nonprofit practitioners. Risk avoidance, risk management, and the control of risk, with the capacity to cope resiliently, are used to build a relationship between resilience and emergency management (Wildavsky,1998). The findings of this study have direct implications for how future scholarship defines resilience and stresses the importance of actively including and involving practitioners in the field. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique situation as risk and perceived risk were completely unknown. Nonprofit organizations acted in the best way they knew how and to their capacity. The findings also include a conversation on mission pivot, the short-term and long-term impacts of a disaster like COVID-19, and participants' reactions to COVID-19.Item Economic dimensions of violence against women: policy interventions needed(springer, 2024-08-07) Miah, MD Rafid Abrar; Sifat, Ridwan IslamViolence against women is a common phenomenon in all societies, and in countries where gender inequality persists, such as Bangladesh, this issue is even more pronounced. Violence against any entity often stems from subordination, and it is generally accepted that empowering women can help prevent violence against them. The objective of the study is to unmask how different the role of economic performance of both men and women is impacting types of violence against women. With numerical data from the World Bank and Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), we used Pearson correlation and OLS regression to extract the results from the raw data collected. The study finds that male unemployment is positively correlated with violence against women (including domestic violence, dowry-induced violence, and rape), while female unemployment shows an inverse relationship with the severity of violence. The findings emphasize the urgent need for policy interventions to address the underlying factors, effectively mitigate violence against women, inform policymakers and contribute to the development of effective strategies to promote a more equitable society.Item URCAD 2024(UMBC Center for Social Science Research, 2024-05-01) Anson, Ian; Kim, Jean; Awan, Pakeeza; Joslow, Rachael; Hoang, Lien; Osei, Emmanuella; Cline, Carrington; Byrd, Ziegfried; Anson,Ian; Mallinson,Christine; Filomeno,Felipe; Kim,Jean; Moreland,D’Juan; Barnes,Amy; Ralston,MyriamOn today’s episode we hear about a series of fantastic presentations from UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day, also known as URCAD. During URCAD, students from across the social science disciplines presented their excellent research to the campus community and beyond. Our special host for today’s episode is our production assistant, Jean Kim. Stay tuned for this wonderful celebration of undergraduate achievement–in podcasting as well as in social science research!Item Going Beyond Giving: A Qualitative Case Study of Scholarship Donor’s Involvement with their Recipients and the Impact on Student Retention and Completion at a Mid-Sized Community College(2024-01-01) Sears, David Michael; Lincove, Jane A.; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyWith community colleges struggling with the completion rates of their students, it is important to understand the social and academic integration of community college students and their relationships to retention and completion. Research focuses on the critical role of internal college actors such as faculty, staff, and students in these integrations, but a gap in the literature exists as to the role of external stakeholders, particularly scholarship donors, in these integrations. This research will use a single qualitative case study design to explore the impact of donor involvement with the students they support with scholarships in the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) program at Montgomery College. The purpose of the study is to assess how and why this donor engagement with students influences their integrations and motivates them to achieve their academic goals at rates higher than other students in the program who have not received donor-given scholarships or whose donors are not engaged. The case study design will incorporate three components: interviews and focus groups with ACES students, alumni, donors, and staff, as well as document analysis of thank you letters from scholarship recipients to the donors. The research will examine this question through the theoretical framework of Tinto’s Theory of Student Persistence (1993). This theory focuses on faculty, staff, and student interactions impacting academic and social integration. This research looks to expand upon the theory that external stakeholders, such as engaged scholarship donors, play critical roles in social and academic integration of community college students. The donors do not supplant the critical role of faculty, staff, and students in the integrations, as Tinto notes, but rather complement the role in various ways to enhance student academic and social integration leading to retention and college completion. If students cite the importance of donor involvement in their integrations to college life, leading to retention and completion, more programs with greater donor involvement with need-based scholarship recipients may be implemented by community colleges to increase student completion. Community colleges may be more intentional in their approach to philanthropy for scholarships, the role of donors with students, and how they complement the role of faculty, staff, and other students in the scholarship recipients’ social and academic integrations.Item The Impacts of Select State-Level Policies on Increasing the Educational Attainment of Undocumented Immigrant Youth(2024-01-01) Kitchin, James; Gindling, Tim H Dickson, Lisa; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyUndocumented children have a right to a public k-12 education in the United States, however there is no standard approach to higher education. About half of states allow undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges and universities at in-state rates of tuition (ISRT) and a subset of these also allow them access to state financial aid. This dissertation measures the impacts of these state-level policies that attempt to increase access to higher education for this group and studies the relationship between ISRT policies and college counseling of undocumented students at the high school level.The dissertation starts by measuring the impact of ISRT policies, financial aid policies, and DACA on a variety of educational and employment outcomes for undocumented immigrant youth. It uses Current Population Survey basic monthly data from July 1999 – December 2015. A difference-in-differences research design is operationalized through a standard linear regression two-way fixed-effects model. The findings include a 4-percentage point increase in college attendance and a 2-percentage point increase in college graduation due to the implementation of ISRT policies. The dissertation also finds that granting access to state financial aid can double the impact of the ISRT policy. DACA serves to decrease the college enrollment and increase the employment of undocumented immigrant youth. The dissertation then reacts to emerging literature in the field of econometrics that critiques the difference-in-differences research design operationalized through the standard linear regression two-way fixed-effects model when there are multiple groups that adopt the treatment at different times. It uses the American Community Survey from 2001-2019 and the Census 2000 1% sample to apply a newer quantitative method, the Calloway-Sant’Anna difference-in-differences estimator. Even with a new, more robust quantitative method ISRT policies increase the college enrollment of undocumented immigrants by, on average, 3 percentage points. They increase college graduation rates by, on average, 1 percentage point. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity present in the results that have large policy implications. This is explored in depth. Lastly, the dissertation uses the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to perform a Latent Class Analysis that identifies three typologies of college counseling opportunity structures in U.S. high schools. It then uses regression analysis to explore the relationship between attending high school in a state with an ISRT policy and the rate that high school counselors and undocumented immigrant students speak about college in the ninth grade. States with an ISRT policy have a smaller percentage of high schools with counseling opportunity structures that encourage college going than states without an ISRT policy. Similarly, students who are undocumented are the least likely to attend schools with counseling opportunity structures that prioritize college. Even so, high school counselors and undocumented students in the ninth grade are more likely to speak about college than are high school counselors and documented or nonimmigrant ninth graders. However, this is only the case in states that have adopted an ISRT policy.Item United States Nursing Homes: The Impact of Regulation on Quality(2024-01-01) Harshman, Stephanie; Miller, Nancy; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyThe United States nursing home industry has historically faced pervasive issues that impact quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents. In 2016, efforts were made to address quality issues within nursing homes through an overhaul of regulatory policy. The COVID-19 pandemic not only impacted implementation of the 2016 policy revisions, but also diminished the ability to collect data and analyze the effectiveness of the updated regulatory policy. Recent reports have indicated that nursing homes continue to struggle with meeting minimal quality standards. With public health emergency restrictions lifted and normal nursing home operations resuming, new opportunities are available to analyze nursing home quality and regulatory enforcement. The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the current state of quality in United States nursing homes and how regulations have impacted quality in this sector. A scoping literature review finds that research on nursing home quality largely focuses on the quality metrics developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This includes the CMS Five-Star Rating System and its components. Current available literature infrequently includes qualitative research or full data encompassing the 2016 policy revisions. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this dissertation to fill these identified gaps. Qualitative interviewing gives a voice to the workers whose care performance directly impacts the outcomes used by CMS to measure quality in nursing homes. The qualitative interviews performed as part of this dissertation reveal that broadly, frontline worker views on quality do not align with quality metrics utilized by CMS. Bridging the gap between policy and frontline worker experience is vital to ensure regulations elicit action from those providing care. Findings from this research indicate that regulatory policy is not achieving this. Quantitative research identifies trends in CMS nursing home quality using data pre and post policy implementation. The quantitative analysis finds that most quality outcomes either declined or remained unchanged since 2016, with for-profit nursing homes consistently performing worse on quality metrics when compared to nonprofit and public nursing homes. The results of the quantitative analysis reveal a failure of the 2016 policy revisions intended to improve nursing home quality throughout the country. This dissertation concludes that current regulations are not having a positive impact on quality in US nursing homes. Frontline workers are mostly uninfluenced by regulatory enforcement methods when discussing their caregiving behaviors. Nursing home quality as measured by CMS has declined throughout the country, despite the 2016 policy revisions intended to improve it. Policymakers must make efforts to include frontline worker input in future policy adaptations and either revise the metrics used to measure nursing home quality or invest in further quality improvement programming to achieve the desired outcome of higher quality in US nursing homes.Item IS THERE POSITIVE SPILLOVER ON QUALITY OF CARE FROM THE MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PROGRAM ON TRADITIONAL MEDICARE(2024-01-01) Boward, Mark Douglas; McLaren, Zoe; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyThe amount the government should be spending for the Medicare Advantage program has been a long-standing debate. To answer this question, many studies seek to identify cost differences between TM (Traditional Medicare) and MA (Medicare Advantage) programs. Because of differences in the programs, direct cost comparisons are challenging and do not capture potential social benefits the MA program provides for TM enrollees. Social benefits would come from a positive spillover of efficiencies established in MA coverage areas. MA spillover lowering the cost of care in the TM program must be considered when performing budgetary comparisons. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of post-ACA (Affordable Care Act) MA program growth on the quality of care for TM enrollees. As a result of the ACA, CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) has been developing and implementing new models intended to reduce cost and improve the health of Medicare enrollees. Many of the studies that have examined an MA spillover effect were conducted with pre-ACA data. Using post-ACA data, this study focuses on six health outcome measures: 1) Potentially Avoidable Hospital Admission, 2) Inpatient Hospital Stays, 3) Inpatient Hospital Days, 4) Acute Hospital Readmission, 5) Emergency Department Visits, and 6) Outpatient Visits. These six health outcomes measures serve as a proxy for behavioral and other changes within TM enrollees that are influenced by MA plans.Item BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONALIZATION OF EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES: AN ANALYSIS OF WAGES AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY CONFLICTS NEGATIVELY AFFECTING EMS WORKFORCE RETENTION(2024-01-01) Dunaway, Wendy; Wilson, Lucy; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyEmergency Medical Services (EMS) in the United States has suffered from chronic low workforce retention since the 1990s. This three-paper dissertation explores two of the barriers to improving workforce retention in EMS: wages and collective identity crises. The first paper explores the relationship between the EMS delivery system utilized by metropolitan areas and the area EMS wage progression by addressing the age-old question of which system is better, public or contracted private agency. Analyzing wage data over two decades through a two-sample two-tail t test resulted in initial findings that metropolitan areas that contract with private agencies to provide 911 services have a minimally stronger correlation to wage progression than publicly provided EMS services. However, neither system promotes sufficient wage progression to combat increasing inflation and living expense. Paper two expands wage analysis to an international level by comparing wage progression of EMS in the United States to EMS in the United Kingdom. This preliminary research follows a ground theory framework for future research by developing the taxonomy and initial theoretical reflection that correlates national health care model to wage progression and the economic cycles of the EMS industry. The results indicate that both systems fail to follow labor supply and demand theories and that the U.K. has experienced a wider variance in the identified economic cycle. The final paper conducts a scoping review of the development of EMS in the U.S. to offer three primary research contributions: 1) identification of key deep-structured legacy occupational identities, 2) characterization of occupational identities and associated conflicts, and 3) identification of developing non-occupational identity conflicts that threaten to exacerbate current conflicts. Legacy identities and their conflicts were categorized as either role-based (task-oriented conflicts) or politically-based (subject-based conflicts). Discussion points considered how these identities and their conflicts work to prevent the creation of a cohesive occupational collective identity. All three papers open discussions on various aspects affecting EMS workforce retention that can be used as foundations for future research and inform policy makers and industry leaders.Item Food-based domestic violence and anemia among women in sexual unions in Nigeria: the effect of urbanization(Springer Nature, 2024-07-12) Ajoseh, Seun Mauton; Sifat, Ridwan Islam; Whesu, John TasheyonIn 2019, 1.74 billion people worldwide had anemia. In Nigeria, women of reproductive age are the most affected. Domestic violence affects the anemia prevalence, but few studies have examined the influence of urbanization on women in heterosexual unions (currently married, and cohabiting between). Using the social determinants of health framework, we argue that food-based violence and anemia vary among women residing in rural and urban areas. We used the Chi-square test and logistic regression to analyze the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey records (n=10,499). The study showed that anemia occurs more among women in rural (66%) than in urban (34%) areas. In rural areas, anemia was 29% higher among women who approved food-based domestic violence (OR: 1.29, CI 1.15–1.57) than those who did not. In urban areas, food-based domestic violence was not significantly associated with anemia. This study emphasizes the urgent need for culturally sensitive maternal health interventions aimed at re-orienting individuals and families on violence in rural areas.Item Water Resources and Unconventional Fossil Fuel Development: Linking Physical Impacts to Social Costs(Resources for the Future, 2013-11-05) Kuwayama, Yusuke; Olmstead, Sheila M.; Krupnick, AlanItem Commentary: Getting Past the “Yuck” Factor: Recycled Water in Florida and Other States(Resources for the Future, 2015-05-13) Kuwayama, Yusuke; Kamen, HannahItem Resources Magazine: Groundwater Markets - Managing a Critical, Hidden Resource(Resources for the Future, 2014-05-01) Kuwayama, YusukeItem Capturing the Value of Data from Earth Observations(Resources for the Future, 2017-04-04) Kuwayama, YusukeItem How Do We Measure the Value of Satellite Data?(Resources for the Future, 2018-01-29) Kuwayama, Yusuke; Mabee, BethanyItem The Economic Impacts of Drought on US Agriculture(Resources for the Future, 2019-03-13) Kuwayama, YusukeNew research examines how drought affects crop yields in the United States, deepening our understanding of the economic impacts of a costly natural disaster that is projected to become more severe in the face of climate change.Item Dynamic impacts of U.S. energy development on agricultural land use(ELSEVIER, 2019-12-09) Fitzgerald, Timothy; Kuwayama, Yusuke; Olmstead, Sheila; Thompson, AlexandraThe land-use impacts of the rapid expansion of U.S. oil and gas infrastructure since the early 2000s are a focus of local, state, and federal policymakers. Agriculture is the dominant land use in many areas with active energy development. Prior studies find that energy development displaces agriculture and assume that this effect is both permanent and homogeneous. We take a novel approach, analyzing landowners' capacity to both anticipate displaced production prior to the drilling of oil and gas wells, and reclaim some land once wells are in production. Using North Dakota's Bakken Shale as a case study, we merge agricultural land-use data from 2006 to 2014 with locations and drilling dates of oil and gas wells. We then use panel fixed-effects models to estimate the spatially- and intertemporally-heterogeneous effects of additional wells on agricultural land. We find that drilling is associated with reduced surrounding crop cover and increased fallow acreage. Importantly, the duration of these effects differs across agricultural land covers, and effects are in some cases temporary. Our analysis suggests that overlooking dynamic land use impacts may overestimate the cumulative net impact of oil and gas development on agricultural land uses by up to a factor of two.Item The Value of Remotely Sensed Information: The Case of a GRACE-Enhanced Drought Severity Index(AMS, 2018-01-01) Bernknopf, Richard; Brookshire, David; Kuwayama, Yusuke; Macauley, Molly; Rodell, Matthew; Thompson, Alexandra; Vail, Peter; Zaitchik, BenjaminA decision framework is developed for quantifying the economic value of information (VOI) from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission for drought monitoring, with a focus on the potential contributions of groundwater storage and soil moisture measurements from the GRACE data assimilation (GRACE-DA) system. The study consists of (i) the development of a conceptual framework to evaluate the socioeconomic value of GRACE-DA as a contributing source of information to drought monitoring; (ii) structured listening sessions to understand the needs of stakeholders who are affected by drought monitoring; (iii) econometric analysis based on the conceptual framework that characterizes the contribution of GRACE-DA to the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) in capturing the effects of drought on the agricultural sector; and (iv) a demonstration of how the improved characterization of drought conditions may influence decisions made in a real-world drought disaster assistance program. Results show that GRACE-DA has the potential to lower the uncertainty associated with the understanding of drought and that this improved understanding has the potential to change policy decisions that lead to tangible societal benefits.Item Socio-environmental consideration of phosphorus flows in the urban sanitation chain of contrasting cities(Springer Nature, 2017-12-19) Metson, Geneviève S.; Powers, Steve M.; Hale, Rebecca L.; Sayles, Jesse S.; Öberg, Gunilla; MacDonald, Graham K.; Kuwayama, Yusuke; Springer, Nathaniel P.; Weatherley, Anthony J.; Hondula, Kelly L.; Jones, Kristal; Chowdhury, Rubel B.; Beusen, Arthur H. W.; Bouwman, Alexander F.Understanding how cities can transform organic waste into a valuable resource is critical to urban sustainability. The capture and recycling of phosphorus (P), and other essential nutrients, from human excreta is particularly important as an alternative organic fertilizer source for agriculture. However, the complex set of socio-environmental factors influencing urban human excreta management is not yet sufficiently integrated into sustainable P research. Here, we synthesize information about the pathways P can take through urban sanitation systems along with barriers and facilitators to P recycling across cities. We examine five case study cities by using a sanitation chains approach: Accra, Ghana; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Beijing, China; Baltimore, USA; and London, England. Our cross-city comparison shows that London and Baltimore recycle a larger percentage of P from human excreta back to agricultural lands than other cities, and that there is a large diversity in socio-environmental factors that affect the patterns of recycling observed across cities. Our research highlights conditions that may be “necessary but not sufficient” for P recycling, including access to capital resources. Path dependencies of large sanitation infrastructure investments in the Global North contrast with rapidly urbanizing cities in the Global South, which present opportunities for alternative sanitation development pathways. Understanding such city-specific social and environmental barriers to P recycling options could help address multiple interacting societal objectives related to sanitation and provide options for satisfying global agricultural nutrient demand.Item Ten rules to increase the societal value of earth observations(Springer Nature, 2020-03-03) Virapongse, Arika; Pearlman, Francoise; Pearlman, Jay; Murambadoro, Miriam D.; Kuwayama, Yusuke; Glasscoe, Margaret T.Earth Observation (EO) data play an important role in our society today, but there is still tremendous opportunity to improve how these data are used to affect change. In this paper, we provide guidance to help data providers and intermediaries within the EO value chain (from data to applications) increase the societal value of the EO data, information, and data products that they work with. We first describe the EO value chain as a conceptual framework for how data are translated and applied for societal benefit. We then introduce three approaches that are often used to assess and improve the EO value chain. Finally, we present “10 rules” that can be implemented to increase the societal benefits of Earth science information. The 10 rules emphasize meeting user needs, problem-solving within interdisciplinary teams, and long-term sustainable solutions. Some rules focus on a specific segment of the value chain or phase in the problem-solving process, while others are relevant to the value chain or process as a whole. Each rule includes at least one case study example to illustrate the key points. The rules are loosely organized according to project management principles with the initial rules focusing on defining problems, planning for data use, creating effective teams, and examining a diverse selection of solutions. The next set of rules are best applied throughout a project, and include such concepts as evaluation, interoperability, trust, adoption, and documentation. Finally, the last rule addresses the challenge of determining when to close a project.