Faculty & Research Published Research Research Education Economics Social Psychology Health Policy Social Entrepreneurship Environmental Policy Ethics Leadership Racial Justice and Equity National Security Political Science Advocacy Domestic Policy & Politics International and Global Affairs Democracy Social Equity International Development Research and Commentary Facet Area of Focus - Research Christopher J. Ruhm Craig Volden Bala Mulloth Eileen Chou Benjamin Castleman Sarah Turner Edgar O. Olsen Sophie Trawalter Benjamin Converse Christine Mahoney Timothy Wilson Adam Leive James H. Wyckoff William Shobe Charles Holt Daniel W. Player Daphna Bassok Harry Harding Jay Shimshack Jeanine Braithwaite John Pepper Richard Bonnie David Leblang John Holbein Leora Friedberg Molly Lipscomb James Savage Sebastian Tello Trillo Frederick P. Hitz Gabrielle Adams Gerald Warburg Isaac Mbiti Paul S. Martin Philip Potter Raymond C. Scheppach Ruth Gaare Bernheim Andrew S. Pennock Gerald Higginbotham Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi Jennifer Lawless Kyle S. H. Dobson Michele Claibourn Noah Myung Facet People - Research EdPolicyWorks: Center for Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness Center for Effective Lawmaking National Security Policy Center UVA Humanitarian Collaborative Facet UVA Partner - Research Published Research Social Entrepreneurship New Case - RVA Works: Empowering Entrepreneurs for Big Change Authors: Bala Mulloth, Dale Fickett RVA Works (a shortening of Richmond, Virginia Works) is a public charity, which has demonstrated superior efficacy in educational programming for entrepreneurship. Since 2014, their work has primarily focused on providing pathways to business ownership for ethnic minorities, women, and lower-income people. Learn more Published Research Social Entrepreneurship Exploring Social Business Pathways: Green Map System as a Case in Point Authors: Bala Mulloth Social entrepreneurship holds promise as a way for organizations to create value for both individuals and communities. The objective of this paper is to observe and analyze the ways Green Map System, a not-for-profit social venture, supports sustainable community development and local leadership by sharing tools, icons, and technology for mapping eco-sites around the world. The role of technology and digital networks, as well as the impact of global linkages, is also observed and emphasized. Learn more Working Paper Education Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials Authors: Katharine Meyer, Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment and employment in Virginia, we provide the first causal estimates of credential “stacking” among working adults. Learn more Working Paper Education Pushing College Advising Forward: Experimental Evidence on Intensive Advising and College Success Authors: Benjamin Castleman, Denise Deutschlander, Gabrielle Lohner Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some programs provide students with dozen of hours of individualized assistance starting in high school and continuing through college, and can cost thousands of dollars per student served. Learn more Working Paper Education Nudges Don’t Work When the Benefits Are Ambiguous: Evidence from a High-Stakes Education Program Authors: Benjamin Castleman, Francis X. Murphy, Richard W. Patterson, William L. Skimmyhorn The Post-9/11 GI Bill allows service members to transfer generous education benefits to a dependent. We run a large scale experiment that encourages service members to consider the transfer option among a population that includes individuals for whom the transfer benefits are clear and individuals for whom the net-benefits are significantly more ambiguous. We find no impact of a one-time email about benefits transfer among service members for whom we predict considerable ambiguity in the action, but sizeable impacts among service members for whom education benefits transfer is far less ambiguous. Learn more Working Paper Education Negative Impacts From the Shift to Online Learning During the COVID-19 Crisis: Evidence from a Statewide Community College System Authors: Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman, Gabrielle Lohner The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt shift from in-person to virtual instruction in Spring 2020. Using a difference-in-differences framework that leverages within-course variation on whether students started their Spring 2020 courses in person or online, we estimate the impact of this shift on the academic performance of Virginia’s community college students. We find that the shift to virtual instruction resulted in a 6.7 percentage point decrease in course completion, driven by increases in both course withdrawal and failure. Faculty experience teaching a course online did not mitigate the negative effects of moving to virtual instruction. Learn more Published Research Mobilize for Our Lives? School Shootings and Democratic Accountability in U.S. Elections Authors: John Holbein, Hans J. G. Hassell, Matthew Baldwin Gun violence is a large and growing problem in the United States. Many reformers look towards elections to spur policy change in this area. In this paper, we explore the effects of school shootings on electoral mobilization and election outcomes. Learn more Published Research Disparities in PM2.5 air pollution in the United States Authors: Jay Shimshack, Jonathan Colmer, Ian Hardman, John Voorheis Particulate air pollution in the contiguous United States has decreased considerably over recent decades, but where exactly has that progress been made? Batten's Jay Shimshack and his co-authors dive in. Learn more Published Research Losing public health insurance: TennCare reform and personal financial distress Authors: Sebastian Tello Trillo, Laura M. Argys, Andrew I. Friedson, M. Melinda Pitts Batten Professor Sebastian Tello-Trillo and his co-authors write about how the primary goal of health insurance is smoothing the financial risk associated with health shocks. They estimate the effect of exposure to health-insurance reform on individual-level financial well-being. Learn more Published Research Regional Disparities in Qualified Health Plans’ Prior Authorization Requirements for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the United States Authors: Sebastian Tello Trillo, Kathleen A. McManus, Samuel Powers, Amy Killelea, Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade Batten’s Sebastian Tello Trillo and his co-authors answer the question are there regional disparities in prior authorization requirements for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis? Learn more Working Paper Education Who Should Re-enroll in College? The Academic and Labor Market Profile of Adults with Substantial College Credits But No Degree Authors: Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman, Brett Fischer, Benjamin T. Skinner Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, and a sizable share of these job losses may be permanent. Unemployment rates are particularly high among adults without a college degree. Recent state policy efforts h Learn more Published Research Defense Technological Innovation: Issues and Challenges in an Era of Converging Technologies Authors: Bharat Rao, Adam Jay Harrison, Bala Mulloth Bala Mulloth and co-authors Bharat Rao and Adam Jay Harrison explore defense technological innovation in this new release in the New Horizons Innovation Management series. Learn more Pagination Previous page ‹ Previous Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Current page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Next page Next ›
Published Research Social Entrepreneurship New Case - RVA Works: Empowering Entrepreneurs for Big Change Authors: Bala Mulloth, Dale Fickett RVA Works (a shortening of Richmond, Virginia Works) is a public charity, which has demonstrated superior efficacy in educational programming for entrepreneurship. Since 2014, their work has primarily focused on providing pathways to business ownership for ethnic minorities, women, and lower-income people. Learn more
Published Research Social Entrepreneurship Exploring Social Business Pathways: Green Map System as a Case in Point Authors: Bala Mulloth Social entrepreneurship holds promise as a way for organizations to create value for both individuals and communities. The objective of this paper is to observe and analyze the ways Green Map System, a not-for-profit social venture, supports sustainable community development and local leadership by sharing tools, icons, and technology for mapping eco-sites around the world. The role of technology and digital networks, as well as the impact of global linkages, is also observed and emphasized. Learn more
Working Paper Education Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials Authors: Katharine Meyer, Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment and employment in Virginia, we provide the first causal estimates of credential “stacking” among working adults. Learn more
Working Paper Education Pushing College Advising Forward: Experimental Evidence on Intensive Advising and College Success Authors: Benjamin Castleman, Denise Deutschlander, Gabrielle Lohner Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some programs provide students with dozen of hours of individualized assistance starting in high school and continuing through college, and can cost thousands of dollars per student served. Learn more
Working Paper Education Nudges Don’t Work When the Benefits Are Ambiguous: Evidence from a High-Stakes Education Program Authors: Benjamin Castleman, Francis X. Murphy, Richard W. Patterson, William L. Skimmyhorn The Post-9/11 GI Bill allows service members to transfer generous education benefits to a dependent. We run a large scale experiment that encourages service members to consider the transfer option among a population that includes individuals for whom the transfer benefits are clear and individuals for whom the net-benefits are significantly more ambiguous. We find no impact of a one-time email about benefits transfer among service members for whom we predict considerable ambiguity in the action, but sizeable impacts among service members for whom education benefits transfer is far less ambiguous. Learn more
Working Paper Education Negative Impacts From the Shift to Online Learning During the COVID-19 Crisis: Evidence from a Statewide Community College System Authors: Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman, Gabrielle Lohner The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt shift from in-person to virtual instruction in Spring 2020. Using a difference-in-differences framework that leverages within-course variation on whether students started their Spring 2020 courses in person or online, we estimate the impact of this shift on the academic performance of Virginia’s community college students. We find that the shift to virtual instruction resulted in a 6.7 percentage point decrease in course completion, driven by increases in both course withdrawal and failure. Faculty experience teaching a course online did not mitigate the negative effects of moving to virtual instruction. Learn more
Published Research Mobilize for Our Lives? School Shootings and Democratic Accountability in U.S. Elections Authors: John Holbein, Hans J. G. Hassell, Matthew Baldwin Gun violence is a large and growing problem in the United States. Many reformers look towards elections to spur policy change in this area. In this paper, we explore the effects of school shootings on electoral mobilization and election outcomes. Learn more
Published Research Disparities in PM2.5 air pollution in the United States Authors: Jay Shimshack, Jonathan Colmer, Ian Hardman, John Voorheis Particulate air pollution in the contiguous United States has decreased considerably over recent decades, but where exactly has that progress been made? Batten's Jay Shimshack and his co-authors dive in. Learn more
Published Research Losing public health insurance: TennCare reform and personal financial distress Authors: Sebastian Tello Trillo, Laura M. Argys, Andrew I. Friedson, M. Melinda Pitts Batten Professor Sebastian Tello-Trillo and his co-authors write about how the primary goal of health insurance is smoothing the financial risk associated with health shocks. They estimate the effect of exposure to health-insurance reform on individual-level financial well-being. Learn more
Published Research Regional Disparities in Qualified Health Plans’ Prior Authorization Requirements for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the United States Authors: Sebastian Tello Trillo, Kathleen A. McManus, Samuel Powers, Amy Killelea, Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade Batten’s Sebastian Tello Trillo and his co-authors answer the question are there regional disparities in prior authorization requirements for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis? Learn more
Working Paper Education Who Should Re-enroll in College? The Academic and Labor Market Profile of Adults with Substantial College Credits But No Degree Authors: Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman, Brett Fischer, Benjamin T. Skinner Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, and a sizable share of these job losses may be permanent. Unemployment rates are particularly high among adults without a college degree. Recent state policy efforts h Learn more
Published Research Defense Technological Innovation: Issues and Challenges in an Era of Converging Technologies Authors: Bharat Rao, Adam Jay Harrison, Bala Mulloth Bala Mulloth and co-authors Bharat Rao and Adam Jay Harrison explore defense technological innovation in this new release in the New Horizons Innovation Management series. Learn more