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 Working Paper Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Response: Evidence from Sales of Emergency Supplies Before and After Hurricanes Authors: Jay Shimshack, Thomas K.M. Beatty, Richard J. Volpe Government information warns households to acquire emergency supplies as hurricanes threaten and directs households to stay off roads after hurricanes make landfall. Do households follow this advice? Learn more Working Paper Spatial Models of Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Matthew P. Hitt, Alan E. Wiseman Spatial models of policymaking have evolved from the median voter theorem through the inclusion of institutional considerations such as political parties, committees, and various voting and amendment rules. Such models, however, implicitly assume that no policy is more effective than another at solving public policy problems and that all proposers are equally capable of advancing proposals. Learn more Working Paper Education Experimental Evidence on Early Intervention: The Impact of Full-day Kindergarten Authors: Chloe R. Gibbs Nearly all school-age children in the United States attend kindergarten, and approximately three-quarters of kindergarten students are in full-day classrooms. While there have been dramatic increases in provision of and participation in full-day kindergarten, there is little evidence on the impact and cost-effectiveness of such programs and policies, particularly as compared to other types of investments in early childhood. Learn more Working Paper Advocacy Can Congress Do Policy Analysis? The Politics of Problem Solving on Capitol Hill Authors: Eric Patashnik, Justin Peck The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. Congress is not well-structured to do policy analysis. According to the received view, Congress’s internal organization is inconsistent with analytical perceptions and definitions of policy issues. Learn more Working Paper Economics Domestic Policy & Politics Alleviating Poverty through Housing Policy Reform Authors: Edgar O. Olsen The purpose of this paper is to describe proposals for reform of low-income housing assistance that will alleviate poverty without increasing public spending. Low-income housing assistance is fertile ground for such reforms. Learn more Published Research A View from the United States Authors: Harry Harding Since early June, Hong Kong has been experiencing one of the most serious political crises in its history, arguably the worst since the Maoist-inspired demonstrations against British colonial rule in 1967. The city has been wracked by near-continuous mass protests, some peaceful, some violent. Learn more Working Paper Education College Advising at a National Scale: Experimental Evidence from the CollegePoint initiative Authors: Zach Sullivan, Benjamin Castleman, Eric Bettinger In recognition of the complexity of the college and financial aid application process, and in response to insufficient access to family or school-based counseling among economically-disadvantaged populations, investments at the local, state, and federal level have expanded students’ access to college and financial aid advising. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of these programs demonstrate that they can generate substantial improvements in the rate at which low-income students enroll and persist in college. Learn more Published Research Oklahoma Wanted $17 Billion To Fight Its Opioid Crisis: What's The Real Cost? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm The state's plan — and the basis of that $17 billion ask — was looking at abatement for the next three decades. That 30-year plan was authored by Christopher Ruhm, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia. He says you can easily get into the billions when you consider the costs of dealing with this epidemic in the long term. Learn more Working Paper Education Nudging at Scale: Experimental Evidence from FAFSA Completion Campaigns Authors: Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman, Jeffrey T. Denning, Joshua Goodman, Cait Lamberton, Kelly Ochs Rosinger Do nudge interventions that have generated positive impacts at a local level maintain efficacy when scaled state or nationwide? What specific mechanisms explain the positive impacts of promising smaller-scale nudges? We investigate, through two randomized controlled trials, the impact of a national and state-level campaign to encourage students to apply for financial aid for college. Learn more Working Paper Education The Effect of Reduced Student Loan Borrowing on Academic Performance and Default: Evidence from a Loan Counseling Experiment Authors: Andrew Barr, Kelli Bird, Benjamin Castleman Student loan borrowing for higher education has emerged as a top policy concern. Policy makers at the institutional, state, and federal levels have pursued a variety of strategies to inform students about loan origination processes and how much a student has cumulatively borrowed, and to provide students with greater access to loan counseling. Learn more Published Research National Security Innovation Tradecraft: Sustaining Technological Advantage in the Future Army Authors: Bala Mulloth, Adam Jay Harrison, Bharat Rao For more than three years, the US Department of Defense (DoD) has been improving how it innovates in the face of rapid technological change. Dozens of departmental, service, and agency initiatives have emerged to address different aspects of the innovation problem. Learn more Published Research The Right Way to Capture College “Opportunity”: Popular Measures Can Paint the Wrong Picture of Low-Income Student Enrollment Authors: Caroline Hoxby, Sarah Turner Higher education may be one of the most important channels through which people can attain improved life outcomes based on their merit rather than family background. If qualified students from lower-income families are underrepresented in higher education, there is potentially a failure not just in equity but in economic efficiency as well. Learn more Pagination Previous page ‹ Previous Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Current page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Next page Next ›
Working Paper Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Response: Evidence from Sales of Emergency Supplies Before and After Hurricanes Authors: Jay Shimshack, Thomas K.M. Beatty, Richard J. Volpe Government information warns households to acquire emergency supplies as hurricanes threaten and directs households to stay off roads after hurricanes make landfall. Do households follow this advice? Learn more
Working Paper Spatial Models of Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Matthew P. Hitt, Alan E. Wiseman Spatial models of policymaking have evolved from the median voter theorem through the inclusion of institutional considerations such as political parties, committees, and various voting and amendment rules. Such models, however, implicitly assume that no policy is more effective than another at solving public policy problems and that all proposers are equally capable of advancing proposals. Learn more
Working Paper Education Experimental Evidence on Early Intervention: The Impact of Full-day Kindergarten Authors: Chloe R. Gibbs Nearly all school-age children in the United States attend kindergarten, and approximately three-quarters of kindergarten students are in full-day classrooms. While there have been dramatic increases in provision of and participation in full-day kindergarten, there is little evidence on the impact and cost-effectiveness of such programs and policies, particularly as compared to other types of investments in early childhood. Learn more
Working Paper Advocacy Can Congress Do Policy Analysis? The Politics of Problem Solving on Capitol Hill Authors: Eric Patashnik, Justin Peck The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. Congress is not well-structured to do policy analysis. According to the received view, Congress’s internal organization is inconsistent with analytical perceptions and definitions of policy issues. Learn more
Working Paper Economics Domestic Policy & Politics Alleviating Poverty through Housing Policy Reform Authors: Edgar O. Olsen The purpose of this paper is to describe proposals for reform of low-income housing assistance that will alleviate poverty without increasing public spending. Low-income housing assistance is fertile ground for such reforms. Learn more
Published Research A View from the United States Authors: Harry Harding Since early June, Hong Kong has been experiencing one of the most serious political crises in its history, arguably the worst since the Maoist-inspired demonstrations against British colonial rule in 1967. The city has been wracked by near-continuous mass protests, some peaceful, some violent. Learn more
Working Paper Education College Advising at a National Scale: Experimental Evidence from the CollegePoint initiative Authors: Zach Sullivan, Benjamin Castleman, Eric Bettinger In recognition of the complexity of the college and financial aid application process, and in response to insufficient access to family or school-based counseling among economically-disadvantaged populations, investments at the local, state, and federal level have expanded students’ access to college and financial aid advising. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of these programs demonstrate that they can generate substantial improvements in the rate at which low-income students enroll and persist in college. Learn more
Published Research Oklahoma Wanted $17 Billion To Fight Its Opioid Crisis: What's The Real Cost? Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm The state's plan — and the basis of that $17 billion ask — was looking at abatement for the next three decades. That 30-year plan was authored by Christopher Ruhm, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia. He says you can easily get into the billions when you consider the costs of dealing with this epidemic in the long term. Learn more
Working Paper Education Nudging at Scale: Experimental Evidence from FAFSA Completion Campaigns Authors: Kelli A. Bird, Benjamin Castleman, Jeffrey T. Denning, Joshua Goodman, Cait Lamberton, Kelly Ochs Rosinger Do nudge interventions that have generated positive impacts at a local level maintain efficacy when scaled state or nationwide? What specific mechanisms explain the positive impacts of promising smaller-scale nudges? We investigate, through two randomized controlled trials, the impact of a national and state-level campaign to encourage students to apply for financial aid for college. Learn more
Working Paper Education The Effect of Reduced Student Loan Borrowing on Academic Performance and Default: Evidence from a Loan Counseling Experiment Authors: Andrew Barr, Kelli Bird, Benjamin Castleman Student loan borrowing for higher education has emerged as a top policy concern. Policy makers at the institutional, state, and federal levels have pursued a variety of strategies to inform students about loan origination processes and how much a student has cumulatively borrowed, and to provide students with greater access to loan counseling. Learn more
Published Research National Security Innovation Tradecraft: Sustaining Technological Advantage in the Future Army Authors: Bala Mulloth, Adam Jay Harrison, Bharat Rao For more than three years, the US Department of Defense (DoD) has been improving how it innovates in the face of rapid technological change. Dozens of departmental, service, and agency initiatives have emerged to address different aspects of the innovation problem. Learn more
Published Research The Right Way to Capture College “Opportunity”: Popular Measures Can Paint the Wrong Picture of Low-Income Student Enrollment Authors: Caroline Hoxby, Sarah Turner Higher education may be one of the most important channels through which people can attain improved life outcomes based on their merit rather than family background. If qualified students from lower-income families are underrepresented in higher education, there is potentially a failure not just in equity but in economic efficiency as well. Learn more