Here at the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy (COSSPP), our faculty have been quite busy! Here are some of the projects that our faculty have recently published.
“Re-opening after the lockdown: Long-run aggregate and distributional consequences of COVID-19” by Dr. Manoj Atolia
In his recent article, Dr. Atolia employs a general equilibrium framework with heterogeneous agents to identify the tradeoffs involved in restoring the economy to its pre-Covid-19 state. Several tradeoffs, both over time, and between key economic variables, are identified, with the feasible speed of successful re-opening being constrained by the transmission of the infection. In particular, while more rapid opening up of the economy will reduce short-run aggregate output losses, it will cause larger long-run output losses, which potentially may be quite substantial if the opening is overly rapid and the virus is not eradicated. More rapid opening of the economy mitigates the increases in both long-run wealth and income inequality, thus highlighting a direct conflict between the adverse effects on aggregate output and its distributional consequences.
“Do State-Customized TANF Work Policies Actually Reduce Unemployment?” by Dr. Frances Stokes Berry
In her recent article, Dr. Berry examines the impact of states’ worker supplement programs on the unemployment rates of low-income females. To do so, she utilizes a difference-in-differences method using panel data for 50 states over a nine-year period (2005–2013). She finds that states implementing worker supplement programs achieve lower unemployment among low-income females compared with states that did not implement the programs. Moreover, she finds that states with higher total taxable resources per capita have a negative association with unemployment rates of low-income females.
“Contracting-out care: The socio-spatial politics of nursing home care at the intersection of British Columbia’s labor, land, and capital markets” by Dr. Sage Ponder
In her recent article, Dr. Ponder examines the 2002 policy changes enabling the contracting-out, or subcontracting, of care workers in nursing home facilities in order to encourage private sector investment in nursing home infrastructure and provision, with the goal of shrinking provincial expenses. By conducting interviews of front-line workers, Dr. Ponder shows how these legislative changes related to provincial budget concerns splintered a specialized labor market, eroding both working and caring conditions, and exposing eldercare in British Columbia, Canada to the speculative dynamics of finance.
Wicked Problems, Wicked Solutions 