Journal of Policy Analysis and Management最新文献

Conventional anti-corruption approaches focus on detecting and punishing the misuse of public office. These approaches are often ineffective in settings where social norms do not support reporting and punishing corruption. Attempting to build anti-corruption norms, we conducted a field experiment in Uganda that offered elected, local leaders the chance to earn awards for overseeing development projects according to legal guidelines. We then conducted a second field experiment that informed other leaders and the public about the award winners. Offering leaders the chance to earn recognition did not improve the management of projects or change leaders’ norms about corruption. Informing other leaders and residents about the award winners also did not change behaviors or attitudes related to corruption. A paired ethnographic study shows that the possibility for recognition generated excitement but was not able to overcome resignation by local leaders. Our study provides some of the first experimental evidence about using awards to motivate public officials to act with integrity and to build anti-corruption norms among both leaders and the public. The results imply that awards have limited effects for anti-corruption in settings with endemic corruption and where they cannot be used instrumentally by awardees.

Many small businesses closed in the pandemic, but were economic losses disproportionately felt by businesses owned by people of color? This paper provides the first study of the impacts of COVID-19 on racial inequality in business earnings. Pandemic-induced losses to business earnings in 2020 were 16% to 19% for all business owners. Racial inequality increased in the pandemic: Black business owners experienced larger negative impacts on business earnings of 12% to 14% relative to White business owners. Regression estimates for Latinx and Asian business owners reveal negative point estimates but the estimates are not statistically significant. Using Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions and a new pandemic-focused decomposition technique, I find that the industry concentrations of Black, Latinx, and Asian business owners placed each of these groups at a higher risk of experiencing disproportionate business earnings losses in the pandemic. Higher education levels among Asian business owners helped insulate them from larger losses from COVID-19. In the following year of economic recovery, 2021, business earnings rebounded strongly for all groups except for Asian business owners, who experienced large relative losses (which were partly due to industry concentrations). State-level variation in policies and disease spread does not explain racial differences in business earnings losses or rebounds.

The COVID-19 public health emergency led to federal legislation that changed the landscape of Medicaid coverage for low-income people in the United States. Policy responses led to a surge in Medicaid caseloads due to new rules preventing Medicaid disenrollment, and total Medicaid enrollment increased more from 2020 to 2023 than the net increase in insurance coverage from 2013 to 2017 following the Affordable Care Act's implementation. It is crucial for scholars and practitioners to understand the implications of this continuous coverage policy and its 2023–2024 unwinding. This paper provides an overview of Medicaid enrollment, renewal, and funding policies, highlighting how policy changed during and immediately following the acute phase of the pandemic; describes enrollment increases and their composition; reviews relevant literature; and identifies key areas for research. By examining this unprecedented period in Medicaid, we can inform future policy decisions and optimize safety net programs to be effective under a broad set of circumstances.