Mary Gatta and Kevin P. McCabe
The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue on “the ‘new’ policy partnership”.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue on “the ‘new’ policy partnership”.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper highlights the significance of policy‐academic partnerships and outlines the papers included in this issue.
Findings
It is important to form and maintain partnerships and collaborations with new nontraditional stakeholders. One place where this is evident is in academia.
Originality/value
The special issue includes original articles that address innovative ways in which researchers and policy makers can collaborate to move policy agendas forward.
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As academic fields increasingly turn to social action and seek partnerships with groups beyond the academy, so too are we looking for guidance. Rural sociology developed out of…
Abstract
Purpose
As academic fields increasingly turn to social action and seek partnerships with groups beyond the academy, so too are we looking for guidance. Rural sociology developed out of applying research to social action and within this field was a unique unit. The purpose of this paper is to present a history of the Division of Farm Population and Rural Life, which was part of the US Department of Agriculture from 1919 to 1953 was a pioneer in applying sociological knowledge to policy and action.
Design/methodology/approach
This article looks back to the history of this unit to examine the lessons to be learned.
Findings
Placing these lessons within the context of contemporary issues underscores the continuing relevance of this historical experience.
Originality/value
The issues surrounding engaging external partners are both particularistic and universal. However, without an historical sense of the challenges, each time we encounter them, the challenges feel new and somehow unique. This article looks back to history to examine lessons that can be learned. Placing these lessons within the context of contemporary issues underscores relevance of the historical experience from events and people that occurred several generations of professionals ago.
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The purpose of this interview is to gain insight from the career of policy‐maker and researcher, Jane Oates, on the collaborations between academia and government to effect social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this interview is to gain insight from the career of policy‐maker and researcher, Jane Oates, on the collaborations between academia and government to effect social change.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is based on an interview with Jane Oates conducted in May of 2007.
Findings
Based on her experiences, she states that social change requires a three‐way partnership between academia, government, and the people they serve. She makes specific recommendations for the ways these groups can find a common language to reach their shared goals.
Originality/value
This account provides the unique perspective of a professional who has spent years in both academia and policy‐making.
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Christine George, Jennifer Nargang Chernega, Sarah Stawiski, Anne Figert and Arturo Valdivia Bendixen
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nation's first hospital to housing for homeless individuals. The Chicago Housing for Health Partnership (CHHP), a Housing First and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nation's first hospital to housing for homeless individuals. The Chicago Housing for Health Partnership (CHHP), a Housing First and Harm Reduction model, creates a new comprehensive system of health care, housing and supportive services.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers conducted a year long process evaluation of the housing program using a multi‐method approach, which involved qualitative interviews, focus groups, document analysis and observations. The paper examined the CHHP system at three different levels (the administrative, service provision and the client levels).
Findings
The study allowed the organizational participants the ability to better understand their program by visually modeling the system for the first time and documenting its effectiveness. It also furthered the understanding of how and why the housing first model is best accompanied by a harm reduction approach. Finally, the paper was able to show how and why organizational system design is important in creating the most effective environment in which programs have a real impact.
Originality/value
The authors were able to help CHHP program leaders conduct strategic planning and to present their program as an effective model future funding agencies and to policy makers. CHHP has incorporated the recommendations into their permanent model. In addition, the CHHP leadership, in a network with other Housing First advocates, has disseminated the findings at national conferences and networking meetings. The authors' relationship with CHHP will continue with the design of a second stage research strategy in order to continue research on Harm Reduction Housing and policy advocacy.
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Douglas Gerardi and Nancy Wolff
The purpose of this paper is to describe a corrections–academic partnership that works, the essential factors that influence its success and productivity, and how this partnership…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a corrections–academic partnership that works, the essential factors that influence its success and productivity, and how this partnership builds the capacity to conduct research on corrections issues.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study design was used. The corrections–academic partnership has been in existence for five years.
Findings
Over the five years, the partnership has yielded over a dozen peer‐reviewed publications and another half dozen under review, five policy reports, and over $3 million in external funding by the academic partner and over $6 million by the corrections partner. By working together, partners develop parallel procedures for conducting and facilitating research, strategic networks and resources that foster research, and the ability to write competitive applications for external funding.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are based on a single partnership but they are consistent with the broader literature on practice–academic collaborations. Practice–academic partnerships have the potential to build and strengthen the infrastructure that supports research, as well as the capacity to conduct it independently within practice and research settings.
Practical implications
Collaborative partnership between practice and academic units can work; they can work in ways that develop and diffuses evidence while building infrastructure and capacity. When collaborations work, they are synergistic.
Originality/value
Provides clarity about the benefits of collaboration.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe the Gender, Employment and Local Labour Market (GELLM) Programme of Research (2003‐2006), which is delivered through a partnership of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the Gender, Employment and Local Labour Market (GELLM) Programme of Research (2003‐2006), which is delivered through a partnership of academics, policy‐makers, trade unions and practitioners at national and local levels of the UK, directed by Professor Sue Yeandle of Sheffield Hallam University. It discusses the contractual and task‐based relationships, which are set up among the partners and the ways in which the research process is designed and executed collaboratively. The GELLM partnership is maintained without complicated information technology or customised training, relying instead on the commitment of the individuals involved and a very clear and well managed face‐to‐face report‐back structure. The paper concludes by analysing the criteria that made this partnership work successfully and the types of impact it is able to achieve locally and nationally on gender equality policy‐making.
Design/methodology/approach
The aims and objectives of the research programme included the production in partnership of gender‐disaggregated “Gender Profiles” of the labour market in 12 local authorities, awareness‐raising about gendered inequality in their local labour markets, and the exploration of specific issues in new, multi‐method local research studies whose focus is agreed with the project partners with a view to “gender mainstreaming” the research findings.
Findings
The GELLM research findings are not discussed as the focus is on the partnership arrangements.
Originality/value
Criteria for the successful working of the partnership, and the challenges faced are discussed in the paper.
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Kevin T. Rich and Jean X. Zhang
We investigate whether municipal financial manager turnover is associated with accounting restatements. This analysis is motivated by the notion that suspect financial reporting…
Abstract
We investigate whether municipal financial manager turnover is associated with accounting restatements. This analysis is motivated by the notion that suspect financial reporting could limit the ability of stakeholders to assess the use of public resources (GASB, 2006). The evidence suggests that municipalities disclosing accounting restatements are more likely to see changes in the top financial manager position than a control sample of non-restatement municipalities. Overall, our findings are consistent with associations between financial reporting quality and the labor market for municipal financial managers, and imply that governments should consider adding the prevalence of accounting failures as an input in the evaluation of top financial managers.
Soo Hong Chew, King King Li, Robin Chark and Songfa Zhong
Purpose – This experimental economics study using brain imaging techniques investigates the risk-ambiguity distinction in relation to the source preference hypothesis (Fox &…
Abstract
Purpose – This experimental economics study using brain imaging techniques investigates the risk-ambiguity distinction in relation to the source preference hypothesis (Fox & Tversky, 1995) in which identically distributed risks arising from different sources of uncertainty may engender distinct preferences for the same decision maker, contrary to classical economic thinking. The use of brain imaging enables sharper testing of the implications of different models of decision-making including Chew and Sagi's (2008) axiomatization of source preference.
Methodology/approach – Using fMRI, brain activations were observed when subjects make 48 sequential binary choices among even-chance lotteries based on whether the trailing digits of a number of stock prices at market closing would be odd or even. Subsequently, subjects rate familiarity of the stock symbols.
Findings – When contrasting brain activation from more familiar sources with those from less familiar ones, regions appearing to be more active include the putamen, medial frontal cortex, and superior temporal gyrus. ROI analysis showed that the activation patterns in the familiar–unfamiliar and unfamiliar–familiar contrasts are similar to those in the risk–ambiguity and ambiguity–risk contrasts reported by Hsu et al. (2005). This supports the conjecture that the risk-ambiguity distinction can be subsumed by the source preference hypothesis.
Research limitations/implications – Our odd–even design has the advantage of inducing the same “unambiguous” probability of half for each subject in each binary comparison. Our finding supports the implications of the Chew–Sagi model and rejects models based on global probabilistic sophistication, including rank-dependent models derived from non-additive probabilities, e.g., Choquet expected utility and cumulative prospect theory, as well as those based on multiple priors, e.g., α-maxmin. The finding in Hsu et al. (2005) that orbitofrontal cortex lesion patients display neither ambiguity aversion nor risk aversion offers further support to the Chew–Sagi model. Our finding also supports the Levy et al. (2007) contention of a single valuation system encompassing risk and ambiguity aversion.
Originality/value of chapter – This is the first neuroimaging study of the source preference hypothesis using a design which can discriminate among decision models ranging from risk-based ones to those relying on multiple priors.
Gregory S. Berns, C. Monica Capra, Sara Moore and Charles Noussair
Purpose – We summarize three previous neuroeconomic studies with two features that distinguish them from most others in experimental economics: (1) the use of physical pain to…
Abstract
Purpose – We summarize three previous neuroeconomic studies with two features that distinguish them from most others in experimental economics: (1) the use of physical pain to induce incentives and (2) acquisition of data on brain activation levels. By correlating behavior when payoffs are painful with brain activation, we are able to test for the neurobiological relevance of important phenomena previously observed in experimental studies that are at odds with classical economic theories of decision-making. These specific phenomena are (a) negative discounting of future payoffs; (b) nonlinear probability weighting; (c) the experience of regret and rejoice when making a decision under risk.
Methodology/approach – The expectation of pain is created through the use of mild electric shocks to the top of the foot. Pain confers disutility, so decisions are made in the domain of losses relative to the status quo. Simultaneous with these decisions, brain activation data is acquired through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Findings – We find evidence for negative time discounting of electric shocks. Participants who exhibited the most extreme forms of this discounting were distinguished by early and robust activation of a subset of the cortical pain matrix. We also find evidence for probability weighting in the domain of electric shocks, which is manifest at the neural level. We find evidence both behaviorally and neurally for regret and rejoice functions for painful outcomes.
Originality/value of chapter – Previous experimental economic studies in the domain of losses have typically used monetary rewards. Here, we report behavioral effects and neural correlates using pain.