Center for Policy Research News

Prema Kurien and Janet M. Wilmoth received awards, and several faculty colleagues were elected to roles in the American Sociological Association. 

The research team led by Jennifer Karas Montez and Shannon Monnat hopes to better understand how state policies and local economic conditions impact health and mortality rates.

"Explaining the U.S. rural disadvantage in COVID-19 case and Death rates during the Delta-Omicron surge: The role of politics, vaccinations, population health, and social determinants," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Social Science & Medicine.

"Understanding regulation using the Institutional Grammar 2.0," co-authored by Saba Siddiki, director of the Center for Policy Design and Governance, was published in Regulation & Governance.

The emergency public health policies that state and local governments enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lower infection and death rates than would have occurred without these policies. New research from CPR & Lerner Postdoctoral Scholar Xue Zhang finds that states with unified Republican control were more likely to limit emergency authority during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in higher COVID-19 death rates in those states.

"Adoption Of Standard Medical Deduction Increased SNAP Enrollment And Benefits In 21 Participating States," co-authored by Professors Jun Li and Colleen Heflin, and Ph.D. student Dongmei Zuo, was published in Health Affairs.

Six faculty members were granted tenure and promoted to associate professor and three were promoted to professor.

"Local Control, Discretion, and Administrative Burden: SNAP Interview Waivers and Caseloads During the COVID-19 Pandemic," co-authored by Maxwell faculty members Colleen Heflin and Leonard Lopoo, and doctoral student William Clay Fannin, was published in The American Review of Public Administration.

“Suicide was always a men’s issue,” says Michiko Ueda-Ballmer, associate professor of public administration and international affairs. During the pandemic, “suddenly, women’s suffering became visible.” For the first time, “the government was forced to confront an approach to suicide prevention that had previously focused exclusively on middle-aged men.” 

The awards support undergraduate research projects.

Associate Professor Sarah Hamersma and graduate student Mitch McFarlane will use the $75,000 grant to investigate the impacts of SNAP food assistance on maternal and infant health.

Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology, says that around 2018-2019, American universities began to see a slight decrease in the number of Chinese students. “And then the pandemic hit,” Ma says. “And with the rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China...[it] made Chinese students hesitate to come to the United States to study.”

The assistant professor of economics received the honor for her work teaching undergraduate students.

New research from CPR Associates on the “model minority” stereotype finds that teachers rate Asian students’ academic skills more favorably than White students. In addition, teachers respond to the presence of any Asian student in the classroom by widening Black-White and Hispanic-White assessment gaps.

"Research in a Closed Political Context, COVID, and Across Languages: Methodological Lessons, Messages, and Ideas," co-authored by Darzhan Kazbekova, graduate research associate in the Center for Policy Design and Governance, and Rebecca Schewe, associate professor of sociology, was published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

"Age differences in Allostatic Load among adults in the United States by rural-urban residence," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Social Science and Medicine - Population Health.

“For a lot of families, grandparent care is the gold standard,” says University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer, who notes that grandparents are often far more flexible than other childminders; they’ll watch your kid for free, for long or short periods of time, on little notice. They will even do it when your child is sick. 

Amid the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, Maxwell scholars are gathering critical data, designing policy and informing future leaders.

Affirmative action is an effective race-conscious admissions policy that facilitates the socioeconomic achievement of Black and Latino students. Using data from 750 schools, this study finds that Black and Latino students are more likely to graduate from selective colleges than White students with similar socioeconomic backgrounds and educational experiences.