Catch up on Ford School faculty news in the spring 2017 edition of State & Hill magazine

May 23, 2017

Recent publications by ROBERT AXELROD include "Challenges in researching terrorism from the field" with SCOTT ATRAN (Science); "How historical analogies in newspapers of five countries make sense of major events: 9/11, Mumbai, and Tahrir Square" (Research in Economics); and "Strategic aspects of cyber attack, attribution, and blame" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

Based on number of media mentions outside the U.S., JOHN CIORCIARI is U-M's top international expert of 2016. His recent publications include "Victim testimony in international and hybrid criminal courts" (Virginia Journal of International Law) and "Nationalist protests, government responses, and the risk of escalation in interstate disputes" (Security Studies).

U-M has tapped PAUL COURANT to serve as interim provost and EVP for academic affairs. On June 26, U-M will host Courant's bicentennial colloquium, "The evolving bargain between research universities and society." Courant's latest paper is "Faculty deployment in research universities" (Productivity in Higher Education).

ALAN DEARDORFF has been quoted in a number of national news articles exploring the likely economic repercussions of the Trump administration's movements to rethink American trade policy.

SUSAN DYNARSKI and former postdoc KATHERINE MICHELMORE (Syracuse) received a $120,000 grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to use longitudinal data to explore educational disparities. A new study by Dynarski and Ford School colleagues BRIAN JACOB and MAHIMA MAHADEVAN (MPP '11) shows that Michigan charter school practices rarely differ from those of traditional publics. Dynarski continues to be a prolific education policy writer for The New York Times. Also see "Faculty Findings."

ELISABETH GERBER's "Policymaker" simulation tool, which helps faculty facilitate active learning about stakeholder engagement and policy decision-making, made its debut at the Ford School's 2017 Integrated Policy Exercise (IPE) and APSA's 14th annual Teaching and Learning Conference in Long Beach, CA.

Photo of Catie Hausman

Resources for the Future honored CATIE HAUSMAN with its Krutilla Research Stipend Award for promising young scholars of environmental and resource economics. Recent papers include "Price regulation and environmental externalities: Evidence from methane leaks" (NBER) and "Climate change is projected to have severe impacts on the frequency and intensity of peak electricity demand across the United States" (PNAS). Her op-ed, "Why utility companies have little incentive to plug leaking natural gas," appears in The Conversation.

Recent papers by BRIAN JACOB include "The measurement of student ability in modern assessment systems" (Journal of Economic Perspectives); "When evidence is not enough: Findings from a randomized evaluation of Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction" (Labour Economics); "Are expectations alone enough? Estimating the effect of a mandatory college-prep curriculum in Michigan" with SUSAN DYNARSKI (Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis); "Measuring instructor effectiveness in higher education" with KEVIN STANGE and PIETER DE VLIEGER (NBER); and "How the U.S. Department of Education can foster education reform in the era of Trump and ESSA" (Evidence Speaks). Also see "Faculty Findings."

PAULA LANTZ's "Pay for Success and population health: Early results from 11 projects reveal challenges and promise," appears in Health Affairs; Lantz offered a webinar on the work in January.

MELVYN LEVITSKY has been quoted in a number of national and international news articles about President Trump's foreign policy moves. Based on media mentions outside the U.S., Levitsky is among U-M's top five international experts of 2016.

Photo of Shobita Parthasarathy

ANN CHIH LIN and colleagues, including Ford School alumnus MOHAMED ABBADI (MPP '16), received a $150,000 grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to test an intervention to reduce bias against Muslims.

Data from SARAH MILLS' recently completed survey of Michigan farm landowners and the ways they are impacted by wind energy turbines, summarized in "Farming the wind," has been cited by a number of media outlets.

SHOBITA PARTHASARATHY's second book, Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe (Chicago University Press), was released this January. The book was the focus of a U-M symposium, "Patents, Social Justice, and Public Responsibility," that took place this March. Parthasarathy's op-ed "Obama administration's big science and tech innovation: Socially engaged policy," appears in The Conversation.

NATASHA PILKAUSKAS and former Ford School postdoc KATHERINE MICHELMORE received a junior faculty grant from Poverty Solutions to investigate whether the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) reduces housing instability. Pilkauskas' paper, "Giving unto others: Private financial transfers and material hardship among families with children," is forthcoming in the Journal of Marriage and Family. Also see "Faculty Findings."

The National Academy of Public Administration has tapped BARRY RABE for a number of energy and environmental reviews including a Presidential transition report on energy and environmental policy concerns and a review of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Rabe is chairing the EPA's Assumable Waters Advisory Committee.

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DANIEL RAIMI has signed a contract with Columbia University Press for his first book, tentatively titled Fracking in the USA. Recent papers focus on state and local government revenue from oil and gas production and the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water in the U.S.

LUKE SHAEFER's recent publications include "How should we define low-wage work?" (Monthly Labor Review) and "Can poverty in America be compared to conditions in the world's poorest countries?" (American Journal of Medical Research). He continues to lead Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, which announced its first nine grant recipients this January. Shaefer and Ford School colleagues BRIAN JACOB and ELISABETH GERBER received funding from J-PAL to conduct a randomized trial of Michigan's Community Ventures program, which helps provide stable, living-wage jobs for low-income, structurally unemployed individuals.

KEVIN STANGE's recent publications include "Price regulation, price discrimination, and equality of opportunity in higher education: Evidence from Texas" (NBER) and the edited NBER volume, Productivity in Higher Education. Stange and former postdoc STEVEN HEMELT (UNC-Chapel Hill) recently won a $260,000 grant to explore cost drivers in higher education. Also see "Faculty Findings."

BETSEY STEVENSON contributed to a Bloomberg View piece on "17 metrics to watch in the Trump era" and wrote "Manly men need to do more girly jobs" (Bloomberg), which was picked up by dozens of news outlets.

KAITLIN TONER RAIMI's recent publications include "The promise and limitations of using analogies to improve decision-relevant understanding of climate change" (PLOS ONE) and "Environmental peer persuasion: How moral exporting and belief superiority relate to efforts to influence others" (Journal of Environmental Psychology).

Photo of Janet Weiss

SUSAN WALTZ has authored a chapter on "Linking transitional justice and human rights" in a new book, Transitional Justice in the Middle East and North Africa (Oxford University Press).

JANET WEISS is spending the spring as a visiting scholar at George Washington University's Trachtenberg School. While in DC, Weiss is working on early childhoodeducation with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation and consulting with the Performance Improvement Council.

MARINA V.N. WHITMAN is quoted in an AP story about "How a Trump tariff could sideswipe the U.S. auto industry" that was picked up by more than 300 news outlets around the country. In December, Whitman published two op-eds: "Where will public goods stand in Trump's administration" (Detroit Free Press) and "How the TPP's demise threatens U.S. national security and Pax Americana" (The Conversation).

JUSTIN WOLFERS continues to write for The New York Times with columns on "Trump and Carrier: How a modern economy is like a parking garage," "Why most economists are so worried about Trump," and more.

DEAN YANG is featured in Experimental Conversations (MIT Press), a collection of interviews with prominent development economists. In December, Yang spoke with BBC's "World Hacks" for a program on improving the power of remittances. His most recent paper, "Revising commitments: Field evidence on the adjustment of prior choices," with JESSICA GOLDBERG (PhD '11), appears in The Economic Journal.


Below is a formatted version of this article from State & Hill, the magazine of the Ford School. View the entire Spring 2017 State & Hill here.