The New England Journal of Medicine published John Ayanian’s report on the first 100 days of the Healthy Michigan Plan, Michigan’s expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The plan is a good blueprint for other Republican-governed states considering Medicaid expansion, says Ayanian.
At the annual NASPAA conference, Susan M. Collins organized the panel, "Do Schools of Public Policy and International Affairs Actually Impact Policy?" Collins participated with the deans of policy schools at the University of Washington, the University of Texas– Austin, Georgetown University, and Syracuse University.
Paul Courant’s study, “Evaluating big deal journal bundles,” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Through FOIA requests, Courant and colleagues revealed significant price discrimination practiced by journal publishers. The findings should help librarians and universities bargain more effectively to stretch limited budgets.
Sandra Danziger’s article, “Bundling Public and Private Supports to Cope with the Effects of the Great Recession,” has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Social Science Quarterly. The article is a collaboration with Scott W. Allard (Washington) and Maria V. Wathen (U-M).
Governor Rick Snyder has tapped Dr. Matthew Davis to lead the state’s Ebola prevention initiatives with Nick Lyon, director of the Michigan Department of Community Health. Davis continues to serve as chief medical executive for the state of Michigan.
Susan Dynarski and Steven Hemelt (UNC) received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to launch a five-year study on the impact of a new Tennessee policy that allows students to earn college credit for advanced math courses taken in high school.
The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) has named Neel Hajra president and chief executive officer. In this role, Hajra will be responsible for more than $75 million in charitable assets and 475 philanthropic funds.
The Brookings Institution published Joshua Hausman’s paper analyzing Japan’s economic policy experiment, “Abenomics.” Several prominent news outlets quoted data and analysis from the study, including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg View.
Yazier Henry was invited to participate in the conference, International Critical Studies of Political Transitions: Everyday Life as a Problem for Peace at the University de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. Henry joined a panel discussion on “Justice, global capitalism, and societal transition.”
Students and colleagues of Jim House hosted a day-long symposium honoring his 35 years of teaching, research, and service at the University of Michigan. House’s work illuminates the role that social and psychological factors play in health and illness. He retired from the University this September.
Brian Jacob received a $100,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation to study the effectiveness of No Child Left Behind waiver-related reforms. U.S. Department of Education waivers release states from NCLB proficiency standard deadlines if they implement department-designed reform plans.
Stanford University Press has published Shirli Kopelman’s new book, Negotiating Genuinely: Being Yourself in Business. Kopelman’s book has received coverage in BusinessWeek, Inc., Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
Isaac McFarlin and Kevin Stange were awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study whether better school facilities translate into improved student performance, helping to close the educational achievement gaps between low income students and their wealthier peers.
Carl Simon’s collaborative work with David McMillon and Jeffrey Morenoff was published in the high-impact journal PLOS ONE. “Modeling the underlying dynamics of the spread of crime” uses a complex systems approach to explore crime, imprisonment, and recidivism.
Kevin Stange has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation to study the effects of tuition deregulation on college access and the success of low-income public high school students in Texas. Stange’s paper, “Differential Pricing in Undergraduate Education,” was published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
The William T. Grant Foundation has awarded Megan Tompkins-Stange and Sarah Reckhow (MSU) a $275,000 grant to study the effects of foundation-funded advocacy research—research motivated by a clear policy agenda and injected into policy discourse as empirical justification for desired reforms—on teacher quality debates and policy proposals.
Betsey Stevenson, a member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, offered the plenary speech at the White House Summit on Working Families in Washington, DC. Her topic: “A 21st century economy that works for businesses and workers.”
Marina v.N. Whitman is writing monthly opinion pieces for the Detroit Free Press. In “The War on Women,” Whitman explains to her 15-year-old granddaughter, who had never heard of Roe v. Wade, why she and her friends shouldn’t take for granted the hard-won freedoms they enjoy.
Justin Wolfers has been named to the International Monetary Fund’s “25 Brightest Young Economists” list. The list recognizes 25 economists under 45 who are shaping the way we think about the global economy.
Yu Xie’s recent study with Xiang Zhou (U-M), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on the rapid increase in income inequality in China. The study has received coverage in a number of press outlets, including Business Week and The New York Times.
President Barack Obama honored Robert Axelrod with the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony on November 20. Axelrod is the first political scientist to receive this honor—the nation’s highest for scientific advancement— in more than a quarter-century. Axelrod is serving as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the State Department this year.
Below is a formatted version of this article from State & Hill, the magazine of the Ford School. View the entire Fall 2014 State & Hill here.