Research Analysis
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Reducing Cost of Behavioral Health Services is Not Enough
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Approximately one in twenty adults in the US suffer from a serious mental illness (SMI) such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder. Yet barriers to accessing behavioral health services, including mental health care and substance use treatment, remain high. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed…
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Solving the Issue of Rising College Drop-Out Rates
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Over the past few decades, research has suggested that there exists a gap in access to higher education for low-income populations in the United States. The attention this problem has received has pushed many colleges to develop new programs to improve access. Recent data does indeed show an improvement: college…
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Do Elections Make You Sick?
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The current U.S. political system is deeply polarized, defined by partisan animus and infighting. A contentious election cycle culminated in an armed insurrection of the U.S. Capitol and a violent attack on U.S. democratic institutions. The political stakes of these events seem straightforward, but what can be said about the…
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The History of Community Mental Health Care
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More than a third of incarcerated individuals in the United States today have a diagnosed mental illness. In the 1960s, this population constituted fewer than 5% of all inmates. How did having a mental health condition become criminalized? A well-meaning policy intervention called the Community Mental Health Act (CMHA) of…
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A New Path to Victory for Minority Candidates
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Once data from the 2020 Census becomes available, the United States is set to undergo redistricting, which will undoubtedly influence the levels of minority representation in government. Historically, most Black and Latino candidates have been elected in districts where minorities make up a large share of the population, known as…
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When Public Spending on Social Policies is Fiscally Responsible
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Governments enact federal programs with the hope that they will improve the well-being of their citizens. But how do we know which programs have the highest long-term returns on investment? It is difficult to compare policies from different domains because of a lack of common factors. In a recent paper,…
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Debunked: The Plainspoken Populist
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In 2015, The Boston Globe famously reported that Donald Trump spoke at a fourth-grade level. The future president’s 2016 announcement speech scored a 4.1 on linguistic tests, meaning a fourth-grade student could understand his speech. By contrast, Hillary Clinton scored 7.1. The results came as no surprise: political scientists and commentators have…
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Executing the Mentally Ill: Do We Deserve to Kill Them?
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On January 13, 2021, Lisa Montgomery was the first woman executed in 68 years by the federal government, for what the Department of Justice called an “especially heinous murder.” She was the twelfth individual killed since July 2020, when the former administration resumed federal executions after a 20 year hiatus.…
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Discouraging Student Cheating Online Without Surveillance
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COVID-19 has transformed the way we work — and the way we learn. In response to the pandemic, many higher education institutions have sought to transition to remote learning. As a result, companies offering technological solutions to problems posed by the pandemic have experienced a windfall; notably, virtual proctoring services…
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The Redistributive Power of City Government
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At their best, cities are places where people of all income levels take the same train and play with their kids in the same park, bridging the gap and fostering a sense of community. In reality, the “tale of two cities” often seen in the differences between glittering downtowns and…
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The Connection Between Oil Prices, Stock Volatility, and Green Investments
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Amid increasing social attention on sustainability, green investments are drawing interest. Green investments inject money into firms producing and supporting eco-friendly goods and services. For instance, the MSCI Global Environment Index, a stock price index of firms that generate at least half of their revenues from eco-friendly products and services,…