PAM Publications
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This is a collection of Publications for the Department of Policy Analysis and Management.
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Item Family Man in the Other America: New Opportunities, Motivations, and Supports for Paternal CaregivingWaller, Maureen (2009)This analysis draws on longitudinal, qualitative interviews with disadvantaged mothers and fathers who participated in the Fragile Families Study (a U.S. birth cohort study) to examine how issues related to men’s employment, social support, skills, and motivation facilitated their care of young children in different relationship contexts. Interviews with parents indicate that while some motivated and skilled men actively chose to become caregivers with the support of mothers, others developed new motivations, skills, and parenting supports in response to situations in which they were out of work or the mother was experiencing challenges. These findings suggest that disadvantaged men who assume caregiving responsibilities take different paths to involvement in the early years after their child’s birth. Policies that overlook paternal caregivers may not only miss the opportunity to support relationships that benefit at-risk children but also unintentionally undermine this involvement.Item Evaluation Policy and Evaluation Practice: Where Do We Go From Here?Trochim, William (Wiley Periodicals Inc., 2009)The author develops the basic idea of evaluation policy, describes a practical model for development and revision of evaluation policies (including a taxonomy, structure, and set of principles), and suggests critical challenges and opportunities for the future of evaluation policy. An evaluation policy is any rule or principle that a group or organization uses to guide its decisions and actions when doing evaluation. Every entity that engages in evaluation, including government agencies, private businesses, and nonprofit organizations, has evaluation policies. Sometimes they are explicit and written; more often they are implicit and ad hoc principles or norms that have simply evolved over time.Item Developing a conceptual framework for an evaluation system for the NIAID HIV/AIDS clinical trials networksTrochim, William (2009)Globally, health research organizations are called upon to re-examine their policies and practices to more efficiently and effectively address current scientific and social needs, as well as increasing public demands for accountability. Through a case study approach, the authors examine an effort undertaken by the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (part of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services, United States Government) to develop an evaluation system for its recently restructured HIV/AIDS clinical trials program. The challenges in designing, operationalizing, and managing global clinical trials programs are considered in the context of large scale scientific research initiatives. Through a process of extensive stakeholder input, a framework of success factors was developed that enables both a prospective view of the elements that must be addressed in an evaluation of this research and a current state assessment of the extent to which the goals of the restructuring are understood by stakeholders across the DAIDS clinical research networks.Item Evaluation Policy and Evaluation PracticeTrochim, William (Wiley Periodicals Inc., 2009)Evaluation policy is of considerable importance, especially in relation to the limited amount of attention it receives as a general topic in the mainstream evaluation literature. Evaluation policies matter for several reasons, among them that they can profoundly affect evaluation practice, they underlie many recent and current controversies about evaluation, and they may be a lever for change that can have far-reaching effects for practice. This chapter gives an overview of several issues regarding evaluation policy, including defining it, identifying possible facets of evaluation policy, describing how it is established, and outlining the potentially greater role for evaluators in shaping the evaluation policies that influence evaluation practice.Item Evaluation Policy and Evaluation PracticeTrochim, William (2009)Three issues for evaluation policy and practice are described: evaluation policy dimensions, evaluation policy instruments, and the political and economic environment for evaluation policy. Selected future directions are outlined, including the need to describe the evaluation policy landscape, further articulate an evaluation policy taxonomy, and develop and implement tactics for influencing evaluation policy, with particular attention to the role of professional associations.Item The Role of Evaluation in Research-Practice Integration: Working Toward the "Golden SpikeTrochim, William (2009)Program evaluation and planning is at the heart of efforts to integrate the domains of practice and research. Traditionally, research and practice have operated in independent spheres with practitioners focused on the implementation of programs that affect individual behavior and researchers focused on the development and testing of theory. Evidence-based practice (EBP), practice-based evidence, and translational research have attempted to unite these worlds, and although significant advances have been made, there is a continued need to find mechanisms that enable a seamless connection between knowledge generation and application. We propose a method that builds on the traditions of theory-driven evaluation, logic modeling, and systems science and uses evaluation and program planning as the bridging mechanism between research and practice. Included in this approach are methods that aid in the explicit expression of implicit theories, management of evaluation resources, and linkage of program theory and evaluation measures to a research evidence base.Item First-Party Insurance Bad Faith Liability: Law, Theory, and Economic ConsequencesTennyson, Sharon (2009)Item The Relationship between Auto Insurance Rate Regulation and Insured Loss Costs: An Empirical AnalysisTennyson, Sharon (2009)This study points out a potential unintended effect of efforts to enhance affordability of insurance prices by regulating rates: It may ultimately lead to higher insurance costs. This is because rate regulation that suppresses insurance prices below competitive levels, or provides significant premium subsidies for some consumers, creates a variety of incentive distortions in the market. The article summarizes the theoretical arguments for this effect and provides empirical evidence of cost-increasing effects of rate regulation. The analysis uses state-level data on automobile insurance costs and claims rates for the period 1990 through 1998, and employs empirical methods that control for the possible reverse causation of high insurance costs leading to consumer demand for rate regulation. We find that bodily injury and property damage liability loss costs are higher in rate-regulated states, and that the bodily injury to property damage liability claims ratio is higher in regulated states.Item The Emergence and Potential Consequences of First Party Insurance Bad Faith LiabilityTennyson, Sharon (2009)This article discusses the approaches to first-party insurance bad-faith law that have been taken by the states, using legal and economic reasoning to illuminate the potential benefits and costs of different approaches. Theory suggests that allowing policyholders to recover damages over and above the value of the insurance benefit owed will provide insurers with added incentives to engage in fair claims settlement. However, excessive or uncertain liability for insurance bad faith might create incentives for policyholders to file questionable claims and disincentives for insurers to investigate claims for fraud. The article analyzes a large dataset of first-party automobile insurance claims to investigate whether these adverse effects appear to have empirical relevance. The data show that claim characteristics in states that permit tort-based bad faith differ from those in other states. The findings are consistent with the idea that permitting tort-based firstparty insurance bad-faith settlements might reduce insurer incentives to challenge disputable claims.Item Do State Cost Control Policies Reduce Medicaid Prescription Drug Spending?Tennyson, Sharon (2009)We present the first systematic analysis of state policies limiting prescription drug access under Medicaid during 1990–2004, documenting their impact on states’Medicaid prescription spending growth.We see substantial variation in the number and type of policies used by states, but a clear upward trend in restrictions over time. Analysis of state level annual spending growth shows that these restrictions have in general helped contain Medicaid prescription drug costs and that some approaches, such as the use of preferred drug lists (PDLs) and tiered copayment systems, may have been more effective than others.