Browsing by Author "Goodman, Doug"
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Item Fiscal Effects of Natural Disasters(2020-04-20) Abraham, Romeo; Gorina, Evgenia; Goodman, DougNot much is known empirically about the fiscal legacy of natural disasters including their effects on the cost of public sector debt, local revenues, and local fiscal reserves. Natural disasters have the potential to cause substantial damage to life, property and infrastructure and may result in the disruption to government financial conditions and operations. This dissertation examines the impacts of natural disasters on the cost of municipal debt, county revenues, and county fiscal reserves and contributes to filling an empirical gap in our understanding of the consequences of natural disasters for the public sector. Chapter 2 looks at the effects of floods, hurricanes and tornadoes on the cost of public sector debt in Texas from 2003 to 2012. It brings together data on debt issuance from the Texas Bond Review Board and data on federal disaster declarations from the Spatial Hazard Events & Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS). The findings show differential effects of floods and tornadoes on the cost of debt issuance and highlight that some of the effects are more pronounced for non-general obligation bonds. Chapters 3 and 4 use data from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Annual Survey of State & Local Government Finances, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Federal Emergency Management Agency datasets from 1982 to 2012 to examine the impacts of natural disasters on county revenues and county fiscal reserves. In Chapter 3, I document negative associations between total revenues and property taxes for tornadoes but positive associations for floods and hurricanes, a finding that is interpreted from the perspective of the literature on creative destruction. Chapter 4 presents evidence that counties in disaster-prone areas tend to have higher fiscal reserves in the form of cash holdings. The positive association between natural disasters and cash holdings at the end of the fiscal year persists even after disasters. These findings suggest that U.S. counties may be strategic in their patterns of accumulating fiscal reserves.Item Managing Public Retirement Systems : Unions, Pension Reforms, and Public Sector Attractiveness(2019-04-23) Hoang, Trang T; Gorina, Evgenia; Goodman, DougIn three empirical chapters, this dissertation investigates the determinants and consequences of pension benefit generosity and pension reforms. Applying the cutback management framework, Chapter 2 examines the impact of unions on negotiating generous pension benefits. The study finds that union collective bargaining rights do not influence how pension benefits and pension contributions are established but unions’ soft negotiating power such as political campaign donations and unionization intensity have a significant impact on raising pension benefits. Chapter 3 offers a comprehensive analysis of the internal and external driving factors of pension reforms. I find that in addition to the plan funded status, state fiscal health, and political ideology that play an important role in pension reform decisions, regional and national reform diffusion effects among neighboring and ideologically similar states increase the likelihood of pension reform enactment. Chapter 4 provides an empirical analysis of the effects of pension reforms on the public sector attractiveness. The study finds that the responsiveness of public sector employees to pension reforms differed by reform type and worker education. Explicit benefitreducing reforms are found to increase public sector turnover more than implicit reforms; additionally, pension reforms have stronger effects on turnover in states with a higher share of college-educated workers. As a whole, the dissertation implies that political factors, economic and fiscal conditions, union power, reform diffusion effects, and public employee responses to pension benefit cutback need to be considered together to understand how a state can continue to reform public sector retirement benefits. The findings of this study are important because pension benefits and pension reforms will continue to affect the long-term fiscal sustainability of plan sponsors and the quality of the public sector workforce.Item State government human resource professionals’ commitment to employment at will(Sage, 2010-02-11) Coggburn, Jerrell D.; Battaglio, R. Paul, Jr.; Bowman, James S.; Condrey, Stephen E.; Goodman, Doug; West, Jonathan P.; Goodman, DougThis article examines the attitudes of a key set of state government officials—state human resource (HR) professionals—toward employment at will (EAW) in state government. It presents original survey data obtained from HR professionals in four southern states: Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Mississippi. Drawing on these data, the article creates an index measuring respondents’ commitment to EAW, as measured by their attitudes toward arguments used to advocate for EAW. The index is used as the dependent variable in an exploratory regression analysis indicating the importance of respondents’ experiences with the exercise of EAW discretion, years of public sector service, educational background, and state context to explaining variation in commitment to EAW. The article concludes with a discusItem Sticky Policy: the Effectiveness of Policy Diffusion for a Federal Block Grant in Texas(2017-08) Moshier, Jeffrey H.; 53479748 (Goodman, D); Goodman, DougEach year, the federal government provides billions of dollars to state and local jurisdictions to fund a wide variety of public policies. According to some estimates, grants-in-aid account for almost one third of total state funding. While the programs funded by these grants address very real needs, the grants themselves are structured to ensure that federal policy is followed to a greater or lesser extent. Despite the often-heard call for smaller government, this influence has largely been accepted by American society, and is expected in some cases. Scholars have studied intergovernmental influence from a variety of perspectives, including policy diffusion. The bulk of this research has focused on the state-to-state adoption process, and has identified a variety of contributing factors. While the study of local policy diffusion has occurred, this has typically focused on identifying individual factors, and not on an examination of the broad range of possibilities. This study proposes to scrutinize how a variety of factors contribute to policy diffusion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program with the goal of shedding light on the local process in Texas. In addition, the study will also analyze if the policy influence behind the grant continues as part of the community decision making process after the money has been spent and the projects completed. There are three generally accepted forms of federal grants-in-aid; categorical grants, block grants, and revenue sharing. Scholars have identified a variety of advantages and disadvantages associated with each form. Block grants are thought to carry fewer restrictions, promote innovation, and have a moderate influence on policy. It seems reasonable to expect that because they use fiscal incentives, the policy influence from block grants may decline rapidly after the award is complete. In fact, Congress tends to modify block grants and gradually transform them into more restrictive categorical grants, which establishes more control but decreases their ability to encourage innovation. However, if policy influence continues after the grant is completed, then restricting block grants may not be as necessary to meet national goals. This could be an incentive for Congress to emphasize the more innovative aspects of these grants instead of restricting them as they mature. The EECBG offers an opportunity to not only better understand the reasons Texas municipalities use the grant, but to discover if the policy behind the award has influence after the program is complete.Item The Impact of Work-life Balance Policies on Perceived Organizational Performance in the U.S. Federal Agencies: Exploring the Moderating Effect of Leadership Support(2020-08-01T05:00:00.000Z) Al-Fayez, Diana; Cummings, Anthony R.; Goodman, Doug; Battaglio Jr., R. Paul; Harrington, James R.; Sabharwal, MeghnaThis study enhances our understanding of the implementation of work-life balance policies and its impact on perceived organizational performance in U.S. federal agencies. While interest in implementing work-life balance policies began in the 1960s and 1970s after the influx of females into the labor market, few studies have examined the impact of these policies on organizational performance in the public organizations context, particularly in the federal agencies. Drawing on the social exchange theory and using Federal Employees Viewpoints Survey (FEVS) from 2011- 2015, this study expected that work-life balance policies would have significant positive relationship with perceived organizational performance in the U.S. federal agencies, and that leadership support will have a significant positive moderating effect. The study also expected that the relationship between work-life policies and perceived organizational performance will be more positive in feminine organizations compared to masculine organizations. However, the findings do not support all these expectations. With the exception of employee’s assistance programs, work-life balance policies do not seem to have a significant positive impact on perceived organizational performance. In terms of moderation effect, the results indicate that leadership support only has a significant positive moderation effect on the relationship between perceived organizational performance and childcare programs, alternative work schedules, and wellness programs in all U.S. federal agencies. Leadership support also has a significant positive moderation impact on the relationship between perceived organizational performance with alternative programs, and wellness programs in feminine organizations. This study asserts the need to re-evaluate the implementation and the practices of work-life balance policies in the federal agencies. This study also encourages public administration scholars to conduct more systematic research on work-life balance policies to provide more concrete evidence on its importance in the public sector context, and to provide recommendations on how to improve the impact of such policies.Item Toward a Theory of Local Elections: Building a Theoretical Framework by Analyzing School Bond Elections(2017-05) Jackson, Laura K.; Goodman, Doug; Harrington, James R.; Battaglio, R. Paul; Maxwell, Sarah P.Despite the substantial impact of local government on individuals’ daily lives, very little research exists regarding a theory of local government elections. Building upon the work of Kaufmann (2004) and Oliver (2012), this study aims to help fill this void by examining three key concepts for any theory of local elections: retrospective voting, intergroup competition, and political context. These concepts are analyzed using local school bond election outcomes. Specifically, the dissertation examines school bond elections held in the State of Texas between 1994 and 2012. Using accountability ratings, the racial distance between voters and students in a school district, and the electoral structure of school boards in districts pursuing bond elections, the analysis shows that retrospective voting, intergroup competition, and political context are important concepts to include in a theory of local elections. Further, the study offers three additional insights. First, gatekeepers serve an important function in elections, like school bond elections, that require the actions of an elected body to be placed on the ballot. Second, in keeping with previous studies, it appears that voters in local elections are quite knowledgeable of the issues on which they are voting. Finally, the results of this study indicate that voters may be evolving in the way they approach local elections, particularly regarding intergroup competition.Item Understanding the Link between Organizational Communication and Innovation: An Examination of Public, Nonprofit, and For-Profit Organizations in South Korea(Sage Publications Inc) Suh, Jiwon; Harrington, James R.; Goodman, Doug; 310632350 (Harrington, JR); 53479748 (Goodman, G); ; Suh, Jiwon; Harrington, James R.; Goodman, DougInnovation and internal communication are essential for any successful organization. Although communication within organizations has long been studied in the for-profit sector, we still know little about the impact of communication types on innovation in the public and nonprofit sectors. To examine this question, we leverage and construct a longitudinal dataset using 5 years of the Korean Workplace Panel Survey (KWPS) from 2005 to 2013. Employing media richness theory, this study finds that internal communication positively influences innovation in the for-profit sector, which is a finding consistent with prior studies. Similarly, in the nonprofit sector, we find that meeting with the executive director and the number of communication channels utilized in an organization has a positive impact on innovation. However, we do not find that these communications have any impact in the public sector.