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School of Public Policy

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70716

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Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

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Technology Policy and Assessment Center

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https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1033

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 370

Electricity infrastructure threats and policy response

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-11-08) McGrath, Jenna K. C.

The overarching research question of this dissertation is how are policymakers responding to threats to the electricity grid? The database of attacks on the United States electricity system, created and analyzed in Chapter 2, underscores that targeted attacks have been a persistent threat for the electric grid for the past nearly 50 years. In recent years, attacks have become more sophisticated and coordinated. Given this development, Chapter 3 considers how policy makers have responded to grid attacks, focusing on a more recent timeframe of seventeen years and uses risk perception theory as a guide. The results of the regression time series analysis indicate that policymakers respond to malicious attacks on the grid in terms of federal funding and allocation to grid-related improvements. There is no response associated with disruptions caused by severe weather or human or technical failures. This suggests that policymakers are perceiving malicious attacks as a threat and are stating policy priorities to address this issue in the federal budget appropriations. In addition to funding for emergency response and funding for research, federal policy, utilities have proposed measures to improve grid security. Chapter 4 addresses the adequacy of this response. The effectiveness of current grid security standards are simulated when faced with actual attack scenarios as well as possible future attacks that become increasingly more sophisticated and threatening in nature. The simulations indicate that security upgrades involving improved lighting and visibility are not effective, while improved barriers are effective. More broadly, the limited effectiveness of the proposed security upgrades suggests that there is substantial scope for research and testing, and for consideration of how utilities are securing electric infrastructure assets. Chapter 5 considers critical infrastructure as a whole, evaluating federal emergency response and management across the different critical infrastructure sectors. Here, the goal is to determine how electricity sector response compares to the policy responses to the challenges and events impacting other sectors. Analysis across multiple large incidents affecting different components of critical infrastructure shows a largely linear and consistent relationship between the impact of a disaster in terms of both human health and cost, and the sum of the public sector funding and insurance response. Attacks on the U.S. electric grid are a continuing challenge, as demonstrated in Chapter 2. In line with the prevailing risk perception literature, the analysis in Chapter 3 indicates that malicious attacks on the electric grid receive a larger response, in terms of federal R&D funding, than natural disasters or failures. This study finds that threats to national security are a driver of policy priorities and actions to both repair and improve the electric grid. Federal and state governments as well as the utilities and private sector bear significant costs when attacks occur. As concluded in Chapter 4, utility efforts to increase security are not fully public, but those that can be evaluated have significant weaknesses. Across all infrastructures, Chapter 5 demonstrates that government and private insurance payments largely pay fully for the impact of each disaster, irrespective of cause or sector, with terrorist attacks receiving emergency response funding at the same level as accidents and natural disasters. Similarly, federal research and development funding related to grid security has remained largely steady, with increases in response to large incidents irrespective of cause.
Interdisciplinary Integration After the Neuro-turn: Problems with the ‘Neurofication’ of Theology

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-11-08) Keestra, Machiel

The recent emergence of neuro-disciplines like neuro-economics, neuro-anthropology, neurophilosophy and neuro-politics is exciting for those working in these ‘neurofied’ disciplines, as much as for cognitive neuroscientists and philosophers. New neuro disciplinary research and answers can help to elucidate relevant interactions between our brains and domains of our culture and society. Yet, neuro-disciplinary research can also lead us astray when flawed concepts, methods or results are employed, and the wrong conclusions are drawn. The challenge for inter-disciplinary research is to properly integrate insights from both fields involved - from cognitive neuroscience and the respective ‘target discipline’. Machiel Keestra will analyze an example of such ‘neurofication’: neuro-theology. After a brief consideration of the notion of ‘interdisciplinary integration’, he will analyze how neuro-theological research is being conducted and discuss its underlying assumptions and research paradigms. How come that neurotheological research often involves the neuro-imaging of meditating Buddhist monks? Is there a place for the historical and institutional nature of religion in neurotheology? Such questions will lead to a critical evaluation of neurofication that is also relevant for other neuro-disciplines.
Evaluating the impact of zero-rating services: An in-depth look at Facebook's free basics in emerging economies

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-05-11) Mehta, Ishan

Facebook has partnered with mobile carriers in multiple countries to launch its zero-rated service - Free Basics. Free Basics is a platform which hosts not only Facebook, but other select websites which are zero-rated as well.This Master's thesis evaluates the impact of the Free Basics platform in the countries it has launched. In the process of this research, it has been found that there is a lack of evidence-based research on zero-rated services and Free Basics in particular. This Thesis hopes to fill some of that gaps in the literature, by studying the program in seven countries - Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Kant's argument that causality is an a priori principle of cognition (sun warms body)

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-05) Hoffmann, Michael H. G.

An AGORA argument map that visualizes a reconstruction of an argument that Immanuel Kant developed in his "Prolegomena."
Primary and secondary subnational debt markets

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-04-04) Riegel, Konul A.

U.S. state and local (subnational) governments issue municipal bonds in the capital markets to finance infrastructure projects such as schools, roads, and bridges. These securities are first sold in the primary municipal bond market and subsequently resold in the secondary market. This dissertation explores the primary and secondary subnational debt markets and their impact on state and local governments. The first chapter provides background information on the municipal bond market. The second chapter estimates the market-implied marginal tax rates associated with tax-exempt debt. The third chapter estimates the effect of the secondary municipal bond market on future cost of borrowing for debt-issuing governments. The fourth chapter explores why some securities trade thousands of times in the secondary market while most never trade. The fifth chapter concludes the dissertation and discusses relevant policy implications. The size of the subnational debt has surpassed $3:8 trillion as of the third quarter of 2017. Understanding the primary and secondary municipal bonds markets and the impact of these markets on issuers can allow thousands of debt-issuing state and local governments to save billions of dollars in borrowing costs. This is important because reducing borrowing costs, in turn, can free up funds for other public services such as education and health care. Debt is a crucial part of public finances. As such, this dissertation contributes to the public finance literature, particularly in the area of public financial management research. Chapter 1: Background. The majority of state and local governments in the U.S. have debt-issuing capacity. There is quite a bit of heterogeneity in the types of issuers and financial products that are issued in the municipal bond market. The variety of market participants (underwriters, dealer-brokers, etc.) add further complexity to the debt performance outcomes of issuers. The main feature that sets the muni market apart from other capital markets is the tax exemption of interest income - most municipal bonds are exempt from federal, state, and certain local income taxes. Chapter 2: Primary Market. Eliminating or limiting tax exempt-status of municipal bonds becomes a potential policy alternative in periods of budgetary distress, given that taxes foregone due to exemption amount to billions of dollars per year to the federal government. This chapter estimates the implied marginal tax rates associated with tax-exempt munis to understand the tax-reduction benefits accrued to state and local governments. In this analysis, tax-exempt munis are matched to near-identical taxable munis, which creates a unique quasi-experimental design. Results of the Random Coefficients Model (RCM), which accounts for issuer- and issuance-level unobserved effects, show significant heterogeneity in implied marginal tax rates across issuer types (e.g. counties vs. school districts) and over time. The longstanding muni puzzle, the finding that interest on tax-exempt bonds is higher than the theory would predict, disappears for general purpose governments, once the nested structure and the product and issuer heterogeneity of the municipal bond market are taken into account. Results imply that municipal forms of government benefit the most from the tax exemption, while special districts benefit the least. Chapter 3: Effect of the Secondary Market On the Primary Market. The primary market for state and local government borrowing receives great attention yet researchers as well as subnational debt-issuing governments tend to ignore the secondary municipal bond market. However, if the primary market rewards the performance of the issuer’s outstanding debt in the secondary market, then state and local governments are neglecting an important piece of the puzzle and the potential to reduce future borrowing costs. This study combines large proprietary databases of primary and secondary market information to test whether the performance of existing debt in the secondary market affects future cost of borrowing for state and local governments. Results show that fluctuations in the secondary market prices and yields impact future borrowing costs. Further, the effect of the secondary market varies significantly by issuer. Findings imply that the secondary market contains an additional layer of real-time quality information not captured by other lagged metrics such as credit ratings. Chapter 4: Secondary Market. The municipal bond market is full of peculiarities. One such puzzling fact is that some securities trade thousands of times in the secondary market while most do not trade at all. Studies have shown that these differences in trading frequency cannot simply be attributed to transaction costs - actively traded bonds are not necessarily less expensive to trade. Understanding what accounts for such distinct patterns of trading activity can inform investors and issuers about market demand and potentially improve government debt issuance outcomes and household portfolio allocation decisions. This paper examines the dispersion of trading activity of municipal securities in the secondary market using large databases of security- and transaction-level information. Results show that safer and high quality securities tend to be taken off the market quickly and most likely absorbed into the portfolios of buy-and-hold type investors. Further, the call complexity hypothesis reveals distinct trading patterns for different trade types (interdealer trades vs. retail customer trades) as the call date approaches. Finally, there is some evidence of speculative trading in the secondary market which further contributes to the wide dispersion in trading activity among various securities. Chapter 5: Conclusion. The first set of findings show that the effect of the municipal bond tax exemption policy are substantial. Smaller municipalities benefit the most from the ability to issue tax-exempt munis. Second, I find that the secondary market contains an additional layer of real-time quality information not captured by other lagged metrics such as credit ratings. This information contained in the secondary market performance of the issuer’s existing debt has a direct impact on future borrowing costs for state and local governments. Finally, hyper-trading in secondary market for municipal bonds is explained using several conceptual frameworks, such as portfolio absorption, speculative trading, and call complexity.
Prevention and reversal of Alzheimer's disease: treatment protocol

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-01-23) Kostoff, Ronald N. ; Porter, Alan L. ; Buchtel, Henry A.

This monograph presents a five-step treatment protocol to prevent and reverse Alzheimer's Disease (AD), based on the following systemic medical principle: at the present time, removal of cause is a necessary, but not necessarily sufficient, condition for restorative treatment to be effective. The five treatment protocol steps are as follows: Step 1 - obtain a detailed medical and habit/exposure history from the patient; Step 2 - administer written and clinical performance and behavioral tests to assess the severity of the higher-level symptoms and degradation of executive functions; Step 3 - administer laboratory tests (blood, urine, imaging, etc.); Step 4 - eliminate ongoing AD contributing factors; Step 5 - implement AD treatments. This individually-tailored AD treatment protocol can be implemented with the data available in the biomedical literature presently. Additionally, while the methodology developed for this study was applied to AD, it is general and applicable to any chronic disease that, like AD, has an associated substantial research literature. Thus, the protocol and methodology we have developed to prevent or reverse AD can be used to prevent or reverse any chronic disease (with the possible exceptions of individuals with strong genetic predispositions to the disease in question or who have suffered irreversible damage from the disease).***NOTE***There are four files in this record. Presently, they are located in the left column of this Web page listed under the heading View/Open. MONOGRAPH_FINAL.pdf contains the monograph narrative; FIGURES_FINAL.xlsx contains the figures from the monograph in Excel spreadsheet format; SUPPLEMENTARY_FINAL.pdf contains supplementary bibliography and queries; and README.pdf is the ReadMe file. The two data files are referenced in the monograph as either "(see file FIGURES_FINAL.xlsx)" or "(see file SUPPLEMENTARY_FINAL.pdf)".
The locational patterns and socioeconomic effects of the new markets tax credit and low income housing tax credit in distressed metropolitan census tracts

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-01-12) Henderson, Michael Joseph

This dissertation investigates the role of two federal place-based programs, the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) and Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), as tools for revitalizing distressed communities. The first empirical chapter organizes low-income, high-poverty metropolitan census tracts into a typology based on their demographic, class status, built environment, and location characteristics in 2000. Principal components analysis uncovered three prominent neighborhood dimensions: class status, urbanization, and black socioeconomic isolation. These dimensions were entered into a cluster analysis, which identified ten distinct types of poor metropolitan neighborhoods. NMTC investment, LIHTC investment, and socioeconomic ascent were highly correlated across neighborhood types. This finding supports an assumption made in previous studies that developers, who play an important role in determining where subsidized projects are located, are motivated to seek out areas primed to undergo socioeconomic ascent. The neighborhood dimension describing the degree of urbanization was only baseline variable consistently related to both sources of place-based investment and future socioeconomic ascent, suggesting that developer preferences are informed by observable urbanization-related factors. These findings were then applied to the development of a model for estimating the effects of place-based investment on a neighborhood’s socioeconomic trajectory. I use a variation of propensity score matching allowing for multiple treatment conditions to compare 2000 to 2010 changes in income, poverty, unemployment, and home values between census tracts that received different combinations of investment through (a) both NMTC and LIHTC, (b) NMTC alone, (c) LIHTC alone, and (d) neither program. Findings revealed that the addition of NMTC had a positive impact on socioeconomic trajectories, while adding LIHTC-subsidized housing into a census tract could have a positive, negligible, or negative impact, depending on the comparison condition. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a better understanding of why certain types of poor places may be more likely to benefit from these types of market-driven place-based initiatives than others, and introduces a more integrated and nuanced approach for evaluating programs that operate within shared geographic space to address different facets of neighborhood poverty.
Effects of Toxic Stimuli Combinations on Determination of Exposure Limits

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018) Kostoff, Ronald N.

This monograph addresses the effects of toxic stimuli combinations on determination of safe Exposure Limits. It shows these combinations 1) typically lower the threshold constituent exposure levels associated with damage compared to 2) tests of combination constituents run in isolation. The monograph concludes there is no reason to believe today that ANY of the Exposure Limits on potentially toxic stimuli that have been set by ANY of the regulatory agencies are fully protective against serious adverse health effects. While radiofrequency radiation (RFR) is used for illustrative purposes in a number of the examples presented, the conclusions are applicable to essentially all potential contributing factors to disease amenable to Exposure Limits. RFR combinations are the focal point in Appendix 2, where their potential role in contributing to the national/global opioid epidemic is also discussed.
Treatment Repurposing using Literature-Related Discovery

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018) Kostoff, Ronald N.

Treatment Repurposing is the application of an existing treatment to diseases or symptoms of interest other than the disease(s) or symptom(s) for which the treatment was developed (and used) initially. It includes, but goes well beyond, Drug Repurposing. The present monograph uses Literature-Related Discovery (LRD) to identify treatments that could be repurposed for diseases of interest. The LRD methodology for identifying candidate repurposable treatments is presented in detail, and illustrative examples are provided from a recent monograph on prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. The present monograph also contains an extensive Bibliography of the core Treatment Repurposing literature, as well as two novel taxonomies of this literature. One taxonomy uses text clustering to display the myriad categories (and their relationships) in this Treatment Repurposing literature, and the other taxonomy uses factor analysis to display the myriad categories/themes in the same literature.
OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) are too Permissive

( 2018) Kostoff, Ronald N.

The present monograph examines the differences (for selected toxic substances) between 1) the Federal legally enforceable occupational Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) set by OSHA and 2) low-level exposures reported in the biomedical literature associated with serious adverse effects. In these selected cases, the PELs are orders of magnitude higher than what the premier biomedical literature would suggest is protective. Our previous monograph on combinations of stressors (https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/59719) concluded that testing of single stressors (the main determinant of myriad types of Exposure Limits), rather than combinations of stressors, greatly under-estimates the toxicity of the stressors in real-world environments. When these 1) stressor combination conclusions are added to the 2) results from the present monograph, one can 3) seriously question whether present-day Exposure Limit regulations offer credible levels of occupational protection from any potentially toxic stressors.