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ItemExplaining US Cybersecurity Policy Integration Through a National Regime Lens(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12-14) Farhat, KarimThis research uses the Policy Regime Framework to analyze which of two policy problems, US-China rivalry or IT/OT convergence, better explain degrees of coherence and integration in the US cybersecurity regime. It explains how regime actors address and negotiate these problems across the ICT and energy sectors. A process-tracing methodology was used to track outcomes and explanatory factors, linking causal mechanisms through an analysis of the Congressional record and in-depth stakeholder interviews. The results indicate how the idea of Chinese ICTs as a Trojan horse for the Chinese Community Party’s strategy was more effective than IT/OT convergence at mobilizing interests and advancing coherent cybersecurity policy. Trade and ICT policies were successfully integrated to achieve cybersecurity goals as regime interests bargained to 'weaponize' critical trade interdependencies through the US competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry. This research lends further validity to the Policy Regime Framework in researching cross-sector-spanning policy problems in the ICT space especially given recent calls for whole-of-government approaches to address emerging strategic technologies.
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ItemDiamond Model of Intrusion Analysis – Travelex Ransomware Attack(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12) Caras, Constantine J.Through the application of the Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis, this paper identifies and intricately examines all core features of the incident, highlighting the hacker’s modus operandi and defining causal relationships between every phase of the attack. Furthermore, a policy assessment is conducted to illustrate which societal layer could best address this variant of intrusion to support stronger proactive security defense in the future.
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ItemChallenges in the electrification of transportation: electric vehicle charging behavior, micromobility for urban transportation, and cost reductions in battery technologies(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-08-03) Apablaza, Camila ZrinkaThis dissertation work explores three questions related to some of the challenges present in the ongoing electrification of transportation. Specifically, I target issues related to electric vehicle charging at the workplace, micromobility as a growing urban transportation mode, and the cost reductions observed in lithium-ion batteries during the last decade. Each chapter relies on novel data and quantitative methods to contribute new understanding about the direction that public and private decision makers can follow to achieve a faster and more effective transition to electric mobility. The first chapter examines two deterrence mechanisms used at a large workplace charging program implemented in the U.S. Using high frequency data, we separately identify the effects of price and behavioral incentives that encourage workplace charging norms and resource sharing. Our findings provide new evidence that group norms can play an important role in driving behavioral compliance when setting EV access policies. We also find that workplace norms are complements to dynamic pricing policies. We discuss the implications of this data discovery for the effective management of common pool resources in the context of workplace charging and space-constrained environments. The second chapter aims at determining the impact of the City of Atlanta’s nighttime shared scooters and e-bikes ban on travel times in urban areas. We use high-resolution data from Uber Movement to analyze a policy experiment in the City of Atlanta in which shared e-scooter and e-bike mobility was banned daily during evening hours of 9:00pm-4:00am with near perfect compliance. We find that the policy had an unintended effect on commuter travel times. Although the ban addressed public safety concerns about scooter use, it also resulted in unintended economic damages related to the value of time spent in traffic. The third chapter evaluates the causes of cost decrease in lithium-ion batteries during the 2012-2020 period. The analysis includes modeling the cost components per kWh of lithium-ion battery packs used in automotive commercial applications in 2012, 2015, and 2020. Mechanisms of cost reductions including R&D, learning-by-doing, and economies of scale are used to explain the changes in cost. We find that most of the cost change can be attributed to R&D investments made both by the public and private sectors.
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ItemWhat Work? Quasi-Experiments in Cybersecurity Policy Interventions(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-07-30) Grindal, Karl T.Given the significance policymakers place on cybersecurity, how effective has a decade of policy interventions been at reducing social costs? This paper uses the limited regulations implemented by State and United States government agencies as quasi-experiments. This work measures regulatory efficacy by compiling mandatory state-level data breach reports to create novel breach incident data sets. A reduction in breach frequency serves as the kind of measurable outcome that regulators would intend cybersecurity policy interventions to address. To this end, I evaluate four cybersecurity regulations: the Massachusetts Data Security Law, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Section 5 enforcements against Wyndham Hotels, and the New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) cybersecurity regulations. I assessed each regulatory intervention as a quasi-experiment, employing segmented time-series regressions to evaluate the relative change in reported data breaches. These quasi-experiments controlled for policy implementation phases and reporting requirements. As these policies have overlapping aims (creating information security programs), we can infer whether this meta-regulatory approach, the encouragement of self-regulation by industry with corresponding civil penalties, has been an effective regulatory strategy. An effectively regulatory system would sufficiently motivate the targeted population to improve their cyber posture, such that there was a reduction in breach reporting. Ultimately, three of the cases discussed did not show an impact. However, analysis of the NY DFS regulation suggests a meaningful decrease of approximately 27 breaches in the following year. Comparing these regulations shows differences in scope, content, and penalties that may explain this disparate level of impact. Next, the efficacy of NY DFS regulations is placed in context with a discussion of potential savings and the duration of the effect. While demonstrating that cybersecurity regulations can meaningfully reduce breaches, this work suggests that this effect is neither generalizable across diverse contexts nor a satisfactory solution to the complex and pervasive issues associated with identity theft, fraud, and cybercrime. Overall, these findings suggest potential promise in this methodology for the policy evaluation of data security laws and regulations. Policymakers could improve these assessments by standardizing the reporting of mandatory breach notification data so that policy efficacy can be better measured. Because of its similarity to the NY DFS regulations, this finding may also provide preliminary empirical evidence for the Insurance Data Security Model Law propagated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Drawing on this methodology, this model legislation and other data security and privacy regulatory interventions should now be the subject for future research. The first step for policymakers seeking to design rules to protect citizen's privacy and security is knowing what works?
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ItemBEYOND CARBON MITIGATION: UNDERSTANDING THE CO-BENEFITS AND CO-COSTS OF GREENHOUSE GAS MITIGATION POLICIES IN BROADER CONTEXTS(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-01) Li, YufeiThe use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is firmly entrenched in U.S. policy-making and other regulatory processes. The validity of CBA relies on the systematic and comprehensive understanding of the co-benefits and co-costs associated with the public policy evaluated. However, we still don’t have a complete picture or a thorough understanding of the broader impacts of public policies on energy and the environment, especially carbon mitigation policies. Notably, the recent developments from the federal governments have attracted more attention to revisiting the concepts. To address the gaps in understanding the broader impacts of energy policies, this dissertation expands existing research on energy and environment policies by providing more empirical evidence and advanced systematic quantification frameworks. In general, this study highlights critical relationships in intricate modeling systems, thereby enabling insights that might otherwise be obfuscated or overlooked. By applying complex integrated models of energy policies, climate systems, and health evaluations, this dissertation enhances a better understanding of the complexity of features that influence policy markets in the energy-related economy. The three case studies cover the systematic and comprehensive quantifications of co-benefits and co-costs in various sectors and scopes (air quality and health, sectoral and macroeconomic activities). The first study applies integrated macroeconomics and air quality model to evaluate the impacts of relaxing the energy policies on the unintended environmental consequences, ozone standard attainments. The results demonstrate that a relaxation of the energy policies under the Trump administration would significantly increase the ozone levels in many counties, inducing considerable health costs. The impacts are more prominent when considering the synergistic effect of dramatic climate change. Overall, the study demonstrates the critical need to conduct assessments of energy policies in the context of the global climate system, to consider the impacts on local air quality and associated health benefits and costs. The second study focuses on a case of the sectoral economic activities – quantifying the impacts of electric vehicle mandates on grid operations under the current infrastructures and grid management practices of the electric power sector. This chapter explores the benefits and costs of EV-related policies on the electric power grid when the infrastructures are locked-in, and the technological innovations are limited in practice. The third study expands the scope to demonstrate the long-term societal macroeconomic impacts. This chapter targets the impacts of the EV sales mandates beyond the direct effects on the transportation and electric power sectors, including the indirect and induced effects on all sectors through macro-economic activities. Overall, the two studies indicate significant potentials for the grid and other sectors to adapt and reduce both the costs and carbon emissions. The results call for policymakers to move beyond sectoral narratives, adopt a holistic and systematic view, and design policies with great care to address the regional heterogeneity and equity concerns.
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ItemSYMPTOMS OF MATERNAL DEPRESSION: RESULTS FROM THE ALASKA PRAMS 2012-2014 AND ITS THREE-YEAR FOLLOW-UP SURVEY, CUBS 2015-1027, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY DESIGN(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-04-13) Cheung, KarenThis dissertation is an in-depth analysis of the prevalence and risk factors of maternal depression in Alaska. I study a cohort of women who gave birth in Alaska between 2012 and 2014, using statewide population-based survey data collected shortly after birth and three years after birth. Multiple regression analyses confirm previous studies’ findings that history of depression, stressful life events, and lack of social support are strong risk factors for maternal depression (SMD). In addition, after controlling for sociodemographic, perinatal health, and psychosocial variables, first-time mothers had greater odds of reporting SMD. Age was also a significant predictor of SMD. In contrast to the U-shaped relationship between age and maternal depression shown in other studies, I observe an inverted U-shaped curve: the odds of reporting SMD are lowest for women 19 and under, increases for those 20–34, and decreases slightly for women age 35 and older. Surprisingly, teenage moms 19 years and under had the lowest odds of reporting SMD. Asian/Pacific Islander women have significantly higher odds of reporting SMD, including persistent and possibly overlooked and untreated depression three years after giving birth. Findings from this study can be used to design policy and create systems change to improve the health and well-being of mothers and families. Any strategy addressing maternal depression would require a two-pronged screening approach: (1) screening to identify women at risk of developing depression, and (2) screening for maternal depression symptoms. Further, expanding Medicaid coverage for mothers from 60 days postpartum to at least 1 year postpartum, preferably 2 years, is one strategy that may help increase opportunities for healthcare providers to treat women with maternal depression.
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ItemThe Weight of Administrative Burden: The Distributive Consequences of Federal Disaster Assistance on Recovery after Hurricane Harvey(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-03-30) Malmin, NatashaDisasters have severe implications for life and property, often requiring large-scale collective action to facilitate recovery. One key determinant of recovery is access to resources that mitigate the losses and damages associated with disasters. Marginalized groups such as those with disabilities often face uneven recovery trajectories with administrative burden theory lends insight into the observed phenomena. My dissertation identifies the impacts of administrative burden on individuals and communities through differential federal recovery assistance allocation. I present four essays that evaluate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) direct-to-households grant program and the Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster home loan program. These are large federal programs directed at providing recovery assistance to individuals. I also utilize the Kaiser Family Foundation/Episcopal Health Foundation Harvey Anniversary Survey to assess perceptions of recovery by individuals who applied to FEMA and/or SBA for disaster assistance. I find that disparities in funding exist for specific demographic profiles, particularly persons with disabilities. Moreover, administrative burdens vary along the process of interacting with federal agencies. Such burdens result in the lower allocation of federal resources, self-reported recovery, and negative perceptions of fairness and equity. Lastly, communities that experience lower administrative burdens in acquiring federal recovery dollars see faster growth in home equity after the disaster, presenting implications for burden presence and future wealth generation. My findings expand administrative burden theory by pointing to nuanced forms of onerous experiences which impact citizen outcomes. These experiences include procedural, exclusion, and delivery burdens at strategic points within the administrative process. These distinct forms of administrative burdens influence allocation of federal assistance, recovery, wealth, and perceptions of the broader society.
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ItemCommunicable diseases are not communicable(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-10) Kostoff, Ronald N. ; Briggs, Michael B. ; Kanduc, Darja ; Porter, Alan L. ; Buchtel, Henry A.Communicable disease is a misnomer. The disease is not communicable; the microbe mainly associated with the disease is communicable. Whether the recipient of the microbe develops the disease depends on the health of the recipient’s immune system. Our model of COVID-19 development starts with real-life exposures to multiple toxic stressors degrading the immune system. This is followed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus exploiting the degraded immune system to trigger a chain of events ultimately leading to COVID-19. To prevent or treat infectious disease, the health of the immune system must be maintained or improved. One major component of maintaining and improving immune system health is removal of those factors that contribute to immune system degradation. A previous monograph identified many factors that contribute to immune system degradation (Contributing Factors (CFs)). It was hypothesized that many of these CFs to immune system degradation were identical to those that past studies have shown were CFs to chronic diseases. To test this hypothesis, a proof-of-principle demonstration was performed to identify the commonality between CFs to immune system degradation and CFs to Parkinson’s Disease (PD). A very streamlined approach was used, and approximately 500 CFs were found in common between the two diseases. Since COVID-19 (and other infectious diseases) results from immune system degradation in our model, this means COVID-19 and PD are enabled by many of the same toxic exposures and toxic behaviors. Thus, many of the measures required to strategically treat and prevent infectious diseases are similar to those required to strategically treat and prevent chronic diseases. This is a major paradigm shift for orthodox Western medicine, but is required to achieve major advances in global population health.
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ItemDriving green: Employment effects, policy adoption, and public perceptions of electric vehicles(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-06-03) Soni, AnmolEnergy for usage in the transportation sector is primarily derived from petroleum products and accounts for 14% (EPA 2017a) of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and 28% (EPA 2018b) of total emissions in the US. In the US. 60% of these emissions are from light-duty vehicles and passenger vehicles (EPA 2018a). A major push has been made towards alternative fuel vehicles such as electric vehicles (EVs) to mitigate the environmental impact of the transportation sector. This dissertation explores the implications of a growing EV sector by analyzing the employment effects, policy effectiveness, and public perception of EVs. EV adoption stands to affect the overall employment in the automotive sector and allied industries. A typical EV has fewer parts and requires less maintenance than a comparable internal combustion engine (ICE) model. This differential would inevitably change the traditional model of car sales by dealers who also rely on repairs and maintenance revenues. The dissertation uses input-output modeling to examine the implications of growing EVs on employment under different scenarios and cost assumptions. The study finds that while overall employment numbers might not change significantly, the composition of jobs shifts towards more battery production and electricity generation and distribution. The second study in the dissertation examines the effectiveness of different policy choices in increasing EV adoption across states. A supportive policy environment stands to increase EV adoption. In addition to federal-level policies in the US, states have introduced several policies to increase the adoption of EVs by individual consumers and fleets. The study applies econometric analysis to a panel dataset combining EV policies with sales to examine effectiveness and design choices across states. Finally, public perception of EVs must be understood to anticipate whether these vehicles are adopted at a large scale to make an impact on the traditional industry structure. Like any new technology, EV adoption hinges on the current and potential consumers' opinions and acceptance. The dissertation uses survey data and examines the external and internal determinants of public interest in EVs. The study concludes that factors such as political affiliation, environmental efforts of respondents affect their level of interest in EV technology.
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ItemFor the birds: Researching theory and practice in environmental conservation policy processes(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-04-16) Mistur, Evan MatthewThis dissertation explores how policy processes and decision-making structures influence environmental management in public agencies. It contributes to our understanding of how traditional bureaucratic systems of organization overlap and integrate with collaborative management structures in both theory and practice. First, it investigates the potential for Adaptive Management to take place within a bureaucratic system by examining a public agency’s response to a pair of unforeseen environmental shocks as two endangered species of bat were discovered. Using a mixed-methods analysis, it qualitatively examines the agency’s adaptive processes and extends the Adaptive Management model to describe mediating actors in the management process, then quantitatively tests the impact of this process using OLS regression, demonstrating that it significantly improves project outcomes at the agency. Next, it examines how stakeholder engagement impacts management capacity and organizational decision-making at a public agency focused on sea turtle conservation. It examines the extent to which engaging local stakeholders increases the agency’s ability to perform, the level of alignment between volunteer and professional managers’ motivations, and the impact their motivations have on the decision-making process using a qualitative comparative case-study analysis. This study demonstrates that stakeholder engagement provides integral support to agency initiatives at the functional level and is critical to managerial ability, but that it introduces goal misalignment within the agency and can bias managers’ decision-making through target fixation. Finally, this dissertation investigates policy diffusion through the spread of state birdwatching trail programs across the US. This study challenges incumbent policy diffusion theory explaining diffusion through regional proximity and introduces a time-variant, micro-level mechanism to describe the spread of policy adoption. It tests this mechanism using fixed effects regression and demonstrates that special-interest group movement can more accurately model policy diffusion at a micro level. This work contributes to our theoretical understanding of environmental policy and can be used by researchers investigating the process of administration of environmental services. Furthermore, it provides useful evidence that can inform practitioners tasked with designing or running environmental management programs in the field.