Exploring Women's Entrepreneurship and Poverty: Necessity versus Opportunity Motivations

What is the relationship between entrepreneurship, economic growth, and poverty? Women choose to become entrepreneurs or self-employed for different reasons in developed countries such as the United States and Sweden, with varying effects on poverty and economic growth. This paper explores the motivations behind entering the entrepreneurial space for women, differentiating between opportunity (taking actions to create a new venture following a perceived business opportunity despite other options to earn a living) and necessity (becoming involved in entrepreneurial activities due to a lack of other options to earn a living) motivations. It also highlights entrepreneurship's relationship with poverty and economic growth, while providing recommendations on how to encourage opportunity entrepreneurship and reduce poverty while discouraging necessity entrepreneurship.

An Analysis of Equity Among Policy Solutions for Traffic Congestion

The emergence of ride-hailing in the United States has brought forth new issues for its cities, particularly a large influx of traffic congestion. Today, several cities have introduced distinct ideas to solve congestion issues while debating their implications for equity. This paper examines the equity implications of traffic congestion in America'•s cities by comparing a flat tax rate on ride-hailing to various road pricing mechanisms using specific evaluative criteria, including transportation access and vertical equity. This paper begins with an overview of ride-hailing in the United States and the congestion problem it poses for cities, then reviews the literature around congestion and equity, describes and assesses the equity of a flat tax rate and road pricing, and ends with broad implications resourced from the literature for future policy.

Interview with Simon McNorton, Better Delivery Team Leader, UK Department for International Development, British Embassy Beirut

Simon McNorton lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where he works for the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). McNorton heads a team that ensures effective delivery of the UK's £90m bilateral aid package to Lebanon. He has held roles with DFID as a researcher and evaluation adviser based in East Africa and in the UK, following two years as a Senior Research Officer at the UK's Department for Work and Pensions. McNorton graduated from the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration in 2013 with a MasterÕs in Public Policy and a concentration in International Development and Program Evaluation. His capstone team delivered an evaluation framework for Teachers Without Borders global disaster response education. During his graduate study and earlier in his career, McNorton worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in DC as a Senior Policy Fellow, and spent two years in the Public Affairs Team at Stonewall, the UK's leading lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights charity. Immediately prior to his graduate study, McNorton spent a year working on social justice programs in Rajasthan, India. He completed his undergraduate study at the University of Salford in Manchester in the UK in 2006. In February 2020, Fania Jean interviewed McNorton for Policy Perspectives.

The Merit in Performance Pay: How Changing Teacher Compensation Can Increase the Supply of Quality Educators

There is no question that classrooms in US public schools do not function without an adult responsible for facilitating student learning. There is less agreement, however, regarding what constitutes quality instruction or what credentials an instructor should have in order to be considered a certified teacher. Low enrollment in teacher preparation programs combined with increasing teacher turnover rates have created a shortage of quality educators in districts across the country for high-need schools and subject areas. Educators, labor activists, and politicians have called for teacher compensation reform as a way to increase the teacher retention rate. This article summarizes research on the impact of individual and group incentive pay schemes on student achievement, reviews alternative financial incentives to retain exceptional educators, and evaluates policy proposals to improve teacher salaries from current and former 2020 presidential candidates.

Editors' Note

Letter from the Editors of Policy Perspectives Volume 27

Interview with Abby Walsh, Director of Council on Criminal Justice

Abby Walsh is the director of the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ). Before co-founding the Council on Criminal Justice, Walsh led state engagements for the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she spent more than five years partnering with policymakers to enact data-driven solutions that safely reduced prison populations, improved outcomes for youth in juvenile justice systems, and expanded treatment for substance use disorders. Earlier, she worked to modernize court practices and data collection in the federal judiciary. Walsh is a New Leaders Council Fellow ('17) and a graduate of American University's School of Public Affairs (BA '07) and the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University (MPA '12). In February 2020, Thomas Rachko interviewed Walsh for Policy Perspectives.

Going Green with Policy Incentives: Comparing the Use of Subsidies and Taxes to Reduce Transportation Emissions

This article addresses the need for the United States to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. In order to concisely evaluate the political discussion of promoting renewable energy use and discouraging reliance on fossil fuels, this article focuses on the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles as a means of illustrating the larger policy challenge of how to maximize policy effectiveness at reducing emissions while minimizing economic disruption. The article estimates the magnitude of electric and gas-powered vehicles purchases in response to either a subsidy or a tax and discusses the positive and negative outcomes of each policy approach. The article finds that while a tax on carbon emissions may be most effective in removing gas-powered vehicles from the road, it will disproportionately affect lower-income households. Implementing substantial subsidies for electric vehicles, funded through a smaller tax on carbon emissions, is suggested as a solution to reduce the regressive impacts of a standalone carbon tax.

Medicare for All, One Organ at a Time: How Disease Entitlement Can Work for Diabetes

While Richard Nixon may not spring to mind as a Medicare for All pioneer, his groundbreaking healthcare innovation that expanded Medicare entitlement for renal disease, regardless of a patient's age, demonstrates a viable path for expanding Medicare coverage today. This highly successful program provided dialysis or transplantation to over one million patients with kidney disease and became known as socialized medicine for an organ. In addition to extending patients' lives, the program proved that Medicare can be structured to cover people with specific diagnoses, not just those in distinct age groups. This paper argues that the United States could use the same model to expand Medicare coverage to other expensive diseases, particularly diabetes. Not only would this ease diabetics' financial burden, it would also reduce costs for private insurance companies, potentially allowing them to offer less expensive plans than are currently available. This paper demonstrates the need for such a program by examining the high cost of diabetes treatment and provides a cost estimate for such a program. The paper concludes that diabetes entitlement is a viable option for expanding Medicare and improving the US healthcare system.

An Analysis of the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment Benefit: Implications for the Healthcare of Children in Foster Care

The Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit mandates full coverage of healthcare for children enrolled in Medicaid. The EPSDT benefit provides the access, framework, resources, and financing for healthcare for children with complex healthcare needs. When fully implemented, the EPSDT benefit leads to improved health outcomes. This paper examines the EPSDT benefit as an essential healthcare resource for vulnerable children, notably children in foster care. The majority of children in foster care receive Medicaid healthcare coverage and have complex healthcare needs. According to the most recent research, many children in foster care are not receiving this mandated benefit. Improved implementation of the EPSDT benefit is key to improving health outcomes. This policy analysis reviews the EPSDT benefit, evidence for its effectiveness, issues challenging full implementation for children in foster care, examples of successful implementation, and provides recommendations for improved implementation. Specific recommendations include coordination of healthcare and child welfare services (e.g. with health services coordinators), increased accountability for implementers, and adequate numbers of qualified, trauma-informed providers.

Editorial Staff

Policy Perspectives Volume 27 editorial staff bios.