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Public Administration and International Affairs Department News, Media Commentary and Research

Honoring Ralph Ketcham

Members of the wider Maxwell School community — including many alumni, some of whom traveled from as far away as Japan — joined the Ketcham family in Hendricks Chapel on September 25, 2017, to pay tribute to the life and career of Ralph Ketcham. Ketcham passed away in April (see below).
September 20, 2017

Banks discusses new battlefields, old laws in Jerusalem Post

"It was clear from the circumstances that the framework we had been using in the West and in Israel was ineffective because the fighting was of a new kind," says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks.

September 19, 2017

Joseph Boskovski ’14 MPA helps governments make effective policy

Alumnus Joseph Boskovski co-founded Maxwell X Lab with Professor Len Lopoo, director of the Center for Policy Research, to help governments and non-profits make better policies by applying scientific standards for testing their proposed interventions. Through randomized controlled trials (RCTs), policymakers can discern the outcome of various "nudges" on actual human behavior rather than assuming how people might respond.
September 16, 2017

Shannon Monnat named Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion

“Shannon Monnat is committed to disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship that informs, benefits, and influences public policy and the public good,” says David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School. “She brings timely and important research, a public orientation and unbounded energy to the intellectual leadership of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion."

September 12, 2017

Burman article on corporate tax income published in National Tax Journal

Leonard E. Burman, Kimberly A. Clausing & Lydia Austin
August 31, 2017

Model for evaluating the broad economic costs and benefits of air pollution regulation

“This is a tremendously costly endeavor, and that’s why we haven’t done it already,” says Pete Wilcoxen, director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration, about revising the EPA's model for evaluating the broad economic costs and benefits of air pollution regulations.

August 30, 2017

Murrett talks US military options regarding North Korea in Politico

"It is very important to deal very carefully with North Korea," says Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism. "They are [a] less rational actor than other international players."

August 30, 2017

Banks discusses Mueller investigation on Bloomberg Radio

"The Mueller investigation from the beginning has been about potential collusion, and this would be additional evidence of potential collusion involving the campaign, in particular of General Flynn," says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks.

August 29, 2017

Burman discusses his tax policy proposal in Vox article

"Social Security is wildly popular," says Leonard Burman, professor of public administration and international affairs. "People support the regressive payroll tax because they like what it pays for and because it’s automatically withdrawn from their paychecks, unlike the reviled income tax that requires an obvious and painful annual reckoning."

August 24, 2017

Lewis discusses evolution of local government in PA Times

"The lesson we can take from nature is that evolution is the key to the future of local government. Evolution in nature and in government is risky—the outcome is uncertain. But the outcome of a refusal to evolve is certain: extinction in nature and irrelevance in government," writes Minch Lewis, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

August 23, 2017

Steinberg quoted in CNN article on public approval of Trump

"If you don't have the American people behind you and you get into these huge exercises of drawing red lines, where are people going to be if he gets them into a conflict?" asks University Professor James Steinberg.

August 15, 2017

Murrett weighs in on US tensions with North Korea in CNBC article

Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, was interviewed for the CNBC article, "US-South Korean war games provide trigger that could further inflame Pyongyang." 
August 10, 2017

Banks discusses the Russia probe on Bloomberg Law

"I think it's a very disturbing trend for the President to turn the relationship between the presidency and the justice department into an adversarial relationship based on political points of view. The justice department is charged with enforcing the law, it's that simple, and they shouldn't be influenced to do so in a certain way by the president or anyone else," says William C. Banks, director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

August 8, 2017

Burman shares his proposal for tax policy on TaxVox Blog

According to Leonard Burman, professor of public administration and international affairs, "enlightened policy should aim to make work pay and help workers adapt. Better education and training will help. But a permanent solution would create a mechanism to automatically translate economic growth into higher wages."

August 3, 2017

WP 206 Pregnancy Medicaid Expansions and Fertility

Lincoln H. Groves, Sarah Hamersma & Leonard M. Lopoo
The authors revisit the 1980s Medicaid expansions for pregnant women to estimate the heterogeneous impacts of public health insurance access on childbirth.
July 31, 2017

Banks talks about the latest on Sessions, Russia on Bloomberg Law

"The Justice Department could certainly apply pressure on Mueller's team to hasten the investigation, make it difficult to obtain the funds beyond certain periods to continue to investigate; more likely that those kinds of informal pressures would be applied rather than removal itself," said William Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs and director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

July 28, 2017

Banks discusses prospect of Kushner/Russia FISA taps with WIRED

“The Russian ambassador has probably been under surveillance since before you and I were born,” says William C. Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs.

July 25, 2017

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