Department of Public Administration and Policy (DPAP) faculty member focusing on the Public Administration and Management subject area conduct research on how governments at all levels can effectively deliver goods and services to diverse populations across policy areas. We explore public organizations, policies, and programs and their design, management, and effectiveness; the creation, implementation, and performance of interorganizational partnerships; how resources are distributed; citizen engagement in governance; how service delivery is influenced by federalism and political institutions; and how public organizations perform compared to private organizations. We investigate these topics both in the democratic context and in the context of other political systems.

Professor Nathan Favero has worked with multi-source datasets to develop projects that help to identify both causes and consequences of social inequities in the provision of public services. Examples of his work include (PhD student names are bolded):

• Miyeon Song, Minjung Kim, and Nathan Favero. Social Class, Ingroup–Outgroup Comparison, and Citizen Evaluations: Is User Satisfaction Linked to Outcome Disparities? American Review of Public Administration 50(2):205-218. 2020.
• Nathan Favero and Amanda Rutherford. Will the Tide Lift All Boats? Examining the Equity Effects of Performance Funding Policies in US Higher Education. Research in Higher Education 61(1):1-25. 2020
• Joohyung Park and Nathan Favero. Race, Region, and Representative Bureaucracy Revisited: Does Regional Bias Matter? Currently under review.
• Nathan Favero, Kari Dalane, and Aeric Koerner. Local Competition Over School Resources: Does It Matter What Neighboring Districts Spend? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, Washington, DC. October 2021.

Professor Jocelyn Johnston’s work combines primary data such as surveys and official interviews, with secondary sources such as government databases, to explore public service delivery through interorganizational and intersectoral arrangements, and how those arrangements shape government performance. Examples of her work, some co-authored with Professor Khaldoun AbouAssi, include (PhD student names bolded):

• Khaldoun AbouAssi, Ann O’M. Bowman, Jocelyn M. Johnston, Zachary Bauer, and Long Tran. Relations, resources, and costs: exploring cross-sectoral collaboration at the local level in a developing country. International Public Management Journal 24(5):646-672. 2021 
• Jocelyn M. Johnston and Stephen B. Holt. Examining the Influence of Representative Bureaucracy in Public and Private Prisons. Policy Studies Journal 49(2):516-561. 2021.
• Khaldoun AbouAssi, Zachary Bauer, and Jocelyn M. Johnston. Collaboration, Venus, and Mars: The Gender Factor in Intersectoral Relations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 29(1):18-31. 2019 

Professor Kenneth Meier combines large n quantitative analysis, experimental studies, and qualitative methods to address questions of equity in public administration and policy. His research topics include cross national studies of race and gender; the relationship between public administration and democracy; and decision-making and public perceptions of public, nonprofit and for-profit service delivery. Examples of his work include (PhD student names are bolded):

Kenneth J. Meier, Miyeon Song, Jourdan A. Davis, and Anna A. Amirkhanyan. Sector bias and the credibility of performance information: An experimental study of elder care provision. Public Administration Review 82(1): 69-82. 2022.

Dhillon, Anita and Kenneth J. Meier. Representative bureaucracy in challenging environments: Gender representation, education, and India. International Public Management Journal 25 (1): 43-64. 2022.

Kenneth J. Meier and Xiaoyang Xu. Critical thoughts about critical mass in representative bureaucracy: A theoretical exploration and empirical illustration. Governance (forthcoming 2022).