Browsing by Subject "Equity"
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Item Open Access Analysis of Equity in Two Community-Based Public-Private Partnerships Focused on Green Stormwater Infrastructure(2023-04-28) Waheed, Arfa; Wimberley, KendallCommunity-based public private partnerships (CBP3s) are a novel approach in providing green stormwater infrastructure improvements and community co-benefits. The two long-term CBP3s in our study were located in Prince George’s County, Maryland and the City of Chester, Pennsylvania. We investigated policies, conducted interviews, and assessed stakeholders to better understand equity dimensions in the CBP3s and make recommendations for improvement. Our findings explore contexts around each case study, outcomes to date, data tracking, and how key themes related to equity and considerations around gentrification are described and incorporated. Major differences were identified in community buy-in and stakeholder involvement across our two cases. Recommendations of our study include better incorporating equity into CBP3s, more tracking of key metrics, and increased coordination between those involved in the partnerships.Item Open Access Carbon Considerations and Pricing in Global Asset Classes(2023-04-28) Tran, Ben; Nair, Nidhi; Schofield, Hannah; McCarthy, Sean; Verma, SnehalAngeleno Group (AG) is a venture capital and growth equity firm interested in pricing carbon costs into their asset class valuations. AG hopes to understand the financial impacts of carbon because companies with higher levels of carbon exposure are expected to be riskier, which should be reflected in higher returns. In this analysis of a portfolio of the S&P 500 from 2013 to 2022, performance is evaluated by considering how a hypothetical carbon cost based on the constituents’ absolute emissions and carbon intensity changes the portfolio’s volatility, returns, and Sharpe ratio. The carbon impacts are analyzed from the perspective of AG and institutions such as endowments and foundations.Item Open Access Enrollment Growth and Equity of Access: A Critical Analysis of the University of North Carolina's Strategic Plan(2019-03-25) Levitt, JessicaThe University of North Carolina System’s strategic plan contains initiatives to increase access for low-income and rural students, improve student outcomes, and close achievement gaps. A complete assessment of UNC’s strategic plan will consider increased enrollment against the demand of the state’s economy, the cost of education, and institutional resources. Enrollment growth carries the risks of lowering academic standard or oversaturating North Carolina’s economy with college-educated workers. However, the low educational attainment of the state’s underserved populations supports expanding access. A more detailed investigation of demographics at each of the campuses is necessary to understand the scope of underrepresentation within the system. The resulting calculations show that in addition to underrepresentation, there is also unequal distribution of minority, low-income, and rural students across UNC institutions. While the system has identified a number of programs and methods for achieving its priorities, it is also worth examining other models that may have application in North Carolina. In its current form, UNC’s strategic plan is insufficient to drive state-wide improvements. The aims produce only minimal gains, overlook important gaps, and lack the coordination between campuses necessary to best utilize system resources. There is unmet need and significant opportunity for innovation in North Carolina’s public institutions, but more ambitious goals will have to be implemented to result in any meaningful impact.Item Open Access Equity in access to healthcare in Brunei Darussalam: Results from the Brunei Darussalam Health System Survey (HSS)(2014) Tant, Elizabeth MichelleBackground: Universal healthcare has been promoted by organizations including the World Health Organization and United Nations as a means of ensuring healthcare access for vulnerable populations. Despite momentum towards universal healthcare, especially among Southeast Asian nations, little research has been conducted to understand healthcare equity in nations that have already implemented universal healthcare. This paper assesses equity in healthcare access in Brunei Darussalam using results from the Brunei Darussalam Health System Survey (HSS).
Methods: Data were gathered using a nationally-representative survey of 1,197 households across four districts in Brunei Darussalam. The Health System Survey aimed to measure individual's expectations and utilization of the Brunei national healthcare system. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression to identify respondent- and household-level characteristics that affect healthcare utilization and expenditures.
Results: HSS data suggest that healthcare utilization in Brunei varies by ethnicity, district of residence, health status, and income. When compared to other ethnic groups, Chinese households were significantly less likely to utilize public healthcare and significantly more likely to utilize private healthcare services. Indigenous groups also demonstrated significantly lower rates of private healthcare utilization compared to other ethnicities. Temburong district had the lowest rates of both private and public healthcare utilization and was associated with a 2.67 decreased likelihood of using public healthcare in the past six months. When stratifying for health status, data indicate that healthcare utilization in Brunei is proportional to healthcare need, with 93 percent of respondents in poor health reporting using government hospitals 12 or more times in the past six months compared to 76 percent of respondents in excellent health reporting using healthcare only once in the past six months. Income was also found to be positively associated with increased healthcare expenditures and private healthcare use.
Conclusion: This study highlights an example of a universal healthcare system in Southeast Asia and indicates that a well-funded universal healthcare system can reduce significant utilization disparities. Substantial financial resources do not, however, guarantee equity among rural and minority populations and universal healthcare efforts should incorporate measures to understand and address barriers to healthcare among these groups.
Item Open Access Equity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction(2021-09-30) Campbell, Lisa; Horan, Rebecca; Fail, RobinThe purpose of this report is to inform the EDF-Bezos Earth Fund Blue Carbon Pathways Working Group in its exploration of ‘blue carbon’ as a natural climate solution (NCS) in offshore ocean ecosystems. The report addresses one of the challenges in pursuing this work: i.e. how to understand, conceptualize, and pursue equity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). The work is timely given increased recognition of the intersections of biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation; broader societal interest in equity, including within conservation organizations; and renewed interests in ABNJ for their conservation and development potential. The report has four substantive sections, reviewing definitions of and frameworks for equity and the related term justice, followed by equity in biodiversity conservation, oceans governance in ABNJ, and NCS carbon sequestration projects.Item Open Access Executive Compensation and Firm Leverage(2013) Albert, Michael JosephThis dissertation explores the role of executive compensation in determining the capital structure decisions of a firm. CEOs experience a large personal cost of default that interacts through the risk adjusted probability of default with their compensation contract. Since default happens in a particularly costly state of the world for a CEO whose compensation contract consists primarily of pay for performance elements, i.e. a CEO who has a large personal equity stake in the firm, a large pay performance sensitivity is negatively and significantly associated with firm leverage choice. I document this effect in detail for the first time, and I show that it is both statistically robust and significant in magnitude, approximately 1\% of firm value. I show that this effect is driven by the stock holdings of the CEO, not the option holdings. I provide a simple principal agent model that explains the observed negative relationship and makes additional predictions on the relationship of other firm characteristics to pay performance sensitivity and leverage. I then test and confirm these predictions empirically using a standard OLS framework and an instrumental variable approach to control for endogeneity in the compensation contract. I also look at leverage adjustment speeds and show that CEOs with higher pay performance sensitivity adjust leverage upwards towards target values more slowly and downwards more quickly than their peers, and I interpret this as direct evidence that CEOs are actively managing personal risk through firm leverage choice.
Item Open Access Global Equity Challenges in COVID-19 Vaccine Purchasing(2021-04-21) Raj, AneeshaA rush to preemptively secure COVID-19 vaccines resulted in high income countries hoarding an excess supply while low- and middle-income countries are prevented from equitable access. Previous work on equity in vaccine purchasing has compared cases per million of COVID-19 to vaccination coverage but does not reflect urgent pressures placed on healthcare systems. This analysis investigates vaccination coverage against three measures of COVID-19 burden: deaths per 100,000 population, general hospital capacity reached, and ICU capacity reached, in order to identify the countries overburdened and underrepresented in vaccine purchasing. Publicly available data from the Duke Launch & Scale Speedometer, IHME COVID-19 projections, and Johns Hopkins COVID-19 mortality reports are used for this analysis. While non-high-income countries comprised 64% of this dataset, they represented 93% of countries in ICU crisis, 87% in general hospital capacity crisis, and 85% in a mortality crisis. This data provides evidence for the creation of a priority list for equitable global allocation of vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. High income countries can be incentivized to redistribute their excess vaccine supplies by reframing measures of pandemic progress away from nationalistic targets.Item Open Access Human Dimensions of Blue Carbon - Resource Portal(2023-04-28) Lo Presti, Marta; Liyanagamage, Sandunie; Pertuz Molina, María CeciliaBlue carbon is defined as the carbon stored in ocean ecosystems, and there is increased interest (among governments, non-government organizations, businesses, and philanthropies) in preserving, restoring, or enhancing blue carbon ecosystems. Categorized as a natural climate solution (NCS), blue carbon interventions are among the tools countries can mobilize to combat climate change. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has formed an EDF-Bezos Earth Fund Blue Carbon Pathways Working Group to explore which blue carbon solutions would serve as high-quality carbon credits in three broad ecosystems: near shore (e.g., mangrove, seagrass, salt marsh), macroalgae, and off-shore (e.g., mesopelagic, and pelagic fish, great whales, the seabed). The criteria presented in the “Carbon Credit Guidance for Buyers,” a joint study by EDF, WWF, and Oeko-Institut, can be used to assess whether a carbon credit is of high-quality (World Wildlife Fund (WWF) et al., 2020). EDF wanted a better understanding of the existing knowledge around the socioeconomic aspects of implementing blue carbon interventions that could contribute significantly towards meeting country-specific decarbonization goals. Therefore, during the summer of 2022, our team conducted an extensive review of the social, economic, institutional, and governance aspects of blue carbon interventions. This research identified a gap in the multiple blue carbon resources and tools available to the public. Though there are multiple resources that discuss different aspects of blue carbon ecosystems (e.g., methodologies to calculate carbon sequestration), we found limited information about the human dimensions of blue carbon interventions. As blue carbon ecosystems are explored for their carbon sequestration potential and source of high-quality carbon credits by multiple stakeholders, it is vital that the human dimensions of blue carbon and blue carbon intervention are considered because of equity concerns and the project’s impacts on livelihoods. Therefore, our master’s Project focuses on developing a database, ‘Human Dimensions of Blue Carbon – Resource Portal’, to identify key findings on social, economic, management, finance, equity, and community participation aspects associated with blue carbon initiatives. We collected and analyzed 60 resources developed in the 2011-2023 timeframe. We focus on the nearshore, macroalgal, and offshore blue carbon ecosystems to align with EDF’s ecosystems of interest. These resources are in various forms, including reports, news articles, websites, case studies, and guidelines. We focus specifically on the gray literature, produced, or commissioned by the various government, non-government and private sector actors working on blue carbon, with goals similar to EDF: to identify the conditions under which blue carbon initiatives are likely to succeed, ideally delivering co-benefits for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and people. The database serves as a structure for our overall analysis and contains general bibliographic information for each resource (e.g., reference type, author type, year published, partners list) followed by an indication of which, if any, of the human dimensions are addressed. The database can thus serve as a resource for EDF and others, directing them to specific resources that address particular topics (e.g., users interested in learning more about equity in blue carbon can identify resources that include it). It also serves as the base of an analysis of the current state of human dimensions coverage in the gray literature presented in this report. Our findings suggest that a majority of blue carbon projects are not taking human dimensions into consideration. This database and our analysis would help project developers and carbon credit buyers understand the social context associated with implementing a blue carbon project. This database should also provide insights into understanding the gaps in the knowledge on socioeconomic and equity views. Based on our 60-resource sample, it is clear that the different categories of equity are not deeply explored within the blue carbon space. Our database should be used by project developers evaluating a blue carbon initiative as a tool to identify gaps in human dimensions. We expect to provide this database to EDF to be housed within their website and shared with the broader blue carbon community. Our analysis is based on 60 resources, but further resources can be added to support more comprehensive analyses. Although our analysis may answer some important questions and provide insights into blue carbon interventions, we want to highlight the importance and need for continuous updates to the database to keep track of the most recent findings in that space.Item Open Access Incorporating Environmental Equity into NC DEQ’s Regulatory Impact Analysis(2022-04-22) Ahmed, Iqra; DeAngeli, EmmaIncorporating Environmental Equity into NC DEQ’s Regulatory Impact Analysis is a project in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (NC DEQ) Division of Water Resources (DWR) Planning Section. The goal is to provide DWR a standard operating procedure to formalize and operationalize environmental justice and equity concerns into their rulemaking process, which entails creating regulations and rules to carry out the laws and statutes outlined by the legislature. The project’s central objective is to ensure that DWR provides stewardship for all North Carolinians by "intentionally and systematically integrat[ing] socioeconomic, race and ethnicity considerations into the regulatory impact analysis (RIA) process” (NC DEQ Division of Water Resources). Regulatory Impact Analyses are used to “identify, quantify, monetize, and communicate the anticipated effects of the proposed rule” by divisions within NC DEQ and given to the Environmental Management Commission as a way to understand proposed rules before making their decision (NC DEQ Division of Water Resources). With the rising prioritization of environmental justice (EJ) in federal and state landscapes, this project comes at a relevant time. While there seems to be broad interest for equity, governmental agencies and departments are not always given clear guidelines about how to move forward with practices to consider and integrate environmental justice. We hope that this project could have implications for other state environmental agencies and the NC DEQ as a whole. This project explores two target areas for the DWR’s considerations to integrate and address equity: 1) incorporating equity considerations into the RIA, and 2) furthering DWR’s knowledge of how to better incorporate community input and engagement into RIA development and the general rulemaking process. We used the following guiding questions to assist in our research as well as the development of the project deliverables: How can equity considerations be incorporated into NC DEQ’s policy development and rulemaking processes? Are there identifiable gaps in DWR’s development of regulatory impact analysis that could lead to inequities or overlooked communities? How can NC DEQ’s rulemaking process better achieve procedural equity and include community engagement that builds trust and meaningfully addresses concerns? We focused our research on four categories to inform our methodologies: 1) what other state environmental agencies and municipalities are currently doing to incorporate equity; 2) what the federal government is currently doing and has historically done to incorporate equity and justice into their rulemaking processes; 3) the current economic and academic literature around how equity can be incorporated into RIAs and cost-benefit analyses; and 4) the affected communities and whether the RIAs adequately reflect their needs. This literature review informed the research questions posed in the remainder of the project, additional deliverables, and the basis for interviews that we conducted. As a result, the methods we utilized included an analysis of existing methods and frameworks to integrate equity into rulemaking procedures; a comparison of the integration of equity in other state environmental departments; interviews with various stakeholders involved in rulemaking; and the development of supplementary deliverables for the client’s use (including a literature review examining how to incorporate equity into rulemaking; a comparison document examining other state environmental agencies; an environmental justice educational primer; a policy matrix; and, a standard operating procedure containing our final recommendations). There were several main findings from our research, analysis, and interviews: equity considerations can be tied into the cost-benefit analysis portion of the regulatory impact analysis and outside the cost-benefit analysis, though both have advantages and disadvantages. One key finding is the importance of improving procedural equity in order to understand regulated communities and the cumulative effects from regulations that they may face before attempting to promulgate new rules. Additionally, community engagement can be improved through adjustments to the public comment process and the creation of documents, content and websites for public audiences. As such, we’ve recommended tweaks to current Standard Operating Procedures steps in the RIA development process in addition to the inclusion of three new steps: 1) Understanding the foundations of justice and equity; 2) Initiation of public comment earlier on in the RIA process; 3) Development of an RIA for public consumption. This master’s project holds an immense amount of potential as any change that our clients at the Division of Water Resources are able to successfully implement in their Division can mean larger structural change within NC DEQ. A lot of the challenges and obstacles we discovered through our research, interviews, and analysis point to inequity being caused by bureaucratic methodology or historic structures. A fair and just regulatory NC DEQ is one that serves ALL North Carolinians, as stated in the agency’s mission. In order to accomplish this, the agency’s procedures must be examined in order to understand where the rulemaking is unjust and to gain insight as to how to further procedural and distributive equity in a way that creates a just process and fair treatment for all residents. This project focuses on the first step of the rulemaking process: the analysis of impacts of proposed rules, an integral starting point for authentic integration of equity considerations.Item Open Access IPO Timing Determinants(2011-04-18) Blum, RachelDespite the extensive amount of IPO literature, many unknowns still exists about the inner workings of the IPO process. This paper seeks to extend upon the literature to first confirm whether the IPO market is an appropriate economic indicator. We enhance the approach taken by previous studies with the addition of excess reserves as a macroeconomic proxy to capture trends unique to the most recent recession. Our findings provide support for capital demand, investor sentiment and stock market condition as determinants of IPO fluctuations. The results also suggest that the uncertainty surrounding the latest financial crisis has caused the average amount of IPO proceeds to decrease. Secondly, the paper employs cross sectional data to examine the transition from private to public company at the firm specific level. The size of an offering seems to be dependent upon macroeconomic conditions as well as firm specific characteristics. However, we were unable to find statistically significant differences between firms who go public during a recession and those who wait for markets to improve.Item Open Access Quantifying Racial Disparities in Water Affordability(2021-04-30) Sayed, Sara; Smith, HannahWater services are essential‚ for all populations, yet the affordability of water has emerged as a major challenge faced by community water systems. While water costs rise for an increasing number of public water utility customers, there is no mandate to ensure equitable affordability, only guidelines by the EPA. Under EPA guidance, the metric for water affordability was previously based on water costs as a percentage of median household income for the entire area served by a water system. Recently developed metrics quantify the water affordability burden with greater attention to lower income households. Specifically, the Household Burden Index‚ measures the cost of water services as a percentage of low-income households’ annual income. In addition to examining water affordability, it is also essential to assess the presence of inequalities between racial and ethnic groups. As such, this study examines racial and ethnic disparities in the affordability of water services in North Carolina. To determine the racial and ethnic composition of a water utility, this study implements a novel method of fitting block group level US Census data within water utility boundaries established with newly digitized service boundary maps. The study concludes there is a modest but significant correlation between low affordability of water services and higher proportion of black and Hispanic residents in a block group. Community water systems should apply our findings to affordability planning in their service areas.Item Open Access Radical Decarbonization: A Guidebook for Centering Equity and Climate Justice in the Built Environment(2023-04-27) Sarveswaran, SunithaUrban centers are the intersection between climate and humanity. Home to an ever-growing portion of the world’s population, cities are at the forefront of climate change, contributing about a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Urban populations face poor air quality, increased and prolonged heat waves, and infrastructural threats from rising sea levels and flooding from extreme storms. However, these impacts are not often felt equally among urban populations; inequities are embedded into the very design and structure of our built environments. While discourse often centers solutions for climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, solutions addressing inequities in the built environment and how they are fundamental to climate solutions remain relatively unexplored. This research examines New York City as an example of an urban environment with strong policies for climate mitigation through a critical lens, analyzing the climate justice potential for the city’s goals. It aims to support practitioners in NYC’s built environment to center climate justice principles in their work, using decarbonization as an opportunity to address the embedded barriers to equity in the built environment. It incorporates qualitative data analysis through semi-structured interviews to identify the key practitioners in this work and determine the resources they require to center climate justice in decarbonization work. The result of this study is a guidebook to aid in this effort.Item Open Access The Effects of Redlining on Residential Energy Efficiency and Resilience in Extreme Temperature Events(2024-04-26) Clapper, HaleyResidential energy efficiency is a component of individual and community resilience during extreme temperature events, especially extreme heat. Historic and lower-quality homes are often less energy efficient, requiring more time to heat up during cold events or cool down during heat events due to gaps in building envelopes. In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), a U.S. government-sponsored organization tasked with refinancing home mortgages, developed residential security maps of over 200 U.S. cities to appraise neighborhoods based on the perceived lending risk associated with demographics, a practice known as “redlining.” Over several decades, redlined neighborhoods predominantly populated by low-income and non-white residents received less investment than non-redlined neighborhoods predominantly populated by wealthier white residents. This study explores how historical redlining has left a legacy of disinvestment in housing, which may contribute to inequities in residential energy efficiency compared to non-redlined neighborhoods. Using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s ResStock tool, we modeled indoor temperature change in various building types over time under coincident extreme temperature and power outage scenarios. Additionally, we modeled energy efficiency upgrades to identify opportunities for enhancing building envelopes. We then examined performance differences for specific building types that are notably more or less prevalent in redlined and non-redlined neighborhoods in Durham, North Carolina. We identified several building types that were more prevalent in redlined areas and performed less efficiently on average compared to home types that were more prevalent in non-redlined areas. Lastly, we found that upgrades can enhance energy efficiency in homes, but further study is needed to elucidate potential differences in upgrade benefits between homes that are more prevalent in redlined areas compared to those more prevalent in non-redlined areas. Layered with other consequences of neighborhood disinvestment, such as urban heat island effects, these inequities can threaten human health, energy affordability, and overall resilience during extreme temperature events. Overall, this analysis provides insight into potential disparities underlying residential energy efficiency associated with redlining and spatial distributions of building characteristics, which could potentially inform policies and retrofit investments to build more equitable resilience in the face of future extreme temperature events.Item Open Access The Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Spinal Research - Asking Different Questions.(The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society, 2024-07) Nwachuku, Ikenna; Taylor, Erica; Danisa, OlumideIn recent years, the field of spine surgery has seen significant advancements in surgical techniques alongside a growing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This review explores the significant impact of DEI on spine surgery, recognizing its potential to drive innovation, improve patient outcomes, and address healthcare disparities. Shifting paradigms in research through diverse perspectives is crucial, as they broaden the scope of inquiry and challenge existing standards. Efforts to promote diversity in medicine, including targeted outreach and mentorship initiatives, are essential in cultivating a more inclusive workforce. Despite progress, ongoing challenges such as unconscious biases and systemic barriers persist, underscoring the need for continued commitment to DEI principles. Embracing diverse perspectives and asking unconventional questions pave the way for a comprehensive understanding of spinal health and equitable healthcare delivery.Item Open Access Yes, “All Students Can Be Taught How to be Smart”: How Anti-Bias Teacher Preparation Paired with Scaffolding of Rigorous Curriculum Can Eradicate the Achievement Gap(2019-04-10) Phillips, Erica RobersonLauren Resnick, an educational psychologist, claims, “all students can learn to be ‘smart’" through a process called educational nurturing. In this paper, I explore the central question: Is it feasible that policies can be designed and introduced that will eradicate the achievement gap? I identify racism as the root cause of the systemic problems in the United States, and name the achievement gap as the most inequitable outcome in the education system. Because the achievement gap is racial between white students and Students of Color, countertheories of cognitive inferiority are debunked. Next I explore previous literature on what has worked in past efforts to close the achievement gap. The research shows that anti-bias training that raises educators’ expectations of Students of Color, followed by detracking homogeneous (racial) grouping are both effective methods to close the achievement gap, but they cannot be sustainably successful alone. A third support structure needs to be in place to tie the strategies together: AVID, a program that complements detracking, aiding students as they transition from less challenging to more challenging classes. AVID is a program that emphasizes equity, and is beneficial to use while detracking, because while students are tackling rigorous course work, AVID teaches academic skills for students to learn how to “be smart,” as Resnick mentioned. I analyzed the three different programming site options for AVID and uncovered that the schoolwide and district-wide AVID implementations are the most effective, with transformative results in closing the achievement gap in both types. My conclusion is that the achievement gap can close with the dismantling of institutionalized racist thinking which must happen through anti-bias training for people within the system and for those who will enter it in the future. This training eliminates stereotype threat and raises teachers’ expectations for Students of Color. After anti-bias training has shifted the culture of the school, the school will be prepared to implement a system of detracking with a structure in place, like AVID, to teach academic soft skills. Therefore, my central question is confirmed, and the title of the paper is explained: “Yes, All Students Can Be Taught How to be Smart”: How Anti-Bias Teacher Preparation Paired with Scaffolding of Rigorous Curriculum Can Eradicate the Achievement Gap.” For reform efforts to persist when the “groundwater” is still contaminated, there are logical steps to follow in order to overwhelm and shake the system. 1. Analyze, influence, write, and change policy 2. Train the people within the system 3. Train the people about to enter the system The implications concluding the paper include a policy brief with suggestions to change K-12 policy in the US to include anti-bias training, detracking mandates, with AVID scaffolding. Furthermore, included are ways to impact the system present-day and in the future: a professional development plan for in-service teachers and a syllabus for pre-service teachers.