Award Year: 2022

Awardee: Theodore w. Johnson, MPA - University of nebraska at omaha

Title of Paper - Quieted Voices: A Phenomenological analysis of the experiences of Black/African-American collegiate aviation students

Link to Paper: n/A

Paper Abstract

The aviation industry lacks racial and gender diversity; it is White-male dominated with 94% of professional pilots identifying as White male and only 3.4% identifying as Black/African-American. When factoring in gender, less than 5% of airline pilots are female (Lutte, 2021). Research focalizing the participation rates and experience(s) of Blacks/African-Americans in aviation is scant. The lackluster diversity issue begs the question as to why Blacks/African-Americans are continually underrepresented in STEM fields. The purpose of this study was to understand the experience(s) of Black/African-American collegiate aviation students so higher education and aviation industry leaders could make informed policy decisions and rectify inhospitable work environments, respectively. A phenomenological approach was used to capture the phenomenon via semi-structured interviews of six participants. Eight themes emerged: Beneficence of Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) or Minority-Serving Organization (MSOs), Scholastic ‘Sink or Swim’, Early Exposure to Aviation, Social Isolation & Assimilation, Financial Need/Support, Socio-emotional Support, Institutional Cultural Competency/Sensitivity, First Generation(al) Student Pressure(s). The study discussed three major battles Black aviation students fight due to external and/or internal pressures, which significantly impact their collegiate experience and to a certain degree, retention. A student’s involvement within a RSO or MSO appeared to be a notable difference maker in one’s collegiate experience(s). This study also highlighted the importance of socio-emotional support for students, which can help reduce instances of social isolation and assimilation many of the participants described. The aim of the study was to provide organizational leadership with a new lens rooted in social and racial equity to examine their organizations to make a place for Black Americans (and other racial minorities) within their organizations through policy reformation or implementation while also providing space for them to be themselves in said spaces without having to sacrifice their unique identity, safety, or (job) security to do so. Pointed recommendations on how to accomplish such a feat were furnished to both Collegiate Aviation Administration and Aviation Industry leaders in the discussion section.

Keywords: collegiate aviation, higher education, minority, social isolation, support

Award Year: 2021

Awardee: Benjamin Seymour - Old Dominion University

Title of Paper - Assessing Capital Management Capacity: Development and Pilot Testing of a Conceptual Framework

Link to Paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X221092446

Paper Abstract

Management capacity, the government’s ability to “marshal, develop, direct, and control its …. capital to support the discharge of its policy directors” (Ingraham & Donahue 2000), is an important precursor for government performance. In this study examines management capacity in the context of capital management by developing a conceptual framework for assessing capital management capacity of state government agencies. This conceptual framework builds on the Government Performance Project framework, the Srithongrung, Yusuf, and Kriz (2019) normative framework of a systematic capital management and budgeting process; and the extant literature. Specifically considered are three components of the GPP assessment of management capacity: (a) capital planning, (b) project management, and (c) asset maintenance, and incorporate these components into the four categories of the normative framework: (1) long-term capital planning, (2) capital budgeting and financial management, (3) centralized execution and project management, and (4) infrastructure maintenance. In addition, two other elements of management capacity—IT infrastructure and HR management—are added to the framework under the aegis of “Management Infrastructure” to evaluate essential yet often hidden aspects of capacity.  This functions as a pilot test of the capital management capacity conceptual framework by developing evaluation criteria to elicit transportation specific information and applying these criteria to the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans). The framework provides practitioner and scholarly insight that is especially applicable in the current era of fiscal management and the stewardship of scarce resources.

Award Year: 2020

Awardee: Jiseul Kim - University of nebraska at omaha

Title of Paper - Don’t Pass Deferred Maintenance Costs to the Next Generation! The Effects of Politics on State Highway Maintenance Spending

Link to Paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1087724X211047247

Paper Abstract

Routine maintenance spending for public infrastructure is critical for reducing life-cycle costs, and improving asset preservation and quality. Yet, states focus more on building new roads and expansion than maintaining existing assets’ conditions. Deferred maintenance costs are transferred to the future taxpayers, and they will eventually pay the expensive price. So far, there is little academic endeavor to examine the determinants of state and local routine maintenance spending. This study uses a panel data analysis covering 47 states from 1995 to 2009 to examine the effects of politics on state highway routine maintenance spending. The study finds that political incentive and conflict are key factors delaying state highway routine maintenance spending. The re-election-minded governors and legislatures tend to allocate less funding to maintenance to satisfy the current taxpayers. The study further finds that politically-divided states spend less on highway maintenance due to higher transaction costs in the policy-making process.

Key words: deferred maintenance spending, state highway finance, public capital assets

Award Year: 2019

Awardee: Fengxiu Zhang - Arizona State University

Title of Paper - Evaluating Public Transit Performance under Extreme Weather: Does Organizational Adaptive Capacity Matter

Link to Paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030147972101450X

Paper Abstract

The study examines the impacts of extreme weather events on public organization performance. In response to the growing call for adaptive capacity development amid a worsening climate, it pays particular attention to the effects of organizational adaptive capacity. Three components of an organization's adaptive capacity are investigated: formal institutions, organizational slack and contracting out (inverse of capacity). We focus on organizations' technical efficiency as a key performance indicator. Using a sample of 108 bus transit system in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest from 2008 to 2017, the analysis applies the Battese and Coelli (1995) specification for stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) with panel data. A general model is estimated to incorporate the heterogeneity in both the level and efficiency of output. The results confirm the efficacy of organizational adaptive capacity to enhance efficiency amid extreme weather. Specifically, higher levels of organizational slack or lower levels of contracting out can boost technical efficiency under extreme weather. Formal institutions, while temporarily compromising technical efficiency, holds potential for salient efficiency gains in the long run. The conclusion ends with a discussion on the theoretical and practical implications of this study.

Keywords: Adaptive capacity; Climate adaptation; Extreme weather; Public organization performance; Stochastic frontier analysis; Technical efficiency

Award Year: 2014

Awardee: Zhenhua Chen - George mason university

Title of Paper - Multilevel Assessment of Public Transportation Infrastructure: A Spatial Econometric Computable General Equilibrium Approach

Link to Paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00168-015-0671-3

Paper Abstract

Impact assessment of transportation investment policy is a challenging task as assessment outcome is sensitive to various attributes such as methodology, time period, scale and location of analysis. This study is conducted to evaluate regional impact of public transportation infrastructure in the USA at multilevel geographic scales. The assessment is implemented using a spatial econometric computable general equilibrium approach which integrates spatial econometric techniques with computable general equilibrium models to control for spatial spillover effects. The results found that regional economic impacts of public transportation infrastructure vary substantially by mode and geographic scale. The US highway infrastructure tends to have consistent and dominant impacts on both the US national and regional economy across different geographic scales. The impact of public airport infrastructure tends to be much larger at the national level than state and metropolitan level, whereas the economic contribution of public transit including passenger rail infrastructure tends to be much stronger at the US northeast metro level than the national level of analysis.