Jason M. Ward

Will L.A. Have an Office Apocalypse or Housing Boom? Tax Breaks Might Make the Difference

Facing a persistent housing crisis, Los Angeles is doubling down on converting unused commercial buildings into residential properties. But high interest rates make conversions more costly to finance. To mitigate this risk, L.A. might consider fiscal policy that would tip the scale more convincingly toward adaptive reuse.

Senate Bill 9's Underwhelming First Year Shouldn't Be a Surprise; It Was by Design

In 2021, the California state Legislature passed legislation allowing a streamlined pathway for homeowners to produce duplexes and split lots. But a year after the law took effect, the resulting housing production pipeline looks to be trivial. Why has the law that some were convinced would make the sky fall barely registered?

Measure ULA Reflects the Wrong Lessons from Proposition HHH

Los Angeles voters approved the so-called “mansion tax,” Measure ULA, which proponents suggested will raise funds for about 26,000 new units of affordable housing over the next decade. But a key labor provision casts doubt on that optimistic projection.

Santa Monica's 'Builder's Remedy' Experiment Holds Lessons for the Region

More than 124 municipalities across Southern California are struggling to meet their state housing allocations. When Santa Monica fell out of compliance with state housing law, this triggered what is known as the ”builder's remedy“ and created a revealing natural experiment.

How Can Commercial Buildings Become Needed Housing?

Adaptive reuse has tremendous promise for making a dent in Southern California's housing shortage, but realizing its full potential will require thoughtful and timely policymaking.

Camping Bans and Group Shelters Unlikely to Solve Homelessness Crisis

Should Los Angeles continue to direct most resources toward creating permanent housing with services? Or should it try to rapidly add more group shelters and shared tiny homes which would allow the city to enforce camping bans in certain areas? There are compelling arguments for both approaches.

California Needs 1.2 Million New Homes. How Will It Get There?

Voluntary incentives foster increased production of affordable housing, while mandates alone increase the cost of producing housing, dampening both market-rate and affordable housing production. It is well past time to acknowledge the evidence and focus on the adoption of voluntary programs that incentivize the rapid creation of dense, infill housing available at both affordable and market rents.

Teleworking During the COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights Educational Inequity

The ability to telework is associated with both reduced risk of COVID-19 infection and with significantly lower risk of job loss. There are large disparities in who is able to telework by race and ethnicity—but even larger ones by educational attainment.

The Lopsided Telework Revolution

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a transition to telework, protecting the jobs and the health of those whose work can be performed remotely. Creative policies in a post-pandemic world are needed to help more broadly distribute the benefits of increased remote work.

Industry Mix in L.A. Area Helps Explain Recent Record Unemployment Rates

The Los Angeles Combined Statistical Area reported more than 270,000 job cuts between March and early August. Considering which industries have cut jobs may provide a window into the area's unique labor market and help explain how the area currently has among the highest unemployment in the nation.

L.A. Has the Nation's Highest Unemployment. For Some Groups, It's Even Worse Than That.

Los Angeles and its neighboring counties are among the areas hardest hit by the COVID-19 recession. The shockingly high average unemployment rates only tell part of the story, however. For the poor and some racial and ethnic groups, the jobs picture is far worse.

Declining Commercial Real Estate Demand May Provide an Opportunity to Help Address California's Housing Crisis

The pandemic has led to an estimated 175,000 business closures this spring. And an estimated 40 percent of employed people are working from home full-time. This could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reallocate portions of the built environment toward the urgent demand for affordable housing.

To Preserve Jobs, America's Employers May Have to Get Creative

With about 38.6 million Americans filing for unemployment insurance benefits since the end of February, it is clear that COVID-19 has turned the world of work upside down. One way to reduce the economic damage may be job-sharing, an approach that focuses on maximizing jobs by reducing workers' hours rather than resorting to layoffs or furloughs.

From Lockdown to Locked Out: Coronavirus and the Looming Crisis in Rental Housing

Housing security is vital to individual and collective well-being. It's also a key component in the nation's economic performance. The looming coronavirus eviction crisis suggests the need to address the systemic problem of housing affordability and security now.

Report

A Revised Recruiting Resource Model for Achieving the Army Personnel Strategy: Accounting for Digital Advertising

Using an updated version of RAND’s Recruiting Resource Model, the authors analyze how observed and alternative mixes of advertising, recruiters, and bonuses affect the Army’s ability to achieve recruiting goals and the cost of doing so.

Report

An Evaluation of Crime-Free Housing Policies

The authors evaluate proponents' and critics' claims regarding the effects of crime-free housing policies (CFHPs), examine the implementation and enforcement of CFHPs, and assess how CFHPs affect the lived experiences of tenants in California.

Report

Recent Trends in Housing Cost Burden Among U.S. Military Veterans

This report provides estimates of the number of U.S. military veterans who experience financial burden from housing costs. It also offers context for how these estimates have changed over the course of the past 15 years.

Tool

Exploring the Feasibility of Building a Housing Stock Tool to Address Homelessness in Los Angeles

The authors describe the process of combining data from various agencies to develop a housing stock tool and discuss the context of their work from interviews conducted with relevant stakeholders.

Report

Supporting Housing Affordability in New York City Through Increased Housing Production: A Policy Brief

In this report, the authors address the issue of housing affordability in New York City through a specific focus on the role that broadly increasing the supply of housing can play in increasing affordability.

Report

Recent Trends Among the Unsheltered in Three Los Angeles Neighborhoods: An Annual Report from the Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey (LA LEADS) Project

This report presents findings from a study of unsheltered homelessness in three areas of Los Angeles: Hollywood, Skid Row, and Venice. The results indicate growth in the number of Angelenos experiencing unsheltered homelessness over 2021 and 2022.

Research Brief

Food Insecurity in the U.S. Military: Responses to Eight Topics Raised by Congress

In response to a congressional query, RAND researchers examined the extent of food insecurity among military service members, their participation in food assistance programs, and the advisability of a basic needs allowance.

Report

Food Insecurity Among Members of the Armed Forces and Their Dependents

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 directed the Secretary of Defense to report on food insecurity among service members and their dependents. RAND researchers examined this directive and recommended other topics for analysis.

Report

Recent Trends Among the Unsheltered in Three Los Angeles Neighborhoods: An Interim Report on the Los Angeles Longitudinal Enumeration and Demographic Survey (LA LEADS) Project

The researchers present interim results from a longitudinal study in which they are conducting counts of unsheltered individuals in Los Angeles and surveying them on their demographics, history of homelessness, and housing needs and preferences.

Report

Can Adaptive Reuse of Commercial Real Estate Address the Housing Crisis in Los Angeles?

The authors estimate the number of residential units that could be produced through the adaptive reuse of underutilized commercial properties in the Los Angeles area and provide evidence on the financial feasibility of creating these units.

Commentary

The Role of Education Benefits in Supporting Veterans as They Transition to Civilian Life: Veterans' Issues in Focus

There is evidence that military education benefits have a positive impact on veterans' transitions to civilian life and educational attainment, but few studies have looked at who uses them, their transition experiences, or their long-term outcomes.

Journal Article

CPS Nonresponse During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Explanations, Extent, and Effects

This paper examines survey nonresponse in the CPS at the start of the pandemic and estimates to what extent nonresponse led to an underestimate of the unemployment rate.

Report

Increasing Efficiency and Incentives for Performance in the Army's Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB) Program

This report documents research and analysis whose purpose was to help the Army determine how to best increase incentives for higher performance among enlisted members and to more efficiently achieve Army retention objectives.

Commentary

Transforming the Housing Choice Voucher System in California: A Path to Universal Housing?

In this Perspective, the authors review the impact and shortcomings of the housing choice voucher (HCV) program and outline three pathways to transform the HCV system in California that could significantly reduce homelessness across the state.

Report

The Effects of Project Labor Agreements on the Production of Affordable Housing: Evidence from Proposition HHH

Proposition HHH is a $1.2 billion bond fund for permanent supportive housing in Los Angeles. Evidence indicates that the inclusion of a project labor agreement affected both project size and construction costs of HHH-funded developments.

Journal Article

Associations Between Individual Demographic Characteristics And Involuntary Health Care Delays As A Result Of COVID-19

We provide the first evidence on associations between individual characteristics and the propensity to experience an involuntary care disruption resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal Article

The Effect of Large-scale Performance-Based Funding in Higher Education

We analyze the effect of large-scale, high-stakes performance funding programs in Ohio and Tennessee. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy along with a synthetic control approach, we find no evidence that these programs improve key academic outcomes.

Journal Article

Do Supply-Side Forces Explain Geographic Variation in Health Care Use?

We provide new evidence on causal factors behind geographic variation in health care utilization by examining changes in health care use for the near-elderly as they transition from being uninsured into Medicare.

Report

The Composition and Employment of Software Personnel in the U.S. Department of Defense: An Initial Analysis

The authors identify and characterize a subset of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD's) software workforce, the types of software developed within DoD, and the variety of methods DoD programs use when employing that workforce to develop software.

Report

Setting the Level and Annual Adjustment of Military Pay

In support of the Thirteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, this report provides analysis and recommendations on setting the level of military pay and the annual adjustment to military pay.

Journal Article

Education and Health Over the Life Cycle

We extend the Grossman (1972) model of the demand for health and use it to analyze the effect of education on health at different ages.

Journal Article

The Impact of Parental Involvement Laws on the Abortion Rate of Minors

We conduct a comprehensive analysis of the effect of parental involvement laws on the incidence of abortions to minors in the United States.