Philanthropically Supported Research

The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.

Philanthropic contributions support our ability to take the long view, tackle tough and often-controversial topics, and share our findings in innovative and compelling ways. RAND's research findings and recommendations are based on data and evidence, and therefore do not necessarily reflect the policy preferences or interests of its clients, donors, or supporters.

Featured Research

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  Social Studies Teachers' Trust in Institutions and Groups: Civic Development in the Era of Truth Decay 2020

  Julia H. Kaufman, Laura S. Hamilton, Lynn Hu

  Teachers' trust in institutions can influence their ability to counter Truth Decay—the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life—in public school classrooms. This Data Note, one in a series, describes survey responses from social studies teachers about their trust in such institutions as the government and media and their willingness to accept recommendations or information from such groups as scholars and medical doctors.

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  Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Social Services for Vulnerable Populations in Los Angeles: Lessons Learned from Community Providers 2020

  Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Sarah B. Hunter, Alex R. Dopp, Margaret Chamberlin, Martin Y. Iguchi

  The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted social safety net programs on which both those at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness and those involved with the criminal justice system depend. The authors of this report conducted interviews with social services organizations in Los Angeles County to assess how service providers are responding to COVID-19 and to compile lessons learned from and innovative strategies for dealing with the pandemic.

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  Would Law Enforcement Leaders Support Defunding the Police? Probably — If Communities Ask Police to Solve Fewer Problems 2020

  Michael J. D. Vermeer, Dulani Woods, Brian A. Jackson

  Police have expressed frustration with being expected to handle complex social problems, such as homelessness and substance use, that could be solved using nonenforcement strategies. In this Perspective, the authors describe police perspectives on defunding the police — i.e., budgeting less money for police and more for other public safety strategies — and explain why revisiting law enforcement's role in society could have broad appeal.

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  Let's Improve Tanner High School: An Education Policy Game 2020

  Brian M. Stecher, V. Darleen Opfer, Celia J. Gomez, Paul Youngmin Yoo

  Describes an education policy game that would reveal the perspectives of different stakeholder groups on current education issues and offers some thoughts on game development and improvement.

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  An Assessment of State Voting Processes: Preparing for Elections During a Pandemic 2020

  Jennifer Kavanagh, Quentin E. Hodgson, C. Ben Gibson, Samantha Cherney

  State election laws on early voting, remote voting, and voter registration could have implications for the execution of an election under conditions brought on by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In this report, the authors summarize state election laws on early voting, remote voting, and voter registration, and they discuss the potential implications for the execution of the November 2020 general election.

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  Options for Ensuring Safe Elections: Preparing for Elections During a Pandemic 2020

  Quentin E. Hodgson, Jennifer Kavanagh, Anusree Garg, Edward W. Chan, Christine Sovak

  Several voting and registration options are available to states to ensure the safety of elections despite the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This report outlines these options, considering the factors that officials will have to examine in determining how to conduct the election safely; the advantages and challenges of each approach; and the levels of risk regarding safety, integrity, access, and logistics.

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  Database of State Voting Laws: Preparing for Elections During a Pandemic 2020

  Jennifer Kavanagh, C. Ben Gibson, Samantha Cherney

  State election laws on voter registration, remote voting, and early voting could have implications for the execution of an election under conditions brought on by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This tool supplements a companion report and provides state-by-state granular details, including references to relevant state laws, about each of these aspects of voting.

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  Social Studies Teachers' Perspectives on Key Civic Outcomes in 2010 and 2019: Civic Development in the Era of Truth Decay 2020

  Laura S. Hamilton, Julia H. Kaufman, Lynn Hu

  Teachers play a crucial role in supporting students' civic development, which is one way of countering Truth Decay—the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life. This Data Note, one in a series, describes changes in high school social studies teachers' perspectives regarding the importance of teaching various topics related to students' civic development and regarding the role of social studies instruction more generally.

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  Strengthening Privacy Protections in COVID-19 Mobile Phone–Enhanced Surveillance Programs 2020

  Benjamin Boudreaux, Matthew A. DeNardo, Sarah W. Denton, Ricardo Sanchez, Katie Feistel, Hardika Dayalani

  This report examines the privacy implications of the use of mobile phone surveillance programs for pandemics.

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  Data Privacy During Pandemics: A Scorecard Approach for Evaluating the Privacy Implications of COVID-19 Mobile Phone Surveillance Programs 2020

  Benjamin Boudreaux, Matthew A. DeNardo, Sarah W. Denton, Ricardo Sanchez, Katie Feistel, Hardika Dayalani

  As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have deployed mobile phone surveillance programs to augment public health interventions. However, these programs raise privacy concerns. The authors of this report examine whether two goals can be achieved concurrently: the use of mobile phones as public health surveillance tools to help manage COVID 19 and future crises, and the protection of privacy and civil liberties.

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  How Smart Cities Could Improve Open Data Portals to Empower Local Residents and Businesses: A Case Study of the City of Los Angeles and COVID-19 2020

  Jared Mondschein, Shannon Prier, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Edward Parker

  The disclosure of timely and accurate information can promote bottom-up problem-solving and adherence to coronavirus disease 2019 crisis-management policies. Open data portals could allow community members access to the most up-to-date information. In this Perspective, researchers use Los Angeles's open data portal to develop generalizable strategies that city leaders could adopt to improve the utility of their open data portals.

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  Which Parents Need the Most Support While K–12 Schools and Child Care Centers Are Physically Closed? 2020

  Julia H. Kaufman, Laura S. Hamilton, Melissa Kay Diliberti

  The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been challenging for parents as schools and child care centers closed or switched to distance learning. Researchers examine which parents need the most support. Parents with children in different age groups and those with more financial difficulty appear to need more support than those whose children are closer in age and who are not struggling financially.

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  Teachers' Civics Instructional Materials: Civic Development in the Era of Truth Decay 2020

  Julia H. Kaufman, Laura S. Hamilton, Lynn Hu

  Public schools that serve kindergarteners through 12th graders can play a key role in combating Truth Decay by supporting students' civic development and engagement. Teachers' instructional materials provide one window into civic education in schools. This Data Note unpacks ways in which social studies teachers across the United States reported using instructional materials in their classrooms to teach civics.

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  How Is COVID-19 Changing Americans' Online Shopping Habits? 2020

  Liisa Ecola, Hui Lu, Charlene Rohr

  Despite widespread stay-at-home orders as a response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, most Americans have not changed their online shopping habits. RAND researchers examine who was more likely to increase their online shopping habits and why. People in more-affluent households and those who are younger were more likely to increase their online shopping habits. Gender and urbanicity made very little difference.

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  Local Government Reform and the Socioeconomic Gap in Israel: Building Toward a New Future 2020

  Amir Levi, Tal Wolfson, Steven W. Popper, Shira Efron, Anamarie A. Whitaker, Jennifer J. Li

  This report describes key aspects of Israeli municipalities and explores (1) the adoption of a regional approach to address the fragmented nature of municipal governance, (2) the training and placement of personnel in managerial municipal positions, and (3) the improvement of education services—with a view toward strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of local government in Israel for municipalities to be more-active agents for change.

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  Costs of Responding to Crime: Police, Court, and Legal Services 2020

  Cheryl K. Montemayor, Priscillia Hunt

  How much taxpayer money is spent on police, courts, and legal services to respond to crime? RAND researchers provide estimated costs by crime type and by state in a new tool. The tool includes a map that allows users to visualize the differences in costs across the United States. Users can download parts of the data or the full data set in a variety of formats.

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  Media Use and Literacy in Schools: Civic Development in the Era of Truth Decay 2020

  Laura S. Hamilton, Julia H. Kaufman, Lynn Hu

  Public schools that serve kindergarteners through 12th graders can play a key role in combating Truth Decay by supporting students' civic development and engagement. This Data Note examines teachers' reports regarding how they and their schools promote media literacy and appropriate use of media by students. It also summarizes teachers' perceptions of challenges associated with media literacy and use.

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  2019 American Teacher Panel Civic Education Survey: Technical Documentation 2020

  Laura S. Hamilton, Julia H. Kaufman, Lynn Hu, David Grant, Claude Messan Setodji, Matt Strawn

  Public schools have the potential to exacerbate or counter Truth Decay (the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life) by supporting students' development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to civic education. Researchers administered a survey to public-school social studies teachers about their approaches to civic education. This report, one in a series of six, provides technical information about the survey.

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  The Role of the United States Postal Service in the Age of COVID-19 2020

  Michael S. Pollard, Lois M. Davis

  The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has claimed many victims and is threatening to claim another one—the United States Postal Service (USPS). This report examines how Americans view the USPS and explores its role as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected through the RAND American Life Panel as part of an ongoing analysis of the effects of COVID-19.

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  Health Care Resource Allocation Decisionmaking During a Pandemic 2020

  Lori Frank, Thomas W. Concannon, Karishma V. Patel

  To support health care resource allocation decisionmaking during the COVID-19 crisis, the authors created the Core Guidance Checklist from a discussion process with bioethicists, health system leaders, clinicians, patient advocates, and representatives of affected communities. It is intended for use by decisionmakers within health systems, as well as state-level policymakers, to improve resource allocation policy development and implementation.

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  The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Changing Nature of Work: Lose Your Job, Show Up to Work, or Telecommute? 2020

  Philip Armour, Katherine Grace Carman, Kathleen J. Mullen, Shanthi Nataraj

  Stay-at-home orders save lives, but the extent to which they threaten livelihoods depends on the nature of one's work. This report examines how much the ability to work from home has mitigated the economic effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The data were collected through the RAND American Life Panel as part of an ongoing analysis of the effects of COVID-19.

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  Air Dominance Through Machine Learning: A Preliminary Exploration of Artificial Intelligence–Assisted Mission Planning 2020

  Li Ang Zhang, Jia Xu, Dara Gold, Jeff Hagen, Ajay K. Kochhar, Andrew J. Lohn, Osonde A. Osoba

  U.S. air superiority is being challenged by competitors. The authors of this report demonstrate a prototype of a proof-of-concept artificial intelligence system to help develop and evaluate new concepts of operations for the air domain. The initial findings highlight both the potential of reinforcement learning to tackle complex, collaborative air mission planning problems, and some significant challenges facing this approach.

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  2020 American Life Panel Survey on Impacts of COVID-19: Technical Documentation 2020

  Katherine Grace Carman, Shanthi Nataraj

  This report describes a survey fielded through the RAND American Life Panel to assess the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on individuals and households across a variety of topics.

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  Pharmaceutical Innovation for Infectious Disease Management: From Troubleshooting to Sustainable Models of Engagement 2020

  Sonja Marjanovic, Carolina Feijao

  In this Perspective, the authors discuss the need for more sustainable and scalable ways of incentivising pharmaceutical industry innovation in response to infectious disease threats to public health. The authors discuss financial incentives and non-financial considerations, and relate the insights to the COVID-19 crisis and to the context of preventing other emerging infectious disease threats from becoming crises in the future.

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  Preserving Small Businesses: Small-Business Owners Speak About Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic 2020

  C. Richard Neu, Diana Gehlhaus, Howard J. Shatz

  With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causing economic dislocations worldwide, RAND researchers interviewed 21 small-business owners and found that the most common concerns focused on a need for assistance in covering fixed operating costs and on worker safety. Adjustments to existing policies were also discussed, such as clear rules for reopening businesses and coordinated reopening policies across neighboring jurisdictions.

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