Spotlight 2020-2021 features examples of our research that helped to improve people's lives during a turbulent year. It also highlights a selection of research initiatives on the horizon for 2021.
In this article, we argue that the main challenges policymakers confront in deploying 'smart cities' technologies are organizational rather than technological.
The political environment is changing in a way that goes beyond immediate security concerns. The prevalence of threats and violence as a feature of American politics will ripple throughout the political system. Our politics could be distorted by the vicious atmosphere for years.
The 10Plan would require individuals to pay a copayment for each encounter but no premiums up front. They'd have Medicare rates, and could pay cash or borrow from the government at a low interest rate to pay for services. How would health care spending and federal costs change under the plan?
In this report, the author examines whether and how the United States can increase its cooperation with Indonesia in order to manage China's rise as a strategic competitor to the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.
The history of politically charged violence in and against the United States can be read in the reports of its national commissions. The takeover of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 demands such an inquiry.
As President-elect Biden fills out his foreign policy team he might wish to reach out to a few foreign affairs professionals who sat out the Trump administration in order to fill positions in fields where some degree of bipartisanship remains a possibility. These areas might include relations with allies and with the two major U.S. competitors, Russia and China.
Brian Michael Jenkins, senior adviser to the RAND president, discusses the likelihood of violence that could occur following Inauguration Day in response to election results.
The Military Health System provides health and drug coverage to beneficiaries through TRICARE. This report describes the TRICARE pharmacy benefit and the trade-offs in TRICARE pharmacy policies between increasing access and controlling costs.
A national ongoing poll that is surveying people with lower and middle incomes with a focus on communities of color is bringing to light deep-rooted views on health, equity and race amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the uneven effects of a global pandemic on communities of color and those with lower incomes, many people do not recognize the fact that racism and health are connected.
The deadly mob assault on the U.S. Capitol Building was a predictable possibility. Democracy held, but security failed, spectacularly. We need to be better prepared for future acts of political violence.
The CARES Act broadcasted to everyone that Unemployment Insurance can do better by workers and employers. Congress can debate the hows of permanent reform, but its actions in 2020 proved the need.
The audacity of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol and the violence they perpetrated should have no place in the political process, although tragically, and all too often, violence finds its home in the United States.
Unemployment Insurance is the primary U.S. policy tool for sustaining workers during periods of high unemployment. But it has a history of being repeatedly neglected. Federal reform has been stalled for nearly 50 years.
On July 22, 2020, the RAND Corporation convened a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) web meeting to gather input on analyses that could be conducted to further enhance the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Contract Star Ratings program.
Here are the RAND research projects that resonated most in 2020, a year unlike any in living memory. Topics include remote learning, election disinformation, income inequality, and more.
Rainbow families can face challenges because of ongoing discrimination against LGBTIQ people. The first EU strategy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, nonbinary, intersex, and queer equality sets out actions and initiatives to ensure the safety and equal rights of LGBTIQ people in the EU.
RAND economist Kathryn Edwards discusses whether the exclusion of Black workers in the design of the unemployment insurance program was incidental or intentional.
Concern about potential COVID-19 vaccine side effects and their consequences may be contributing to Americans' reluctance to get vaccinated. Policymakers and the public should carefully consider what types and levels of compensation for any adverse effects of vaccination are truly fair and appropriate.
