Report
Estimating the Economic Costs of Social-Distancing Policies
Apr 21, 2020
Publications from Community Health and Environmental Policy
Featured Research
Browse Publications
-
Assessing Health and Human Services Needs to Support an Integrated Health in All Policies Plan for Prince George's County, Maryland 2021
With evolving demographics and a changing health system landscape, Prince George's County is considering its future policy approaches and resource allocations related to health and well-being. This report describes a health and human services needs assessment of the county. Recommendations are offered related to (1) creating a Health in All Policies system, (2) aligning investments, and (3) implementing new measurement and data systems.
-
The Effects of Project Labor Agreements on the Production of Affordable Housing: Evidence from Proposition HHH 2021
Proposition HHH is a $1.2 billion bond intended to produce 10,000 units of housing aimed at addressing chronic homelessness in Los Angeles. The author presents evidence that the project labor agreement attached to the initiative significantly affected project size and construction costs of HHH-funded developments. These findings may help inform future debate about how best to balance trade-offs between housing policy and labor regulations.
-
Arctic Shipping Guidance from the CMIP6 Ensemble on Operational and Infrastructural Timescales 2021
The expectation of a seasonally ice-free Arctic by mid-century has sparked interest in Arctic opportunities and risks. This paper presents a framework for obtaining more timely and salient information to guide decisions relevant to operational and infrastructural horizons.
-
Data-driven Decision Support Tools for Assessing the Vulnerability of Community Water Systems to Groundwater Contamination in Los Angeles County 2021
This research aims to develop an easy to deploy, data-driven method to identify community water systems that are vulnerable to drinking water quality degradation from groundwater contamination.
-
Vulnerability, Inequity, and COVID-19: A Portrait of the Pandemic in Allegheny County: Tracking Evolving Disparities in Testing, Cases, Hospitalizations, Deaths, and the Ability to Practice Physical Distancing 2021
To examine vulnerability to COVID-19 and the pandemic's impacts within a specific community, the RAND Corporation, the Black Equity Coalition, and Surgo Ventures partnered to consider disparities in Allegheny County in southwest Pennsylvania. Researchers created an interactive online tool to show how testing, cases, deaths, and the ability to practice physical distancing have been distributed across neighborhoods and populations.
-
Risk Technopolitics in Freetown Slums: Why Community-Based Disaster Management Is No Silver Bullet 2021
Chapter from "Critical Disaster Studies" (Penn Press, 2021) detailing a study of Sierra Leone and proposing that community-based disaster risk management actually distracts from larger social and political root causes of vulnerability.
-
COVID-19 Community Response: Emerging Themes Across Sentinel Communities 2021
Since the onset of COVID-19, RAND researchers contributed to four reports on the impact and response in nine communities (Finney Co., Harris Co., Milwaukee, Mobile, San Juan Co., Sanilac Co., Tacoma, Tampa, and White Plains) and four cross-community reports.
-
Incentivizing Solar: Catalyzing Solar Energy Technology Adoption to Address the Challenge of Climate Change 2021
The authors provide an overview of the U.S. solar energy market, the changes it has undergone, and the challenges that lie ahead as the broader energy system evolves. They identify federal incentives that are consistent with achieving deep decarbonization of the U.S. economy. They also explore the reliability and resiliency of solar power, its co-benefits for the jobs market, and its availability to disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.