Michael Mueller-Smith The use of legal financial obligations, colloquially referred to as financial sanctions, imposed on individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system is widespread and growing in the U.S. criminal justice system. These fees and fines could generate serious social and economic consequences, particularly among low-income populations who are unable to pay… Continue reading Effects of Financial Sanctions in the Criminal Justice System

This project pioneers a new protocol for self-collection of hair samples for large, population representative samples of individuals. Hair will be used to assess cortisol levels (a biomarker for psychological stress) among a large cohort of those experiencing the transition to adulthood. Panel data will be used to establish selection bias in the success of… Continue reading A New Population-Scale Approach for the Study of Psychological Stress in the Transition to Adulthood

Dean Yang, Tanya Rosenblat, James Riddell IV How do disasters affect individual decision-making about important health behaviors? Can public health interventions reduce disaster-induced deterioration of such decision-making? We explore these questions in the context of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. We have a research team in the area struck by the cyclone, that was about to… Continue reading Health Decision-Making in the Aftermath of a Disaster: Evidence from Cyclone Idai in Mozambique

Pamela Jagger We leverage dynamism in East and Southern Africa’s coupled human, terrestrial and atmospheric systems and its implications for environmental change to predict past, present and future impacts on regional climate, land use, and air quality. We highlight energy transitions as we hypothesize that biomass use and associated dynamics of coupled human, terrestrial, and… Continue reading CNH-L: Energy Transition and Environmental Change in East and Southern Africa’s Coupled Human, Terrestrial, and Atmospheric Systems

Dean Yang, Tanya Rosenblat, James Riddell IV How do disasters affect poverty and food security? Do disaster impacts operate, at least in part, through changes in economic preferences and psychological factors? Can community health and development programs improve resilience in the aftermath of disasters? If so, via what mechanisms? We study a major disaster that… Continue reading Poverty and Resilience in the Aftermath of Disaster