Research in Review: March 2024

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Dear Colleagues,

Below are a few opportunities from the Office of Research and Innovation which you may find interesting.

Faculty interested in research with the Indian Institute of Science can apply for a new grant: Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Collaborative Network Award (USC-IISc) (Due May 20).
Faculty interested in collaborating across disciplines, departments, and institutions can apply for a Collaborative Research Planning Award (Due May 15).

Please enjoy the full newsletter via the link below.

Best,

Alice Chen

Vice Dean for Research

Publications:

An, B. Y., Barboza-Wilkes, C. J., & Resh, W. G. (2024). Applying an intersectional understanding of extra work behavior and emotional exhaustion in local public service. Public Administration, 1–26.
- Research Topic: This study examines the intersectionality of government workforce identities and its impact on diversity management, focusing on uncompensated extra-role behaviors and emotional exhaustion among Los Angeles city government employees. Using a structural equation model, the research reveals that the burden of extra work experiences varies within racial, gender, and generational groups. Among Black employees, it's found that women, particularly from older generations, bear a disproportionate burden and suffer from emotional exhaustion. The findings underscore the importance of an intersectional approach in identifying and supporting vulnerable personnel and developing effective human resource management practices for a diverse workforce.

Bruine de Bruin, W., Rabinovich, L., Weber, K., Babboni, M., Ignon, L., Wald, R., Dean, M., Kashdan, A., & Luz, S. (2024). Improving figures for climate change communications: Insights from interviews with international policy makers. Climatic Change, 177, 1-57
- Research Topic: NIearly 200 governments rely on the IPCC for climate change assessments, but understanding their figures can be challenging for policymakers. Interviews with 20 policymakers and practitioners revealed that simplifying figures to focus on key messages and improving clarity through clear titles, labels, and captions can enhance comprehension. Recommendations based on these findings aim to improve the design of climate change figures for the next IPCC reports and other organizations communicating with policymakers and practitioners.

Boeing, G., & Ha, J. (2024). Resilient by Design: Simulating Street Network Disruptions across Every Urban Area in the World. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 182, 104016
- Research Topic: We present an integrative approach to social innovation research to build a unified understanding of this emerging field. Based on a systematic literature review of articles about social innovation published in top-tier journals from 2003 to 2021, we argue that a “social innovation trap,” resulting from disciplinary silos, has limited our inquiries thus far. We contend that the social innovation trap has led the field to overlook three key insights.

Couts, S. J., Gonçalves, A. S., & Ross, A. (2024). Unsmoothing Returns of Illiquid Funds. The Review of Financial Studies.
- Research Topic: This research highlights that funds investing in illiquid assets often exhibit spurious autocorrelation in reported returns, which can lead to underestimated systematic risk. To address this, the study introduces a generalized unsmoothing technique, applied to hedge funds and private commercial real estate funds, significantly improving risk exposure and performance measurement, particularly for highly illiquid funds. Consequently, the findings suggest that the average alpha of illiquid funds is lower than previously believed.

Wang, B. S., Rodnyansky, S., Boarnet, M. G., & Comandon, A. (2024). Measuring the impact of COVID-19 policies on local commute traffic: Evidence from mobile data in Northern California. Travel Behaviour and Society, 34.
- Research Topic: This study focuses on the impact of various policy instruments the State of California implemented on morning peak hour and home-based work traffic volume in the San Francisco Bay Area and California’s Central Valley. Remote work, a policy the private sector initiated, had a more significant and lasting effect than state policy.

Media Highlights:

Monthly research digests include self-reported media coverage.

Adam Rose was interviewed about the safety of bridges in California by KCAL News and KABC TV News after a bridge collapsed in Baltimore, MD.
Genevieve Kanter was interviewed by STAT News for the story Some Nonprofit Hospitals Spend Less on Charity Care Than They Receive in Tax Breaks, New Analysis Shows.
Geraldine Knatz was a guest on LAist’s AirTalk with Larry Mantle, where she spoke about her book, Terminal Island, Lost Communities on America's Edge.

Presentations:

Adam Rose presented the plenary paper “Benefits and Challenges of California Offshore Wind Electricity” (co-authored with Nathaniel Gundersen, Y. Kumar, J. Jacobs, I. Reynoso and N. Meshkati) at the Global Energy Meet 2024 in Los Angeles on March 4.
Geoff Boeing gave an invited lecture at Cornell University's Department of City and Regional Planning in Ithaca, New York on March 29.
Jorge De la Roca presented his paper “Skill Allocation and Urban Amenities in the Developing World” at the Department of Economics of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on March 18.

Of Note:

PhD student Nathan Hodson, supervised by Wändi Bruine De Bruin, was featured on the USC Price website for his article, “Want to Help Healthcare Run Smoother? Remove the Sludge.”
Mindy S. Romero won a State Politics and Policy Quarterly Best Paper Award for a co-authored paper, “Why American Federalism is a Recipe for Distrust in Elections (And What to Do About It).”
Spencer Couts’ research was cited in the following article, “Do Semi-Liquid Alts Funds Need a Performance Reporting Reset?,” by Tom Stabile on Fundfire and “Guest Contributor: Academic Study Finds Non-Traded NAV REITs Can Provide “Economically Large Alphas” by Anya Coverman on the DIWire.