Resources Repository
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Working PaperPublication 2015Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Cities
This paper provides a short introduction to the use of benefit-cost analysis to assess interventions …
This paper provides a short introduction to the use of benefit-cost analysis to assess interventions undertaken at the city or municipal level. It introduces the concepts that underlie the conduct of benefit-cost analysis, describes the major analytic components, and discusses how to tailor the analysis to the characteristics of the policy and the resources available. It concludes with a list of references for those interested in learning more.
Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | North America | Social Determinants | Priority Setting/Ethics | Decision Analysis | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Environmental Health | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ArticlePublication 2021Misinformation and Public Opinion of Science and Health
This article summarizes the literature on misinformation, beginning with an overview of the most common …
This article summarizes the literature on misinformation, beginning with an overview of the most common definitions of misinformation (and related terms) in the communication literature and then a review of academic studies in the areas of science and health. The author acknowledges four overarching questions that have emerged prominently in recent years: (1) What does “misinformation” (and the terms that are oftentimes treated synonymously) mean? (2) How big of a problem is it in areas…
Preferences/Values | Energy/Engineering | Climate/Environment | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Science/Technology | Global -
ReportPublication 2017Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, …
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will…
Preferences/Values | Energy/Engineering | Climate/Environment | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Priority Setting/Ethics | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2020Resource Pack: SSB Excise Tax Briefs (CHOICES)
Rising rates of obesity represent one of the greatest public health threats facing the United …
Rising rates of obesity represent one of the greatest public health threats facing the United States. Obesity has been linked to excess consumption of sugary drinks. Federal, state, and local governments have considered implementing excise taxes on sugary drinks to reduce consumption, reduce obesity, and provide a new source of government revenue. This resource pack includes a series of briefs describing analyses conducted by the Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES), evaluating the health and economic impact…
Health Outcomes | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | North America | Social Determinants | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Health/Medicine | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation | Quantitative Literacy -
Online LearningVideo, Teaching Resource 2017Forum. The Opioid Crisis: A Governors Roundtable
Opioid overdoses claim the lives of 91 Americans every day, according to the Centers for …
Opioid overdoses claim the lives of 91 Americans every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This Forum - The Opioid Crisis: A Governors Roundtable, is part of the series, Policy Controversies, and was presented jointly with PRI’s The World & WGBH News. In this multimedia forum, four former governors offered candid insights into how government policy can help, exploring what works and what doesn’t. They spoke about experiences within their own…
Health Outcomes | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | North America | Social Determinants | Priority Setting/Ethics | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation -
Resource PackPublication, Teaching Resource 2017Resource Pack: U.S. Opioid Epidemic
Opioid misuse and addiction in the United States is an ongoing and rapidly evolving public …
Opioid misuse and addiction in the United States is an ongoing and rapidly evolving public health crisis, requiring an urgent coordinated response and innovative scientific solutions. This resource pack was curated for educators and students interested in how decision analytic methods and tools can be applied to the problem of opioid addiction.
Preferences/Values | Government/Law | Economics/Finance | North America | Social Determinants | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Decision Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation -
ReviewPublication 2016Strengthening Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Public Health Policy
Many important opportunities to improve health lie outside the health sector and involve improving the …
Many important opportunities to improve health lie outside the health sector and involve improving the conditions in which we live and work: safe design and maintenance of roads, bridges, train tracks, and airports; control of environmental pollutants; occupational safety; healthy buildings; a safe and healthy food supply; safe manufacture of consumer products; a healthy social environment; and others. Faced with the overwhelming array of possibilities, U.S. decision makers need help identifying those that can contribute the…
Preferences/Values | Climate/Environment | Economics/Finance | North America | Social Determinants | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Environmental Health | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Food/Agriculture | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2021Why the Backfire Effect Does Not Explain the Durability of Political Misperceptions
Previous research indicated that corrective information can sometimes provoke a so-called “backfire effect” in which …
Previous research indicated that corrective information can sometimes provoke a so-called “backfire effect” in which respondents more strongly endorsed a misperception about a controversial political or scientific issue when their beliefs or predispositions were challenged. This article shows how subsequent research and media coverage seized on this finding, distorting its generality and exaggerating its role relative to other factors in explaining the durability of political misperceptions. To the contrary, an emerging research consensus finds that…
Preferences/Values | Government/Law | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology -
ReportPublication 2021What It Means to Be a Science-Literate Citizen in a Digital World
Science literacy is often held up as crucial for avoiding science-related misinformation and enabling more …
Science literacy is often held up as crucial for avoiding science-related misinformation and enabling more informed individual and collective decision-making. But research has not yet examined whether science literacy actually enables this, nor what skills it would need to encompass to do so. This report addresses three questions to outline what it should mean to be science literate in today’s world: (1) How should we conceptualize science literacy? (2) How can we achieve this science…
Preferences/Values | Energy/Engineering | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global