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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
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Madison, WI 53706

Telephone: 608.262.3581
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Last updated:
October 6, 2009

NEWS

Campus news for University of Wisconsin-Madison

Clipsheet: University of Wisconsin-Madison in the news

Chinn: Trade, investment imbalances threaten global economy

Menzie Chinn

La Follette School of Public Affairs economics professor Menzie D. Chinn agrees with other experts that trade and investment imbalances make the global economy more precarious.

Policymakers from the world's seven biggest industrial economies, the G-7 nations, are recognizing that the growing U.S. current-account deficit may cause higher interest rates and limit economic growth. The G-7 needs to turn to emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India, Tim Adams, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, told the Bloomberg financial news service.

The U.S. government must reduce its spending and debt, Chinn told Bloomberg. "The U.S. budget deficit, which narrowed to $318.6 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 from a record $412.8 billion a year earlier, represents about half of the current-account shortfall, Chinn said."

Current-account deficits have come to represent global economic imbalances, the Dec. 1 Bloomberg article notes. G-7 representatives consider these imbalances as great a threat to the world economy as higher energy prices and protectionist pressures.
A current-account deficit occurs when the value of a country's imports is greater than the combined value of exports and income from abroad. The current-account deficit is a broader measure than a country's trade deficit because, in addition to imports and exports, it includes income from assets abroad after payments for liabilities owed to foreigners are subtracted out.

Chinn is author of the Council on Foreign Relations report "Getting Serious About the Twin Deficits" and a principal investigator with the Current Account Sustainability collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Related information

Getting Serious about the Twin Deficits, Council on Foreign Relations report

Budget and current account deficits threaten U.S. influence, warns report by La Follette School professor, Sept. 29, 2005, La Follette School of Public Affairs

Current Account Sustainability of Major Industrialized Countries web site

Will the Euro Eventually Surpass the Dollar as Leading International Reserve Currency?
Menzie D. Chinn and Jeffrey Frankel / La Follette School Working Paper No. 2005-018

Doomed to Deficits? Aggregate U.S. Trade Flows Re-Examined
Menzie D. Chinn / La Follette School Working Paper No. 2005-015

-- posted Dec. 14, 2005

Networks are tool in fight against avian flu

As public health experts discuss how best to prevent an avian flu epidemic in the United States, La Follette School assistant professor Donald P. Moynihan has a few suggestions.

Donald P. Moynihan
IBM Center for The Business of Government report:
Leveraging Collaborative Networks in Infrequent Emergency Situations
La Follette School Working Paper
Learning under Uncertainty: Networks in Crisis Management further explores how public managers handled Exotic Newcastle Disease.

He outlines his ideas in a 2005 report, Leveraging Collaborative Networks in Infrequent Emergency Situations, for the IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Moynihan's suggestions are rooted in the response to an outbreak of a disease in California and other western states that threatened the U.S. poultry industry in 2002 and 2003. A task force of state and federal responders was created to eliminate the threat of Exotic Newcastle Disease.

Like bird flu, Newcastle Disease is lethal to poultry and transfers via bird feces, Moynihan says. The primary challenge facing the task force was to identify the spread of the disease, quarantine affected areas, test or euthanize millions of birds, and clean affected premises and dispose of carcasses in biosecure ways.

As states and the federal government plan to deal with the threat of bird flu, eliminating the spread of the disease among birds will be a critical part of any response, Moynihan says.

No single organization is capable of dealing with an unusual, infrequent and large-scale threat such as bird flu, Moynihan says, meaning that collaborative networks like the Newcastle Disease task force will necessarily be part of the solution.

From a public management perspective, networks are a set of connected actors involved in the delivery of services. These multiple organizations depend on each other and interact outside of a traditional hierarchy. To succeed, such networks of responders generally rely on a mixture of centralized formal command and control, and trust built among their members over time

One management lesson that emerged with Newscastle Disease was the importance of advance planning and prior relationships in crises, Moynihan says. Good preparation helped those involved get to know one another and identify who would be called on if an emergency did occur.

In responding to Newcastle Disease, the task force approach quickly helped participants to learn, codify and share operating procedures based on field experience, Moynihan says. They created a skilled staff that provided continuity during the crisis and kept information flowing across several states.

Their success in keeping the disease under control explains why most people have not heard about Newcastle Disease, Moynihan adds. What public managers learned two and three years ago can provide valuable lessons for people addressing the potential problem with bird flu.

Tracking a case study for avian flu preparedness, Dec. 2, 2005, campus news service

-- posted Dec. 2, 2005; updated Dec. 6, 2005

Texas court rejects argument for more public school funding

A court has ruled that Texas' funding for public schools is adequate -- for now -- even as it struck down the states school finance system because it resulted in a de facto statewide property tax, which Texas does not allow.

Analysis by La Follette School professor Andrew Reschovsky shows that state funding for Texas public schools is not enough for districts to meet minimum state education standards. Reschovsky was a witness for the districts that sued the state to get more aid.

The 7-1 Texas Supreme Court ruling says the state is spending enough on public education, though it warned of a drift towards constitutional inadequacy. The decision rejects an earlier ruling that favored the school districts.

"Texas won't be able to improve education through greater efficiencies or new teaching methods alone," Reschovsky says in the Nov. 22 Houston Chronicle.

"Reschovsky testified last year that Texas should spend about $7,500 per student just to get 55 percent of all students passing the required exams," the Chronicle reports. "That's $1,000 more per student than the current amount.

"'Texas does not now spend enough money to educate its students to the standards the state itself has imposed,' Reschovsky said Tuesday [Nov. 22].

"Most school districts trimmed the fat out of their budgets years ago as the state sent them fewer and fewer dollars, he said. 'On the whole, I suspect that we couldn't just reshuffle money and have students do better for the same amount of money.'"

Ruling signals schools might have to make do, Nov. 22, 2005, Houston Chronicle

-- posted Nov. 30, 2005

La Follette School student interviews for Rhodes scholarship

La Follette School student Sam Hall has no regrets interviewing earlier this month to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in Great Britain.

Even though he wasn't named a Rhodes Scholar, Hall found the two days of interviewing and meeting other district candidates to be a great experience.

"Ive never had to look at myself so intensely, and it forced me to really think about my own philosophy of life," Hall says.

The two-day interview process started with an reception on Nov. 18 with the other 12 to 16 candidates from the district Wisconsin shares with Minnesota and Michigan. All the interviews and the announcement of scholars took place the next day.

"In the end, the letdown of not being chosen was not actually that painful," says Hall, a Madison native. "By that time I was too exhausted to feel anything but relieved, and everyone I met there deserved the scholarship. If anything, it was exciting to be in such company."

Each of the 16 U.S. districts may nominate one or two individuals, with up to 32 U.S. scholars being selected, says Julie Stubbs, director of undergraduate academic awards in the University of Wisconsin-Madisons provosts office.

It is a great honor to be asked for a district interview, Stubbs notes.

"To compete nationally, students first must be endorsed by their undergraduate institution," Stubbs says. "At UW-Madison, students undergo a rigorous screening process. A faculty committee reviews applications, interviews top applicants and nominates only those students who best demonstrate the academic distinction, leadership skills and service to the community that characterize the Rhodes Scholar. Out of a pool of 20-25 impressive applicants, one to four receive UW-Madison endorsement.

At the La Follette School, Hall is working on a public affairs degree through the schools accelerated program that enables University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates to earn a master of public affairs or master of international public affairs with a fifth year of study. He expects to complete his bachelors degree in political science and music performance in 2006.

"Sam is one of the most gifted and interesting political science majors I've known," says La Follette School Professor and Department of Political Science Chair Graham Wilson, who worked with Hall on his application. "He's a fabulous trumpet player, a strong student academically and someone with an amazing record of involvement in politics and community organizations."

Hall is a member of the board of directors for the United Refugee Services of Wisconsin. He started an outreach group for incoming Hmong refugees.

In the year I have been with the URSW, weve helped in the acclimation of over 50 refugee families, held an Asian Festival with over 5,000 people in attendance and opened up Dane County, Wisconsin, to considerable diversity, Hall says. This coming semester, with funding from a Leadership Trust fellowship, I will share my experiences with other students by creating a permanent student committee on the board of the URSW. I hope those students will learn from this real-life experience and in turn see the appeal of a career in public service.

Hall melds practical policy experience with his academic interests.

During my sophomore and junior years, I conducted studies on viable health-care policies, philosophies of international organizations, the gender gap in higher education, and identification of homeless children so they may be effectively included in the education system, he says.

This commitment to action and scholarship made Hall a solid Rhodes candidate, Stubbs says. Sam embodies the very best qualities of a UW-Madison student. He is an engaged scholar-activist working to improve our community.

Hall received a prestigious University of Wisconsin-Madison Hilldale research grant that he used to investigate Wisconsins adherence to education laws for homeless people. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, every school district must identify and provide benefits such as transportation subsidies and meals to homeless students.

For reasons that include denial and embarrassment in small conservative communities, cultural and semantic disagreements on American Indian reservations and in Hmong communities, and pervasive lack of funding, glaring holes exist in the identification process, Hall says. It is clear that sound public policy is only part of the fight. Implementation requires energy, leadership, desire for betterment in society as a whole, and an open mind for change from those in the community.

-- posted Nov. 29, 2005

La Follette School student contributes to State Department report

La Follette School student Rachel Howard is listed among the contributors to the 2005 International Religious Freedom Report, which the U.S. Department of State released on Nov. 8.

As a summer intern in the Office of International Religious Freedom, Howard edited the report for Russia and the countries of Central Asia. The process involved collaboration with U.S. embassies and State Department offices.

One of the most difficult issues was how the report could state the situation of religious freedom with respect to governments that are trying to crack down on Islamic extremism, says Howard, a second-year student in the international public affairs program.

While the State Department wishes to support such efforts, some governments have taken to persecuting devout, non-extremist Muslims on the basis of physical characteristics, such as wearing a beard or a hijab (headscarf), Howard says. Clearly, it is important to distinguish between government practices that promote national security and those that use this as a guise for restricting freedom of religion.

The exact language of the characterizations became controversial and required extensive negotiations, she says.

Before enrolling at the La Follette School, Howard taught English in Prague; tutored Russian-speaking emigrants from the former Soviet Union; and taught public school students from Armenia and Turkmenistan.

Congress created the Office of International Religious Freedom in 1998, and the International Religious Freedom Report has been published annually since 1999. It details the religious freedom situation in 197 countries, including demographic information, restrictions and abuses of religious freedom, and U.S. government actions to promote religious freedom within each country.
-- posted Nov. 28, 2005

Economist magazine cites research by La Follette prof, co-authors

A journal article co-authored by La Follette School professor Menzie Chinn helps to bolster an argument made in The Economist magazine that economists could learn something from currency dealers and how they go about setting the price of the U.S. dollar.

Published in November, the Journal of International Money and Finance article reviews macroeconomic models abilities to forecast whether currency will increase or fall in value against the British pound or the yen. According to the Economist piece, the review by Chinn and co-authors Y.W. Cheung and A. Garcia Pascual "finds that some models, in some periods, beat tossing a coin. But not by very much."

The Economist article, "Marking the dealer's cards," that mentioned their work was published Nov. 24, 2005.

Chinn will present a new paper, "Conventional and Unconventional Approaches to Exchange Rate Modeling and Assessment," that incorporates discussion of forecasting the euro at a workshop on exchange rate determinants and impacts in Frankfurt Dec. 6-7, 2005. His co-author is Ron Alquist of the University of Michigan. La Follette School professor Charles Engel will give the invited lecture, "Expectations and Exchange Rate Policy" at the workshop, which is sponsored by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Canada.

-- posted Nov. 28, 2005; revised Nov. 29, 2005

U.S. official to discuss U.S-China trade relations, World Trade Organization

China's compliance with its World Trade Organization commitments and trade policy to expand fair market access for U.S. companies in China are the subject of a presentation by Amy Celico, deputy director of the U.S. Commerce Department's Chinese Economic Area.

Celico will speak Friday, Dec. 2, from noon to 1 p.m. in 120 Ingraham Hall.

Celicos office works closely with U.S. industry on its market access concerns in China, including developing capacity-building programs to aid training Chinese government officials in regulatory and legislative areas related to market access for U.S. industries. She has recently returned from a four-month assignment in Beijing as temporary director of the U.S. Embassy Trade Facilitation Office where she participated in U.S.-China bilateral commercial talks (the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade).
Her presentation is sponsored by the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy with the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Center for East Asian Studies, Center for International Business Education and Research, East Asian Legal Studies Center, Global Legal Studies Initiative and the International Institute Governance Research Circle.
-- posted Nov. 23, 2005; updated Nov. 29, 2005

La Follette School faculty, alumni contribute to policy conference

La Follette School alumni make presentations
La Follette School alumni Carolyn Hill and Kurt Thurmaier were among those contributing to the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management research conference.

Hill, an assistant professor of public policy at Georgetown University, served on the conferences program committee. She graduated from the La Follette School of Public Affairs in 1996 with a master's degree. She went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Thurmaier, a professor at Iowa State University and director of its Public Policy and Administration Program, had a paper, Becoming Citizen-Centric Electronic Government: Understanding the Adoption and Satisfaction of Electronic Government Information and Services by Citizens, presented by co-author Yu-Che Chen, also of Iowa State. Thurmaier graduated in 1983 from what is now the La Follette School of Public Affairs with a master's degree. He earned his doctorate from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Eleven members of the La Follette School of Public Affairs faculty presented papers, served as discussants or chaired panels at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Managements fall research conference in Washington, D.C., Nov. 3-5.

APPAM brings together policy practitioners and researchers to address substantive public policy problems. The La Follette School will host next years research conference, Nov. 2-4, at the Monona Terrace convention center in Madison.

Many public policy experts look forward to APPAMs annual conference because the research presented there is driven more by concern about real social problems than disciplinary debates, says La Follette School Professor David Weimer, who, in addition to chairing a session on regulatory outcomes and values, served as program chair as part of his duties as APPAMs president-elect. He becomes president of the organization on Jan. 1.

Much of the research presented at the conference assessed the impact of existing public policies, Weimer says. The challenge for policy researchers and policymakers is to reshape policy in light of these assessments. Another is to use our better understanding of the policy-making process to influence policy for the greater good.

At a conference session on long-term economic outcomes of recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Maria Cancian and University of Wisconsin-Madison colleagues Daniel Meyer and Chi-Fang Wu, presented Standing Still or Moving Up? Evidence from Wisconsin on the Long-Term Employment and Earnings of Former TANF Participants.

In addition to serving on the program committee, Carolyn Heinrich was involved with three presentations. With Sarah Hamersma of the University of Florida, she presented The Use of Federal Employer Tax Credit by Temporary Help Service Firms and Their Implications for Disadvantaged Workers Labor Market Outcomes. She also presented False or Fitting Recognition? The Use of High Performance Bonuses in Motivating Organizational Achievements and chaired a session exploring experimental evaluations of employment and training programs.

Two La Follette School faculty presented at a panel on poverty, inequality and health. Pamela Herd presented Does Supplemental Security Income Affect the Health of the Elderly? with James House and Bob Schoeni of the University of Michigan. Barbara Wolfe presented Poverty, Health, and Health Care Utilization: Health Needs of the Poor with Elise Gould, Economic Policy Institute, and Timothy Smeeding of Syracuse University.

La Follette School faculty contribute to APPAM leadership
In addition to David Weimer serving as president-elect of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Maria Cancian stepped down as secretary and was elected vice president. Carolyn Heinrich and Geoffrey Wallace are on the Policy Council, APPAMs board of directors.

Wolfe and Robert Haveman, plus Yoonyoung Cho and Thomas Kaplan, also of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presented Extending Health Care Coverage to the Low-Income Population: The Influence of the Wisconsin BadgerCare Program on Labor Market Outcomes.

Karen Holden was a discussant for a panel on privatization and Social Security, and she presented the paper Gender Issues and Social Security Reform: Assessing the Role of Social Security and Personal Savings in Well-being during Retirement on another panel.

Clark Miller chaired a panel on global warming, cloning and foreign aid: competition, cooperation, and coordination in international governance.

Donald Moynihan presented Policy Design and the Help America Vote Act of 2002: A View from Local Election Officials with Carol Silva of Texas A&M University.

In panel called Social Entitlement Spending: Theory and Trends Across States, Andrew Reschovsky presented A Collision Course? State Spending Limits and Medicaid Funding with James Knickman and Kathryn Muessig of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Reschovsky also chaired a session on issues in local and state budgeting.

John Witte was a discussant for a panel on the dimensions of charter school performance.

-- posted Nov. 13, 2005; revised Nov. 14, 2005

Advisory board to hear about students, curriculum, faculty, facilities, budget

The Governance and Public Policy Advisory Board of Visitors for the La Follette School of Public Affairs meets Friday, Nov. 11.

The board, which the school shares with the Department of Political Science, advises faculty and staff on long-range planning, fund-raising, career development for students and alumni relations. It meets as a whole twice a year and hears from University of Wisconsin-Madison officials, and La Follette School faculty, staff and students.

The board welcomes four new members:

George C. Edwards III, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, who holds the Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

James Klauser, senior vice president with Wisconsin Energy Corp. He served as secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration for 10 years, and he was a member of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

Ronald Rose, who manages a real-estate portfolio and consults with LoopLender, an affiliated commercial mortgage brokerage firm of LoopNet Inc. This follows a 30-year career in commercial real estate with Metropolitan Life, the Federal Home Loan Bank, John Hancock Real Estate Financial Services and LoopNet Inc.

Lon Sprecher, La Follette School of Public Affairs graduate and chief officer for business to business solutions and the international area at CUNA Mutual Group.

Four members have completed their terms: Edwin Behrens, Tom Lofus, Joy Picus and Phillip Schemel.

Board president Robert Milbourne, College of Letters and Science Dean Gary Sandefur, Department of Political Science chair Graham Wilson, University of Wisconsin Foundation representative Steve Kean and La Follette School Director Donald A. Nichols will report to the board. Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for campus facilities planning and management, also will speak.

The board will hear from two new La Follette School faculty members, Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan, and from students in the domestic and international public affairs degree programs.

-- posted Nov. 10, 2005

Reschovsky to talk about school funding, property taxes

La Follette School professor Andrew Reschovsky is making two appearances in the next few days. The first is on Wisconsin Public Television's "Here and Now" program to talk about school funding issues in Wisconsin. The show will air Friday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. and repeated on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 10:30 a.m. on channel 21.

On Monday, Reschovsky will give the presentation "Property Taxes: Trends and Opportunities for Reform" at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' 13th annual funding state services conference, "The Future of Fiscal Federalism." in Bethesda, Maryland.

-- posted Nov. 10, 2005

Alum shares career advice, history with La Follette School students

Career advice from a 1993 alum

Be willing to change
Remember why. While he never had a career path in mind, 1993 La Follette School grad James Pingel says he always builds his jobs around "the idea that research and data can help people make better decisions about government policy."
Develop a thick skin. The professional needs to be separate from the personal. Recommending important changes means "you're going to get attacked. You need to learn to take constructive lessons away from any criticism," Pingel says
Be a problem-solver. "If a problem comes up, always be the person to solve it," he advises.
See other people's problems as opportunities. In the public sector, many lose-lose situations arise. Solving someone else's problem can be a win-win.
Chase dreams and take risks.
Never throw away a business card.
Make an impact. "If you're not having an impact, that may be a signal that you need to change your career," Pingel notes.
Don't get labeled. Individuals should define themselves and not let themselves be pigeonholed as to their skills and how they contribute.
Remember why you came to La Follette.

The possibility of making a difference in how government works and in people's lives is what draws graduate students to public affairs.

La Follette School of Public Affairs graduates should keep that in mind as they proceed through their careers, an alum told first-year students.

"Don't ever lose sight of what drew you to the La Follette School, the possibility of making a difference," James Pingel told the students in the one-credit professional development course on Nov. 2.

"The reason I came to La Follette was to use data and to use research to come up with solutions and to put tools in the hands of the people," Pingel says. "Pretty geeky as a vision statement, but it is really what has driven me."

The La Follette School graduate traced his career path for more than 50 students in the Master of Public Affairs and the Master of International Public Affairs programs.
"Jim's career is quite varied," says Associate Director Karen Holden, who teaches the course. "He has put his analytical skills to work in a number of policy arenas, which demonstrates the flexibility a La Follette School of Public Affairs degree gives to people."

After graduating in 1993, Pingel worked for the city of Milwaukee budget office, then for the city's Department of Administration on its information technology policy. Then he moved over to the Milwaukee police department where he used his analytical skills on crafting budgets and writing grants.

"It was good to work with people like police officers who are out there in the streets making a difference every day," Pingel says.

Next, Pingel parlayed his background in policing and information technology into a two-year grant that established the Community Mapping, Planning and Analysis for Safety Strategies initiative for the city of Milwaukee. COMPASS integrates spatial analysis of crime, housing and other data in a shared system focusing on public safety to increase collaborative problem-solving in neighborhoods throughout the city.

After two years with COMPASS, Pingel wrote himself out of the budget and became deputy director with the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission. There he gave data to judges about which prison sentences worked and which did not.

In all his positions, Pingel says, he has been giving policymakers the information they need to make good decisions.

Now he is director of the Wisconsin Justice Information Sharing Project with the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance. This computer-based project involves putting more information into the hands of police officers by fitting together policing systems around the state.

"This is tactical," Pingel says. "With this system, police officers in their patrol cars can find out if a suspect is wanted in another jurisdiction."
Course builds student skills
The La Follette School of Public Affairs one-credit professional development course gives students opportunities to improve their skills in writing, public speaking, interviewing, and using Excel and PowerPoint. The course brings policy practitioners to class to talk with students about their jobs, and how students should prepare for careers in the public, non-profit and private sectors.
"By being in the professional development class their first semester, La Follette School students identify any areas they need to work on in order to improve their job-getting and keeping abilities and to ward off set-backs," says Career Development Coordinator Mary Woodward. "The course is also a signal that the search for good internships and jobs shouldn't be postponed."

Holden, Woodward and publications director Karen Faster work with students to develop policy presentation skills. Each students must write a policy memo that Holden and Faster critique, and they present a policy briefing that other students evaluate. This year's memo and presentations were based on a World Bank report on development policies in Africa that was assigned at orientation.

The fall practitioner series also included these speakers:

Jeffrey Schneider, senior economist for South Asia at the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis in the Directorate of Intelligence;

Deedra Atkinson, senior vice president of community impact for United Way;

John Wanska, assistant director of Chicago field office, and Hilary Murrish, a 2002 La Follette School alum, of the Government Accountability Office

Jennifer Noyes, a researcher with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison;

W. Michael Ley, a partner at Virchow Krause's public sector management consulting services; and

Eng Braun, former director of the Division of Research and Policy, Wisconsin Department of Revenue

A team of students will organize speakers to present the spring practitioner perspectives series. The team members earn two credits to acknowledge their work and the educational experience. All La Follette School students can attend the presentations, and those who register earn one credit.

-- posted Nov. 9, 2005

Eliminating bar-closing time could ease Halloween rioting

The City of Madison should look to Britain and its decision to abandon a law dictating when pubs close to address binge drinking and downtown problems with Halloween, argues La Follette School associate professor Carolyn Heinrich in an opinion piece published in the Nov. 4 Wisconsin State Journal.

Heinrich's article draws on a paper La Follette School student Carrie Schneck wrote in spring 2005 for Professor David Weimer's Introduction to Policy Analysis class. Schneck "argued that allowing bars to stay open all night would produce a more relaxed and steady flow of people leaving the State Street area. She noted that a steady flow of traffic would provide a safer environment for all, including greater mobility for police and rescue personnel," Heinrich wrote.

As an alternative to eliminating a single closing time for bars, Schneck says she suggested that closing times be staggered or that the event be privatized to charge an admission and control the number of people attending. Staggered closing times would eliminate the "flashpoint" when thousands of drunk people leave the bars simultaneously.

Schneck researched what other cities have done to address alcoholic riots. "In particular I looked at how university towns have responded and what works and what has not. Athletic events are the most common focus for university-based riots," Schneck notes.

The project gave Schneck the opportunity to talk with policymakers and stakeholders in Halloween. She interviewed a member of Madison's common council who represents downtown, a mayoral aide and the president of the State Street neighborhood association.

In addition to applying lessons from her policy analysis class, Schneck used what she learned in Microeconomic Policy Analysis. Economics can be an important tool in controlling alcohol consumption, she argues in her paper. "People are likely to drink less in a bar where they have to pay for every drink than at a house party where they pay for a cup and drink all they want," Schneck says.

Britain is changing its policy to discourage irresponsible drinking, by limiting happy hour promotions, for example, Heinrich writes. The police will be able to close pubs that sell to underage drinkers and to fine bartenders who sell to people who are intoxicated.

"However, perhaps the most remarkable policy action is Britain's new law that will allow pubs and bars to be open for any hours they choose. This is a dramatic change from the previous 11 p.m. rigid closing time. Studies suggest that a tightly enforced closing time encourages drinkers to 'guzzle' their alcohol just before they exit the bars and pubs, creating a 'flashpoint' when intoxicated people surge into the streets," Heinrich writes.

Madison "officials should closely watch what happens as the British take the bold step of implementing one of the most promising policies for effectively addressing the problems associated with binge drinking and partying."

Let bars stay open Halloween, Nov. 4, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal

-- posted Nov. 6, 2005; revised Nov. 7, 2005

Tax code changes could hurt some

President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform's proposal to end the deductibility of state and local income taxes on federal tax returns could impede the ability of local and state governments to raise money, La Follette School professor Andrew Reschovsky told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in its Oct. 29, 2005, edition.

Without deductions for state and local income taxes, state and local governments, states like Wisconsin with high taxes may find competition more difficult, the Journal Sentinel says.

Ending deductibility "'increases the difference among states and increases the interstate competition on taxes, which is probably not good for the ability to fund services at the state and local level,'" Reschovsky said.

Experts in the article question the proposal's political viability. "'The losers,' said UW's Reschovsky, 'are going to lose big, and they tend to be concentrated in a few areas, while the winners are all over.'

"However, even if Congress does not act on the report, some good will come of it, Reschovsky predicted.

"'You have to have a very long-run perspective,' he explained. 'Sometimes, getting ideas out there in the public and having them discussed, even if they get squashed, helps.'"

-- posted Oct. 31, 2005

Alum recognized for work with Minnesota Legislature

1993 La Follette School of Public Affairs graduate Brad Kelly received the Legislative Staff Person of the Year Award from the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.

A research consultant for the Minnesota House's Democratic Farm Labor Caucus, Kelly holds a master's in public policy and administration. He staffs these House committees: Civil Law and Elections; State Government Finance; and Government Operations and Veterans Affairs.

-- posted Oct. 28, 2005

Chinn, Nichols see Bernanke as good choice for Federal Reserve

Journalists called on two La Follette School economists to share their opinion about Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to succeed Allan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve Board.

Menzie D. Chinn told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the candidate "'is a well-respected economist. He'll make a good chairman.'" Chinn served as senior staff economist for international finance on the Council of Economic Advisers in In 2000-01.

La Follette School Director Donald A. Nichols shared the same sentiment with the Wisconsin State Journal. "'His academic credentials are outstanding,'" Nichols told the Madison newspaper, "'and he's always had an open mind to new ideas.'"

"Nichols said he thinks Bernanke will be more open about the Federal Reserve Board's actions. 'Telling the public what you're doing and why you're doing it, he believes, is the essence of good policy,' Nichols said.

"Bernanke is an advocate of having the Fed set a target on inflation, in contrast to outgoing chairman Alan Greenspan, who 'never let anyone know exactly what he was looking for,' Nichols said.

"Nichols said Greenspan, who steps down Jan. 31, has been a 'terrific' chairman who 'looked at the economy first and then decided what to do about money, rather than the reverse.

"'He was willing to lean against the wind,' Nichols said."

UW profs speak highly of Bernanke, Oct. 25, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal
Bush names Greenspan successor, Oct. 24, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

-- posted Oct. 28, 2005

La Follette School's nanotechnology, society project to receive $900,000 NSF grant

The La Follette School of Public Affairs will receive a smidgen more than $900,000 as part of a new Center for Nanotechnology in Society funded by the National Science Foundation.

The grant is part of $6.2 million NSF is awarding to Arizona State University, the lead campus in the research project, along with five partner universities, including the La Follette School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The other four campuses are Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, University of Colorado and Rutgers University.

Together, researchers at the six universities will establish a national center of excellence for investigations into how nanotechnology is shaping the future of human society, its implications for privacy and security, and the social and ethical questions raised by its potential to enhance human mental and physical abilities.

Center researchers will also pioneer new, more reflexive approaches to democratic governance of nanoscale science and engineering, working closely with scientists, citizens, and policymakers. By facilitating a greater integration of science, technology, and society, the center aims to improve policy decisions and outcomes.

The Center for Nanotechnology in Society significantly raises the profile of the La Follette School's Initiative on Nanotechnology and Society led by assistant professor Clark Miller.

"This collaboration positions La Follette as an up and coming leader in the field of science and technology policy," Miller says. "It reinforces the importance of interdisciplinary research on the politics of new and emerging technologies. And it responds to the need to train future scientists, policy officials, and social researchers in the skills necessary to guide research programs toward social needs and to understand and address the social dislocations and risks that can occur as science moves out of the laboratory and into society."

The Center for Nanotechnology in Society will also involve faculty and students from several other units at UW-Madison, including the College of Engineering, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Law School, and the departments of History, History of Science, Medical History and Bioethics, Rural Sociology and Sociology.

New ASU center will assess societal implications of nanotechnology, Oct. 11, 2005, Arizona State University

-- posted Oct. 25, 2005

Article on school competition includes quote from La Follette prof

A quote from La Follette School professor John Witte is included in a Wall Street Journal article on the difficulties analysts can face in evaluating the quality of public schools and the effects of competition in education.

The page-one article, published Oct. 24, 2005, leads with reaction to an economist's finding that cities with many streams have schools with higher test scores. More streams within a geographical area can mean more boundaries, which could lead to more school districts. More districts within a given area creates more competition among districts, which gives parents more choice in where to live to help ensure their children get a good education.

This study illustrates the complexity of the arguments scholars use to debate school policy. "Despite a vast array of statistical tools, economists have had a very hard time coming up with clear answers," the Wall Street Journal says.

"'They're fighting over streams,' marvels John Witte, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of political science and veteran of a brawl over school vouchers in Milwaukee in the 1990s. 'It's almost to the point where you can't really determine what's going on.'"

Novel way to assess school competition stirs academic row, Oct. 24, 2005

-- posted Oct. 25, 2005

NPR political editor on campus visiting with La Follette students, faculty, staff

Ron Elving

La Follette School faculty, staff and students are meeting with Ron Elving, senior Washington editor for National Public Radio News, this week as part of his time as public affairs writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Elving, who directs NPR's coverage of the Capitol and national politics, will speak to classes during the week of Oct. 24. Monday night Elving is dining with La Follette School of Public Affairs Outreach Director Terry Shelton and others from Madison. Thursday night he is meeting La Follette School students at 6:15 p.m. at Angelic Brewing, 322 W. Johnson St.

Elving earlier worked as political editor for Congressional Quarterly and USA Today. He is a former reporter and state Capitol bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal. He is the author of "Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law."

Seattle Times business editor Becky Bisbee will visit campus during the week of Nov. 6 as the business writer in residence, and will meet with journalism and business students to discuss the role of business journalism. She leads a staff of 20 journalists who cover a dozen Fortune 500 companies, as well as biotechnology and telecommunications, and small businesses.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writer in Residence Program helps students to interact with nationally known journalism professionals in formal and informal settings. The program is sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and University Communications, with support from the UW Foundation. The public affairs program is co-sponsored by the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the business program is co-sponsored by the School of Business.

Elving is meeting with journalism students and faculty in several classes and with local journalists.

NPR political writer, Seattle Times business editor visit campus, Oct. 6, 2005, University of Wisconsin-Madison news service

-- posted Oct. 24, 2005

Holden presents on Social Security to UW-Madison benefits fair

Social Security and how it works was the topic of a presentation by La Follette School of Public Affairs Associate Director Karen Holden. She spoke Oct. 11 to University of Wisconsin-Madison employees at the annual employees benefits fair. Holden, a professor of consumer science and public affairs, is an expert on the effects of Social Security and pension policy on economic status after retirement and widowhood.

Social Security and Reform: What it Does Now; Will it be Around to Keep Doing it? presentation slides

-- posted Oct. 19, 2005

Advice on trans-Atlantic careers available at Oct. 21 reception

Students wanting to learn more about careers in trans-Atlantic politics are encouraged to attend a reception and informal advising session with Ronald Asmus of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. Transatlantic Center in Brussels.

The session is at the Pyle Center on Friday, Oct. 21, after Asmus's 3 p.m. talk. His presentation is titled "The United States and Europe: Can We Put the Trans-Atlantic Alliance Back Together Again?"

Asmus is a specialist on how the United States and Europe can work together to address the new strategic challenges of the 21st century. He served as U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs from 1997-2000, and now serves as a senior advisor to the president of the German Marshall Fund on strategic and developmental issues. He has played a key role in projects exploring common U.S. and European approaches to Turkey, Ukraine, the Black Sea region and the broader Middle East.

Just before beginning his tenure as senior trans-Atlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Asmus authored "Opening NATOs Door: How the Alliance Remade Itself for a New Era" (2002). He has held senior positions at the Council on Foreign Relations, RAND, and Radio Free Europe, consults for the Downey McGrath Group, and regularly publishes in major journals such as Foreign Affairs.

The event is sponsored by the Center for European Studies and the Center for German and European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

-- posted Oct. 17, 2005

Professor cites link between home value, schools' test scores

David Weimer

La Follette School professor David Weimer told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that there is a correlation between home prices and school performance.
His research, which controls for the fraction of students from poor families in each school, shows that school test scores do affect home prices. In a 2001 paper based on data from New York state, Weimer found that homes served by elementary schools with higher test scores had substantially higher sale prices, the Star Tribune reported Oct. 15, 2005. Specifically, he found that a 1 percent increase in fourth-grade state test results translated to a 1.5 to 4.5 percent increase in home value. "The old real estate law was 'location, location, location.' ... One might change it to be 'schools, schools, schools,' " he says.
Yearning for learning, Oct. 15, 2005, Star Tribune
-- posted Oct. 17, 2005

La Follette School students' hurricane relief benefit raises more than $1,300


La Follette School of Public Affairs Associate Director Karen Holden, center, plays the Cajun t-fer (triangle to you yankees) with the Cajun Strangers at a benefit the La Follette School Student Association helped to organize to assist people who moved to the Madison area because of Hurricane Katrina.
	The dance floor got a little crowded sometimes. More than 75 people helped to raise $1,300.
	First-year La Follette School students, Aditya Chandraghatgi (on left), Louisa Kennedy and Julius Svoboda enjoy the evening.

A benefit for a local Hurricane Katrina relief fund drew about 75 to 100 people and raised more than $1,330, thanks in part to the efforts of the La Follette School Student Association.

For a minimum donation of $15, guests were treated to red beans and rice, beer and the music of the Cajun Strangers. La Follette School of Public Affairs Associate Director Karen Holden is a member of the band. The funds were donated to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund at the Dane County Credit Union to assist people who have resettled in Madison because of the hurricane.

LSSA organized and sponsored the Sept. 30 event at Café Montmarte with the Wisconsin Student Planning Association of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This was really a team effort, says Craig Johnson, LSSAs community service chair who spearheaded the event. It was great to have the two student organizations working together, and we had the support of both Café Montmarte and the Cajun Strangers to keep our costs low.

Johnson worked with WSPA member Kristyn Ebert and La Follette School students Jeff Sartin, Callie Gray and Rachel Howard to organize the event. They are all pleased with their efforts and are considering teaming up again in the spring for another community service event.

Johnson adds that the café owners covered the costs of the food, and the bands members donated their talents.

Holden says the Cajun Strangers were eager to use their talents for the fund-raiser.

Quite a few fans of the band attended, and they added to the entertainment with their dancing skills.
La Follette School and URPL students, staff, faculty and alumni also attended.

It was a great opportunity for local alumni to re-connect with the school and make a financial contribution to a good cause, says Jennifer Leavitt-Moy, LSSA president.

Finding rhythm between academia, Cajun music, Oct. 4, 2005, Wisconsin Week

-- posted Oct. 14, 2005

Professor, outreach director help establish Senate Scholar program

With a little help from the La Follette School of Public Affairs, 33 high school students from around Wisconsin will spend time this spring in Madison learning more about how their state government works.

La Follette School Professor Dennis Dresang and Outreach Director Terry Shelton helped organize the Senate Scholar Program, which will bring high school students to the Capitol next spring. The students will attend Senate floor debates and committee hearings, intern for a few hours in one of the legislative service agencies and participate in bill-drafting, policy and fiscal analysis, lobbying and constituent communications. They also will attend seminars given by Dresang and individuals involved in the legislative process.

"Learning by doing is always a very effective approach," Dresang says. "The Senate Scholar program will give students a hands-on, up-close view of the Legislatures role in our democracy. They will experience working with senators and legislative staff in policy development, constituent relations and the process of passing legislation."

-- posted Oct. 13, 2005

La Follette student named editor of international law journal

A La Follette School student has been named editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin International Law Journal.

Leah Larson-Rabin, a master of international public affairs candidate enrolled in the dual-degree program with the Law School, will hold the position until May. In addition, she is a project assistant with the Global Legal Studies Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In that position she coordinated a workshop on disputes and development, and she is creating and designing the initiative's web site. As a law and development research assistant at the Law School, she researched legal education, international labor regulation through the World Trade Organization and explored legal reforms at the World Bank.

Before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Larson-Rabin was office manager for Gov. Jim Doyle, an office assistant for U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin and a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso in West Africa.

After receiving her MIPA and law degrees in May 2007, Larson-Rabin says she hopes "to move to China for a couple years and do research concerning legal reform and access-to-justice issues for vulnerable populations there."

-- posted Oct. 12, 2005

Workshop to examine European Union governance, social Europe

Jonathan Zeitlin

A workshop, EU Governance and the Future of Social Europe, will examine controversy surrounding the European Union's efforts to form a more cohesive society and a stronger economy. It will consider the implications of recent developments for EU governance and the future of social Europe.

The workshop is Friday, Oct. 28, noon to 3 p.m. in Ingraham Hall.

One of the speakers is Iain Begg, London School of Economics, who will give a presentation titled "If Economic Governance is the Problem, is Policy Coordination the Solution?"

"Iain Begg is a leading authority on macroeconomic policy coordination in the EU, and his talk in particular should be of interest to international economists and anyone concerned with economic governance in the Eurozone," says La Follette School professor Jonathan Zeitlin, who is helping organize the workshop.

Claire Kilpatrick of Cambridge University will address law and employment governance in the European Union, while Zeitlin will speak on "The Lisbon Strategy, the Open Method of Coordination, and the Future of Social Europe."

The workshop follows on the heels of the spring 2005 decision by the European Council to set new objectives and policy coordination arrangements to address concerns that the European Union was in danger of failing to achieve its growth and employment goals.
This revision relaunches the Lisbon Strategy the European Council established in 2000 to make Europe "the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion." At the same time, the European Union introduced a new form of governance, the Open Method of Coordination, which is based on benchmarking national progress toward common European objectives and organized mutual learning.

The workshop is sponsored by Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), of which Zeitlin is director; the European Union Center of Excellence, and the International Institute 's Governance Research Circle; all at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

-- posted Oct. 10, 2005

Poverty center receives $1.5 million federal award

Maria Cancian

Thanks in part to the leadership of La Follette School of Public Affairs professor Maria Cancian, the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin - Madison has been designated as one of three Area Poverty Research Centers by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The designation will provide $500,000 per year for the next three years from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

Cancian has been IRP director since 2004, the third La Follette School of Public Affairs professor to lead the center. Bob Haveman served as director from 1971 to 1975; he continues his affiliation as a research associate. Barbara Wolfe directed IRP from 1994-2000 and is a faculty affiliate.

Six other La Follette School professors are involved with IRP. Carolyn Heinrich is the center's associate director of research and training. Pamela Herd, La Follette School Associate Director Karen Holden, Andrew Reschovsky, Joe Soss, Geoffrey Wallace and John Witte are faculty affiliates of IRP.

"The participation of many La Follette School faculty greatly enhances IRP's core strength in policy analysis and evaluation," Cancian says. "Students at La Follette with an interest in social policy also benefit from the connection between the institutions, as they have access to IRP seminars, to the many courses taught by the multidisciplinary set of IRP affiliates, and to opportunities to participate in IRP policy research projects.
As an Area Poverty Research Center, IRPs initiatives will incorporate a regional focus on the upper Midwest. In addition to providing core support for IRP, the federal award will support activities designed to shed light on three central contemporary social policy issues. The first is changing family structure in the United States and its implications for the design and evaluation of public policy. The second area will examine challenges that confront poor families striving to achieve self-sufficiency and ways in which government and the private sector can facilitate this. The third project will explore the reorganization of social policy practice in the United States in the wake of the profound changes in policy goals, governance and funding that took place in the 1990s.

The $500,000 annual award the maximum annual funding available under this competition renews an award made in 2002, when the Area Poverty Research Center program was first established. The ASPE award, together with the support of the UW-Madison College of Letters and Science and the Graduate School, will provide core funding for IRP activities, maintaining many longstanding research, training and outreach initiatives in addition to supporting new projects.

"We look forward to continuing our long tradition of research aimed at improving our understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty, and the most effective efforts to improve the well-being of poor families," Cancian says.

IRP receives Area Poverty Research Center award, Oct. 5, 2005, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Institute for Research on Poverty wins research center award, Oct. 10, 2005, University of Wisconsin-Madison news office

-- posted Oct. 7, 2005; updated Oct. 10, 2005; updated Aug. 30, 2006

Seminar series looks at public policy, science, democracy

Researchers in public policy, natural and social sciences, engineering and medicine are mixing it up this year at the Science, Democracy, Public Policy Seminars.

The next speaker at the weekly series is Elisa Graffy of the U.S. Geological Survey. On Oct. 12, she will give a talk titled "Debating the Use and Misuse of Science in Policymaking: Just Politics or a Challenge for Democracy?" The seminars are every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. in the Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive. Graffy will speak in room 1045.

The purpose of the seminar series is to nurture intellectual cross-fertilization and exchange on topics of science and technology policy, expertise, risk, and democratic governance of science and technology.

The series, which will continue in the spring, is sponsored by the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Initiative on Nanotechnology in Society and the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

All presentations are in Engineering Centers Building room 1025 unless otherwise noted below:

Date Speaker Presentation Title Room Number

Oct. 12 Elisa Graffy, U.S. Geological Survey "Debating the Use and Misuse of Science in Policymaking: Just Politics or a Challenge for Democracy?" 1045

Oct. 19 Daniel Kleinman, associate professor, Department of Rural Sociology Building Citizen Capacities for Participation in Technoscientific Decisionmaking: The Democratic Virtues of the Consensus Conference Model. 1025

Oct. 26 Nicole Kaufman, social science researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center Reflections on Participant Observation. 1025

Nov. 2 Sarah Park, history researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center Nanotechnology's Role in U.S. Military. 1025

Nov. 9 Kellen Backer, historian, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center Gray Goo Run Amok: the History of Fears of Nanotechnology in the U.S. 1045

Nov. 16 Jeremi Suri, associate professor, History Department Henry Kissinger, Nuclear Weapons and Democracy 1045

Nov. 30 Mrill Ingram, senior outreach specialist, Environmental Resources Center Good Guys and Bad Guys: Disciplining Microbes through U.S. Federal Organic Standards. 1025

Dec. 7 Nicole Youngman, doctoral student in flood control in New Orleans, Tulane University "Katrina in Context: Disaster Mitigation and the Growth Machine in New Orleans. 1025

The Dec. 14 program has yet to be announced. Vicki Bier, Department of Industrial Engineering; Herb Wang, Department of Geology and Geophysics; and Marvin Birnbaum, Department of Medicine, spoke Sept. 28 on "Katrina's Aftermath: Science, Democracy, and Disaster." The Oct. 5 speaker was Tim Osswald of the College of Engineering. He addressed "From Natural Rubber to Synthetic Rubber A Road From the Amazon to Auschwitz Ethical Questions in Science."

Information: miller@lafollette.wisc.edu.

Seminar series looks at public policy, science, democracy, Oct. 13, 2005, University of Wisconsin-Madison news service

-- posted Oct. 7, 2005; updated Oct. 13, 2005

NPR political editor to visit La Follette School of Public Affairs classes

Ron Elving

Ron Elving, senior Washington editor for National Public Radio News,will visit the La Follette School of Public Affairs the week of Oct. 23 as the school's public affairs writer in residence.

Elving, who directs NPR's coverage of the Capitol and national politics, will speak to classes during the week of Oct. 23.

A brownbag luncheon with local journalists and Elving will be noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the office of Capital Newspapers, 1901 Fish Hatchery Road in Madison. The gathering is sponsored by the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Previously, Elving worked as political editor for Congressional Quarterly and USA Today. He is a former reporter and state Capitol bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal. He is the author of "Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law."

Seattle Times business editor Becky Bisbee will visit campus during the week of Nov. 6 as the business writer in residence, and will meet with journalism and business students to discuss the role of business journalism. She leads a staff of 20 journalists who cover a dozen Fortune 500 companies, as well as biotechnology and telecommunications, and small businesses.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writer in Residence Program helps students to interact with nationally known journalism professionals in formal and informal settings. The program is sponsored by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and University Communications, with support from the UW Foundation. The public affairs program is co-sponsored by the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the business program is co-sponsored by the School of Business.

NPR political writer, Seattle Times business editor visit campus, Oct. 6, 2005, University of Wisconsin-Madison news service

-- posted Oct. 7, 2005

Campus newspaper features Holden, Cajun band

Karen Holden

Striking a different rhythm from her usual routine as La Follette School associate director, Karen Holden finds herself in the spotlight for her role with Madison band the Cajun Strangers.
The expert on Social Security, pensions and retirement is the focus of a profile in the faculty-staff newspaper Wisconsin Week for Oct. 4. She and the band played Sept. 30 at a benefit organized in part by the La Follette School Student Association. Proceeds from the show will go to people who relocated to Madison because of Hurricane Katrina.

Holden plays the Cajun t-fer (triangle to you yankees) with the group. She finds that the music provides a good balance to her academic work. "Public policy issues and they work they require are endless. My involvement with the band is one way I keep from being totally consumed," she tells Wisconsin Week.

Finding rhythm between academia, Cajun music, Oct. 4, 2005, Wisconsin Week

-- posted Oct. 5, 2005

Georgia eyes spending limits; La Follette prof warns about cuts

Professor Andrew Reschovsky is quoted in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an article about a proposal for spending limits in Georgia's budget. The piece reminds Georgia residents to consider that limits on the growth of government spending "might cost them in terms of reduced education, health care and other vital services."

"'You're not going to be able to meet restrictions on the budget without touching the big-ticket items' like schools and prisons and health care, suggests Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of applied economics and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He isn't talking about what could happen in Georgia, but what awaits Wisconsin, which is also weighing spending limits," the article says. ...

"Reschovsky believes that if citizens in his state had voted for TABOR years ago, they would be stuck with far less in the way of public services today."

No free lunch at services counter, Oct. 2, 2005, ajc.com

-- posted Oct. 5, 2005

La Follette School bus tour showcases sound environmental business practices

Green Tier conference follows bus tour
A half-day conference on Oct. 4, focused on how businesses can incorporate Green Tier strategies to ensure Wisconsin's environmental quality and economic success. The event featured a primer on the Green Tier law, highlighted tools and resources, showcased business successes and explored the potential for a "green company" benchmark and brand for Wisconsin, a business climate that attracts clean jobs and investment and furthers the state's long tradition of environmental stewardship.

Joel Makower, an award-winning writer, speaker and consultant on sustainable business and clean technology was a keynote speaker. Makower has helped companies such as Clorox, Gap, General Motors, Hewlett Packard and Procter & Gamble align environmental responsibility with business success. He is the founder of "The Green Business Letter, " an award-winning monthly newsletter on business and the environment, and the Green Business Network, which produces GreenBiz.com, ClimateBiz.com, and GreenerBuildings.com.

The Oct. 4 conference was hosted by the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative, a group that facilitates solutions to environmental issues through mediated, non-contentious forums and conferences.

A statewide bus tour Oct. 3, sponsored in part by the La Follette School of Public Affairs, highlighted environmental innovation and sustainable business practices for 120 business leaders, environmentalists, regulators and state officials from around Wisconsin.

La Follette School of Public Affairs faculty, staff and students participated in the "Wisconsin: Green and Growing" tour that sent four buses to about 15 business known for their superior environmental performance. Buses went to Platteville, Madison, Milwaukee and the Fox Valley. The tours focused on Wisconsin's Green Tier program, under which participating businesses and associations develop environmental management systems that guarantee performance in return for regulatory flexibility. The program encourages operational efficiency and job creation.

The day culminated with an evening reception at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison. There, La Follette School professor Graham Wilson spoke about the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Wisconsin idea to about 200 attendees, who included five secretaries of state of Wisconsin departments. Wilson is leading the "Wisconsin Style: New Approaches to Regulatory Innovation" research project funded by Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The research project also coordinated the Environmental Law in a Connected World conference in January 2005.

Regulators from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources gave final approval to two Green Tier Charter agreements and signed pacts with two businesses. Two industry associations, a dairy farm and a manufacturer with worldwide operations were lauded for their achievements under Wisconsins Green Tier program.

To create jobs and keep our communities strong, Wisconsin businesses must be able to compete in the global marketplace, Wisconsin DNR Secretary Scott Hassett said. But to ensure that our quality of life is maintained for generations to come, that economic success must be sustainable. The Green Tier program proves that environmental achievement and economic development are not mutually exclusive in fact, they must be a single goal.

Hassett thanked the La Follette School of Public Affairs for sponsoring the bus trip. "The UW has played a big role in Green Tiers development. Thanks to Graham Wilson, Don Nichols and Terry Shelton at La Follette," Hassett said in his speech at the Oct. 4 conference. "I was delighted to learn that La Follettes new faculty are interested in Green Tier and that some of its students were on the buses yesterday."

In recent years, while Wisconsin businesses have experienced the growing impact of foreign competition, state officials have recognized the need to create a more workable regulatory system. Signed into law in April 2004, Wisconsins Green Tier law was developed after careful study of other models for business and government cooperation, including public-private partnerships in Bavaria, Germany.

The states commitment to environmental leadership gained national recognition Monday, when officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement linking the Green Tier Program with the EPAs Performance Track Program. Wisconsin is the first state to join with the federal program.

As part of the bus tour Monday, the following businesses and trade associations were recognized for their participation in Green Tier:

In Appleton, the Wisconsin Builders Association Development Council was granted a Green Tier Charter through a new subsidiary called EccoDev. The charter, the highest level of participation possible, ensures that member developers will receive advanced training on land-use planning, best practices for construction site management and use of energy efficient building techniques, including recycled building materials.

In Madison, the Cooperative Compliance Program of the Scrap Metal Recycling Industry was awarded a Green Tier Charter for a program to improve material handling practices and energy efficiency. As a result, individual members of the association are encouraged to join the charter as Tier 1 or Tier 2 participants.

In Chilton, Holsum Dairies was given a Tier 1 agreement for a program to improve surface and groundwater protection and to build environmental restoration efforts into dairy operations.

MEGTEC Systems of De Pere, a maker of industrial dryers and air pollution control equipment, was given a Tier 2 contract for efforts to encourage its suppliers to use environmentally advanced practices and develop its environmental management systems. The company has improved its efficiency and minimized hazardous waste.

Other businesses gaining official recognition Monday were pilot projects at WE Energies in Pleasant Prairie, Cook Composites and Polymers in Saukville and Madison Gas & Electric Co. Additional companies or organizations represented on the bus tour for their environmental achievement were American Transmission Co., S.C. Johnson, University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneer Farms, Alliant Energy, Cave of the Mounds and The Bruce Company.

In addition to the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the bus tour was hosted by the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative; the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Wood Communications Group and the Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Performance. Additional sponsorship support came from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and M&I Marshall and Ilsley Bank.

News reports

State's economic strategy needs focus, Oct. 8, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Green Tier Initiative: Economic vitality and environmental protection, Oct. 7, 2005, Wisopinion.com

DNR leader signs regulatory pact, Oct. 5, 2005, Appleton Post-Crescent

WisBusiness: Expert praises state's environmental regulation reform, Oct. 5, 2005, Wisbusiness.com

WBA, DNR start Green Tier, Oct. 4, 2005, The Daily Reporter

Doing well by both earth and economy, Oct. 2, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal

Green Tier businesses, Oct. 2, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal

Green Tier creates collaborative regulation, Oct. 1, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

-- posted Oct. 4, 2005; updated Oct. 5, Oct. 11, Oct. 12, Oct. 14, 2005

Nanotechnology subject of newspaper series

A three-part newspaper series about nanotechnology included observations from two La Follette School professors, Clark Miller and Donald Nichols.

Miller suggested that Wisconsin may be missing an opportunity to aid the state's manufacturers and to be a leader in nanotechnology. The state's emphasis on aiding startup companies won't benefit the nanotechnology industry because it is more suited for improving existing products, rather than leader to the creation of new one, Miller says.

Nichols said technologies that work on the small scale like nanotechnology could be a boon to Wisconsin's plastics, printing, wood, paper and machinery industries.

Miller is leading a research initiative on nanotechnology and society that is funded with a $1.25 million National Science Foundation grant. His team of researchers is exploring the social, economic and political dimensions of nanotechnology.

The Wisconsin State Journal series

The start of something big: Nanotech industry adds jobs, millions of dollars to local economy, Aug. 28, 2005

Getting the state to see the light: Nanotechnology could mean big things for the state's economy, but Wisconsin has no government plan to help the growing industry, Aug. 29, 2005

Support for nanotechnology highest among knowledgeable, Aug. 30, 2005

-- posted Sept. 30, 2005

Budget and current account deficits jeopardize U.S. influence, warns report by La Follette School professor

Menzie Chinn

The United States must confront the alarmingly high federal budget and current account deficits, urges a new report written by La Follette School of Public Affairs professor Menzie D. Chinn for the Council on Foreign Relations.
Failure to take the initiative to reduce the twin deficits will cede to foreign governments increasing influence over the nations fate, says the report, Getting Serious About the Twin Deficits.
Since the council issued the report Oct. 6, Chinn has given interviews with Jim Rondeau at KCLU radio, a National Public Radio affiliate in California; Mike Norman the "Economic Contrarian" on the BizRadio Network; Bloomberg financial news service; Voice of America-Beijing; Wisconsin State Journal; and CNBC's "Morning Call."
Twenty years ago, the United States was the worlds largest creditor nation, unsurpassed in its ownership of assets outside of its borders, even after deducting what foreigners owned inside its borders.

"In the last 20 years, the United States has become the worlds largest debtor nation," says Chinn, who served as a senior economist for international financial issues on the presidents Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. He discussed the report on CNBC TV's "Morning Call" on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

At the end of 2004, U.S. debts to the rest of the world exceeded its assets by about $2.5 trillion21 percent of its gross domestic product. This proportion is unmatched by any other major developed economy.

Even if the United States avoids a precipitous collapse in the dollar and an economic recession, the report warns, the nation faces serious challenges. Americas continued descent into greater and greater indebtedness threatens an important source of its influence: the dollars role as the critical global currency.

"If the United States does not address its budget and current account deficits, we likely will see economic growth slow and trade friction escalate," Chinn says. "America's political and economic influence will decline."

A current account deficit occurs when the value of a country's imports is greater than the combined value of exports and income from abroad. The current account deficit is a broader measure than a country's trade deficit because it considers net income from assets abroad in addition to imports and exports.

The U.S. current account deficit climbed from just less than 3.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2001 to 5.7 percent last year. The fiscal deficits that the federal government has run since 2001 are driving the increase.

Historically, other countries have experienced deficits this large, but the absolute magnitude of the U.S. deficit is unprecedented because the United Statesconstituting more than one-quarter of the world economylooms so large. At the same time, the United States has accumulated a record amount of foreign debt. Neither of these trendsin the deficit or debtshows any evidence of being reversed.

News reports

Report: Growing deficits jeopardize U.S. influence around world, Oct. 12, 2005, Wisconsin Week Wire

Report: Deficits threaten growth, Oct. 6, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal

Rezept fr ein Desaster, Oct. 6, 2005, junge Welt

Report: Growing deficits jeopardize U.S. influence around world, Oct. 5, 2005, UW-Madison news

La crisis econmica amenaza el poder de EE.UU. , Oct. 3, 2005, La Tribuna Hispana

Where the smart money is going, Oct. 3, 2005, UPI story in Washington Times

Analysis: Where the smart money is going, Oct. 3, 2005, UPI story in World Peace Herald

A slight question: how are we supposed to pay for all this?, Oct. 2, 2005, The Day

Hurricane costs exacerbate problem and underscore need to curtail government spending and raise tax revenues, Oct. 4, 2005, YubaNet.com

Our cash -- it's a national security issue, Oct. 2, 2005, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

America's nightmare: Becoming Britain, Oct. 1, 2005, Asia Times Online

Tax cuts, oil appetite eroding U.S. sovereignty, Sept. 29, 2005, Inter Press Service News Agency

Related information

Getting Serious about the Twin Deficits, Council on Foreign Relations report

Council on Foreign Relations news release, Sept. 29, 2005

Current Account Sustainability of Major Industrialized Countries web site

Will the Euro Eventually Surpass the Dollar as Leading International Reserve Currency?
Menzie D. Chinn and Jeffrey Frankel / La Follette School Working Paper No. 2005-018

Doomed to Deficits? Aggregate U.S. Trade Flows Re-Examined
Menzie D. Chinn / La Follette School Working Paper No. 2005-015

High resolution portrait of Menzie Chinn (Credit: La Follette School of Public Affairs photo by Bob Rashid)

-- posted Sept. 29, 2005; revised Sept. 30, 2005; updated Oct. 4, Oct. 5, Oct. 6, Oct. 7, Oct. 10, Oct. 11, Oct. 12, 2005

Economist magazine cites Chinn, Frankel research on U.S. dollar

The fall of the dollar against the euro and other currencies is the subject of an Economist magazine that includes research by La Follette School professor Menzie D. Chinn and co-author Jeffrey Frankel of Harvard University. Economist.com published the article Sept. 29, and their research is published as La Follette School Working Paper Series No. 2005-018.

Chinn and Frankel argue that the euro is a plausible competitor to replace the dollar as the leading currency central banks hold, just as the dollar replaced the pound. Factors affecting the dollar's status include size of the home country, inflation, exchange rate variability and size of the relevant home financial center as measured by the turnover in its foreign exchange market. The euro's success will depend on whether the United Kingdom and enough other European Union members join euroland so it becomes larger than the U.S. economy and on whether U.S. macroeconomic policy undermines confidence in the value of the dollar, in the form of inflation and depreciation.

Currency competition: How the dollar might lose its status as the world's main reserve currency, Sept. 29, 2005, Economist.com (PDF)

Will the Euro Eventually Surpass the Dollar Leading International Reserve Currency?
Menzie D. Chinn and Jeffrey Frankel / La Follette School Working Paper No. 2005-018

-- posted Sept. 29, 2005

Memo on gas prices released by La Follette School director

Donald A. Nichols

Memo on gas prices

A memo, "Gasoline Prices in 2006," summarizing La Follette School director Donald A. Nichols' analysis of gasoline prices is now available. The analysis was originally part of Nichols' economic forecast presented Sept. 16 at the Economic Outlook Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Nichols' analysis shows that the difference in price between a gallon of crude oil and a gallon of gasoline has been about 80 cents in recent years. At $65 a barrel, which holds 42 gallons, a gallon of crude would cost $1.55. With the 80-cent markup, gas should cost $2.35 a gallon at the pump. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the markup between crude and gasoline jumped to $1.40 a gallon when gas cost $3 a gallon.

For gas to cost $3 a gallon at the pump, with an 80-cent markup, crude would have to cost about $92 a barrel, a price Nichols says is unlikely in 2006.

Nichols fielded a number of calls from journalists and policymakers around the country after sharing his gas-price analysis as part of his twice yearly economic forecast. "The disconnect between gasoline and crude oil prices is quite remarkable," he noted in his Sept. 16 presentation..

High gas prices raise questions of gouging, Sept. 27, 2005, Christian Science Monitor

Govs urge gas-price investigation, Sept. 21, 2005, CBS News

Doyle demands gas-price refunds, Sept. 20, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

FTC provides Senate testimony on initiatives to protect competition in the U.S. petroleum industry, Sept. 21, 2005, Federal Trade Commission

FTC says it is investigating gas price gouging, Sept. 21, 2005, MSNBC

Governors ask for inquiry on oil prices, Sept. 21, 2005, New York Times

Statement of Governor Doyle on announcement of FTC gas price investigation, Sept. 21, 2005, Office of the Wisconsin Governor

Governor Doyle, seven other governors call for an end to oil industry price gouging, Sept. 20, 2005, Office of the Wisconsin Governor

No Katrina economic storm, yet, Sept. 17, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal

Manufacturing sector to lead state to modest growth in '06, Sept. 16, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

La Follette School economist expects continued growth, Sept. 16, 2005, La Follette School news

Nichols' Gasoline Prices in 2006 memo, Sept. 27, 2005

Nichols' September 2005 economic outlook presentation paper Presentation slides

High resolution portrait of Nichols (Credit: La Follette School photo by Bob Rashid)

-- posted Sept. 28, 2005

Reschovsky explores possibilities of property-tax revolt

About 150 people in Anchorage, Alaska, heard La Follette School professor Andrew Reschovsky's discussion about property taxes in the United States and whether a revolt is brewing. He spoke at a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy seminar, "Property Tax Viability in Volatile Markets," at a conference on assessment administration held by the International Association of Assessing Officers.

-- posted Sept. 28, 2005

Current account sustainability web site goes online


Menzie Chinn	Charles Engel

The Current Account Sustainability of Major Industrialized Countries web site is now online, announce La Follette School professors Menzie Chinn and Charles Engel.
The Current Account Sustainability collaborative supports the development of research on theoretical and empirical aspects of the determinants of major economies to sustain large current account deficits during prolonged periods.

Current account sustainability is the ability of countries to run large and persistent current account deficits. Chinn and Engel focus on the worlds major economies.

The collaborative is sponsored by a $125,000, three-year grant from the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with support from the La Follette School, the Department of Economics and the Center for International Business Education and Research.

In addition to the web site, Chinn and Engel intend to bring distinguished visitors to campus, hold conferences, advance important research questions, train graduate students and share expertise with the businesses, government and the public of Wisconsin.

La Follette School professors receive grants from UW-Madison center

-- posted Sept. 27, 2005; revised Sept. 29, 2005

Reschovsky weighs in on tax system to save farmland

La Follette School professor Andrew Reschovsky says in the Sept. 26 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Wisconsin's tax policy really just delays development of farmland rather than preserving it. Wisconsin's practice of taxing land based on its agricultural use, not on its fair market value, has saved farmers $1.5 billion in taxes in the last 10 years, the newspaper notes in its story about a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy report.

-- posted Sept. 27, 2005

Professors try to snuff flap by suggesting tradable smoking permits for bars

Taking a lesson from environmental policy, La Follette School professor Robert Haveman and population health sciences professor John Mullahy suggest in a newspaper editorial that the city of Madison could establish a system of tradable smoking permits for Madison bars. The city banned smoking from bars on July 1 and has been embroiled in controversy since then with tavern owners saying they have lost business. The two profs suggest that each bar be given a number of permits based on its alcohol receipts, though not enough permits to allow smoking. Those establishments that didn't want to allow smoking could sell their permits to others, who would accrue enough to allow customers to light up. The editorial appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal on Sept. 25, 2005.

-- posted Sept. 27, 2005

Chinn presents paper on China's renminbi

La Follette School professor Menzie Chinn explored why China's currency, the renminbi, might be overvalued in a presentation Sept. 22 in San Francisco. Chinn spoke at the Center for Pacific Basin Studies at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco at the conference External Imbalances and Adjustment in the Pacific Rim. In the paper, Chinn and his co-authors used several analyses, some of which suggest substantial undervaluation and others find slight overvaluation.

-- posted Sept. 26, 2005

Reschovsky discusses state-university relationships

La Follette School professor Andrew Reschovsky responded to a presentation about the changing relationship between states and state universities on Sept. 13 in a seminar about the future of the public university sponsored by the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education. He responded to Aims McGuiness, a senior associate of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

-- posted Sept. 26, 2005

Student associations to hold hurricane relief fund-raiser

Cajun music and food will be featured at a hurricane relief fund-raiser Friday, Sept. 30, at Café Montmartre Side Car, 127 E. Mifflin St. in Madison, from 5-8:30 p.m. The $15 minimum donation includes red beans and rice, and beer. Proceeds will be given to the Dane County Credit Union, which has set up a fund to support families affected by Hurricane Katrina who have relocated to Madison. Madison's traditional Cajun band, The Cajun Strangers will play 6:15-8:15 p.m. The La Follette School of Public Affairs Student Association and the Wisconsin Student Planning Association are sponsoring the event.

-- posted Sept. 23, 2005; revised Sept. 26, Sept. 28, 2005

Hurricane illuminates public management challenges

Faculty and students listening to comments at forum on aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. La Follette School photo taken Sept. 16, 2005.

La Follette School faculty and students listen to comments made during a Sept. 16 lunchtime discussion about the public management and policy effects of Hurricane Katrina. Student Jeff Sartin, in the short-sleeved shirt, spoke about related issues he experienced during his summer internship in Sri Lanka

Never has the need for good rules for making decisions in a crisis been so evident as during and after Hurricane Katrina, La Follette School of Public Affairs faculty and students agreed at a lunchtime discussion.
One of the primary rules of public management is to make processes as predictable as possible, says professor Dennis Dresang. While details of an emergency are hard to forecast, clear procedures and decision-making protocols can help lessen confusion and save lives.

A primary rule that was broken with Hurricane Katrina, Dresang said at the Sept. 16 discussion, was the lack of an incident commander who is the person in charge of addressing the crisis.

In many communities and states, the fire chief is automatically the person in command, unless the crisis involves public health, when the public health officer would be in charge. In New Orleans, no fire chief was evident during the hurricane and evacuation, Dresang notes. This was due, in part, to a failure by the city of New Orleans to implement its emergency procedures and to the citys inability to cope alone, which could mean the state of Louisiana needed to step in and designate an incident commander. This should not be an elected official, but someone who is trained to handle emergencies, Dresang says.

Another scenario could have been for the federal government to have designated an incident commander since there was an inter-state or multi-state dimension to this disaster, he adds.

Officials used decision-making rules inappropriately in New Orleans, Dresang says. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency required firefighters from other regions of the country to go through two days of sexual harassment training in Atlanta before allowing them to go to the coast to assist with rescue efforts. FEMA also invoked an anti-terrorism rule to check and track that terrorists were not transporting firefighting and rescue equipment. Rules like these hampered rescue and medical treatment efforts, Dresang says.

The sluggishness of the public response is a clear governmental failure, notes assistant professor Donald Moynihan. Because people were able to watch the disaster evolve slowly on television, the failure to manage the crisis was very clear. There were frequent cases of common-sense decisions not being made, and bureaucratic obstacles preventing aid. This has damaged public trust in the ability of government to act effectively.

Three years after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and one year after the creation of a national response plan, the DHS has flunked its first major test. In terrorist events with less warning, the results will be worse, Moynihan says. What this shows is that management matters to performance. Some of the basic characteristics that we know foster good performance ― autonomy, resources, political support, leadership and a mission-oriented culture ― were missing or in decline in FEMA.

Under President Clinton, emergency management was taken seriously and FEMA became a well-managed and respected agency. With the change in presidential administrations, the agency lost skilled leadership when many senior managers departed, Moynihan says. Their replacements had less emergency and management experience, and were more focused on President Bushs priority of fighting terror than preparing for natural emergencies.

As a result, FEMA lost standing, resources and goal clarity as it was folded into Homeland Security, Moynihan says.

Moynihan emphasizes the importance of networks in addressing complex emergencies. Networks, which are built on trust, take time to develop. With an event like Hurricane Katrina, the backgrounds and resources of those who wanted to help were so varied and so broad ― including government responders at every level, individuals, private companies, businesses and other nations ― that he doubts whether any single agency could have managed the network.

Getting agencies to coordinate can be difficult, says first-year master of public affairs student Kristen Grill, who worked for a company that contracted with FEMA to evaluate its National Flood Insurance Program.

In one project, she examined each state agency that managed flood programs. She found that in most states, one agency managed disaster response while another handled flood mitigation. It is often hard for these agencies to communicate and work together, Grill says.

Preventive policy decisions perhaps should be re-examined, Grill adds. In addition to providing insurance, the National Flood Insurance Program has mapped the countrys flood-prone areas and identified those with a 1 percent chance of being flooded in any year. The program requires communities to regulate and limit development in these 100-year floodplains, Grill says. However, communities are not required to do so if levees protect their floodplains. Even before Katrina, experts called for changes in this policy with regulations specific to levee areas.

Policy and public management lessons learned from emergencies elsewhere may apply to the Gulf Coast.

Just returned from an internship with the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka, second-year master of international public affairs student Jeff Sartin described how that country was handling policy decisions about rebuilding after the tsunami.

The Sri Lankan government developed policy that forbids rebuilding within certain distances from the beach, but it often did not enforce the statutes, Sartin says. Nor was it sharing its ideal buffer zone, based on sophisticated mapping and spatial analysis techniques, with the public.

Instead, the government was moving very slowly on managing coastal development, letting people repair houses close to the shore even if the research suggested that was a bad decision, Sartin says. Many of the people living on the shore are subsistence fishers, so telling them they couldnt rebuild is politically perilous.

The general lack of communication and enforcement meant that there were inconsistent rebuilding patterns that could have serious ramifications if the government of Sri Lanka ever tried to implement hazard mitigation into its planning requirements and zoning, he says.

Some of these same debates, decisions and approaches will need to be made in the United States.

Six months from now, environmental conditions and the circumstances in which people on the Gulf of Mexico will be able to rebuild will be major policy debates, says assistant professor Clark Miller, who organized the discussion. Policymakers will have to decide who gets to rebuild and who gets hurt by those decisions.

-- posted Sept. 20, 2005

Peers include alum among best lawyers in America

Timothy F. Nixon

La Follette School alum Timothy F. Nixon has been included in the 2006 Best Lawyers in America, a listing based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which 16,000 leading attorneys throughout the country cast more than a half million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties. Inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed.

Nixon received a master of public affairs degree and a law degree in 1990. He is a shareholder in the Green Bay office of the Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. law firm, where he is a commercial lawyer representing clients in state and federal courts. He is the lead attorney for the firms business finance and restructuring practice group, and a member of the corporate and litigation practice groups. His practice includes advising Dutch, Russian and Australian clients on American bankruptcy law, as well as advising American clients on foreign insolvency issues and practice. He has lectured and published extensively on bankruptcy law issues.

While attending graduate school, Nixon was an intern with the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C. Prior to graduate school, Nixon served as a ships officer in the Merchant Marine for nine years.
-- posted Sept. 20, 2005

Campus news site announces dual degree in public policy, neuroscience

Modern neuroscience is advancing understanding of the brain and behavior at a pace that few could have imagined even five years ago. The resulting knowledge is transforming our understanding of brain function in health and disease, with profound implications for society.
Recognizing this, two UW-Madison faculty now have created a new dual-degree graduate program in Neuroscience and Public Policy to train students how to apply this knowledge to problems in public policy.

Read more ...

-- posted Sept. 20, 2005

La Follette School economist expects continued growth, sees disconnect on gas prices

Donald Nichols

Economic forecast

Presentation slides

Wisconsin should see continued economic growth in 2006, La Follette School director Donald A. Nichols told the Economic Outlook Conference on Sept. 16.
Fallout from Hurricane Katrina may affect the short term, says Nichols, who serves on the Governor's Economic Advisory Council and the Midwest Economists' Workshop at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. "Katrina was a natural disaster. It remains an economic disaster. "

Spending on rebuilding areas affected by the hurricane may lead to "an inflationary boom," Nichols says. "If the boom is too large, the economy can overheat, bringing high interest rates with a resulting downturn."

Wisconsin's economy is stronger than that of other Midwestern states, yet its economic growth is likely to lag the rest of the nation, largely due to less growth in population and the labor force. Wisconsin continues to benefit from its strong exports and business equipment spending, which should put economic growth at about 3 percent, Nichols says. That means that unemployment should remain stable.

Nichols' forecast also examined gas prices and a higher-than-normal markup when gasoline cost $3 a gallon at the pump. This led to a calls for investigations and a flurry of calls. Nichols issued a separate memo on Sept. 27 that focuses on his gasoline price analysis.

No Katrina economic storm, yet, Sept. 17, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal

Manufacturing sector to lead state to modest growth in '06, Sept. 16, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Nichols' September 2005 economic outlook presentation paper Presentation slides

Nichols' March 2005 economic outlook

High resolution portrait of Nichols (Credit: La Follette School photo by Bob Rashid)

-- posted Sept. 19, 2005; updated Sept. 21, Sept. 28, 2005

Professor explores effects of opening oil reserve

La Follette School professor David Weimer examined the decision to open the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on Wisconsin Public Radio.

David Weimer

Weimer, author of The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (Greenwood Press, 1982), appeared on "Conversations with Joy Cardin" on Aug. 31. He, Cardin and radio listeners who called in discussed how Hurricane Katrina has pushed oil prices to a new high and why President Bush thinks opening up the oil reserve can help address that problem.

Weimer says Bushs move to tap the reserve is probably a good decision. A small drawdown should help overcome the short-run impact of losing oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Weimer outlined three problems the hurricane is causing with respect to energy production. One of these is disruption of the oil transportation system. After 2002s Hurricane Lily, drawing on the reserve offset transportation problems. This time, I think were going to see much broader damage overall to the pipeline system, Weimer says.

A second complication likely will arise with the supply of oil to refineries, a problem that Hurricane Ivan caused in 2004. Then the government used the oil reserve to help the companies who are producing oil from the platforms meet their supply to refineries, Weimer notes. That is likely to be a justified motivation to use the reserve now.

The third problem is with the refineries themselves, Weimer says, because it appears a number of the Gulf Coast refineries are out of production and its unclear how long they will remain out of production. Its less clear how the reserves can help that problem.

The discussion can be heard via Wisconsin Public Radios web site.

-- posted Sept. 1, 2005

Governance ranks as No. 1 journal in public administration

Young journal gains in rankings
The Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, edited by La Follette School professor Carolyn Heinrich, moved up seven places in the ISI Web of Science rankings between 2003 and 2004.

The journal more than doubled its impact factor to 0.872, moving it ahead of the Public Administration Review, which has been described as "the premier journal in the field of public administration research, theory, and practice for more than 60 years."

Started in 1990, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory has increased its circulation more than sevenfold, Heinrich says.

International economics journal proves influential
A third journal co-edited by a La Follette School professor is also influential, reporting an impressive 1.368 impact factor.

In the area of economics, the Journal of International Economics ranked 19th in number of citations and 24th in impact factors, co-editor Charles Engel reports.

Governance, an academic journal co-edited by La Follette School Professor Graham Wilson, has been named first among journals in the field of public administration for 2004.
The ISI Web of Science ranking placed Governance at the top of 26 journals in the field of public administration with an impact rating of 1.256. The impact rating measures the number of times articles from the journal were cited by other authors within the past two years. Citations of published research are key indicators of the influence of scholarly work.

Governances international emphasis consistently makes it one of the top journals in the world, Wilson says, noting that it always has ranked among the top three public administration journals. Were proud to return to the No. 1 slot, which we held in 2002 as well.

Wilson also is chair of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His co-editor is Robert Cox, director of the School of International and Area Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma and has served as editor since October 2004.

Governance focuses on executive politics, public policies and international governance. The ranking was announced in June and published by ISI Web of Science. The journal is published by Blackwell Publishing.

Journal with UW ties named best in public administration, Sept. 14, 2005, UW-Madison news site

-- posted Aug. 30, 2005; revised Sept. 1, Sept. 20, 2005

Summer 2005 news

Date	Speaker	Presentation Title	Room Number
Oct. 12	Elisa Graffy, U.S. Geological Survey	"Debating the Use and Misuse of Science in Policymaking: Just Politics or a Challenge for Democracy?"	1045
Oct. 19	Daniel Kleinman, associate professor, Department of Rural Sociology	Building Citizen Capacities for Participation in Technoscientific Decisionmaking: The Democratic Virtues of the Consensus Conference Model.	1025
Oct. 26	Nicole Kaufman, social science researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center	Reflections on Participant Observation.	1025
Nov. 2	Sarah Park, history researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center	Nanotechnology's Role in U.S. Military.	1025
Nov. 9	Kellen Backer, historian, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center	Gray Goo Run Amok: the History of Fears of Nanotechnology in the U.S.	1045
Nov. 16	Jeremi Suri, associate professor, History Department	Henry Kissinger, Nuclear Weapons and Democracy	1045
Nov. 30	Mrill Ingram, senior outreach specialist, Environmental Resources Center	Good Guys and Bad Guys: Disciplining Microbes through U.S. Federal Organic Standards.	1025
Dec. 7	Nicole Youngman, doctoral student in flood control in New Orleans, Tulane University	"Katrina in Context: Disaster Mitigation and the Growth Machine in New Orleans.	1025

High gas prices raise questions of gouging, Sept. 27, 2005, Christian Science Monitor
Govs urge gas-price investigation, Sept. 21, 2005, CBS News
Doyle demands gas-price refunds, Sept. 20, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
FTC provides Senate testimony on initiatives to protect competition in the U.S. petroleum industry, Sept. 21, 2005, Federal Trade Commission
FTC says it is investigating gas price gouging, Sept. 21, 2005, MSNBC
Governors ask for inquiry on oil prices, Sept. 21, 2005, New York Times
Statement of Governor Doyle on announcement of FTC gas price investigation, Sept. 21, 2005, Office of the Wisconsin Governor
Governor Doyle, seven other governors call for an end to oil industry price gouging, Sept. 20, 2005, Office of the Wisconsin Governor
No Katrina economic storm, yet, Sept. 17, 2005, Wisconsin State Journal
Manufacturing sector to lead state to modest growth in '06, Sept. 16, 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
La Follette School economist expects continued growth, Sept. 16, 2005, La Follette School news

Nichols' Gasoline Prices in 2006 memo, Sept. 27, 2005
Nichols' September 2005 economic outlook presentation paper		Presentation slides
High resolution portrait of Nichols (Credit: La Follette School photo by Bob Rashid)