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Item Exploring racial disparities across prosecutorial decision points: Evidence from a Midwest prosecutor’s office(2025) Bailey, Caroline; Hylton, Sydney; Henry, Tri Keah; Diazq, Carmen; Grommon, EricItem Racial Justice Data Project: A partnership with the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office(2023) Diaz, Carmen; Rising, Staci; Grommon, EricItem Process Evaluation of the IRAS-PAT Pilot Program Implementation(2017) Grommon, Eric; Ray, Brad; Sapp, Dona; Thelin, RachelItem Innovative reentry initiative in Indianapolis(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2025) Grommon, Eric; Bow, Brendan; Pena, RachellItem Reducing probation revocations challenge: Monroe County, Indiana(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2021) Northcutt Bohmert, Miriam; Hatfield, Troy; Ying, Michelle; Grommon, Eric; Lowder, EvanItem Reducting probation revocations challenge: Strategies to reduce revocations in Monroe County, Indiana(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2021) Northcutt Bohmert, Miriam; Hatfield, Troy; Ying, Michelle; Grommon, Eric; Lowder, EvanItem Understanding Public Sector Debt: Financial Vicious Circle under the Soft Budget Constraint(Springer Nature, 2018) Park, SangheeThe article explains why debt of public sector organizations grows beyond the sustainable level by focusing on the principal-agent relationship under the soft budget constraint. Specifically, this article explores the extent to which factors affect the level of public sector debt in the context of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations (quangos) in Korea over the past two decades (1993-2012). The findings from the panel data analysis suggest that the level of public sector debt increases as an outcome of the financial vicious circle created by the soft budget constraint: a knock-on effect of the moral hazard of quangos as well as the opportunistic behavior of political principals. Public sector debt is positively associated with agency-specific factors such as the size of quangos as well as the factors related to the political incentives such as policy preferences and electoral considerations. However, macroeconomic factors made little difference to the general pattern of the evidence.Item Political and administrative decentralization and responses to COVID-19: comparison of the United States and South Korea(Emerald, 2021) Park, Sanghee; Fowler, LukePurpose: This study explains the variation of government responses to the pandemic by focusing on how centralization/decentralization in politics and administration creates conflicts and coordination problems. Specifically, the authors make comparisons between the U.S. and South Korea to reveal differences in macro-level structures and associated responses. One of the key points of comparison is the centralized, hierarchical governance system, which may thwart or facilitate a coordinated response. Design/methodology/approach: This is an in-depth comparative case study of the two countries that showed different trajectories during the initial response to COVID-19. The comparison allows us to highlight the long-standing debate about centralization/decentralization and offers implications for government responses to crises shaped by political systems and administrative structures. Findings: While there are inherent pros and cons to decentralization, the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the institutional limitations in American federalism and the advantages that centralized administrative coordination creates during times of crisis. American federalism has unveiled systematic problems in coordination, along with the leadership crisis in polarized politics. The response from South Korea also reveals several issues in the administratively centralized and politically polarized environment. Research limitations/implications: While the authors risk comparing apples and oranges, the variation unveils systematic contradictions in polarized politics and offers important implications for government responses in times of crisis. However, this article did not fully account for individual leadership as an independent factor that interacts with existing political/administrative institutions. Practical implications: There is certainly no one best way or one-size-fits-all solution to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic in countries under different circumstances. This article demonstrates that one of the essential determining factors in national responses to the pandemic is how the political and administrative dimensions of centralization/decentralization are balanced against each other. Originality/value: Unlike previous studies explaining the country-level responses to COVID-19, this study focuses on the variance of political and administrative decentralization within each country from the political-administrative perspective and reveals the systematic contradictions in coordination and the leadership crisis in polarized politics.Item Representative Bureaucracy, Distributional Equity, and Environmental Justice(Wiley, 2020) Liang, Jiaqi; Park, Sanghee; Zhao, TianshuThis article explores the role of bureaucratic representation and distributional equity in the implementation of environmental policy, which has been shaped by the politics of identity, administrative discretion, and a contested discourse on the redistribution of public resources. We examine whether minority bureaucratic representation fosters policy outputs for race-related disadvantaged communities, and whether the behavior of public administrators reflects distributional equity. Linking representative bureaucracy to environmental justice, this research contributes to the understanding of social equity in public administration and sheds light on the relationship between bureaucratic representation and democratic values. Analyzing a nationwide, block-group-level dataset, we find that a more racially representative workforce in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promotes the agency’s enforcement actions in communities that have large local-national disparity in minority population and severe policy problem. But the size of bureaucratic representation effect is larger for neighborhoods that are overburdened with race-related social vulnerability.Item Gender and Performance in Public Organizations: A Research Synthesis and Research Agenda(Taylor & Francis, 2021) Park, SangheeThis study examines the variations among empirical findings of gender effects on performance in public organizations; and identifies and discusses areas to be addressed in future research. The meta-analysis using 72 studies published between 1999 and 2017 presents evidence that greater representation of women in the workforce and more women in leadership roles have a positive effect on public organization performance. Study characteristics such as policy/service areas, geographical context, and time frames of the study affect the findings of gender effects, while the variance in measurement strategies and publication status do not make a difference in empirical evidence.