The Institute for Policy & Social Research is a faculty-driven research center supporting social scientists who focus on social problems and policy-relevant questions. IPSR fosters independent researchers and collaborative teams within our network of faculty affiliates and seven interdisciplinary research centers.

What's New

COVID-19 Research & Resources

The Institute for Policy & Social Research has been tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the state of Kansas and, as a public service, IPSR has created a website that provides resources for people to see how COVID-19 is affecting the state and its economy. This website includes research presentations by economics professor Donna Ginther (and director of IPSR) that explain how policy has an economic impact on the state. Other links provide background data on demographics and healthcare and broadband access. Please visit https://ipsr.ku.edu/covid19/ for regular updates as new information becomes available.

Haskell Indian Nations University receives $20 million NSF research grant for Indigenous science hub

Haskell Indian Nations University, a Bureau of Indian Education-operated Tribal University in Lawrence, Kansas, is the recipient of a $20 million award from the National Science Foundation for an Indigenous science hub project. Funded under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the award is for five years and is the largest research award ever granted by the National Science Foundation to a tribal college or university. KU researchers, under the direction of Lindsay Jorgenson, will lead the evaluation of the project.
Link(s): https://indiancountrytoday.com/the-press-pool/haskell-indian-nations-university-receives-20-million-national-science-foundation-research-award-for-indigenous-science-hub-project

KU researchers part of program to give communities equal voice in switch to renewable energy

Researchers from the University of Kansas are part of a multi-institutional partnership to help ensure the United States’ ongoing transition to renewable energy and low-carbon technologies is just and provides equity and opportunities for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. With $500,000 in funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the project, Just Energy Transitions and Place, will examine how place-based considerations should be incorporated in federal or state energy transition initiatives.
Link(s): https://news.ku.edu/2022/07/28/ku-researchers-part-program-give-communities-equal-just-voice-switch-renewable-energy

Access to food assistance program curbs child maltreatment, study finds

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps offset the costs for families who face food insecurity. It’s one of the most frequently accessed public programs, aiding more than 43 million people each month. But SNAP also provides an unanticipated benefit: preventing child maltreatment. Donna K. Ginther, with Patricia Oslund, Lindsay Jorgenson and Patricia Sattler, Michelle Johnson-Motoyama (formerly of KU), Rebecca Phillips, Oliver Beer and Starr Davis of Ohio State University and Yoonzie Chung of University of Maryland, wrote a new study. "Association Between State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Policies, Child Protective Services Involvement, and Foster Care in the US, 2004-2016" found that states with more generous SNAP policies had fewer children involved in child protective services (CPS) and sent to foster care. It appears in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Link(s): https://news.ku.edu/2022/07/21/access-food-assistance-program-curbs-child-maltreatment-study-finds
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2794169

Please visit IPSR's News page for more.

Research Spotlight

Research Released on the Cost of Not Expanding Medicaid in Kansas

Kansas is one of only 12 states that
have not expanded Medicaid under
the Affordable Care Act, despite the
federal government covering more
than 90 percent of the cost along
with additional federal incentives.
Kansas is now entirely bordered
by states that expanded Medicaid
following adoption of expansion in
Missouri and Oklahoma in 2021.

The REACH Healthcare Foundation provided funding to IPSR to study the impact of failure to expand Medicaid on Kansans. The research brief and report show that Kansans are spending more state resources on Medicaid, health care spending is increasing at a faster rate, and employee premiums for health care are increasing faster in Kansas than in states that expanded Medicaid. County mill levies for hospitals have also increased. There are many unexpected costs resulting from the state’s failure to expand Medicaid.

The 55th Edition of the Kansas Statistical Abstract is now available! The abstract is available EXCLUSIVELY online as a PDF file with individual pages available in Microsoft Excel and PDF. For more information and access to the data, please visit https://ipsr.ku.edu/ksdata/ksah/.

The Kansas Statistical Abstract was featured in a radio spot on the Jayhawk Radio Network, tune in or click the button below to play the clip now:

SAVE THE DATE

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Please visit the conference site for registration. Additional details will be posted soon.

Recent Publications

Ginther, Donna K., Davut Ayan, and David J.G. Slusky, The Unexpected Costs of Not Expanding Medicaid in Kansas, sponsored by the REACH Foundation, May 2022.

Ayan, Davut, Donna K. Ginther, and David J.G. Slusky, Economic Costs to Kansas Due to State’s Failure to Expand Medicaid, sponsored by the REACH Foundation, May 2022.

The Governor's Council on Tax Reform, Final Report, January 2022.

Ginther, Donna K., Genna Hurd, Xan Wedel, Thomas Becker, and Patricia Oslund, The Status of Women in Kansas, sponsored by United WE, January 2022.

Ginther, Donna K, Nancy Cayton Myers, Thomas Becker, Lindsay Elliot Jorgenson, "Growing New Ventures and Jobs in Kansas: An in-depth Review of Entrepreneurship Activities and Policies in Kansas and How We Compare." Institute for Policy & Social Research, The University of Kansas (January 2020).

Maynard-Moody, Steven with Charles Epp and Donald Haider-Markel,“Beyond Profiling: The Institutional Sources of Racial Disparities in Policing,” Public Administration Review (forthcoming).

Maynard-Moody, Steven, “Punishing the Poor.” Book review essay, Social Service Review, vol. 90, no. 4 (Dec 2016).

Maynard-Moody, Steven with Michael Musheno, “'Playing the Rules’: Discretion Social and Policy Context”. In Peter Hupe, Michael Hill, and Aurélien Buffat, eds., Understanding Street-Level Bureaucrats (Bristol, UK: The Policy Press, 2016).

For other publications please visit our Publications Page.