Carolyn J Heinrich
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 143303 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Carolyn J Heinrich |
| NOMBRES | Carolyn J |
| APELLIDO | Heinrich |
| FIRMA | HEINRICH C J |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7731-9138 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 61 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 909 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 61 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1992 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 15 |
The promise and performance of social impact bonds
This article examines social impact bonds (SIBs), first scrutinizing early discourse on their promises—increased accountability through competitive public-private partnerships, outcomes measurement, and a learning approach to performance management—drawing on theories of New Public Management and New Public Governance. Then, a structured review of empirical research is used to evaluate SIB performance against their public management reform promis…
Failing to Learn From Failure in Online Credit Recovery Assessments
Technology‐facilitated courses, completed online for the purpose of credit recovery (OCR), are the most common means through which US high school students retake courses required for high school graduation. Yet a growing body of research has raised concerns regarding student learning in these courses, with low‐quality assessments posited as a limiting factor. As course assessments are fundamental to evaluating student mastery and supporting stude…
Extending the Promise
Community colleges serve a key role in increasing college access, yet their completion rates lag far behind 4-year universities, and policies such as tuition discounts and promise programs come up short in buoying the success of low-income students. We examined the efficacy of a supplemental program developed to strengthen advising and financial supports provided to full- and part-time community college students facing greater barriers to college…
A tyranny of metrics vs. a tool for learning
Efficacy of United States' federally-funded interventions in increasing school capacities to improve student mental health and education outcomes in Tennessee
About two in five children and adolescents will meet the criteria for a mental disorder by age 18, and more than half of youth who are accessing mental health services receive them in an educational setting. Yet there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of school-based interventions on children's mental health and education outcomes. We examine the effectiveness of two key United States' federally-funded interventions for expanding school-ba…
The English-Only Nature of Vaccine Deservedness and Harms of Racialized Administrative Burdens
Despite extensive efforts to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine access and achieve a 70% vaccination rate, race-based disparities and barriers to vaccine access continue to persist in the United States. To investigate discrimination among Limited-English Proficient (LEP) populations, we conducted a paired audit test field experiment. Testers with identical gender and immigration status, but differing in racial and language profiles, inquired about vacci…
The interplay of discretion and complexity in public contracting and renegotiations
This article investigates how the use of discretion in public–private contracts interplays with transactional complexity in influencing contract renegotiations. Motivations for contract renegotiations may be positive, negative (e.g., opportunistic), or neutral, and we argue that allowing discretion at the award stage may promote a more relational approach to contracting that fosters cooperation and productive adaptation. Using a dataset of 12,189…
Minding the gap
State and local educational agencies are grappling with growing mental health needs among school-aged children that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. We undertake a case study of the experiences of one state, Tennessee, to examine the landscape of mental health interventions that are being deployed and to illuminate contextual factors that can support their implementation or exacerbate state and local challenges in addressing children's f…
Delivering on the Promise
As college promise programs proliferate across the country, supplemental promise programs are emerging to fill gaps in services and resources critical for student success, particularly for students with greater economic needs. This mixed-methods study examines the implementation and efficacy of two such programs in Tennessee, Nashville GRAD and Knox Promise, which are distinct in their approaches to providing financial and advising supports to co…
Repercussions of a Raid
Interior immigration enforcement in the U.S. has rapidly increased over the past two decades, including increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the revival of workplace raids under the Trump administration. We contribute to the body of research that aims to better understand the consequences of immigration enforcement for children in targeted communities, including on their education, health, and socioemotional well‐being…
Does Online Credit Recovery in High School Support or Stymie Later Labor Market Success
An emerging body of research links online credit recovery programs to rising high school graduation rates but does not find comparable increases in student learning. This study follows high school students who engaged in online credit recovery into the labor market to understand the longer‐term implications of this growing educational trend. If online credit recovery contributes to high school completion and facilitates job entry, then participan…
An audit test evaluation of state practices for supporting access to and promoting Covid-19 vaccinations
A field experiment, using a paired audit testing design with testers of different racial and language profiles, was conducted to document and evaluate individual encounters in inquiring about COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. states. Testers communicated with state health department and major vaccination site staff about obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine and assessed the extent to which evidence-informed communication tactics for encouraging take-up…
Consequences of Administrative Burden for Social Safety Nets that Support the Healthy Development of Children
Through the lens of administrative burden and ordeals, we investigate challenges that low‐income families face in accessing health and human services critical for their children's healthy development. We employ a mixed methods approach—drawing on administrative data on economically disadvantaged children in Tennessee, publicly available data on resource allocations and expenditures, and data collected in purposive and randomly sampled interviews …
A fine predicament
The Potential of Telepresence for Increasing Advanced Course Access in High Schools
The adoption of telepresence technology in K–12 schools potentially expands students’ access to course offerings and new ways of learning, but little is known about its implementation and promise for improving student outcomes. We employ a mixed-methods analysis to examine the experiences of students and teachers in telepresence courses in a large, urban school district as well as student learning outcomes and access to advanced placement courses…
A Look Inside Online Educational Settings in High School
This research examines online course-taking in high schools, which is increasingly used by students falling behind in progress toward graduation. The study looks inside educational settings to observe how online courses are used and assess whether students gain academically through their use. Drawing on 7 million records of online instructional sessions linked to student records, we find mostly negative associations between online course-taking a…
Pay‐for‐Success Development in the United States
Social impact bonds, known as pay‐for‐success (PFS) initiatives in the United States, have attracted attention as a novel strategy for financing and providing preventive services to the most vulnerable populations. This article provides an exploratory qualitative analysis of the Preschool PFS Feasibility Pilot grant applications and projects initiated by the U.S. Department of Education to encourage state and local exploration of PFS for implemen…
Presidential Address
Contradictory elements in U.S. immigration policy, reflecting a long‐time struggle between inclusionary and exclusionary views, have resulted in federal legislation filled with compromises and tradeoffs that, at state and sub‐state levels, play out in unclear interpretations and uneven, highly discretionary administration and enforcement of immigration law and policy. This research describes a tool of discretionary administration—administrative b…
Reducing Adolescent Risky Behaviors in a High-Risk Context
South African adolescents living in poverty are at significant risk for negative outcomes associated with risky sexual activity and substance use. The South African government introduced the Child Support Grant (CSG) to reduce poverty and provide protection from these risks. We use variation in grant receipt by age to estimate potential effects of this unconditional cash transfer program on adolescent outcomes. The study findings suggest that the…
The Bite of Administrative Burden
The study of administrative burden—experienced in individual encounters with government—is being renewed with new theoretical developments and policy applications. Building on recent developments, this article aims to broaden the conceptual framing of administrative burden and extend its empirical investigation beyond concerns about access to and efficiency of public services to questions of individual and societal impacts. It also expands beyond…
Public Management Research Association
Improving the Implementation and Effectiveness of Out-of-School-Time Tutoring
School districts are spending millions on tutoring outside regular school day hours for economically and academically disadvantaged students in need of extra academic assistance. Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), parents of children in persistently low‐performing schools were allowed to choose their child's tutoring provider, and together with school districts, they were also primarily responsible for holding providers in the private market acco…
Public Management Research Association
Cream-Skimming, Parking and Other Intended and Unintended Effects of High-Powered, Performance-Based Contracts
As performance-based contracting in social welfare services continues to expand, concerns about potential unintended effects are also growing. We analyze the incentive effects of high-powered, performance-based contracts and their implications for program outcomes using panel data on Dutch cohorts of unemployed and disabled workers that were assigned to private social welfare providers in 2002 to 2005. We employ a difference-in-differences design…
Discouraging Disadvantaged Fathers’ Employment
Substantial declines in employment and earnings among disadvantaged men may be exacerbated by child support enforcement policies that are designed to help support families but may have the unintended consequence of discouraging fathers’ employment. Disentangling causal effects is challenging because high child support debt may be both a cause and a consequence of unemployment and low child support order compliance. We used childbirth costs charge…
The Bite of Administrative Burden
The study of administrative burden—experienced in individual encounters with government—is being renewed with new theoretical developments and policy applications. Building on recent developments, this article aims to broaden the conceptual framing of administrative burden and extend its empirical investigation beyond concerns about access to and efficiency of public services to questions of individual and societal impacts. It also expands beyond…
Studying Governance and Public Management
How can public-sector regimes, agencies, programs, and activities be organized and managed to achieve public purposes? This question, of fundamental importance in the fields of politics, policy implementation, public administration, and public management, motivates the systematic study of governance. In this article, we present a logic of governance, based in political economy literatures, that might be used as a first step toward framing theory-…
Presidential Address
Contradictory elements in U.S. immigration policy, reflecting a long‐time struggle between inclusionary and exclusionary views, have resulted in federal legislation filled with compromises and tradeoffs that, at state and sub‐state levels, play out in unclear interpretations and uneven, highly discretionary administration and enforcement of immigration law and policy. This research describes a tool of discretionary administration—administrative b…
Incentives and their dynamics in public sector performance management systems
We use the principal‐agent model as a focal theoretical frame for synthesizing what we know, both theoretically and empirically, about the design and dynamics of the implementation of performance management systems in the public sector. In this context, we review the growing body of evidence about how performance measurement and incentive systems function in practice and how individuals and organizations respond and adapt to them over time, drawi…
Do Government Bureaucrats Make Effective Use of Performance Management Information
This research on a local job-training agency's use of performance-based contracting addresses a central question: Do JTPA program administrators use the performance standards system effectively to motivate behavior on the part of contractors, behavior that enhances agency performance and is consistent with program goals? I find some evidence that this agency uses information obtained from its performance-based contracting system to make resource …
Evidence-Based Policy and Performance Management
Both the evidence-based policy and performance management movements aim to improve government effectiveness by developing and utilizing a more rigorous base of information and scientific evidence to guide decisions about program design, funding, implementation, and management. In practice, however, differences and tensions between these movements—such as their methods and standards for assembling and analyzing data, and the strategic timing and u…
A State of Agents? Sharpening the Debate and Evidence over the Extent and Impact of the Transformation of Governance
We address focal questions about the growth of "third-party" government and new forms or tools of governance and the extent and impact of their increasing use to implement public policy and the "public will." Our goal is to sharpen this discussion by bringing empirical evidence to bear on key arguments and assertions in the debate. In particular, along with the other contributors to this journal issue, we look for evidence that government control…
Consequences of Administrative Burden for Social Safety Nets that Support the Healthy Development of Children
Through the lens of administrative burden and ordeals, we investigate challenges that low‐income families face in accessing health and human services critical for their children's healthy development. We employ a mixed methods approach—drawing on administrative data on economically disadvantaged children in Tennessee, publicly available data on resource allocations and expenditures, and data collected in purposive and randomly sampled interviews …
Performance-Based Contracting in Social Welfare Programs
The Wisconsin Works (W-2) program changed the administrative structure for social welfare services delivery from county government administration to one that includes performance-based contracting and private sector management of programs. We present a theoretical discussion of government contracting and the implications of alternative contract structures for service provider behavior and performance. We then analyze W-2 contract design and manag…
Means and Ends
Scholars employ a wide range of empirical approaches to understand how, why, and with what consequences government is organized and managed. We review recent statistical modeling efforts in governance research and assess recent advances in quantitative research designs. We then estimate models of government performance, using three statistical approaches: multilevel (hierarchical linear) models; ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models usin…
Cream-Skimming, Parking and Other Intended and Unintended Effects of High-Powered, Performance-Based Contracts
As performance-based contracting in social welfare services continues to expand, concerns about potential unintended effects are also growing. We analyze the incentive effects of high-powered, performance-based contracts and their implications for program outcomes using panel data on Dutch cohorts of unemployed and disabled workers that were assigned to private social welfare providers in 2002 to 2005. We employ a difference-in-differences design…
Discouraging Disadvantaged Fathers’ Employment
Substantial declines in employment and earnings among disadvantaged men may be exacerbated by child support enforcement policies that are designed to help support families but may have the unintended consequence of discouraging fathers’ employment. Disentangling causal effects is challenging because high child support debt may be both a cause and a consequence of unemployment and low child support order compliance. We used childbirth costs charge…
Dimensions of publicness and performance in substance abuse treatment organizations
Changes in funding, clientele, and treatment practices of public and privately owned substance abuse treatment programs, compelled in part by increased cost containment pressures, have prompted researchers' investigations of the implications of organizational form for treatment programs. These studies primarily probe associations between ownership status, patient characteristics, and services delivered and do not empirically link organizational f…
False or fitting recognition? The use of high performance bonuses in motivating organizational achievements
This research undertakes a theoretical and empirical examination of (high performance bonus) systems in government, that is, incentive payments awarded by the federal government to state organizations or statewide programs to motivate and recognize high performance achievements. The paper draws from a multidisciplinary literature on incentives in organizations to first derive implications for the design and implementation of high performance bonu…
Third-Party Governance under No Child Left Behind
This study explores how the Milwaukee public school district manages the organizations that provide tutoring and other supplemental educational services required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It also examines the relationship between the performance of service providers and their shares of the participating students and finds little correlation between the two
Reducing child support debt and its consequences
As child support debt owed nationally persists at enormous levels, both noncustodial parents and the custodial families who are not receiving support suffer significant hardships, and states are forced to expend greater resources on collection and enforcement efforts. This paper presents findings from an evaluation of a demonstration program developed to help noncustodial parents with large child support debts reduce their debt while simultaneous…
One Standard Fits All? The Pros and Cons of Performance Standard Adjustments
Despite the wide‐ranging use of performance measures within the public sector and the growing use of performance bonuses to recognize performance achievements, the use of formal performance standards adjustment procedures in public performance measurement systems is relatively rare. Burt S. Barnow of Johns Hopkins University and Carolyn J. Heinrich of the University of Wisconsin–Madison set forth the basic arguments in favor of and against the us…
An audit test evaluation of state practices for supporting access to and promoting Covid-19 vaccinations
A field experiment, using a paired audit testing design with testers of different racial and language profiles, was conducted to document and evaluate individual encounters in inquiring about COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. states. Testers communicated with state health department and major vaccination site staff about obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine and assessed the extent to which evidence-informed communication tactics for encouraging take-up…
A Look Inside Online Educational Settings in High School
This research examines online course-taking in high schools, which is increasingly used by students falling behind in progress toward graduation. The study looks inside educational settings to observe how online courses are used and assess whether students gain academically through their use. Drawing on 7 million records of online instructional sessions linked to student records, we find mostly negative associations between online course-taking a…
Demand and Supply-Side Determinants of Conditional Cash Transfer Program Effectiveness
Repercussions of a Raid
Interior immigration enforcement in the U.S. has rapidly increased over the past two decades, including increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the revival of workplace raids under the Trump administration. We contribute to the body of research that aims to better understand the consequences of immigration enforcement for children in targeted communities, including on their education, health, and socioemotional well‐being…
The Potential of Telepresence for Increasing Advanced Course Access in High Schools
The adoption of telepresence technology in K–12 schools potentially expands students’ access to course offerings and new ways of learning, but little is known about its implementation and promise for improving student outcomes. We employ a mixed-methods analysis to examine the experiences of students and teachers in telepresence courses in a large, urban school district as well as student learning outcomes and access to advanced placement courses…
Reducing Adolescent Risky Behaviors in a High-Risk Context
South African adolescents living in poverty are at significant risk for negative outcomes associated with risky sexual activity and substance use. The South African government introduced the Child Support Grant (CSG) to reduce poverty and provide protection from these risks. We use variation in grant receipt by age to estimate potential effects of this unconditional cash transfer program on adolescent outcomes. The study findings suggest that the…
The Efficacy of Private Sector Providers in Improving Public Educational Outcomes
School districts required under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to provide supplemental educational services (SES) to students in schools that are not making adequate yearly progress rely heavily on the private sector to offer choice in services. If the market does not drive out ineffective providers, students may not gain through SES participation. We estimate SES provider effects on students’ math and reading achievement in an urban school district…
Improving Education and Employment for Disadvantaged Young Men
Low high school graduation rates and sharply declining employment rates among disadvantaged youth have led to an increasing number of youths who are disconnected from both school and work. What programs and policies might prevent these disconnections and improve educational and employment outcomes, particularly among young men? The authors review the evidence base on youth development policies for adolescents and young teens; programs seeking to …
A Formative Evaluation of Habitat Africa!'s Thirsty Animal Trail Prototype Series
Effects of Live Animal Demonstrations on Zoo Visitors' Retention of Information
Animal demonstrations accompanied by narration constitute one way children's zoos are attempting to move toward programs that emphasize educational messages. A wider and increasingly sophisticated range of educational messages have been incorporated into demonstrations with the intention of increasing their appeal and educational value for adults as well as children. In an evaluation of the "Animal All-Star Show" at the Brookfield Zoo's Children'…
Generating jobs
Generating jobs
Do Government Bureaucrats Make Effective Use of Performance Management Information
This research on a local job-training agency's use of performance-based contracting addresses a central question: Do JTPA program administrators use the performance standards system effectively to motivate behavior on the part of contractors, behavior that enhances agency performance and is consistent with program goals? I find some evidence that this agency uses information obtained from its performance-based contracting system to make resource …
Organizational form and performance
While research on the distinctions between for-profit and nonprofit organizations and their changing service sector shares is vast, there is comparatively little empirical evidence on the consequences of their differing attributes for social program outcomes. This article presents research on publicly subsidized for-profit and nonprofit job-training service providers, namely whether organizational form influences client enrollment, service delive…
Studying Governance and Public Management
How can public-sector regimes, agencies, programs, and activities be organized and managed to achieve public purposes? This question, of fundamental importance in the fields of politics, policy implementation, public administration, and public management, motivates the systematic study of governance. In this article, we present a logic of governance, based in political economy literatures, that might be used as a first step toward framing theory-…
Means and Ends
Scholars employ a wide range of empirical approaches to understand how, why, and with what consequences government is organized and managed. We review recent statistical modeling efforts in governance research and assess recent advances in quantitative research designs. We then estimate models of government performance, using three statistical approaches: multilevel (hierarchical linear) models; ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models usin…
Response to Professor Lowery
Simon, Herbert A. 1962 The Architecture of Complexity. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106:6:46782. Wolf, Patrick J. 1993 A Case Survey of Bureaucratic Effectiveness in U.S. Cabinet Agencies: Preliminary Results. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 3:2:161-81. 1997 Why Must We Reinvent the Federal Government? Putting Historical Development Claims to the Test. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory …
The Economic Contributions of James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden
This paper analyzes the economic contributions of Daniel L. McFadden and James J. Heckman, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in economic science in 2000. McFadden's analytical work on discrete choices and related theory brings economic tools to bear on policy questions that previously had not been empirically investigated. The multinomial logit and similar models developed by McFadden enable researchers to empirically model factors that affect ind…
Outcomes–Based Performance Management in the Public Sector
Requirements for outcomes–based performance management are increasing performance–evaluation activities at all government levels. Research on public–sector performance management, however, points to problems in the design and management of these systems and questions their effectiveness as policy tools for increasing governmental accountability. In this article, I analyze experimental data and the performance–management experiences of federal job…
Dimensions of publicness and performance in substance abuse treatment organizations
Changes in funding, clientele, and treatment practices of public and privately owned substance abuse treatment programs, compelled in part by increased cost containment pressures, have prompted researchers' investigations of the implications of organizational form for treatment programs. These studies primarily probe associations between ownership status, patient characteristics, and services delivered and do not empirically link organizational f…
Modeling Trajectories in Social Program Outcomes for Performance Accountability
Government and public focus on accountability for program outcomes, combined with practical and ethical constraints on experimental designs, make nonexperimental studies of social programs an increasingly common approach to producing information on program performance. In this paper, we compare the effectiveness of alternative nonexperimental evaluation methods used with longitudinal data to produce information about social program outcomes. The …
Welfare to Temporary Work
We explore the effects of temporary help employment on welfare recipients' subsequent employment and welfare dynamics. We find that any employment—in temporary help services or other sectors—yields substantial benefits compared to no employment. Although welfare recipients who go to work for temporary help service firms have lower initial wages than those with jobs in other sectors, they experience faster subsequent wage growth. Two years later, …
Demand and Supply-Side Determinants of Conditional Cash Transfer Program Effectiveness
The four pillars of high performance
False or fitting recognition? The use of high performance bonuses in motivating organizational achievements
This research undertakes a theoretical and empirical examination of (high performance bonus) systems in government, that is, incentive payments awarded by the federal government to state organizations or statewide programs to motivate and recognize high performance achievements. The paper draws from a multidisciplinary literature on incentives in organizations to first derive implications for the design and implementation of high performance bonu…
Performance-Based Contracting in Social Welfare Programs
The Wisconsin Works (W-2) program changed the administrative structure for social welfare services delivery from county government administration to one that includes performance-based contracting and private sector management of programs. We present a theoretical discussion of government contracting and the implications of alternative contract structures for service provider behavior and performance. We then analyze W-2 contract design and manag…
Evidence-Based Policy and Performance Management
Both the evidence-based policy and performance management movements aim to improve government effectiveness by developing and utilizing a more rigorous base of information and scientific evidence to guide decisions about program design, funding, implementation, and management. In practice, however, differences and tensions between these movements—such as their methods and standards for assembling and analyzing data, and the strategic timing and u…
The Empiricist Goose Has Not Been Cooked
Does Community Participation Produce Dividends in Social Investment Fund Projects
Incentives and their dynamics in public sector performance management systems
We use the principal‐agent model as a focal theoretical frame for synthesizing what we know, both theoretically and empirically, about the design and dynamics of the implementation of performance management systems in the public sector. In this context, we review the growing body of evidence about how performance measurement and incentive systems function in practice and how individuals and organizations respond and adapt to them over time, drawi…
One Standard Fits All? The Pros and Cons of Performance Standard Adjustments
Despite the wide‐ranging use of performance measures within the public sector and the growing use of performance bonuses to recognize performance achievements, the use of formal performance standards adjustment procedures in public performance measurement systems is relatively rare. Burt S. Barnow of Johns Hopkins University and Carolyn J. Heinrich of the University of Wisconsin–Madison set forth the basic arguments in favor of and against the us…
Public Management Research Association
Dedication and Thanks
Political science (41 obras) · Economics (37 obras) · Business (31 obras) · Psychology (20 obras) · Public Policy and Administration Research (18 obras) · Computer Science (15 obras) · Economic growth (13 obras) · Medicine (13 obras) · Public Administration (13 obras) · Public economics (13 obras)