Paul Solano

The economics of public health: financing drug abuse treatment services

Drug abuse treatment financing exhibits a heterogeneous set of sources from federal, state, and local governments, as well as private sources from insurance, patient out-of-pocket, and charity. A public health model of drug abuse treatment is presented for a market that can be characterized by excess demand in many communities and an implied policy of rationing. According to best estimates, as many as 6.7 million individuals may need treatment, but only an estimated 1.5 million individuals actually participated in treatment episodes. Since, as demonstrated empirically, drug abuse treatment has a robust and positive social net benefit to society, it is perplexing that treatment financing stops with a rationing outcome that inhibits social welfare. The justification for public financing is centered on the external costs of drug addiction, but subsidization is grounded in the reality that a large number of addicted individuals do not have sufficient resources to pay for treatment out-of-pocket, nor do they have private insurance coverage. Social welfare losses are generated by financial arrangements that are inconsistent with rational budgeting theory and as such would lead to non-optimal organization and management of the drug abuse treatment system.

Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Research on School Administrator Career Behavior

Recent research has focused on issues of retention and turnover among K–12 school administrators, yet it fails to address some important complexities in administrator career paths. This article examines three conceptual and methodological issues in the current literature involving administrative turnover: the complexity of role and place in administrators’ job transitions, job opportunity and choice open to administrators, and static versus dynamic approaches to assessing administrators’ movement and retention. This evaluation includes empirical examples from the authors’ study of administrator career paths in Delaware. The authors conclude that these issues have not yet been adequately acknowledged in the literature but that they have significant implications for how administrator career behavior is measured and understood for both research and policy.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education: A Historical and Comparative Analysis of Public Opinion

This research clarifies the public support of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in terms of acceptance, content, timing, and effectiveness as it may inform practice in the United States. The historical context of public opinion, as well as a summary of the efficacy of abstinence only education (AOE) versus CSE in the scientific literature, provides the foundation for this investigation. Several studies of public opinion, including a new survey, continue this exploration with the intent to further what is known about the public opinion about CSE. Findings of a state-wide survey study of adult views of sexuality education are compared with the results of public opinion research from various states and regions in the US. Support for CSE as well as related variables are explored. There is support for CSE among adults from around the US related to its incorporation into education, effectiveness, appropriate timing, potential content, and access to information and contraception. These findings indicate that general practices of CSE are consistent with public opinion and current research. These conclusions may be useful in garnering or expanding local support for CSE to ensure optimal education that is based on sound evidence and public opinion.

The Costs and Consequences of Gambling In the State of Delaware

Permission granted to archive report in repository by Paul L. Solano, Director, Health Services Policy Research Group (HSPRG), University of Delaware.

Sources of interest cost savings realized through state bond banking: A case of market segmentation

A recent study found state bond bank participants continually realize considerable interest cost savings. Savings were calculated as differences in interest costs of bond bank loans and the bond offerings participants would have sold as alternatives to loans, (alternative market offerings). The present evaluation determines the sources of the savings. Savings are generated by not only differences in issue characteristics of bond bank issues and alternative market offerings, but also differential impacts of the same market forces and institutional factors on the interest costs of both types of sales. These findings verify that bond bank issues and alternative market offerings sell in different sub-markets, and confirm municipal bond market segmentation.