Research

(updated: 11-13-2023)

Papers under Review

[1] Jaeyeong Nam. "Passive Representation: The Effect of Affirmative Action Bans on Female Representation in Law Enforcement"

• Status: Under review at the Public Administration Review

• Points: Affirmative action bans are state-wide policies that prohibit preferential treatment based on demographic characteristics such as gender and race/ethnicity. This study examines the impact of affirmative action bans on gender representation in law enforcement, one of the critical areas for citizen-state interactions. The findings from the staggered difference-in-differences design show that affirmative action bans decreased women's representation in all cities and had a greater negative impact on mid-large size cities with populations over 100,000 compared to smaller cities. In addition, there was a significant decrease in women's representation in non-sworn officer positions, where the representation rate was higher than 50%. 

[2] Jaeyeong Nam & Daniel L. Fay. “State Contact Centers, Administrative Burden, and Economic Development Policy” 

• Status: Under review at the Public Management Review

• Points: Based on the theoretical frameworks of administrative burdens and new institutionalism, this study poses two questions: (1) whether the presence of third-party assistance organizations increases program persistence and (2) whether the effectiveness of third-party assistance varies based on the institutional environment of the state. Findings from unique pooled cross-sectional data reveal that R&D entrepreneurs are more likely to persist in Federal small business development programs when third-party assistance centers are nearby and accessible. In addition, third-party assistance centers are most effective in environments with high information asymmetries. 

[3] Jaeyeong Nam & Elizabeth Bell. "Fraud vs. Equity: How Bureaucrats View the Use of AI in Policy Implementation"

• Status: Special issue selected - Public Performance & Management Review

• Points: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has merits in efficiency and effectiveness, but it also raises concerns about social equity in data and decision-making. This study explores the public employees' perception of adopting AI to reduce citizens' administrative burdens using a vignette experiment survey. The findings indicate that bureaucrats are more likely to support and trust AI when it is expected to prevent fraud than unfairly harm minorities. This study contributes to the scholarship by providing a better understanding of the bureaucratic perceptions of adopting AI in public decision-making and its implications for discretion and social equity.

Manuscripts being Finalized

[4] Jaeyeong Nam, Elizabeth Bell, Emily Boykin, & Daniel Fay. “How Sector Moderates the Impact of State Policies on Sexual Misconduct Reporting”

• Status: Manuscript to be submitted for review at the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

• Points: Across the US, sexual misconduct occurs in every college and university but is frequently underreported and mishandled by institutions, thereby violating Title IX. Many states adopt policies that aim to improve the management of Title IX, but the effectiveness of these state policies remains an open question. In this study, we code every state Title IX policy that has been enacted from 2008 to 2019. Our findings from the staggered difference-in-differences design show that prevention policies increased the awareness of sexual misconduct in public institutions, and enforcement policies decreased the occurrence of cases in private institutions. 

[5] Jaeyeong Nam & Daniel L. Fay. “Policy Diffusion and Representative Bureaucracy: Evidence from In-state Tuition for Undocumented Students”

• Status: Manuscript to be submitted for review at the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

• Points: While representative bureaucracy and policy diffusion theories are well developed in public management and policy process scholarship, respectively, few have questioned how a representative bureaucracy can facilitate or hinder the diffusion of policies that disproportionately affect the matched client group. Using a competing risks event history model, this study suggests that states with higher minority representation are more likely to adopt supportive in-state tuition policies similar to peer states, and the likelihood of adopting a supportive policy decreases when the representation ratio exceeds the threshold, the national average ratio. 

[6] Jaeyeong Nam. “How Publicness Shapes the Equitable Distribution of Resources: Evidence from the State Small Business Credit Initiative” 

• Status: Manuscript being finalized

• Points: While many contracting out studies show the efficiency and effectiveness of contracting out, a few studies emphasize the importance of social equity in contracting out. This study explores how the policy implementation structures influence diversity in public service recipients. The State Small Business Credit Initiative program from 2011 to 2016 is an ideal case to explore how sectoral differences influence social equity outcomes. The findings from the multilevel regression model (or mixed effects model) reveal that public agencies yield better social equity performance than quasi-public authorities, while quasi-public authorities are associated with less social equity performance compared to both public agencies and private entities.

Papers in Preparation

[7] Elizabeth Bell, Emily Boykin, Jaeyeong Nam, & Daniel L. Fay. “A Chilling Effect: The Impact of Live Hearings on Sexual Misconduct Reporting”

• Status: Working paper - Manuscript writing

• Points: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has merits in efficiency and effectiveness, but it also raises concerns about social equity in data and decision-making. This study explores the public employees' perception of adopting AI to reduce citizens' administrative burdens using a vignette experiment survey. The findings indicate that bureaucrats are more likely to support and trust AI when it is expected to prevent fraud than unfairly harm minorities. This study contributes to the scholarship by providing a better understanding of the bureaucratic perceptions of adopting AI in public decision-making and its implications for discretion and social equity.

[8] Jaeyeong Nam & Elizabeth Bell. "Administrative Burden: How Policy Context Shapes Bureaucratic Reactions"

• Status: Working paper - Preliminary stage

• Points: Public employees' view on citizens is critical in citizen-state interactions. In this study, we investigate the influence of social construction on a bureaucrat’s tolerance toward the citizen’s burdensome application process. Using a vignette experimental setting, we presented one of three random policies that have different social constructions to participants and estimated their perception of the need for additional documentation and their willingness to aid in navigating intricate paperwork. As expected, the preliminary results indicate that bureaucrats are more likely to tolerate the burdens in the policies framed as for the have-nots.

[9] Jaeyeong Nam & Elizabeth Bell. "Administrative Burden: When Bureaucrats Cannot Tolerate the Burden of Citizens"

• Status: Working paper - Preliminary stage

• Points: Public employees' burden tolerance, the attitudes toward administrative burdens, is critical in citizens' interaction with the public sector. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of how public employees react to the citizen’s burden experience. This paper investigates public employees’ burden tolerance when dealing with citizens’ feedback on burdensome experiences during the application process using a conjoint experiment. We expect citizens' deservedness and desirable conditions to decrease public employees' burden tolerance while the magnitude of effect differed by personality, ideology, and knowledge about the policy. 

Peer-reviewed Conference Presentations

(9) Jaeyeong Nam. “Passive Representation: Affirmative Action Bans and Law Enforcement” Single paper will be presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). November 2023

(8) Jaeyeong Nam. “Contracting out: Public Service Delivery Structure and Social Equity Outcome” Single paper will be presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). November 2023

(7) Jaeyeong Nam. “Passive Representation: The Effect of Affirmative Action Bans on Gender Representation in Law Enforcement” Single paper presented at the Public Management Research Conference (PMRC). June 2023 

(6) Jaeyeong Nam. “Passive Representative Bureaucracy: It is Not a Given Fixed Condition” Single paper presented at the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). March 2023 

(5) Daniel L. Fay, & Jaeyeong Nam. “Diffusion through Representation: Evidence from Unauthorized Student Tuition Policy” Single paper presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). November 2022 

(4) Jaeyeong Nam & Daniel L. Fay. “Small Scientific Enterprise Innovations: How Does Effort of State Policy Amplify Effect of Federal Policy?” Single paper presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). November 2022 

(3) Emily Boykin, Elizabeth Bell, Daniel L. Fay, & Jaeyeong Nam. “Civic Engagement, Institutional Structures, & Sexual Misconduct: The Case of Florida Colleges and Universities” Single paper presented at the Public Management Research Conference (PRMC). May 2022 

(2) Jaeyeong Nam. “Innovation and Diffusion through Representative Bureaucracy: Evidence from English Learner Program” Single paper presented at the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). March 2022 

(1) Jaeyeong Nam. “Small Business Innovation: Institution and Cooperation Facilitating Changes in the R&D Structure of Universities” Single paper presented at the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). November 2021