Research

Public correctional facilities play an important role in operational execution of several public health programs, including screening and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. However, because of lack of capacity and resources, public health programs using correctional facilities are questioned by policy-makers in terms of their costs and benefits. We developed a computational epidemiology model to support public health policy making, and used data from Douglas County, Nebraska, to investigate and evaluate the effects of potential universal screening within the jail system. This study contributes to the computational epidemiology literature by presenting an analytical framework to guide effective simulation experimentation for policy decision making. The presented methodology can be applied to other complex policy and public health problems.

Some companies may intentionally hire managers with “dark personality traits” that are associated with unethical or questionable tendencies. In certain situations where an organization needs to report earnings aggressively, companies may seek to hire candidates who exhibit these dark personality traits over those who have a stronger ethical foundation and may be better qualified for the position.

Side-hustles, income-generating work done outside of full-time jobs, can empower employees and enrich performance in their main careers. Dr. Amy Bartels, assistant professor of management, examines the positive effects of having a side-hustle and its influence on work performance in full-time jobs.

Amy Bartels, associate professor of management, and her co-authors walk through the powerful role emotions play in the dynamic of the leadership-follower relationship through daily interactions. Displays of emotion from a leader can ripple throughout an organization and influence follower performance, the relationship between a leader and follower, and the leader’s behavior.

Children who receive education from Head Start, a federally-funded preschool program for disadvantaged kids that prepares them for success in elementary school, find improved chances of having financial independence in adulthood. Research also shows this greatly decreases the odds that those children require public assistance from federal programs, ultimately generating revenue, rather than costs, for the government.

Although cash flow hedge derivative transactions have become common practice for corporations wanting to mitigate risk, adjusting financial statements to account for them often confuses investors. Dr. Jimmy Downes, associate professor of accountancy, published an article recently to help provide a full picture of financial statement adjustments needed when considering hedge derivatives.

“Companies use cash flow hedges to protect themselves from changes in commodity prices, foreign exchange rates and interest rates. What we look at in my recent paper is how debt investors understand the accounting for cash flow hedges,” said Downes. “The accounting for those transactions is difficult to understand. Prior literature, including one of my own papers, documents that investors and equity analysts don’t understand the accounting for these transactions.”