By Matthew Kredell
The three award-winning Ph.D. dissertations from the USC Price School of Public Policy addressed some of the most complex and pressing challenges currently facing communities nationwide — including opioid drug abuse, inequality in urban development and digital media’s impact on class division.
Sarah Axeen won the USC Price Henry Reining Jr. Award for best dissertation written in public policy and management, while Brettany Shannon and Jovanna Rosen were co-winners of the school’s Jack Dyckman Award for best dissertation in planning and development. All three students were recognized at the 2016 Price Awards Ceremony in May.
Analyzing opioid abuse
In her dissertation titled “Essays in Opioid Use and Abuse,” Axeen focused on quantifying the scope and trajectory of opioid prescribing and utilization by Medicare beneficiaries in the United States — where 30 percent of these beneficiaries are filling the pain killers on a regular basis.
Axeen further examined the effect of state-level policies – supply constraints from regulation of pain management clinics, prescription drug monitoring programs, and tamper-resistant prescription pad laws – on both appropriate and inappropriate opioid utilization. She finds that regulating pain management clinics has the largest impact, but could lead to spillover effects like doctor and pharmacy shopping for opioids.
“Sarah’s dissertation shows remarkable originality and policy salience,” said USC Price Professor Dana Goldman, who served as Axeen’s dissertation committee chair. “Prescription drug abuse is one of the most challenging social issues today. Opioid overdose, for example, is now the second leading cause of unintentional death. Sarah’s research shines a light on the magnitude of this social epidemic, and what states can do to address it.”
Next year, Axeen will continue to conduct research, having accepted a joint postdoctoral fellowship at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, which is directed by Goldman, and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
“I had a great time here at USC Price,” Axeen said. “I think what made the difference for me was having the Schaeffer Center. I had access to world-renowned faculty members in health policy and economics. I had a lot of people to go to with my questions and ideas, and I got to see the sort of soup-to-nuts process of research in academia in a hands-on way with a group of people who were really supportive.”
How will technology shape future communities?
Shannon explored how urban planners need to take into account the potential for further class division with future technology in the growing field of digital media. Her dissertation was titled “Avoiding Middle-Class Planning 2.0: Media Arts and the Future of Urban Planning.”
“I’m optimistic, but also circumspect about technology as it’s used today,” Shannon said. “The fact is we really need to think about how it is that specific technologies will be used for going forward, because they are not going to be equally available to marginalized and vulnerable communities.”
Shannon examined the issue through three case studies. One considers how real estate developers are using the web to brand and sell their projects; another looks at how media arts organizations intersect with neighborhood change and the relevance of institutional agenda; and the third demonstrates how it is possible to use media arts for genuine participatory planning with hard-to-reach populations.
“Brettany’s dissertation is a pioneering exploration of an increasingly important element of urban planning and real estate development — the use of digital media,” said USC Price Professor David Sloane, Shannon’s faculty advisor. “By opening the discussion of digital media beyond the sharing and cultural economies, Brettany encourages scholars and practitioners to consider how digital media are infiltrating their routine work and affecting the modes of communication and interaction between city builders and shapers.”
Shannon will continue exploring how agencies use digital media for placemaking as a scholar-in-residence at the USC Bedrosian Center on Governance this fall.
Examining urban inequality
Rosen addressed inequality through urban development projects in her dissertation, “Community Development Agreements: Addressing Inequality Through Urban Development Projects.”
“Jovanna’s dissertation examines a really important issue in urban development: Do public agencies deliver on the promises they make to low-income communities when they negotiate over the development?” noted USC Price Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer, who was Rosen’s faculty advisor. “The answer is yes and no. Communities have to be vigilant and enjoy good political representation for public agencies to deliver on the promises they make.”
Analyzing four large-scale urban development projects, Rosen found communities often didn’t get the benefits promised to them. She noted how the communities that did see results, such as L.A.’s Crenshaw District with metro development, were the ones where local groups of residents were able to gain leverage to force the benefits to materialize.
Rosen will also be continuing on at USC for post-doctoral work with the USC Price Center for Social Innovation. She was one of several Ph.D. candidates to have papers published while pursuing their degrees, writing on the topic of climate and environmental health vulnerability for the Journal of Planning Literature.
Rosen credited Schweitzer for helping her get this head start on her career in academia.
“Lisa encouraged me to work on other projects and write as much as possible,” Rosen said. “It’s a lot easier to get published when you have an advisor who really looks closely at your work. My first draft that the Journal of Planning Literature saw was really my sixth draft that my advisor had seen. One of the amazing things about Price is how many professors take your work seriously and are very generous with their time.”
In addition to Rosen, other Ph.D. candidates who published research include: Arthur Acolin in American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, Cityscape, and Slums: How Informal Real Estate Markets Work (University of Pennsylvania Press); Hui Li in Public Administration Review; Vincent Reina in the RAND Justice Infrastructure, Environment, Energy, and Economic Development Program; and Xize Wang in the Journal of Regional Science.