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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (21 results)

  • Article
Recent Work (2020)

In this post we examine the likely impacts of the pandemic on local budgets, the factors still unknown, and the principles that must guide California’s response to this ongoing crisis.

    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    Berkeley Planning Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1 (2010)

    Economic crisis makes for compelling stories: coming back from lunch to find the office emptied out, planting backyard vegetable gardens, walking away from their foreclosed homes. The crisis thus becomes a series of tales of individual suffering, resilience, hard luck and fresh starts.

    Such narratives of crisis permit certain kinds of discourse to become normalized: discourses about the need for wholesale change, for desperate measures, for painful adjustment, for facing reality. As their plots reveal conventional ideas about the roots of the crisis, they also become stories about particular forms of recovery. Such stories help to justify, frame, and naturalize arguments about what the future holds and what responses are necessary. As a planner, I find myself wondering which pieces of this conventional wisdom will be quoted in urban plans and development pitches. How will these stories shape discourse about what’s necessary for American cities to “win”?

      Cover page: Reading Stories of Crisis and Recovery: What Next for the American City?
      • Article
      Recent Work (2022)
      In this post we evaluate the possible economic impacts of a proposed restructuring of Oakland’s Gross Receipts Tax, including an evaluation of job impact estimates made by the task force consultant—Blue Sky Consulting Group—and research on what factors affect business location and expansion. We also discuss the importance of strengthening the city’s revenue base to support Oakland’s continued recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of improving public services to support business growth and retention.
        • Article
        Recent Work (2018)
        Berkeley Blog post. Although the short-term effect of today’s decision is to throw 17 million public sector workers into uncertainty, it is also possible that Janus v. AFSCME will serve as a turning point for both a reinvigorated politics of labor and a revitalized conversation about the importance of the public sector to our social compact. Both our economy and our democracy depend on what happens next.
          • Article
          Recent Work (2023)
          Teachers’ willingness to strike represents not just a resurgence of union power, but also their determination to call attention to the dire consequences of decades of California’s underinvestment in K-12 education.
            • Article
            Recent Work (2020)

            This brief summarizes the Great Recession’s impact on public employment and the public sector job losses driven by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Our analysis points to the importance of focusing on the public sector as policymakers respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

              • Article
              Recent Work (2024)
              Until the state can make much-needed improvements to its property and commercial tax structure, officials will continue to propose drastic service cuts. Eliminating or freezing vacant positions in state and local budget processes may be a convenient way to cut expenses, but without substantive staffing analysis the impact of leaving those positions empty could pose a severe burden on existing staff, Californians, and the economy.
                • Article
                Recent Work (2023)
                This report explores how governments use technology, what drives technology adoption, and how technologies affect public sector workers and the delivery of public services. Using examples across local, state, and federal governments, the report finds that transparency and accountability have lagged behind rapid technology adoption in the wake of COVID-19, and that public sector workers play a critical role in ensuring that technology is used to strengthen the ability of governments to provide quality and equitable public services.
                  Cover page: Technology in the public sector and the future of government work
                  • Article
                  Policy Briefs (2018)
                  The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is now the primary anti-poverty program in the U.S., but it has not kept up with wage stagnation. Berkeley faculty recently proposed an increase in the federal EITC, California has adopted an expansion of its own state EITC, and Congress passed a tax bill that fails to help EITC recipients.
                    Cover page: Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Update: California Expansion, Federal Inaction
                    • Article
                    Policy Briefs (2018)
                    The Great Recession caused significant hardship for many U.S. families. Safety net programs—some of which were expanded during the recession and its recovery—mitigated some of the worst effects, but were not available to all households and were insufficient to compensate for the depth of the downturn. What can policymakers learn from the adequacy of the response?
                      Cover page: The Great Recession, Families, and the Safety Net
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