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School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences

Faculty Research and Publications

UT Dallas > School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences > About > Research and Centers > Faculty Research and Publications
Criminology and Criminal Justice

Criminology, the intricate study of crime and criminal behavior, illuminates the complex interplay between societal structures and individual actions. Delving into questions of punishment, crime prevention, and the efficacy of legal measures, criminologists navigate a multidisciplinary landscape that encompasses sociology, law, political science, history, and psychology. Our distinguished faculty members in the field bring their expertise to the forefront, contributing groundbreaking research to academic journals and earning accolades for their outstanding teaching and scholarly achievements. Through their publications, they enrich the discourse surrounding crime and its societal ramifications, offering insights that inform policy, shape practice, and advance the field of criminology.

Michelle Harris

  • Harris, M. N. (2024). Violent Victimization of Youth With Mental Disorders: Does Lifestyles/Routine Activities or Control Perspectives Mediate the Relationship Between Mental Illness and Victimization? Crime & Delinquency, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287241231747
Cyber and Big Data Analytics

Cyber and Big Data Analytics explores the relationship between organizations, individuals, and digital information systems. Governments and businesses leverage extensive data collection and advanced analytics, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Data drives problem-solving, efficiency gains, and innovation, but also raises ethical, cybersecurity, and privacy concerns. Our scholars lead in research, contributing to top publications and shaping policy and industry practices, advancing the field responsibly.

Economics

Faculty members in the Economics Program at UT Dallas maintain active research agendas. Focuses are generally on applied microeconomic and macroeconomic policy. While much of this research is empirical, the program also has strengths in microeconomic theory (e.g., game theory). Of great importance is the Program’s strength in econometrics, with econometricians working on both theoretical and empirical issues. Econometricians often collaborate with faculty and graduate students working on applied policy issues.

Applied macroeconomic topics include examinations of the effects of both monetary and fiscal policy tools and how they influence issues such as inflation, business cycles, and international finance. Applied microeconomics topics include the economics of education, tax and housing policy, and health economics – especially health issues related to risky or criminal activities. A group of economists are also part of EPPS faculty studying conflict, ranging from counterterrorism to cybersecurity.

The Economics Program at UT Dallas is committed to preparing students for careers in research, teaching, and business. The program offers a variety of opportunities for students to gain research experience, including working with faculty on research projects, participating in research workshops and conferences, and conducting independent research.

EPPS is also home to the Texas Schools Project (TSP), which is led by Dr. Trey Miller of the Economics Program. TSP supports and conducts research aimed at improving academic achievement and teacher effectiveness, increase transitions to and success in postsecondary education, and improve labor market outcomes of students in Texas and the nation. It houses detailed administrative data on K-12 students throughout Texas. Related to this, the Economics Program conducts research on issues related to higher education and on factors related to success in higher education. The economics of education also complements work in labor and public economics. This includes research on immigration policies and labor market outcomes, the efficacy of school-level programs, and the influence peer interactions have on the academic achievement of recent immigrants.

The Economics Program benefits from being a member institution of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (DFW FSRDC). The Dallas-Fort Worth Federal Statistical Research Data Center (DFW FSRDC) is a partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau and a consortium that includes the University of Texas at Dallas along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the University of Texas at Arlington, Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation. The DFW FSRDC is located at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Daniel Arce

  • Arce, D., & Faria, J. (2022). Economics of Conflict and Terrorism
  • Arce, D., & Faria, J. (2022). Special Issues on Conflict and Terrorism. Games.
  • Arce, D. (2022). Security-Induced Lock-In in the Cloud, Business and Information Systems Engineering, 64, 501-513.

Kurt Beron

  • Beron, K. (2021). Property Tax Capitalization, a Case Study of Dallas County, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 89.
  • Beron, K. (2021). Listening In: How Parent-Child Communication Relates to Social and Physical Aggression, Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30, 1540-1553.
  • Beron, K. (2021). Frequency of Text Messaging and Adolescents’ Mental Health Symptoms Across 4 Years of High School, Journal of Adolescent Health, 68, 324-330.

Seth Giertz

  • Giertz, S. (2022). Reducing Property Taxes for Agriculture: Diffusion of Use-Value Assessment Policy across the United States, Land Use Policy, v120.

Dong Li

  • Li, D. (2023). Ruffled Feathers: The Chicken Cartel in the United States, The Antitrust Bulletin.

Trey Miller

  • Miller, T. (2022). Assessing the Effect of Corequisite English Instruction Using a Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 15(1), 78-102.

Camilla Morales

  • Morales, C. (2022). Do Refugee Students Affect the Academic Achievement of Peers? Evidence from a Large Urban School District, Economics of Education Review, 89.
  • Morales, C. (2024). Dual Language Immersion Programs and Student Achievement in Early Elementary Grades. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 0(0). 

Irina Panovska

  • Panovska, I., Ramamurthy, S. & (2022). Decomposing the Output Gap with Inflation Learning, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 136.
  • Dey, A., Haq, T., Das, K., & Panovska, I. (2022). Quantifying the Impact of Covid-19 on the US Stock Market: An Analysis from Multi Source Information, Physica A 59.
  • Panovska, I. (2022). Global Perceptions of the Current and Future Impact of Covid-19 on Hereditary Angioedema Management” Allergy and Asthma Proceedings, Volume 43(1).

Kevin Siqueira

  • Jingxian, C., & Siqueira, K., (2021). The Presence of Revenge in Conflict and the Possibility of Complete Deterrence, Defense and Peace Economics, 1-13.

Donggyu Sul

  • Lee, Y., & Sul, D. (2022). Depth-Weighted Forecast Combination: Application to COVID-19 Cases, Advances in Econometrics.
  • Lee, Y., & Sul, D. (2022). Trimmed Mean Group Estimation, Advanced in Econometrics, Essays in Honor of M. Hashem Pesaran.

Victor Valcarcel

  • Valcarcel, V. (2021). Monetary Transmission in Money Markets: The Not-So-Elusive Missing Piece of the Puzzle, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 131:1-16.
Geospatial Information Sciences

Jointly offered by the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, this unique program reflects geospatial information science’s origins at the confluence of multiple disciplines including geography, computer science, engineering, geology and various social, policy and applied sciences.

The GIS program at UT Dallas ranked No. 1 in the nation for GIScience/Computation and Spatial Analysis/Statistics by Geographical Perspectives. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey designated the program a Center of Academic Excellence, the only one in Texas and one of 17 nationwide, and the Esri named it one of its Innovation Programs. Our faculty includes leading experts in the field and pioneering researchers in Geospatial Information Sciences.

Yongwan Chun

  • Daniel, G., Chun, Y., & Kim, H. (2023). The Majority Theorem for the Single (p=1) Median Problem and Local Spatial Autocorrelation, Geographical.
  • Chun, Y. (2023). A zero-inflated spatiotemporal analysis for snowpack variations and influence of environmental factors in the Northern Hemisphere, Journal of Hydrology, 616, 128760.
  • Lee, Changho, Daniel A. Griffith, Yongwan Chun, and Hyun Kim (2023). Effects of geographically stratified random sampling initial solutions on solving a continuous surface p-median problem using the ALTERN heuristic, Spatial Statistics, 56, 100768 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spasta.2023.100768)
  • Kim, Dongeun, Yongwan Chun, and Daniel A. Griffith (2024). Impacts of spatial imputation on location-allocation problem solutions, Spatial Statistics, 60, 100810 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spasta.2024.100810)

Dohyeong Kim

  • Cho, S., Kim D., Khan H.*, Lee C., 2023, “Heinrich’s law for traffic incidents? using the digital tachograph data to identify traffic accident hotspots,” Traffic and Transportation, 35(6):829-837.

Anthony Cummings

  • Marchini, S., Cummings, A.R., Arisi, B.M, Argudin-Violante, C., Süssekind, F., Shepard Jr, G.H., Daly, L., Jauregui Bordones, L., Guaita, L. and Arias, M. (2022). Testing the Law of Crime Concentration in Georgetown, Guyana, Crime and Delinquency.
  • Cummings, A.R. (2022). Multidisciplinary team highlights the importance of Indigenous and local communities for jaguar conservation, Oryx, 56(2), 169-175.
  • Stephanie R. Rogers, Kunwar K. Singh, Adam J. Mathews & Anthony R. Cummings. (2022). Drones and geography: who is using them and why? Professional Geographer.

Daniel Griffith

  • Daniel A. Griffith, 2023. “Art, Geography/GIScience, and Mathematics: A Surprising Interface,” Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(1), pages 1-12, January.Griffith, D.A., Chun, Y. and Kim, H. (2023), The Majority Theorem for the Single (p = 1) Median Problem and Local Spatial Autocorrelation. Geogr Anal, 55: 107-124.
  • Murakami, D. and Griffith, D.A. (2023), Balancing Spatial and Non-Spatial Variation in Varying Coefficient Modeling: A Remedy for Spurious Correlation. Geogr Anal, 55: 31-55.

Qiu Fang

  • Qiu, F. & Tang, Y. (2022) Big remote sensing data as curves, New Thinking in GIScience, 29-39.
  • Li, X., Qiu, F., Shi, F., & Tang, Y. (2022). A Recursive Hull and Signal-Based Building Footprint Generation from Airborne LiDAR Data, Remote Sensing, No. 22: 5892.
  • Tang, Y., Qiu, F., Wang, B., We, D., Jing, L., & Sun, Z. (20223). A deep relearning method based on the recurrent neural network for land cover classification, GIScience & Remote Sensing, 59:1, 1344-1366.

Muhammad Tauhidur Rahman

  • Fattah, M. A., Gupta, S. D., Faroque, M. Z., Ghosh, B., Morshed, S. R., Chakraborty, T., Al Kafy, & A., Rahman, M. T. (2023). Spatiotemporal characterization of relative humidity trends and influence of climatic factors in Bangladesh, Heliyon, 9:e, 19991.
  • Mukarram, M. M. T., Al Kafy, A., Mukarram, M. M. T., Rukiya, Q. U., Almulhim, A. I., Das, A., Fattah, M. A., Rahman, M. T., & Chowdhury M. A. (2023). Perception of coastal citizens on the prospect of community-based rainwater harvesting system for sustainable water resource management, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 198:107196.
  • Al-Areeq, A. M., Sharif, H., Al-Areeq, N., Rahman, M. T., & Al-Suwaiyan, M. S. (2023). The Impact of Earth Fissures on Flood Hazard Extent for the Northern Part of the Qaa’ Jahran Basin, Dhamar,Yemen, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.
  • Al-Areeq, A. M., Chowdhury, S., Rahman, M. T., Al-Areeq, N., & Quriaa, H. (2023). Assessment of water quality using multivariate statistics and geographical information systems (GIS) of Wadi Aldabab, Taiz, Yemen, Applied Water Science, 13:169.
  • Hassan, M. S., Gomes, R. F. L., Bhuiyan, M. A. H., & Rahman, M. T. (2023). Land Use and the Climatic Determinants of Population Exposure to PM2.5 in Central Bangladesh, Pollutants, 3:381-395.
  • Al Kafy, A., Saha, M., Fattah, M. A., Rahman, M. T., Duti, B. M., Rahaman, Z. A., Bakshi, A., Kalaivani, S., Rahaman, S. N., & Sattar, G. S. (2023). Integrating Forest cover change and carbon storage dynamics: Leveraging Google Earth Engine and InVEST model to inform conservation in hilly regions, Ecological Indicators, 152:110374.
  • Hassan, M. S., Bhuiyan, M. A. H., & Rahman, M. T. (2023). Sources, pattern, and possible health impacts of PM2.5 in the central region of Bangladesh using PMF, SOM, and machine learning techniques, Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, 8:100366.
  • Fattah, A., Morshed, S. R., Al Kafy, A., Rahaman, Z. A., Ibrahim, M. H., Rahman, & M. T. (2023). Wavelet coherence analysis of PM2. 5 variability in response to meteorological changes in South Asian cities, Atmospheric Pollution Research, 14(5):101737.
  • Taiwo, B. E., Al Kafy, A., Samuel, A. A., Rahaman, Z. A., Ayowole, O. E., Shahrier, M., Duti, B. M., Rahman, M. T., Peter, O. T., & Abosede, O. O. (2023). Monitoring and predicting the influences of land use/land cover change on cropland characteristics and drought severity using remote sensing techniques, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 18:100248.
  • Chikhmous, A., Rahman, M.T. Examining the effect of apartment attributes on their sale prices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Spat. Inf. Res. (2024).
  • Salim, M. Z., Choudhary, N., Al Kafy, A., Nath, H., Alsulamy, S., Rahaman, Z., Aldosary, A. S., Rahman, M. T., Al-Ramadan, B. A comprehensive review of navigating urbanization induced climate change complexities for sustainable groundwater resources management in the Indian subcontinent, Groundwater for Sustainable Development (2024).

May Yuan

  • Psyllidis, A., Gao, S., Hu, Y., Kim, E., McKenzie, G., Purves, R., Yuan, M., & Andris, C. (2022). Points of Interest (POI): a commentary on the state of the art, challenges, and prospects for the future, Computational Urban Science, 2(1), 1-13.
  • Yuan, M. (2022). From representation to geocomputation: some theoretical accounts of geographic information science, New Thinking in GIScience, 1-8.
  • Yuan, M., & Mckee, A. (2022). Embedding scale: new thinking of scale in machine learning and geographic representation, Journal of Geographical Systems, 24: 501-524.
  • Yuan, M. (2022). Spatializing text for deep mapping. Making Deep Maps: Foundations, Approaches, and Methods, 50-63.
Global and Public Health

Public health emerges as a critical discipline devoted to the enhancement of population health and the promotion of healthier living. As contemporary health challenges escalate, from epidemics to disparities in healthcare access, a holistic, interdisciplinary approach becomes increasingly indispensable.
Through their interdisciplinary endeavors, spanning policy analysis, groundbreaking research, and the cultivation of essential practitioner skills, our faculty catalyze transformative change in health practices and policies, both domestically and abroad. Their unwavering dedication to advancing public health outcomes underscores our commitment to fostering healthier, more resilient communities, making a tangible impact on the lives of individuals around the globe.

Dohyeong Kim

  • Kim D., Carson R., Whittington D., Hanemann M., 2023, “Support for a regulation versus compliance: an illustration using face masks,” Public Health in Practice, 5; 100324.
  • Maxwell S., Brooks C., Kim P.*, Kim D., Thomas K., 2023, “Understanding habitats and environmental conditions of white-tailed deer population density and public health data to aid in assessing human tick-borne disease risk,” Microorganisms, 11(4): 865.
  • Ogbudebe C., Jeong D.*, Odume B., Chukwuogo O., Useni S., Dim C., Okuzu O., Malolan C., Kim D., Nwariaku F., Nkiru N., Gande S., Nongo D., Eneogu R., Odusote T., Oyelaran S., Chijioke-Akaniro O., Gidado M., Anyaike C., 2023, Identifying hotspots of tuberculosis in Nigeria using Early Warning Outbreak Recognition System (EWORS): retrospective analysis of implications for active case finding intervention, JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 9(1):e40311.
  • Jeong, D.*, Kim D., Mohiuddin H.*, Kang S., Kim S., 2023, “Regional disparity in educational impact of COVID-19: a spatial difference-in-difference approach,” Sustainability, 15(16):12514.
  • Maxwell S., Brooks C., Kim D., McNeely C., Cho S.*, Thomas K., 2023, “Improving surveillance of human tick-borne disease risks: a spatial analysis using multimodal databases,” JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 9(1):e43790.
  • Mehta, A.*, Kim D., Odusola A., Allo N., Malolan C., Nwariaku F., 2023, “Using parallel geocoding to analyze spatial characteristics of road traffic injury occurrences across Lagos, Nigeria,” BMJ Global Health, 8:e012315.
  • Odusola A., Jeong D.*, Malolan C., Kim D., Venkatraman C, Kola-Korolo O., Idris J., Olaomi O., Nwariaku F., 2023, “Spatial and temporal analysis of road traffic crashes and ambulance responses in Lagos state, Nigeria,” BMC Public Health, 23:2273.
  • Im S.*, Kim T., Min C., Kang S., Rho Y., Kim C., Kim M., Kim S., Shim K., Koh J., Han S., Lee J., Kim D., Kang D., Seo S., 2023, “Real-time counting of wheezing events from lung sounds using deep learning algorithms: implications for disease prediction and early intervention,” PLOS ONE, 18(11): e0294447.
  • Lee, S., Ryu S., Sul W., Kim S., Kim D., Seo S., 2023, “Association of exposure to indoor molds and dampness with allergic diseases at water-damaged dwellings in Korea,” Scientific Reports, forthcoming.
  • Hanson-Defusco, J., Dunn W., Kim D., 2023, “Cascading effects of problem structuring errors on global health policy: implementation, ineffectiveness and failure,” International Journal of Policy Studies, forthcoming.
  • Lee, Y., Hu J., Park I., Kim D., Chiang T., Shelley M., Liu, C., 2023, “Examining the association between medical marijuana legalization and criminal behaviors: evidence from a U.S. representative sample.” Substance Use and Misuse, forthcoming.

Jessica Hanson-DeFusco

  • Hanson-DeFusco, J., Shi, M., Du, Z. et al. Systems analysis of the effects of the 2014-16 Ebola crisis on WHO-reporting nations’ policy adaptations and 2020-21 COVID-19 response: a systematized review. Global Health 19, 96 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-023-00997-8

Sarah Maxwell

  • Maxwell, S.P. (August 2, 2021). Ecologically diverse Texas needs county-level data for tick-borne diseases https://www.lymedisease.org/maxwell-texas-tick-borne-diseases/
  • Maxwell S., Brooks C., Kim P.*, Kim D., Thomas K., 2023, “Understanding habitats and environmental conditions of white-tailed deer population density and public health data to aid in assessing human tick-borne disease risk,” Microorganisms, 11(4): 865.
  • Maxwell S., Brooks C., Kim D., McNeely C., Cho S.*, Thomas K., 2023, “Improving surveillance of human tick-borne disease risks: a spatial analysis using multimodal databases,” JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 9(1):e43790.
Political Science and Public Policy and Political Economy

Political Science focuses on the study of citizenship, government, and politics, equipping students for diverse career paths, from academia to government, business, nonprofit organizations, and political roles. Faculty in this program engage in extensive research, exploring topics such as judicial politics, international conflict, technology use by autocratic regimes, cross-border investment, public opinion, voting behavior, and election law. Their research methods encompass cutting-edge techniques such as machine learning, text analysis, time-series analysis, and survey experiments. 

Within the PPPE program, faculty’s research interests span a broad spectrum, covering topics like digital platform regulation, global illicit markets, judicial and legal actors in policy-making, global health policy, quality-of-life data measurement, interpersonal and domestic violence policies, and international investment policies. Faculty members employ diverse methodologies, including formal theory, networks analysis, large-N quantitative methods, text analysis, and causal inference.

Lauren Ratliff Santoro

  • Santoro LR, Assaf E, Bond RM, Cranmer SJ, Kaizar EE, Sivakoff DJ (2021) Exploring the direct and indirect effects of elite influence on public opinion. PLoS ONE 16(11): e0257335.
  • Santoro, L. R., & Sydnor, E. (2024). Blind Trust, Blind Skepticism: Liberals’ & Conservatives’ Response to Academic Research. American Politics Research, 52(1), 52-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X231206136

Sivaram Cheruvu

  • Cheruvu S, Krehbiel JN. Do Preliminary References Increase Public Support for European Law? Experimental Evidence from Germany. International Organization. Published online 2024:1-18. doi:10.1017/S0020818323000243
Public and Nonprofit Management

The Program in Public and Nonprofit Management (PNM) is one of the highest-ranked Programs in North Texas that prepare students for careers in government and the nonprofit sector.

PNM faculty research expertise is wide-ranging and includes public service motivation, leadership, diversity management, social media and communication, environmental sustainability, public sector retirement systems, workforce turnover, government fiscal health and resilience, education policy, migration, nonprofit management, and public health. This research has appeared in the highest-ranked peer-reviewed journals of the field of public and nonprofit management. Some of this research is funded by the Department of Justice, the National Science Foundation, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and other grantors including governments and nonprofit foundations.

PNM faculty and students are also actively engaged in professional communities that foster research on state-of-the-art developments in public and non-profit management. 

James Harrington

John McCaskill

Elizabeth Searing

  • Searing, E. (2021). “Resilience in Vulnerable Small and New Social Enterprises.” Sustainability, 13(24):13546.
  • Searing, E., Poledrini, S., Young, D., and Nyssens, M. (2021). “The Hybrid Nature of Social Enterprises: How Does It Affect Their Revenue Sources?” Social Enterprise Journal.
  • Searing, E., and *Berkovich, Z. (2021). “The Importance of Methodological Pluralism in Nonprofit Finance.” Voluntas.
  • Grasse, N., Searing, E., and Neely, D. (2021). “Finding Your Crowd: The Role of Government Level and Charity Type in Revenue Crowd-Out.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

Meghna Sabharwal

  • Meghna Sabharwal and Rashmi Kalpana-Vijay Chordiya*. Managing Diversity andInclusion in Public and Nonprofit Organizations. Routledge. Contract signed forAugust 2023
Sociology

Grounded in the exploration of human behavior and societal dynamics, sociology emerges as a cornerstone of social science inquiry. From intimate family units to sprawling global societies, sociologists unravel the intricate tapestry of social interactions across diverse contexts. Through a nuanced examination of cultural nuances, social hierarchies, and group dynamics, they offer invaluable insights into the complexities of human society. Our sociology program serves as a vibrant hub for scholarly exploration, fostering a culture of inquiry and engagement as we seek to deepen our understanding of society’s multifaceted dimensions.

Meghna Sabharwal

  • Sabharwal, M. 2023. Rising Gender Inequities: The Case of AuthoritarianPatriarchy. Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration, 1(1), 59–74.https://doi.org/10.24926/jsepa.v1i1.4929
  • Thanh Hoang, Ravin Cline and Meghna Sabharwal. 2023. Women falling throughthe cracks Intersectionality during crisis and implications for human resourcesmanagement in Intersectionality and Crisis Management. Routledge