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The lockdown policies enacted in the spring of 2020, in response to the growing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, have remained a contentious policy tool due to the variability of outcomes they produced for some populations. While ongoing research has illustrated the unequal impact of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on minority populations, research in this area has been unable to fully explain the mechanisms that produce these findings. To understand why some groups have been at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, we employ structural inequality theory to better understand how inequality may impact disease transmission in a pandemic. We used a novel approach that enabled us to focus on the microprocesses of structural inequality at the zip code level to study the impact of stay-at-home pandemic policies on COVID-19 positive case rates in an urban setting across three periods of policy implementation. We then analyzed data on traffic volume, income, race, occupation, and instances of COVID-19 positive cases for each zip code in Salt Lake County, Utah (USA) between 17 February 2020 and 12 June 2020. We found that higher income, percent white, and white-collar zip codes had a greater response to the local stay-at-home order and reduced vehicular traffic by nearly 50% during lockdown. The least affluent zip codes only showed a 15% traffic decrease and had COVID-19 rates nearly 10 times higher. At this level of granularity, income and occupation were both associated with COVID-19 outcomes across all three stages of policy implementation, while race was only predictive of outcomes after the lockdown period. Our findings illuminate underlying mechanisms of structural inequality that may have facilitated unequal COVID-19 incidence rates. This study illustrates the need for more granular analyses in policy research and adds to the literature on how structural factors such as income, race, and occupation contribute to disease transmission in a pandemic.
Daniel Mendoza; Tabitha Benney; Rajive Ganguli; Rambabu Pothina; Cheryl Pirozzi; Cameron Quackenbush; Samuel Baty; Erik Crosman; Yue Zhang. The Role of Structural Inequality on COVID-19 Incidence Rates at the Neighborhood Scale in Urban Areas. COVID 2021, 1, 186 -202.
AMA StyleDaniel Mendoza, Tabitha Benney, Rajive Ganguli, Rambabu Pothina, Cheryl Pirozzi, Cameron Quackenbush, Samuel Baty, Erik Crosman, Yue Zhang. The Role of Structural Inequality on COVID-19 Incidence Rates at the Neighborhood Scale in Urban Areas. COVID. 2021; 1 (1):186-202.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Mendoza; Tabitha Benney; Rajive Ganguli; Rambabu Pothina; Cheryl Pirozzi; Cameron Quackenbush; Samuel Baty; Erik Crosman; Yue Zhang. 2021. "The Role of Structural Inequality on COVID-19 Incidence Rates at the Neighborhood Scale in Urban Areas." COVID 1, no. 1: 186-202.
Urban air quality is a growing concern due a range of social, economic, and health impacts. Since the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic began in 2020, governments have produced a range of non-medical interventions (NMIs) (e.g. lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, mask mandates) to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A co-benefit of NMI implementation has been the measurable improvement in air quality in cities around the world. Using the lockdown policy of the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment, we traced the changing emissions patterns produced under the pandemic in a mid-sized, high-altitude city to isolate the effects of human behavior on air pollution. We tracked air pollution over time periods reflecting the Pre-Lockdown, Lockdown, and Reopening stages, using high quality, research grade sensors in both commercial and residential areas to better understand how each setting may be uniquely impacted by pollution downturn events. Based on this approach, we found the commercial area of the city showed a greater decrease in air pollution than residential areas during the lockdown period, while both areas experienced a similar rebound post lockdown. The easing period following the lockdown did not lead to an immediate rebound in human activity and the air pollution increase associated with reopening, took place nearly two months after the lockdown period ended. We hypothesize that differences in heating needs, travel demands, and commercial activity, are responsible for the corresponding observed changes in the spatial distribution of pollutants over the study period. This research has implications for climate policy, low-carbon energy transitions, and may even impact local policy due to changing patterns in human exposure that could lead to important public health outcomes, if left unaddressed.
Daniel L. Mendoza; Tabitha M. Benney; Ryan Bares; Erik T. Crosman. Intra-city variability of fine particulate matter during COVID-19 lockdown: A case study from Park City, Utah. Environmental Research 2021, 201, 111471 .
AMA StyleDaniel L. Mendoza, Tabitha M. Benney, Ryan Bares, Erik T. Crosman. Intra-city variability of fine particulate matter during COVID-19 lockdown: A case study from Park City, Utah. Environmental Research. 2021; 201 ():111471.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel L. Mendoza; Tabitha M. Benney; Ryan Bares; Erik T. Crosman. 2021. "Intra-city variability of fine particulate matter during COVID-19 lockdown: A case study from Park City, Utah." Environmental Research 201, no. : 111471.
Transportation systems are central to all cities, and city planners and policy makers take special interest in assuring these systems are efficient, functional, sustainable, and, increasingly, that they have a positive impact on human health. In addition, vehicular emissions are increasingly costly to cities due to congestion and its impact on public health. This study aims to show the associations between the media and environmental variables and associated transit ridership. By tracking media influence, we illustrated how media coverage and attention to an issue over time may impact public opinion and ridership outcomes, especially at the local level where the issues are most salient. The relationship between air quality and transit ridership shown can be generally explained through a combination of infrastructure and human behavior. The media key terms examined in this analysis show that ridership is associated with favorable weather conditions and air quality, suggesting that ridership volume may be influenced by an overall sense of comfort and safety. Based on this analysis, we illustrated the role of media attention in both increased and decreased transit ridership and how such effects are compounded by air quality conditions (e.g., green, yellow, orange, and red air quality days).
Daniel L. Mendoza; Martin P. Buchert; Tabitha M. Benney; John C. Lin. The Association of Media and Environmental Variables with Transit Ridership. Vehicles 2020, 2, 507 -522.
AMA StyleDaniel L. Mendoza, Martin P. Buchert, Tabitha M. Benney, John C. Lin. The Association of Media and Environmental Variables with Transit Ridership. Vehicles. 2020; 2 (3):507-522.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel L. Mendoza; Martin P. Buchert; Tabitha M. Benney; John C. Lin. 2020. "The Association of Media and Environmental Variables with Transit Ridership." Vehicles 2, no. 3: 507-522.
To better understand renewable energy uptake in emergingeconomies, we develop a typology of capitalism for 54 middle-income countries and use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to test the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) theory to illustrate which type of capitalism produced successful or unsuccessful renewables projects in these states. We find that even when the VoC approach is properly specified for developing states, it only explains about 44% of the outcome. Despite this, four causal pathways of combined economic institutions from the VoC theory were found to be sufficient for explaining this phenomenon, but liberal institutions performed poorly in each case.
Tabitha M. Benney. Varieties of capitalism and renewable energy in emerging and developing economies. Journal of Economic Policy Reform 2019, 1 -26.
AMA StyleTabitha M. Benney. Varieties of capitalism and renewable energy in emerging and developing economies. Journal of Economic Policy Reform. 2019; ():1-26.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTabitha M. Benney. 2019. "Varieties of capitalism and renewable energy in emerging and developing economies." Journal of Economic Policy Reform , no. : 1-26.
What is the private sector response to climate change in the Global South? And what has motivated action? The Carbon Disclosure Project and Clean Development Mechanism registries offer some systematic data in response to the first question. Despite limitations to both data sources, they show that private sector action on climate change clusters in China, India, Brazil and other large industrializing countries. Four drivers–physical, regulatory, market, and reputational–offer answers to the second question. In the more developed countries of the Global South, corporate action is driven primarily by the prospect of domestic climate regulation—some large developing countries have pledged greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2020—and by the market opportunities created by the Clean Development Mechanism. In the less developed countries, barriers related to weak regulatory environments, low levels of industrialization and growth, restricted access to capital, and limited technical capacity intersect to limit private‐sector action on climate change. Looking to the future, the lack of depth and breadth in the push for corporate action on climate change in the Global South suggests reasons for concern. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:479–496. doi: 10.1002/wcc.240Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Simone Pulver; Tabitha Benney. Private‐sector responses to climate change in the Global South. WIREs Climate Change 2013, 4, 479 -496.
AMA StyleSimone Pulver, Tabitha Benney. Private‐sector responses to climate change in the Global South. WIREs Climate Change. 2013; 4 (6):479-496.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSimone Pulver; Tabitha Benney. 2013. "Private‐sector responses to climate change in the Global South." WIREs Climate Change 4, no. 6: 479-496.
While policy experiments targeted at energy and innovation transitions have not been deployed consistently across all countries, market mechanisms such as carbon pricing have been tested over the past decade in disparate development contexts, and therefore provide some opportunities for analysis. This brief communication reports on two parallel workshops recently held in Sao Paulo, Brazil and New Delhi, India to address questions of how well these carbon pricing policies have worked in affecting corporate decisions to invest in low-carbon technology. Convening practitioners and scholars from multiple countries, the workshops elicited participants' perspectives on business investment decisions under international carbon markets in emerging economies across multiple energy-intensive sectors. We review the resulting perspectives on low-carbon policies and present guidance on a research agenda that could clarify how international and national policies could help encourage both energy transitions and energy innovations in emerging economies.
Nathan E. Hultman; Simone Pulver; Sergio Pacca; Samir Saran; Lydia Powell; Viviane Romeiro; Tabitha Benney. Carbon markets and low-carbon investment in emerging economies: A synthesis of parallel workshops in Brazil and India. Energy Policy 2011, 39, 6698 -6700.
AMA StyleNathan E. Hultman, Simone Pulver, Sergio Pacca, Samir Saran, Lydia Powell, Viviane Romeiro, Tabitha Benney. Carbon markets and low-carbon investment in emerging economies: A synthesis of parallel workshops in Brazil and India. Energy Policy. 2011; 39 (10):6698-6700.
Chicago/Turabian StyleNathan E. Hultman; Simone Pulver; Sergio Pacca; Samir Saran; Lydia Powell; Viviane Romeiro; Tabitha Benney. 2011. "Carbon markets and low-carbon investment in emerging economies: A synthesis of parallel workshops in Brazil and India." Energy Policy 39, no. 10: 6698-6700.