For local governments, chatbots create exciting opportunities to improve customer service, automate tasks and cut costs. Marc Pfeiffer, Assistant Director of Bloustein Local, Center for Urban Policy Research, uses Claude AI to help write two articles on how to best incorporate this new technology.
Topic
Research, Publications, and Reports
Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley – The life of the party: Entrepreneurial labor, sexual harassment, and the fashion industry
Dr. Crowley’s study uses qualitative content analysis to map out how the party life leads to incidents of sexual harassment with both personal and professional consequences for fashion models using 20 distinct narratives.
New Heldrich Report Measures NJ Workers’ Awareness and Opinions of the State’s Sick Leave Law and Family Leave Insurance Program
The study, conducted with support from WorkRise at the Urban Institute, captures the perceptions and experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination at work with a nationally representative survey sample of 3,277 full- and part-time U.S. workers.
The Labor Market, Then and Now: The First Two Decades of the 21st Century – Big Labor Market Trends
This is the first article in a three-part series that analyzes labor market, workforce, occupational, and educational trends since 2000. Co-authors are Dr. Carl Van Horn of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Nyerere Hodge of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and Stuart Andreason of the Burning Glass Institute.
Rutgers Team to Receive $1 Million in Federal Funding for Smart Kids and Cool Seniors Project
The project, “Smart Kids and Cool Seniors,” is as an interdisciplinary collaboration of Rutgers researchers. It seeks to assist low-resource urban residents as they adapt to increasing heat stress and local air pollution, both outdoors and indoors.
Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley – Bystander Behavior and Sexual Harassment: The Case of the Fashion Industry
Dr. Crowley’s analysis revealed that while some bystander victim–alliance behavior occurred in the forms of verbal objections and a strong physical presence to thwart perpetrators, bystander facilitation of perpetrator abuse was much more common.
Prof. Emeritus Bob Lake: From Professional Geography to Public Geography, from Representational Certainty to Not Knowing the Answer
Professor Emeritus Robert Lake explores Rorty’s posthumously published work on Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism and the shift form professional geography to public geography in his latest article published in The Professional Geographer.
New Jersey’s Worker-centered Approach to Improving the Administration of Unemployment Insurance
New paper describes the policy changes, business practices, and technology innovations that NJ is employing to ensure that the right people get UI benefits accurately and on time.
Kurtzman Named to NASEM Committee to Study Public Health Consequences of Cannabis Policy Landscape
Dr. Kurtzman’s research explores the impact of federal, state, and institutional policies on health care delivery, the role of the health care workforce in achieving higher-value care and the impact of states’ cannabis policies on health outcomes.
New Research – Gender split and safety behavior of cyclists and e-scooter users in Asbury Park, NJ
In this study, researchers Hannah Younes, Robert B. Noland, and Clinton J. Andrews used traffic camera footage to observe the behavior of over 700 shared e-scooters and privately owned bicycles in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The authors discuss policy implications with regard to safety and gender differences between the two modes of transit.