Researchers posing those questions were among more than 20 awarded grants last fall by the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS). In total, two dozen projects led by scholars spanning 11 colleges and schools – on diverse topics ranging from COVID-19 and policing to clean energy and product design – won seed funding totaling over $240,000.
Funded each fall and spring by the CCSS and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the grants of up to $12,000 seek to support proposals evaluated as strong candidates for external funding, and to jump-start research by junior faculty. Half of the proposals selected this fall are led by assistant professors.
They include the following proposals from CALS researchers:
- “State level COVID-19 Policies: Economics, Equity and Health”: Mildred Warner, M.S. ’85, Ph.D. ’97, professor of city and regional planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP), and Xue Zhang, post-doctoral associate in the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), will examine the effectiveness of policies states implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19 infections and strategies for reducing health disparities and helping communities recover.
- “Linking Public and Private Food Assistance Through Administrative Data”: Chris Barrett, the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management (Dyson); John Hoddinott, the H.E. Babcock Professor of Food and Nutrition Economics and Policy in the Division of Nutritional Sciences (CHE/CALS); and William Block, director of the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research, will build a database linking administrative records on public and private food assistance in New York State, for the first time directly tying benefits data on federal programs with usage data from private providers.
- “Impacts of Farmer Cooperatives: The Philippines and Colombia”: Miguel Gómez, associate professor of applied economics and management (Dyson), will develop a cross-sectional database to compare the effects of smallholder cooperatives on farmer livelihoods in the Philippines and Colombia.
The complete list of awarded grants appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.
