Copy refers to RSF, Volume 9, issues 4 & 5

​Administrative burdens are the learning, compliance, and psychological costs that individuals incur during encounters with public services. While some burdens are created unintentionally, others are deliberately constructed as barriers to limit claims to programs and services. Often, burdens fall most heavily on marginalized groups, preventing them from resources they need. In this double issue of RSF public administration scholar Pamela Herd, economist Hilary Hoynes, political scientists Jamila Michener and Donald Moynihan, and an interdisciplinary group of contributors explore how administrative burdens shape inequality.
 
Issue 1 examines how administrative burdens impact Medicaid and health inequality, student loan repayment programs, and immigration to the U.S. Emily Rauscher and Ailish Burns find that combinations of reforms to reduce administrative burdens in the late 1980s increased Medicaid enrollment and improved infant health nearly as much as Medicaid expansion. Adam Goldstein and colleagues show that administrative burdens in enrolling in income-driven repayment student loan programs causes borrowers with lower socioeconomic status to be disproportionately excluded from these programs. Lilly Yu finds that dramatic changes to immigration law and policy during the Trump Administration led immigration lawyers to inadvertently exacerbate inequality among undocumented and vulnerable immigrants’ access to legal representation.
 
Issue 2 looks at the role of administrative burdens in experiences with child and family support programs, the child welfare system, disaster and housing relief programs, and housing support programs. Carolyn Barnes and colleagues find that mothers’ perceptions of the costs and benefits of participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) vary over time and influence whether they choose to enroll or continue participating in the program. Ethan J. Raker and Tyler M. Woods find applications from poor communities of color for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) housing aid after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were disproportionately denied or delayed due to burdensome program requirements and implementation. Stephanie Casey Pierce and Stephanie Moulton reveal that reforms to reduce administrative burden in foreclosure programs are associated with a significant increase in the rate of benefit receipt and decrease in the foreclosure rate. Frank Edwards and colleagues show child welfare system-involved parents must navigate considerable administrative burdens in order to retain custody of their children.
 
This volume of RSF sheds light on the origins, experiences, and consequences of administrative burdens.

PAMELA HERD is a professor of public policy, Georgetown University
HILARY HOYNES is a professor of economics and public policy, University of California, Berkeley
JAMILA MICHENER is an associate professor of government and public policy, Cornell University
DONALD MOYNIHAN is the McCourt Chair, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
 
CONTRIBUTORS (for both volumes 9.4 and 9.5)
Claudia Aiken, Randall Q. Akee, Carolyn Barnes, Jennifer W. Bouek, Hana E. Brown, Ailish Burns, Parijat Chakrabarti, Jeremy Cohen, Victoria Copeland, Christina J. Cross, Stefanie DeLuca, Alan Dettlaff, Katie Donnelly, Charlie Eaton, Frank Edwards, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Kelley Fong, Adam Goldstein, Timothy J. Halliday, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Jill Hoiting, Lawrence F. Katz, Annette Lareau, Teresa Molina, Stephanie Moulton, Rourke O’Brien, Sarah C. Oppenheimer, Zachary Parolin, Stephanie Casey Pierce, Ethan J. Raker, Emily Rauscher, Mical Raz, Vincent Reina, Blair Sackett, Amber Villalobos, Tyler M. Woods, Lilly Yu