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We study research designs where a binary treatment changes discontinuously at the border between administrative units such as states, counties, or municipalities, creating a treated and a control area. This type of geographically discontinuous treatment assignment can be analyzed in a standard regression discontinuity (RD) framework if the exact geographic location of each unit in the dataset is known. Such data, however, is often unavailable due to privacy considerations or measurement limitations. In the absence of geo-referenced individual-level data, two scenarios can arise depending on what kind of geographic information is available. If researchers have information about each observation’s location within aggregate but small geographic units, a modified RD framework can be applied, where the running variable is treated as discrete instead of continuous. If researchers lack this type of information and instead only have access to the location of units within coarse aggregate geographic units that are too large to be considered in an RD framework, the available coarse geographic information can be used to create a band or buffer around the border, only including in the analysis observations that fall within this band. We characterize each scenario, and also discuss several methodological challenges that are common to all research designs based on geographically discontinuous treatment assignments. We illustrate these issues with an original geographic application that studies the effect of introducing copayments for the use of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in the United States, focusing on the border between Illinois and Wisconsin.

This chapter analyzes a geographic quasi-experiment embedded in a cluster-randomized experiment in Honduras. In the experiment, average treatment effects of conditional cash transfers on school enrollment and child labor were large – especially in the poorest experimental blocks – and could be generalized to a policy-relevant population given the original sample selection criteria. In contrast, the geographic quasi-experiment yielded point estimates that, for two of three dependent variables, were attenuated. A judicious policy analyst without access to the experimental results might have provided misleading advice based on the magnitude of point estimates. We assessed two main explanations for the difference in point estimates, related to external and internal validity.

This paper aims to explore children’s experiences during their time in custody in England and Wales.

A total of 48 children were interviewed, as part of a wider study on children’s pathways into, through and out of custody. The focus of this paper is on children’s experiences in young offender institutions.

The findings from this study suggest that children’s behaviour during incarceration can be understood largely as strategies for surviving the hostile environment in which they find themselves.

This paper seeks to make a series of recommendations for practitioner and policymakers, based on the findings of this study.

The findings from this study suggest that children’s behaviour during incarceration can be understood largely as strategies for surviving the hostile environment in which they find themselves. This paper seeks to highlight specific elements of this environment and offers an insight into how they may impact upon a child's sense of self and place in the world.

The purpose of the paper is to understand the meanings young people give to their food consumption practices in the mealtime interdependencies at home or at school.

The paper uses an interpretive research strategy and adopts a multi‐method approach that includes depth interviews, visual diaries, and participant observations during school and family mealtimes. Informants were young people aged between 13 and 17.

The paper finds a key theme that is emerging in relation to the meanings created with food consumption is the relationship between formal and informal environments for food consumption and between parental and teacher control, and how these are mediated by the media. In response to mealtime interdependencies, informants adopt rebellious and informal everyday mealtime practices such as “eating‐in‐front‐of‐the‐television”, “eating‐at‐any‐time”, and “speed‐eating”. The emergent practices may be interpreted as a form of intergenerational conflict communicated through consumption acts, and ways of negotiating social relationships within social institutions.

The environment of food consumption may affect the uptake of school meals as well as family meals, and this may impact upon young people's dietary choices and behaviour. Additionally, the results indicate that parents (and teachers) learn from children about new ways to maintain family relatedness and love at mealtimes.

The work in this paper explores the realm of food consumption practices as a political arena involving social institutions.

The role of doctors in hospitals continues to change due to both external (policy) and internal (organisational change) pressures. Comparisons between The Netherlands and the UK highlight that several models of medical management are formulated and exist alongside each other, leading to more flexibility in the roles of both doctors and managers. In particular, the agendas concerning the quality of clinical care and cost‐effectiveness are converging, emphasising the increasingly important role of medical managers.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Describes the process by which an NHS provider Unit sought to make quality assurance and improvement a shared concern of professionals and managers. Development of a quality assurance strategy and related action plans pulled together existing quality initiatives in the Unit and set new initiatives in an agreed framework for organizational development. Thus the strategy filled the gap between a statement of organizational values and detailed quality auditing practices at the sharp end. Through the active involvement of professional staff and managers in multidisciplinary and multi‐level project groups, the facilitated processes of strategy making, dissemination and implementation led to significant learning by and development of staff and managers and an unanticipated spill over of energy, enthusiasm and commitment throughout the organization.