DealBook: GoPro to Go Public

Bits Blog: Twitter General Counsel Leaves as Company Prepares to Go Public

Economic View: Public Policies, Made to Fit People

I HAVE written here before about the potential gains to government from involving social and behavioral scientists in designing public policies. My enthusiasm comes in part from my experiences as an academic adviser to the Behavioral Insights Team created in Britain by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Thus I was pleased to hear reports that the White House is building a similar initiative here in the United States. Maya Shankar, a cognitive scientist and senior policy adviser at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, is coordinating this cross-agency group, called the Social and Behavioral Science Team; it is part of a larger effort to use evidence and innovation to promote government performance and efficiency. I am among a number of academics who have shared ideas with the administration about how research findings in social and behavioral science can improve policy.

It makes sense for social scientists to become more involved in policy, because many of society’s most challenging problems are, in essence, behavioral. Using social scientists’ findings to create plausible interventions, then testing their efficacy with randomized controlled trials, can improve — and sometimes save — people’s lives, all while reducing the need for more government spending to fix problems later.

Here are three examples of social science issues that have attracted the team’s attention:

THE 30-MILLION-WORD GAP One of society’s thorniest problems is that children from poor families start school lagging badly behind their more affluent classmates in readiness. By the age of 3, children from affluent families have vocabularies that are roughly double those of children from poor families, according to research published in 1995.

The research found that one of many reasons that poor children often have difficulty learning to read is that they suffer at home from what might be called a “word deficiency.” The caregivers of these children simply don’t speak or read to them as often as those in better-off families. The study estimated that by age 3, a poor child would have heard 30 million fewer words than a child growing up in a family of higher socioeconomic status.

Until recently, this word gap has been hard to address. One promising new approach is being tested by Dr. Dana Suskind, a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Parents or caregivers who want to improve their children’s language skills can be coached to improve their interactions with them. (For example, interactive exchanges are better than soliloquies.)

New technologies, like the digital language processor developed by the LENA Research Foundation, whose work focuses on language problems in young children, can aid in this effort by letting parents receive feedback on the frequency and nature of their verbal interactions with their children. (Think of it as a box score for those interactions.) Providence, R.I., has won a $5 million grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies for a Providence Talks program to use these kinds of techniques to improve school readiness for low-income children.

In this domain, the team’s role is multifaceted. There is no silver bullet for closing the word gap, but by encouraging more trials nationwide, providing evaluation expertise and distributing results, we can help give poor children their best chance to succeed.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE The team will primarily lend support and expertise to federal agency initiatives. One example concerns the effort to reduce domestic violence, a problem for which there is no quick fix. But a good place to start is to ensure that each component of a victim’s support system works as well as it can. One such component is the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which victims can call for advice and support. Like other call-in centers, it can become busy and put callers on hold. Many victims hang up before they’ve had a chance to speak with a counselor.

In this case, the Administration for Children and Families is building an alliance of call centers to collaborate on experimental trials to see how best to keep callers on the line long enough to get assistance. Avoiding long periods of silence with callers, and offering an estimate of the waiting time, can help achieve that goal. So can composing the initial message in a way that maximizes the chances that a caller won’t hang up.

HEALTH COMPLIANCE One reason for high health care costs is that patients fail to follow their treatment regimen.

A good way to approach this problem is via a behavioral assessment, identifying obstacles to that compliance. As Sendhil Mullainathan, a Harvard economist, discussed in this space recently, one such obstacle is the co-payment, the patient’s share of a treatment’s cost. He sensibly suggests that for some highly effective treatments, there should be no co-payment at all. That’s a good place to start.

A thorough assessment could also uncover other factors that reduce patients’ adherence to best medical practices. If forgetting to take a medicine is the problem, a variety of interventions can help — from changing the medication’s design (a once-a-day dose is easier to remember than one taken three times a day) to using technology that reminds patients to take their pills.

Similarly, offering phone or text reminders of medical appointments can reduce no-shows and ensure that lab tests are done on time. Information technology makes these mental crutches easy to use, and is the focus of the team’s collaboration with the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

All of these examples show that the role of behavioral science in policy isn’t for the government to tell people how to think or act. It is to help them achieve their own goals. Parents want their children to excel, callers to a victims’ hot line want help, and sick people want to get well. Offering aids is like providing an alarm clock: it may help people get to an appointment on time, but no one is forcing them to use it.

Richard H. Thaler is a professor of economics and behavioral science at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He has informally advised the Obama administration.

DealBook: Public Funds Take Control of Assets, Dodging Wall Street

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DealBook: Neiman Marcus Files to Go Public

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Public Interest Lawyers Question FJD's Debt Collection

For the past three years, the First Judicial District has stepped up its effort to collect on forfeited bails and other outstanding debts with the "view," as Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge John W. Herron put it in 2012, "that it's necessary to do so in order to underscore the ramifications of failing to appear for court hearings."

Securities Law: Amgen a Victory for the Investing Public

In an important vindication of shareholder rights, the U.S. Supreme Court in February's Amgen v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, on a 6-3 vote, held that securities fraud plaintiffs have no obligation to prove that defendant's misrepresentations and omissions were material at the class certification stage.

Public Utilities: Must Electric Utilities Enter Homes Before Restoring Power?

In a case the defendant electric utility is claiming could have broad implications on power companies' ability to restore Pennsylvanians' power, the state Supreme Court is set to decide whether a Western Pennsylvania utility had a duty to enter a customer's premises and inspect its electrical facilities before restoring power.

Energy and Natural Resources: Public Nuisance Doctrine May Apply in Gas Drilling Case

In a case that examined the applicability of the public nuisance doctrine to natural gas drilling, a federal judge has allowed to proceed a suit filed by a group of landowners alleging a driller's operations interfered with the use and enjoyment of their vacation homes.

Public Defender Resigns Over Lack of Resources

For Miles Gerety, the decision was about both quantity and quality.

A little over three years ago, when he took over the state public defender's office in Danbury, Conn., there were six lawyers. Today, that number is four. And so Gerety has decided to retire, effective May 1, rather than to continue to make do with less.

"We are all running around like crazy," said Gerety, 62, a Redding resident. "What I'm upset about is these budget cuts are impinging on my ability to provide the best possible representation. ... I just think the cuts mean the [state office of] Public Defender Services is now being understaffed. There is a breaking point."

Gerety, who has spent 25 years as a public defender, plans to chip in after he retires, taking on individual cases as an assigned counsel, a role that used to be called a special public defender. But he first plans to spend the summer sailing across the Atlantic Ocean.

His predecessor as Danbury's top public defender, Robert Field, explained that "Miles is a bit like Don Quixote. He doesn't really like working within systems."

But he's worked in the public defender's system long enough and well enough to have earned the respect of his peers and colleagues, and for them to take his staffing complaints seriously.

"It was devastating for me when I received the news he was leaving after all these years," said New Haven Public Defender Thomas Ullmann. "He has a really great reputation. He always fought the good fight and protected his clients' rights. He's the kind of guy you want to be in the public defender's office. He knew everything about his clients, and their history."

Gerety's complaints might sound familiar.

Two years ago, as Connecticut wrestled with the same budget crisis that's ongoing today, public defenders said spending cuts would push caseloads for lawyers too high and make it difficult for them to meet their constitutional and ethical obligations to the state's poorest citizens.

At the time, the Office of Chief Public Defender, whose roughly 200 lawyers handle more than 90,000 cases a year, had been asked to cut its two-year, $128 million budget by about $9.6 million, or 7.5 percent.

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City Controller Questions Plan to Eliminate Public Defenders

As the city of Philadelphia continues to seek approval of its five-year budget plan with the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, City Controller Alan Butkovitz questioned today how the city could propose to eliminate ?public defender positions while the District Attorney?s Office, which prosecutes these cases, continues to receive sufficient funding to maintain its current staffing levels.?

Public Interest Lawyers Question FJD's Debt Collection

For the past three years, the First Judicial District has stepped up its effort to collect on forfeited bails and other outstanding debts with the "view," as Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge John W. Herron put it in 2012, "that it's necessary to do so in order to underscore the ramifications of failing to appear for court hearings."

Public Interest: The Public Interest Calendar of Events

On Wednesday, the Mazzoni Center is set to present its fourth annual Open Bar event to raise funds for and awareness about the agency's Legal Services, which is a program offering free legal services tailored toward low-income LGBT individuals in Pennsylvania.

State Supreme Court to Expand Public Access to Court Finances

Journalists and interested Pennsylvanians will soon have easier access to more financial information for the state?s trio of appellate courts and their administrative offices, the state Supreme Court ordered Thursday.

State Supreme Court to Expand Public Access to Court Finances

Journalists and interested Pennsylvanians will soon have easier access to more financial information for the state?s trio of appellate courts and their administrative offices, the state Supreme Court ordered Thursday.

State Supreme Court to Expand Public Access to Court Finances

Journalists and interested Pennsylvanians will soon have easier access to more financial information for the state?s trio of appellate courts and their administrative offices, the state Supreme Court ordered Thursday.

Conn. Public Sector Attorneys to Get First Raises Since 2009

A recent national study has found that pay for prosecutors and public defenders has barely budged since 2004. The situation is only a little better in Connecticut, where the public sector attorneys last got a raise in 2009.

But that's about to change. Next summer, Connecticut prosecutors and public defenders are slated to receive a 3 percent raise, adding about $1,850 annually to the current entry level salary of $61,900. Veterans with 10 years experience will see salaries increase from about $91,600 to about $94,000.

Jack Doyle, a prosecutor and president of the Connecticut Association of Prosecutors, the bargaining unit for the 250 prosecuting attorneys in the state, calls the raise overdue. He notes that other state workers have, overall, averaged 3.5 percent annual pay increases over the past decade.

"I can tell you prosecutors do believe they are underpaid and undercompensated, based on their jobs and what they do," Doyle said. "We don't get compensatory time or overtime or extra duty pay that police get. At the same time, prosecutors have been threatened, harassed and even attacked."

The issue of salaries for court personnel recently came to a head in Connecticut when Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers requested an 11 percent pay raise for judges next July, followed by 5.5 percent increases in each of the next three years. Her proposal, which was met with sharp questions by a newly formed Judicial Compensation Review Board, calls for Superior Court judges to go from earning $146,780 currently to $191,890 in 2017.

Rogers notes that Connecticut judges have not had a pay increase in five years and that their current salaries rank them 45th nationally, when adjusted for the cost of living. She says comparatively low salaries are driving experienced judges out of the court system and making it harder to attract top-notch lawyers to the bench.

The recent study, by the National Association for Law Placement, makes the same argument about low pay and the ability to attract and retain public sector lawyers. After all, the study notes, the starting median salary at private firms with 50 or more lawyers is about $80,000. And some large firms continue to pay $160,000 to new associates, the NALP said.

New prosecutors and public defenders in Connecticut make nearly $12,000 more than the national median of $50,000, according to the NALP. After 10 years, Connecticut pay increases to $91,627, while the national average is $76,000. In Connecticut, someone with 20 years' experience caps out at $129,000; the NALP did not provide a comparable figure.

While Connecticut salaries are significantly higher than the national average in raw dollars, the NALP does not factor in the cost of living in each state, as the judges' rankings do.

LAW SCHOOL COSTS

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On the Road: Public Speaking Pays the Fare for Some Business Travelers

Consider that there are many thousands of corporate and professional meetings, trade shows, conventions, conferences and other events every year, and that the meetings business has been growing, domestically and internationally. And just about every one features a selection of public speakers. My guess is that most flights include at least one business traveler headed somewhere to give a speech of some kind.

“I never really thought of it that way, but obviously that’s the case,” said Peter V. Handal, the chief executive of Dale Carnegie Training, a company that provides training in communications and leadership skills.

Public speaking is, of course, a basic requirement in many jobs, from the pulpit to the front office. But it’s also a thriving business that provides employment, or extra income, to thousands of people from all parts of life who travel for speaking engagements that can pay from $1,500 or so to well over $200,000 just to talk for an hour or so.

Over $200,000 for a speech? Well, that’s about what Bill Clinton averaged per speaking engagement in 2011, when he made a total of $13.4 million for 54 paid speeches, according to a CNN analysis based on financial disclosure statements filed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Nor is Mr. Clinton alone in the top niche of highly paid speakers. Just among English speakers, the ranks of those who command $100,000 or more for a speech (plus first-class travel expenses) include Rudolph W. Giuliani, Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey, Alan Greenspan, Al Gore, Richard Branson and many others.

But there are many others, in multiple pay grades and in a vast range of specialties, who are all giving speeches. One indication that the demand is rising is in the job growth in the business of planning for meetings and trade shows. In 2010, 71,600 people were employed as meeting, convention and event planners in the United States. That number is “expected to grow 44 percent from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And while it is hard to imagine that Bill Clinton or Richard Branson ever experienced anxiety about talking, public speaking remains a source of at least some anxiety for many businesspeople.

“A lot of people really are afraid of public speaking,” Mr. Handal said.

As noted on the Web site of Toastmasters International, a nonprofit group that encourages the development of speaking skills at its 15,500 clubs around the world, “Believe it or not, your chances of dying of stage fright are extremely slim.”

On the other hand, even if you’re accustomed to public speaking, your chances of doing it more effectively are probably enhanced with training of the sort provided by Toastmasters and other organizations.

Mr. Handal said that the Dale Carnegie drills stressed gentle coaching. “We have somebody stand up in front of a group of people and give a two-minute talk, and they do it several times during the course of training.”

When I was younger, I was daunted by the prospect of giving a speech. Remember Jackie Gleason as the tongue-tied Ralph Kramden babbling “Homina, homina, homina” when he had to give a speech? That was what I feared I’d be, but after a few times at the lectern, I eventually got the hang of it. Familiarity is the key, as Mr. Handal said.

One curveball being thrown at public speakers, incidentally, comes from technology. At big events, the speaker’s image is often projected on giant video screens, allowing people to see quirks that once went largely unnoticed.

“If you’re all the way up on a stage in a room with 2,000 people, most people really can’t see the small inflections and changes in your facial expression,” Mr. Handal said. But with those giant screens, “suddenly they really can, which makes body language far more important than it ever was.”

He added: “One of the things we teach people is to smile more. I thought I was smiling, but after participating in one training session I reviewed the video with a coach, and I realized I looked like a sourpuss. There was a big disconnect between what I thought I was doing, and what I actually was doing on the video.”

Now, of course, if you’re one of those people getting $25,000, $50,000 or even $100,000-plus for a speech, not including your hotel suite and a first-class plane ticket, that is probably no longer an issue. You undoubtedly have a lot to smile about.

Project Tests Boundaries of Public Access to Court Proceedings

A new Internet live streaming project in Massachusetts broadcast its first criminal trial this month, but it's still grappling with who can opt to stay off screen and why.

City Controller Questions Plan to Eliminate Public Defenders

As the city of Philadelphia continues to seek approval of its five-year budget plan with the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, City Controller Alan Butkovitz questioned today how the city could propose to eliminate ?public defender positions while the District Attorney?s Office, which prosecutes these cases, continues to receive sufficient funding to maintain its current staffing levels.?