Profile picture for user rubado.meghan

Meghan E. Rubado

Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Cleveland State University

About Meghan

Rubado's research focuses on how state and local governments can provide efficient, equitable, and high-quality services to their citizens. I apply my research interests to various topics, including environmental policy, public safety policy, and inter-governmental collaboration. My dissertation examined how and why local governments cooperate with one another for service provision, and I continue to examine questions around collaborative governance and regionalism. Other current areas of research include local and regional policymaking under conditions of sustained population loss and how the decline of local newspapers affects local politics and quality of representation.

In the News

Meghan E. Rubado quoted by Jay Miller, "The Civic Impact of Fewer Reporters: Situations Such As the One in Cleveland Can Have Wide-Ranging Implications" Crains Cleveland Business, May 12, 2019.
Guest to discuss "The Death of the Local Newspaper" on Business Daily, BBC News, Meghan E. Rubado,
Guest to discuss "How Shrinking Newsrooms Impact Local Politics" on Weekend Edition Saturday, NPR, Meghan E. Rubado, April 13, 2019.
Meghan E. Rubado quoted by Sarah Holder, "When Local Newsrooms Shrink, Fewer Candidates Run for Mayor " Bloomberg CityLab, April 11, 2019.

Publications

"The Role of Local Government Collaboration in Legacy Cities" in Legacy Cities: Continuity and Change Amid Decline and Revival, edited by J. Rosie Tighe and Stephanie Ryberg-Webster ( University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), 21-36.

Discusses the ways in which local governments collaborate with one another, as well as with private and non-profit actors, in the context of sustained population loss and economic decline.

"Annexation and Consolidation" in Guide to Urban Politics and Policy in the United States, edited by Christine Kelleher Palus and Richardson (Dilworth CQ Press, 2016), 245-253.

Discusses various ways in which local government boundaries can change, as well as related politics, challenges, and opportunities.

"Political Consequences of the Endangered Local Watchdog: Newspaper Decline and Mayoral Elections in the United States" (with Jay T. Jennings). Urban Affairs Review-Sage Journals (2019).

Examines the relationship between newspaper staffing decline and political outcomes in cities, and finds that shrinking newspapers are tied to reduced competition in mayoral races.

"Preventing the Use of Deadly Force: The Relationship Between Police Agency Policies and Rates of Officer-Involved Gun Deaths" (with Jay T. Jennings). Public Administration Review - Wiley Online Library 77, no. 2 (2017): 217-226.

Finds that one local police department policy which requires officers to file a report when they point their guns, but do not shoot, is tied to reduced incidence of civilian gun deaths by police.

"Local Response to Water Crisis: Explaining Variation in Usage Restrictions During a Texas Drought" (with Megan Mullin). Urban Affairs Review-Sage Journals 53, no. 4 (2016): 752-774.

Finds that under conditions of drought, water suppliers' decisions to impose usage restrictions on their users are primarily driven by the severity of the problem conditions and are less affected by political consideration.

"State Agency Discretion in a Delegated Federal Program: Evidence From Drinking Water Investment" (with Dorothy M. Daley and Megan Mullin). Publius: The Journal of Federalism 44, no. 4 (2013): 564–586.

Discusses the ways in which state agencies exercise discretion in distributing funding through a federal drinking water investment program depend upon the expertise of the agencies in charge of these decisions. Agency discretion played out differently depending on whether the program was administered by environmentally-focused state agencies or finance-focused state agencies.