Alan Zarychta, PhD

Assistant Professor

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Research & Biography

Alan Zarychta is an Assistant Professor in the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. His research focuses on the politics of social services in Central and South America, especially in the areas of public health and environmental policy. Most broadly, he investigates the sources and effects of institutional reforms aiming to improve local service delivery—how public sector reforms are targeted, the contextual conditions that shape their effectiveness, and whether such reforms can fundamentally alter local governance systems.

Professor Zarychta is currently part of an interdisciplinary team working in collaboration with the Honduran Ministry of Health to study the effects of decentralized governance on the performance of local health systems in that country. He is also engaged in related projects on health sector reform in Guatemala and Nicaragua. This work has benefited from the generous support of the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council.

At the University of Chicago, Professor Zarychta is also a Fellow at the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Global Health (CGH) and Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS). Prior to joining Crown Family School, he supported numerous US federal government agencies on issues of environmental policy while employed by IEc and was Director of Health Information Systems for the non-governmental organization Hombro a Hombro in Honduras.

Professor Zarychta earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado Boulder. He also holds a MA in Public Policy from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BS in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University.

CV:

Zarychta_CV_Sept2021.pdf

Publications

[12] Emmelhainz, Roger, Alan Zarychta, Tara Grillos, and Krister Andersson. 2021. “Linking Knowledge with Action when Engagement is Out of Reach: Three Contextual Features of Effective Public Health Communication.” Health Policy and Planning. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czab105

[11] Zarychta, Alan, Tara Grillos, and Krister Andersson. 2021. “Accountability and Effort among Local Health Workers: Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment.” International Public Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2021.1951408

[10] Alakoc, Burcu Pinar, Gulay Ugur Goksel, and Alan Zarychta. 2021. “Political Discourse and Public Attitudes toward Syrian Refugees in Turkey.” Comparative Politics. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16263065025324

[9] Molina, Adriana, Tara Grillos, Alan Zarychta, and Krister Andersson. 2021. “Decentralization Can Help Increase Cooperation among Public Officials.” American Journal of Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12606

[8] Grillos, Tara, Alan Zarychta, Jami Nelson-Nuñez. 2021. “Water Scarcity and Procedural Justice in Honduras: Community-based Management Meets Market-based Policy." World Development 142: 105451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105451

[7] Grillos, Tara, Alan Zarychta, and Krister Andersson. 2021. “Governance Reform, Decentralization, and Teamwork in Public Service: Evidence from the Honduran Health Sector. Public Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12722

[6] Root, Elisabeth Dowling, Alan Zarychta, Bertha Bermudez Tapia, Tara Grillos, Krister Andersson, and Jane Menken. 2020. "Organizations matter in local governance: evidence from health sector decentralization in Honduras." Health Policy and Planning 35(9): 1168-79. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaa084

[5] Zarychta, Alan. 2020. “Making Social Services Work Better for the Poor: Evidence from a Natural Experiment with Health Sector Decentralization in Honduras.” World Development 133: 104996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.104996

[4] Zarychta, Alan, Tara Grillos, and Krister Andersson. 2020. “Public Sector Governance Reform and the Motivation of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Developing Countries.” Public Administration Review 80(1): 75–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13132

[3] Zarychta, Alan, Krister Andersson, Elisabeth Root, Jane Menken, and Tara Grillos. 2019. “Assessing the impacts of governance reforms on health services delivery: a quasi-experimental, multi-method, and participatory approach. Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology 19(4): 241–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10742-019-00201-8

[2] Zarychta, Alan. 2015. “Community Trust and Household Health: A Spatially-Based Approach with Evidence from Rural Honduras.” Social Science & Medicine 146: 85-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.046

[1] He, Yuan, Alan Zarychta, Joseph B. Ranz, Mary Carroll, Lori M. Singleton, Paria M. Wilson, and Elizabeth P. Schlaudecker. 2012. “Childhood Immunization Rates in Rural Intibuca, Honduras: An Analysis of a Local Database Tool and Community Health Center Records for Assessing and Improving Vaccine Coverage.” BMC Public Health 12(1): 1056. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1056

Courses

30000 Social Intervention: Programs and Policies II

This two-quarter course introduces students to the issues and problems associated with social welfare interventions at the community, agency, and policy levels. Students are expected to learn and develop competencies in analyzing the components of current policies, designing programmatic alternatives, anticipating substantive, operational, and political advantages and disadvantages, weighing benefits against financial costs, and making sound choices among imperfect alternatives. While focusing on public policies, the course will include consideration of the impact of policies and programs on individuals and families. The course will give students a thorough grounding in several critical areas of social work practice, including poverty and at least two social service areas such as mental health and child welfare.

Next Offered: Winter 2022

54900 Research Methods for Social Work

This course helps prepare doctoral students to design research that contributes to both theory and practice. The course is organized around three key types of validity (internal, measurement, and external) that are critical to conducting high quality research, regardless of research method. Topics include middle-range theory, linking theory and data, measuring theoretical constructs, the logic of causal analysis, model specification, field experimentation, multiple indicator models, and sample selection bias. One goal of the course is to give students insight into the challenges researchers face as they apply social science theory to real-world problems and settings. Another goal is to introduce students to a range of options for meeting these challenges.

Next Offered: TBD

62912 Global Development and Social Welfare

The persistence of disparities in social development across countries is one of the major problems societies struggle to understand and address. This course will critically examine the major theories of global development along with contemporary debates relating to international social welfare. Students will assess how political, economic, historical, and environmental factors influence different nations' development trajectories, and compare how alternative models of service delivery and social intervention serve or fail to serve their intended populations. The geographic focus of the course will be Latin America and Africa, though case studies may also be drawn from other regions of the world. The course will be useful for both students who have had previous international experience as well as students who are interested in international social work and/or development practice.

Next Offered: Spring 2022

Degree:

PhD

Alan Zarychta, PhD

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