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Mentoor, John W. "Public participation in public policy making." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/855.
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Thesis (MA (Public and Development Management))-- University of Stellenbosch, 1995.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study assesses public participation in public policy making by way of a case study approach. The Regional Education Boards and the Regional Services Council form part of the case study evaluation of public participation in public policy making. In essence, a structural-functionalist analysis of the two cases is given. From this approach this study points out what the activities of the two institutions are, what services they render and the policy measures with which they are engaged in. This is imperative because by way of an analysis, the extent to which the public is allowed to participate in the policy making process, with reference to the two institutions, is determined. Before the assessment of the two cases a conceptual framework pertaining to public participation in public policy making is given. In this conceptual framework the different typologies, policy levels, participants and the modes of public participation in public policy making are highlighted. In earlier years public participation in public policy making was simply seen as being confined to voting turn-out. As the study of public policy making expanded the operational definition of public participation was broaden to include activities such as campaigning, handing petitions to members of parliament, attending political meetings, writing letters to communication media, written representations submitted to a minister and protest action. Thus, as the study of public policy making expanded it became clear that separate participation modes exist because the activities which emanates from the implementation of public policy differ systematically in the requirements it place on the citizens. What is significant of this thesis is that it proposed a nine-point criteriological model for effective participation in public policy making. Each criterium is analyzed in depth and it is indicated how important it is for effective public participation in public policy making.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie bepaal publieke deelname in openbare beleidmaking by wyse van 'n setwerklike benadering. Die Onderwysstreekrade en die Streekdiensterade vorm deel van hierdie evaluering van publieke deelname in openbare beleidmaking. Vir hierdie benadering word 'n strukturieel - funksionele uiteensetting van die werkswyse en beleidsmaatreëls van die twee instansies gegee. Hierdie uiteensetting is belangrik omrede, deur middel van 'n analise, daar bepaal word tot watter mate die publiek deel uitmaak van die beleidmakingsproses ten opsigte van die twee instansies. Voor die uiteensetting van die setwerklike benadering word 'n raamwerk met betrekking tot die konsepte wat van toepassing is op publieke deelname in openbare beleidmaking, gegee. In hierdie raamwerk word die verskillende tipologieë, beleidsvlakke, deelnemers en die verskillende maniere van publieke deelname in die openbare beleidmakingsproses, uitgebeeld. In vroeër jare was publieke deelname in openbare beleid gesien as bloot deelname aan verkiesings. Namate die studie van openbare beleid uitgebrei het, het die operasionele definisie van publieke deelname groter geword om aktiwiteite soos petisies aan parlementslede, bywoning van politieke vergaderings, briewe aan kommunikasiemedia, geskrewe voorleggings aan ministers en protesaksies in te sluit. Dit het derhalwe duidelik geword dat daar verskillende maniere is betreffende publieke deelname omrede die aktiwiteite wat vloei uit die implementering van openbare beleid in verskillende gemeenskappe, verskillend is. Wat die studie merkwaardig maak is dat dit 'n nege-punt kriteriologiese model vir effektiewe publieke deelname in die openbare beleidmakingsproses voorstel. Elke kriteria word in diepte geanaliseer en dit word uitgewys hoe belangrik dit vir effektiewe publieke deelname in die openbare beleidmakingsproses is.
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Maier, Norbert Zsombor. "Incentives and public policy." Thesis, London Business School (University of London), 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.436324.
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Prado, Jr Jose Mauricio. "Essays on Public Macroeconomic Policy." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-6815.
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The thesis consists of three self-contained essays on public policy in the macroeconomy.
“Government Policy in the Formal and Informal Sectors” quantitatively investigates the interaction between the firms' choice to operate in the formal or the informal sector and government policy on taxation and enforcement. Taxes, enforcement, and regulation are incorporated in a general equilibrium model of firms differing in their productivities. The model quantitatively accounts for the keys aspects in the data and allows me to back out country-specific enforcement levels. Some policy reforms are analyzed and the welfare gains can be fairly large.
“Determinants of Capital Intensive and R&D Intensive Foreign Direct Investment” studies the determinants of capital intensity and technology content of FDI. Using industry data on U.S. FDI abroad and data on many different host countries' institutional characteristics, we show that there is a differential response of FDI flows to investment climate according to the capital intensity of the industries receiving the investments. We find that better protection of property rights has a significant positive effect on R&D intensive capital flows. We find evidence that an increase in workers' bargaining power results in a reduction of both kinds of FDI.
“Ambiguity Aversion, the Equity Premium, and the Welfare Costs of Business Cycles” examines the relevance of consumers’ ambiguity aversion for asset prices and how consumption fluctuations influence consumer welfare. First, in a Mehra-Prescott-style endowment economy, we calibrate ambiguity aversion so that asset prices are consistent with data: a high return on equity and a low return on risk-free bonds. We then use this calibration to investigate how much consumers would be willing to pay to reduce endowment fluctuations to zero, thus delivering a Lucas-style welfare cost of fluctuations. These costs turn out to be very large: consumers are willing to pay over 10% of consumption in permanent terms.
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Prado, José Maurício. "Essays on public macroeconomic policy /." Stockholm : Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-6815.
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Prado, José Maurício. "Essyas on public macroeconomic policy /." Stockholm : Univ., Institute for International Economic Studies, 2007. http://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/539442747.pdf.
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Beresford, Peter. "Citizen involvement in public policy." Thesis, Middlesex University, 1997. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/9867/.
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The theme of this research work is citizen involvement in public policy.Participation is both a subject of the research and the perspective through which a range of different policy areas are approached. These include land-use planning, social services, community care, poverty, child care and the future of welfare. Participation is also central to the chosen research methodology and methods. A particular focus is placed on the perspective of the subjects of public policy. The research also explores social care service users' discourses on their rights and needs and the relation of public policy to them, particularly the discourses of psychiatric system survivors and disabled people. 23 publications have been submitted as part of this application (see Appendix). They' are part of a much larger body of work undertaken by the candidate over the same period. They have been selected to reflect some of the key themes identified, explored and developed in the candidate's work. These works have been undertaken over a period of 18 years. Such a length of time means that there have not only been significant developments in the research, but also in its subject matter. The two are in close and dynamic relationship. Over this period, there have been major changes and developments in public policy, politics, welfare and academic debates. The research work has responded to these broader developments.They have influenced its focus and direction and it has sought to influence them. There is currently considerable interest in issues of participation and empowerment. They have gained priority over the period of this work as subjects of study, research, practice and public policy. They are now embodied in a wide range of UK government legislation and guidance. However this is a relatively recent development. The candidate's work starts at a time when participation was much lower on political, academic and professional agendas and it both reflects and takes forward discussion and developments in this field. The particular history of participation has implications both for the kind of questions which the research has asked and the way in which it has been financed and supported. Participation is also associated with a range of key concepts which currently have high priority on public and academic agendas. These include: citizenship, social exclusion, empowerment, community, identity and diversity. The research work has addressed all of these. The work has sought to address a series of key research questions which participation raises. These have emerged, changed and developed over time.
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Cannon, Bart Joseph. "Public Opinion and State Policy." W&M ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625688.
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Mohanta, Tapan Kumar. "Industrial policy of India : a study of public policy." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/227.
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Quinney, Margaret Ann. "Public consultation process and public policy, a case study." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq29095.pdf.
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Edwards, Geoffrey. "Defining the 'Public Interest'." Thesis, Griffith University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365184.
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The 'public interest' (including 'national interest' in foreign affairs) has long been recognised as a yardstick in public policy. Intuitively, one would expect that first-rate policy analysis, including multi-disciplinary inquiry and public consultation, should be adequate to document a reasonable approximation of the public interest to guide- political debate. Yet the precise nature of the public interest remains enigmatic. The concept plays out in three primary ways: as a rhetorical device, as a statement of current policy, and as a normative standard. Error arises from assuming that these usages are equivalent. When it is found that rhetorical and current formulations are inadequate, the temptation is to discard the concept as meaningless without further normative inquiry. Indeed, the academic literature on the subject seems to peter out in the 1970s without reaching any consensus on whether the term has meaning other than as a device for propaganda.
Since economic rationalism rose to prominence in the 1980s, governments have allowed markets to determine what is in the public interest and have neglected other standards such as ethics, the wisdom of the ages, the deliberations of a non-partisan public service, international treaties and biophysical limits to economic growth.
As a working definition, the present research describes the public interest as the stake that the community at large has in public affairs and searches for some objective criteria in the literature and through case studies, survey and logical analysis. The three case studies related to (a) real property rights, (b) international free trade and (c) aviation safety. It was found that: the private rights and public responsibilities of holders of real property are poorly defined; the Australian Government's insistence that free international trade is a major limb of national interest is defective on both theoretical and evidentiary grounds; and in aviation a search for a widely accepted definition even of 'safety' was unsuccessful.
The research also explored the features of gross domestic product, a universally accepted measure of economic growth popularly taken as an indicator of public well-being. The concept was found to be riddled with defects, even as a narrow measure of economic prosperity. Nor did any of several philosophical lenses evaluated in the thesis lead to a clear benchmark (though 'natural law' was found to have promise as it holds that some ethical traits are inherent in human nature and are augmented by a corpus of moral standards that have gained consensus over the centuries). The analysis did not support the prevalent view that government ministers determine the public interest or that public interest arises as the pluralist-style resultant of contending interest groups.
In short, no authoritative or objective standard could be discovered. Further, the hold that relativism and neo-liberalism have within the social sciences and the policy community makes it unlikely that scholars will reach a consensus on how to crystallise the public interest in the foreseeable future.
The research therefore turned to look for some foundation in the biophysical environment and in global affairs. Two findings rescued the quest: the demonstrable limits of the natural environment and the existence of international treaties. Some axioms are derived from these for the biophysical, social and public policy arenas. The thesis argues that it should be possible to align government policies and actions to achieve objectives consistent with these, though this process is inconsistent with the predominant market-led model of framing public policy. In brief, the public interest can be served by progress towards internationally accepted ideal conditions even if, by definition, a normative standard remains elusive.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department of Politics and Public Policy
Griffith Business School
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Gleeson, J. A. "Using policy analysis to explore the reciprocal impact of health policy on public health nursing and public health nursing on policy." Thesis, Bournemouth University, 2013. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21387/.
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The overall aim of this study was to explore the reciprocal impact of health policy on public health nursing and public health nursing on policy. This study uses a new approach to considering public health nurses’ engagement in policy: one which puts public health nurses, as actors in the policy process, at the centre of the investigation. The overall philosophical lens through which the research was conducted was critical social theory and the methodology was a grounded theory influenced research design. The study adopted a three stage data collection and analysis process: primary data (questionnaires and interviews), detailed policy analyses of two specific White Papers and secondary data (extant documents). The data were collected and analysed through a grounded theory approach in order to answer four research questions: 1. What do public health nurses know about policy, specifically in relation to two English Department of Health White Papers: Creating A Patient-Led NHS (DOH 2005) and Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (DOH 2006)? 2. How do they engage in the policy process? 3. What affects their implementation of policy? 4. Is there a policy-practice gap? A triangulated approach to data collection and analysis was used. Primary data were collected through questionnaires and follow up telephone interviews with public health nurses (health visitors and school nurses) in four PCTs and one social enterprise in five different geographical areas of England. Further data from detailed policy analyses using frameworks by Popple and Leighninger (2008) and Walt and Gilson (1994) were also considered. Finally, secondary data from extant documents including newspapers, websites and organisational documents were reviewed. At the end of the research process, it was possible to answer the four research questions. In addition to this, new knowledge and theory emerged around three main themes: i) A proposal for a new combined framework for policy analysis which leads to a comprehensive and analytical account of policy content and context combined with a detailed consideration of the role of public health nurses as actors in the policy process. ii) Theories as to why and how public health nurses lack influence in the policy process. iii) Analysis of the effect of lack of resources on inhibiting practice innovation in response to policy agendas. Consideration of these theories led to several recommendations for practice. Throughout the research process, there was continued interaction between the three phases of data collection, analysis and theory development.
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Lechthaler, Wolfgang. "Firm training, public policy and institutions /." Bamberg : Difo-Druck, 2006. http://aleph.unisg.ch/hsgscan/hm00155422.pdf.
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Tsering, Dechen. "Public biodiversity policy analysis in Bhutan /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2000. http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/show?type=diss&nr=13800.
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Grill, Kalle. "Anti-paternalism and Public Health Policy." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Filosofi och teknikhistoria, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-10947.
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This thesis is an attempt to constructively interpret and critically evaluate the liberal doctrine that we may not limit a person’s liberty for her own good, and to discuss its implications and alternatives in some concrete areas of public health policy. The thesis starts theoretical and goes ever more practical. The first paper is devoted to positive interpretation of anti-paternalism with special focus on the reason component – personal good. A novel generic definition of paternalism is proposed, intended to capture, in a generous fashion, the object of traditional liberal resistance to paternalism – the invocation of personal good reasons for limiting of or interfering with a person’s liberty. In the second paper, the normative aspect of this resistance is given a somewhat technical interpretation in terms of invalidation of reasons – the blocking of reasons from influencing the moral status of actions according to their strength. It is then argued that normative anti-paternalism so understood is unreasonable, on three grounds: 1) Since the doctrine only applies to sufficiently voluntary action, voluntariness determines validity of reasons, which is unwarranted and leads to wrong answers to moral questions. 2) Since voluntariness comes in degrees, a threshold must be set where personal good reasons are invalidated, leading to peculiar jumps in the justifiability of actions. 3) Anti-paternalism imposes an untenable and unhelpful distinction between the value of respecting choices that are sufficiently voluntary and choices that are not. The third paper adds to this critique the fourth argument that none of the action types typically proposed to specify the action component of paternalism is such that performing an action of that type out of benevolence is essentially morally problematic. The fourth paper ignores the critique in the second and third papers and proposes, in an anti-paternalistic spirit, a series of rules for the justification of option-restricting policies aimed at groups where some members consent to the policy and some do not. Such policies present the liberal with a dilemma where the value of not restricting people’s options without their consent conflicts with the value of allowing people to shape their lives according to their own wishes. The fifth paper applies the understanding of anti-paternalism developed in the earlier papers to product safety regulation, as an example of a public health policy area. The sixth paper explores in more detail a specific public health policy, namely that of mandatory alcohol interlocks in all cars, proposed by the former Swedish government and supported by the Swedish National Road Administration. The policy is evaluated for cost-effectiveness, for possible diffusion of individual responsibility, and for paternalistic treatment of drivers. The seventh paper argues for a liberal policy in the area of dissemination of information about uncertain threats to public health. The argument against paternalism is based on common sense consequentialist considerations, avoiding any appeal to the normative anti-paternalism rejected earlier in the thesis.QC 20100714
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Hudon, Marek. "Ethics and public policy in microfinance." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210639.
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This thesis is made of two parts. Part I (Chapter 1 to 3) focuses on the ethical aspects of the current challenges in microfinance. Chapter 1 addresses the question of the place and importance of credit in development policies, through the debate on the right to credit. Chapter 2 and 3 then question the fairness of the interest rates charged by the microfinance institutions. Chapter 2 analyzes whether the fairness criteria depend on more basic principles of justice, such as Rawls’ principles described in A Theory of Justice (Rawsl, 1976). Chapter 3 then reviews some of the implicit and explicit definitions of fair interest rates and proposes an original methodology, with David Gauthiers’ contractuarian theory. It determines what a fair interest rate would be when lending to the poor. Based on the results of the two first chapters, Part II (Chapter 4 to 6) focuses on the role of donors in microfinance. Chapters 4 and 5 use two original databases, of 67 and 100 MFIs respectively to study the impact of subsidies on the MFIs’ management, through their rating evaluation (Chapter 4) and MFIs’ performance and management decisions (Chapter 5). Chapter 4 will analyze the relationship between the quality of management, as rated by a specialized agency, and the amount of subsidies. Chapter 5 will study pricing policy, the clientele and the potential moral hazard of subsidized institutions. Concluding this analysis, Chapter 6 gives some guidelines on the use of donor subsidies, especially in their interaction with the new private commercial actors, such as investment funds.
Doctorat en sciences de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Cheney, David W. "Information technology, science, and public policy." Fairfax, VA : George Mason University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1920/2959.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Mason University, 2007.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 17, 2008). Thesis director: Don E. Kash Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy. Vita: p. 330. Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-329). Also available in print.
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Tupper, Kenneth William. "Ayahuasca, entheogenic education & public policy." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33764.
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Ayahuasca is an entheogenic decoction prepared from two Amazonian plants containing controlled substances, including dimethyltryptamine. Traditionally drunk ritually (and revered as a healing “plant teacher”) by Amazonian indigenous and mestizo peoples, in the 20th century ayahuasca became a sacrament for several new Brazilian religions. One of these, the Santo Daime, has expanded into Canada, where in 2001 a Montreal-based chapter applied for a federal legal exemption to allow drinking of the brew in its rituals.
This dissertation undertakes a critical policy analysis of Health Canada’s decision on the Santo Daime request, using government documents obtained through an Access to Information request as data. My goals are to illustrate how modern stereotypes about “drugs” and “drug abuse” in dominant public and political discourses may hinder well-informed policy decision making about ayahuasca, and to consider how entheogenic practices such as ayahuasca drinking are traditional indigenous ways of knowing that should be valued, rather than reflexively demonized and criminalized. My research method is a critical discourse analysis approach to policy analysis, an eclectic means of demonstrating how language contributes to conceptual frames and political responses to public policy issues. I combine insights from recent research on language, discourse and public policy to show how ayahuasca has become an unexpected policy conundrum for liberal democratic states attempting to balance competing interests of criminal justice, public health, and human rights such as religious freedom.
I trace ayahuasca’s trajectory as a contemporary policy concern by sketching histories of psychoactive substance use, today’s international drug control regime, and the discursive foundations of its underlying drug war paradigm. Regarding Health Canada’s 2006 decision “in principle” to recommend exemption for the Daime brew, I critique how the government defined ayahuasca as a policy problem, what policy stakeholders it considered in its decision making, and what knowledge about ayahuasca it used. To conclude, I explore modern schooling’s systemic antipathy to wonder and awe, and propose that policy reforms allowing circumspect use of entheogens such as ayahuasca as cognitive tools may help stimulate re-enchantment and appreciation of the need to address human and planetary ecological predicaments of the 21st century.
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Green, Alix Rivka. "Using history in public policy development." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/13902.
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This thesis addresses two key problems: that historical practice in the academy is largely disengaged from politics as a domain of public purpose and that policymaking remains fixed on a very narrow (and quantitative) definition of evidence, although the “policy-relevant” disciplines have not proved able to solve long-standing policy issues. It inspects both phenomena with the aim of describing the space in which the two problems can be brought into a workable accommodation. The argument is made that public policy should be regarded as an important concern of academic history, and policymakers themselves as people with legitimate interests that historians should take seriously. Public history provides a helpful framework and set of concerns to work with in this respect. Given that the social and natural sciences have not been able to solve the pressing policy problems with which governments are faced, a certain obligation may be claimed for historians to reconsider their stance. The re-connection of history and policy – the nineteenth-century discipline clearly discerned a public-political purpose for history – requires attention to be given to articulating and demonstrating the distinctive cognitive tools of the historian and their distinctive value to the policymaking process. The thesis addresses two primary fields, whose interests and professional practices appear divergent such that both the principles and the terms of collaboration are difficult to imagine: academic history and government policymaking. The primary material on which the research draws is accordingly the products of these constituencies: works of historiography and policy documents of various kinds. Also of relevance are commentaries and analyses that address these domains, whether from other disciplines with an interest in political decision-making, from the media or from other organisations with a professional stake, such as think tanks. The originality of the research lies in conceiving of the question of the uses of history for public policy as one of integration of “supply” and “demand” perspectives. It seeks clarity on the distinctive value of historical skills and approaches, but not as an end in itself. Rather, the case is assembled for the affinities between history and policy as processes and hence that the two can be brought into a productive alignment. So, instead of history providing pre-packaged accounts for policy, it can be embedded as a way of thinking and reasoning in policy.
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Lawlor, Andrea. "Understanding public policy through mass media." Thesis, McGill University, 2014. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=121392.
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Media have both direct and indirect influences on policy, and can, at various times, serve as a contributor to policy, a conduit of policy information, and a mirror to the policy process. Although the scholarly literature acknowledges media's role in the policy process, particularly their ability to affect policymakers directly, systematically push policy alternatives, or influence public opinion, the literature often omits a critical role for media: reflecting the policy process. Mass media are the public's largest source of information on policy, yet the volume and tone of media reporting on policy over time, not to mention what we can learn about public policy through media data, are often overlooked. This dissertation examines how we can use media as a tool to better understand the complexity of public policy narratives, framing and change. It also suggests an approach to using media data as a tool to examine the relationships between policy actors and domains. Using automated content analysis of over 25-years of comparative media data, this dissertation consists of three articles: each makes a contribution to the policy literature, namely in the areas of pension policy, immigration policy, and the literature on issue ownership. When taken together, these articles make a broader contribution to the field's understanding of how framing, language and narrative impact the public's understanding of many facets of the policy process. Results demonstrate the value of understanding media's role as a mirror. Additionally, the approach used can be considered a contribution to the methodological toolkit available to policy and political communications scholars to assist them in better understanding the complex relationships between policy and media.Les médias ont des effets directs et indirects sur les politiques. À différents moments, les médias peuvent participer à la création et à la diffusion de politiques, tout comme ils peuvent éclaircir le processus d'élaboration de ces politiques. Le rôle des médias dans ce processus, surtout par rapport à leur capacité d'influer sur les décideurs de façon directe, d'avancer systématiquement des politiques de rechange ou d'influencer l'opinion publique, est reconnu dans la littérature spécialisée. Toutefois, on y aborde rarement un autre rôle fondamental des médias, qui est celui de nous faire comprendre le processus de création de politiques. Pour le public, les médias de masse constituent la principale source d'information sur les politiques, mais le volume et le ton des rapports médiatiques à ce sujet au fil du temps – sans oublier les apprentissages sur les politiques publiques que nous pouvons tirer des données des médias – sont souvent négligés. La présente dissertation traite de l'utilisation des médias comme outils pour approfondir notre compréhension du récit, de la formulation et de la modification des politiques publiques. Elle propose également une approche pour appliquer des données médiatiques à l'examen des rapports entre acteurs politiques et domaines. La présente étude s'appuie sur une analyse de contenu automatisée de données comparatives des médias, couvrant une période de plus de 25 ans. Chacune des trois grandes sections de l'analyse apporte une contribution à la littérature spécialisée, en explorant les politiques en matière de pension et d'immigration, ainsi que la question de l'adhésion aux politiques. Dans son ensemble, l'étude renseigne sur la portée de l'expression, du langage et du récit sur la compréhension populaire des nombreux aspects du processus d'élaboration de politiques. Les résultats de l'analyse soulignent l'importance de comprendre le rôle des médias dans la traduction de ce processus. De plus, les chercheurs qui s'intéressent aux politiques et à la communication politique peuvent utiliser l'approche méthodologique proposée pour étudier les rapports complexes entre les politiques et les médias.
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Larcinese, Valentino. "Political information, elections and public policy." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2003. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/431/.
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This thesis contributes to the study of the role of information in elections and public policy formation. Its main focus is on information acquisition and voting behaviour. Chapter 1 discusses the motivation of this research and presents a survey of related literature. Chapter 2 focuses on electoral turnout, Chapter 3 on public policy, and Chapter 4 on mass media. Chapter 2 studies the impact of information on electoral turnout. Since incentives to be informed are correlated with other incentives to participate in public life, a model of information acquisition and turnout is introduced to isolate potential instrumental variables and try to establish a causal relation. Results are tested on the 1997 General Election in Britain. It is shown that information, as well as ideology, matters for turnout. It also contributes to explain the systematic correlation of turnout with variables like education and income. Voters' knowledge of candidates and of other political issues is also substantially influenced by mass media. Chapter 3 presents a model that links the distribution of political knowledge with redistributive policies. It argues that voters can have private incentives to be informed about politics and that such incentives are correlated with income. Therefore redistribution will be systematically lower than what the median voter theorem predicts. Moreover, more inequality does not necessarily lead to an increase in redistribution and constitutional restrictions might have unintended consequences. In Chapter 4 it is argued that instrumentally motivated voters should increase their demand for information when elections are close. In supplying news, mass media should take into account information demand, as well as the value of customers to advertisers and the cost of reaching marginal readers. Information supply should therefore be larger in electoral constituencies where the contest is expected to be closer, the population is on average more valuable for advertisers, and the population density is higher. These conclusions are then tested with good results on data from the 1997 General Election in Britain.
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Conde, e. Silva Gui J. "Transnational public policy in international arbitration." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2007. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/1717.
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Arbitration tribunals rely on public policy principles to exclude or determine the applicable law. At times, the notion of public policy will contain fundamental yardsticks recognised by the world community at large. In such cases public policy may be called transnational or truly international. The thesis expounds the notion and content of transnational public policy as applied by international tribunals. This objective is met by exploring the method, functions and purpose of transnational public policy in international arbitration. The opening chapter sheds light on the origins and concept of public policy and the different levels it has been applied by international tribunals and national courts. It suggests a criteria for the distinction between domestic, domestic-international, regional and transnational public policy. The thesis then gives an in depth analysis of the origins and notion of transnational public policy. It suggests that international tribunals have relied on transnational public policy in their awards and proposes a method to determine its content and sources. Such method is then applied to deduct the content of transnational public policy from decided arbitration awards. The thesis shows that transnational public policy can be relevant at three different stages in international arbitration. At the outset of the proceeding, where the arbitrators determine their jurisdiction; during the arbitration, where it controls the procedure applicable in the arbitration; or at the stage of drafting the final award, where it determines fundamental substantive rules relied upon by the tribunal.
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Wardman, David Tobias. "Doctors' moral beliefs and public policy." Thesis, University of Hull, 2017. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16452.
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In this thesis, I address three related questions: • First, suppose we legalise some controversial medical practice tomorrow. Should we respect the moral objections of those doctors who object to the practice? I argue that we should indeed respect those objections, and I provide two complementary reasons for doing so. • Second, when the objections of doctors conflict with the interests of patients, how do we balance these two demands, and is there scope for compromise? I propose some criteria for resolving this conflict. I also suggest that the conventional compromise — compulsory referral — is morally problematic, and propose that the solution to this problem is to regard referral as ‘just another’ controversial medical practice. • Third, in circumstances where prioritising patients’ interests means that we will eventually decide to overrule doctors’ moral objections, how might we expect doctors to respond to this, and is there anything we can do to reduce the harm to them? In my final chapter, I sketch some possible answers to this question.
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Rauh, Joshua David 1974. "Pensions, corporate finance, and public policy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29426.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2004.Includes bibliographical references.
This dissertation consists of three papers that explore the links between corporate finance and corporate pension policy. The first chapter exploits the funding rules for defined benefit pension plans in order to identify the dependence of corporate investment on internal financial resources. Capital expenditures decline with mandatory pension contributions, even when allowing for very generalized correlations between the pension funding status itself and the firm's unobserved investment opportunities. The effect is particularly evident among firms that appear to face financing constraints based on observable variables such as credit ratings. There is some evidence suggesting that firms which do not sponsor defined benefit pension plans may undertake some of the capital investment that pension sponsors in their industry are unable to take up when required contributions are high. The second chapter tests a corporate control hypothesis to explain why managers might encourage employees to hold company stock in their 401(k) plans. Since employees often vote for incumbent managers in proxy contests, managers may encourage them to hold stock as a defense against a change in corporate control. When a state's laws change to provide more takeover protection for managers, employee ownership of firms incorporated in that state would be expected to decline relative to employee ownership at other firms. I find that the validation of the poison pill through Delaware case law in the mid 1990s had a statistically significant negative effect on employee ownership shares of up to 1.7 percentage points.
(cont.) The third chapter, co-authored with Daniel Bergstresser and Mihir Desai, analyzes variation in firms' assumed long-term rates of return on pension assets. We show that this is a lever that can affect reported earnings and provide evidence that managers use this mechanism opportunistically. The sensitivity of reported earnings to the pension return assumption is an important determinant of the assumption itself. Managers increase assumed rates of return as they prepare to acquire other firms and as to exercise stock options. Decisions about assumed rates of return, in turn, influence asset allocation within pension plans.
by Joshua David Rauh.
Ph.D.
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Belyakova, A. "Public involvement in the environmental policy." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2004. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/22756.
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Artemenko, A. "Public ekonomic choice: policy and democracy." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2006. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/21599.
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Ashburn, Jacob J. "Race, morality and public school policy /." The Ohio State University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487779439848254.
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Wang, Feng. "Warranty of legality and public policy." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18033.
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It has been pointed out by numerous authorities that the legality issue is one of the most complex and difficult areas in English law. Countless rules and principles have been created by former authorities, on one hand, principles which have been created by common law give guidance to the English courts when deal with this issue, on the other hand, however, these judgments make this area far from clear an stable. However, compared with one more special area, the legality issue in marine insurance law, the instability of rules in English common law makes itself useful instrument. Section 41 of Marine Insurance Act 1906, which is known as warranty of legality, requires the adventure is a lawful and so far as the assured can control the matter, the adventure shall be carried out in a lawful manner. However, this piece of law has imposed a rigid and unfair system on the assured. According to former authorities, it can be seen that, the illegality rules in marine insurance law is far more complex than section 41; and, moreover, English common law also provide useful instruments for marine insurance law. This thesis begins with the analysis of section 41 in marine insurance law and tries to explore the true scope of section 41 in marine insurance. And then the principles of legality issue in English common law will be introduced in detail; furthermore, the pattern of resolve legality issue in Australia and New Zealand will be introduced as well, since the common grounds these three legal systems share. And based on the introduction of the reform which have been taken by Australia and New Zealand, this thesis will try to explore the positive methods which can be absorb by English law as well. And in the end, the new reform of English law on the legality issue in insurance and marine insurance law which has been proposed by the Insurance Contract Law Bill 2014 will be analysed as well, and based on former analysis, this thesis will propose a practical method to reform this issue in English law, that is to apply the common law rules in marine insurance law.
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Peasgood, Tessa May. "Measuring well-being for public policy." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/5475.
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The aim of this thesis is to explore the most appropriate means of measuring individual wellbeing for public policy. The thesis will begin by asking exactly what is meant by well-being and giving a brief overview of the main philosophical accounts of well-being, summarising the variations within each account and considering how well-being can be measured from that perspective. Chapter Three uses analysis of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to explore the differences between the well-being measures available within that dataset. This shows that, although in many cases the choice between different subjective well-being (SWB) measures appears to make minimal difference, there is wide variation between household income and subjective well-being measures and also some important cases where subjective measures differ. This implies that the choice of well-being measure will have important implications for policy making. To aid judgement between different well-being measures a list of criteria for an ideal measure of well-being to be used for public policy are set out in Chapter Four. Chapter Five asks how the various measures of well-being fare according to these criteria, finding that subjective measures perform at least as well, if not better, than existing measures of well-being drawn from neoclassical economic theory. The next three chapters use evidence from the SWB literature and additional analysis of the BHPS to asks whether our current understanding of the determinants of SWB is sufficient to support policy recommendations. Chapter six focuses on the relationship between income and SWB, specifically on evidence for inefficiencies arising from adaptation to income and reference income effects. Chapter seven looks at the relationship between SWB and social capital and considers the extent to which the relationship between talking to neighbours and SWB can be thought of as causal through the use of Instrumental Variable techniques. Lastly, chapter eight considers the role of SWB measures within microeconomic evaluation. The final chapter summarises the advantages and potential hurdles for the use of SWB indicators of wellbeing within public policy, concluding with recommendations for extending this work, both in relation to public policy and academic research.
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Fitzpatrick, Katie. "Behavioral responses to public policy reforms." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.
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Ebner, Alexander [Verfasser]. "Governance und Public Policy / Alexander Ebner." Erfurt : Universität Erfurt, 2008. http://d-nb.info/121598006X/34.
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Choi, Jane Jungeun. "Essays on innovation and public policy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122103.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, 2019Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 143-148).
Innovation is an important driver of economic growth, and public policy can affect many aspects of innovation. This thesis investigates the role of public policy in relation to two specific aspects of innovation: 1) who becomes an innovator and 2) where intellectual property is located once an innovation occurs. The first chapter analyzes how tax rates on patent- and trademark-related income affect where patents and trademarks are located internationally. I study how changes in patent and trademark tax rates in various countries altered the flow of patents and trademarks in and out of the countries. Using data on patent and trademark transfers from the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), combined with market-based patent value estimates, I estimate the sensitivity of IP location to the changes in tax rates. I present suggestive evidence of income shifting and tax base erosion by showing that patents and trademarks tend to locate in countries with lower tax rates. The second chapter (jointly written with Carolyn Stein and Heidi Williams) investigates the role of gender in the evaluation of patent applications submitted to the USPTO. We document that patent examiner gender appears to have no effect on the evaluation of patent applications submitted by female inventors relative to male inventors, suggesting male examiners are not differentially biased in their evaluation of patent applications from female inventors. The third chapter (jointly written with Yosub Jung) investigates how the passage of US state laws granting married women the rights to own separate property and own their earnings affected patenting by female inventors. In the 1800s, before such laws were passed, the notion of coverture meant that married women's property and earnings were controlled by their husbands. We compare patenting by women before and after the acts and show that patenting by women increased after these laws.
by Jane Jungeun Choi.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics
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Galvez, Marisa. "Pro Tanto Principles in Public Policy." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2043.
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Even when given the exact same moral dilemma, equally rational peers, colleagues, and friends will disagree about the right course of action. Pro tanto principles are one way to resolve moral conflicts such as these. When broadening the conflicts to real life situations, such as those seen in public policy, pro tanto principles prove to be an extremely useful tool. This paper explores the difference between the way that the individual interacts with pro tanto principles and the way that public policy interacts with such a moral system. In the end, difficulties in public policy attempt to be resolved by using this framework.
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Lewis, Dorothy. "Federal public policy and bilingual education." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1995. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1088.
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This paper is divided into four chapters. Chapter one presents an introduction and overview of the nature of the problem, its significance and implication for public policy, and a presentation of the research design and methodology. Chapter two reviews the historical and legal background of bilingual education policy. Chapter three presents a literature review of bilingual education policy making, and examines the impacts and effects of federal aid in practice. Chapter four provides a summary of survey findings and recommendations for reform of the funding criteria for Title VII ESEA bilingual education grants.
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Keenaghan, C. "Public consultation in public health policy and planning in Ireland." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432596.
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Ayres, Russell, and n/a. "Policy markets in Australia." University of Canberra. Management and Policy, 2001. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20050418.124214.
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Are there policy markets in Australia, and if so, how do they operate? This is the core question for this dissertation. Beginning with a focus on this simple formulation of the problem, the thesis explores the idea of policy markets, breaking it down into its constituent parts��policy� and �markets��and develops four different ways in which policy markets (i.e. markets for policy analysis, research and advice) might be modeled: 1. the dimensions of knowledge, values and competition in policy development systems and processes; 2. a hierarchy of policy markets according to strategic, programmatic and operational concerns; 3. policy markets in the context of cyclical process models of policy-making, especially the variant posited by Bridgman and Davis (1998); and 4. a typology of policy markets ranging from �pseudo� forms through to a form of full (or �pure�) policy market. Against the background of this theory-building, the empirical evidence�which was gathered through a combination of documentary investigation and some 77 interviews with senior public servants, consultants and ministers�is addressed through three interrelated approaches: an analysis of the (relatively limited) government-wide data; a comparison of this material with experience in New Zealand; and a set of three extended case studies. The three case studies address the idea and experience of policy markets from the point of view of: � the supplier�in this case, the economic forecasting and analysis firm, Access Economics; � ministers-as-buyers�through a study of the Coalition Government�s 1998 efforts to reform the waterfront; and � the bureaucracy as implementers of an extensive program of outsourcing�through a detailed examination of the outsourcing of corporate services (especially human resource management) by the Department of Finance and Administration. Several conclusions are drawn as to the character, extent and theoretical and practical significance of policy markets in Australia. While various elements of actual markets (e.g. contracts, price and service competition, multiple sources of supply, etc.) can be detected in the Australian approach to
policy-making, policy markets are not as prevalent or as consistent as the rhetoric might suggest. In particular, while the language of the market is a common feature throughout the Australian policy-making system, it tends to mask a complex, �mixed economy�, whereby there is a continued preference for many of the mechanisms of bureaucratic ways of organising for policy analysis, combined with a growing challenge from various forms of networks, which are sometimes �dressed� as markets but retain the essential elements of policy (or, perhaps more particularly, political) networks. Nevertheless, the growing use of the language and some of the forms of the market in Australia�s policy-making system suggests that practitioners and researchers need to take this form into account when considering ways of organising (in the case of practitioners) or ways of studying (for researchers) policy development in Australia.
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Zagalski, Cezar. "The courts and public policy : towards more effective judicial policy-making." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61126.
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The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has significantly changed the functions of the Canadian courts. Ever since its entrenchment in 1982, the third branch of government has enjoyed a powerful status in the Canadian polity. Countless Charter decisions, affecting the lives of all Canadians, have been rendered. The courts have been asked to rule on cruise missile testing, abortion, aboriginal rights, minority language rights and a whole range of other issues of a political, economic or social nature. Our political system, whose traditional foundations lay in the principle of parliamentary supremacy, has become one of constitutional supremacy. The new and powerful status of the nonelected judiciary has raised serious questions not only regarding the legitimacy of judicial review under the Charter but also the institutional capacity of the courts to face the Charter challenge. The author examines the nature of the judiciary's policy-making function under the Charter in order to determine the extent to which the courts are equipped to fulfil their task. The thesis suggests that in order to face the Charter challenge effectively, the courts can no longer operate within the framework of the traditional adversary process. Instead, the courts must constantly look to the prevailing values in our society as well as examine thoroughly social and scientific phenomena before rendering an "informed" policy decision. This can only be achieved through a coherent framework of Charter analysis and effective ways in handling extrinsic materials. The focus of the present paper is on section 1 of the Charter which, due to its open-ended language, most clearly invites courts to make policy-type decision.
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Blanes, Ramona. "Smart policy for public value : strategic management in public sector reform." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2017. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8311/.
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This thesis explored the public value (PV) concept as strategic management to (re)introduce the concept of social responsibility and ethics within the public sector. Public sector governance relied on the assumption that the specific attributes of the various public sector governance approaches influenced public managers’ actions and decisions. The attributes of the management approach became more aligned with the PV concept as it moved along a public sector reform (PSR) continuum. To compare and contrast the PV concept in the various cultures and institutional settings through the lens of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)-related policies and programmes, three countries at the different stages of PSR were chosen. The results showed there were varying degrees of PSR acceptance and compliance at the various government levels. Thus, more than one dominant PSR model existed simultaneously in a country. The extent to which the changes were accepted and complied with depended on several dynamics. Additionally, the results discovered that the PV concept influenced public managers’ practices despite the governance traditions. This discovery validated the fact that a country did not have to be at the most sophisticated PSR stage to strategise using the PV concept. Finally, the results supported the view that ITS enabled easy and continuous data collection for the public managers. This ease of data collection advanced the process of knowledge exchange to co-create/co-produce or share PV with the public. The knowledge collaboration and sharing could lead to innovation, sustainability and the perception of value by the public.
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Arrondelle, Donna. "Whither the public? : a critical policy analysis of the UK government's building public support for international development policy." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2018. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10056302/.
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The past two decades have seen tremendous efforts by International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) and the UK government to increase UK public support for international development. Yet hopes of increasing support for development have not materialised. When measured, poll data indicates that levels of public support have barely shifted, from 1999 to present, remaining around 70% (OECD, 2003; TNS UK, 2010). The most recent polling asserts that UK public concern for global poverty has significantly declined, from 70% in 2011 to 46% in 2014 (Bond, 2016). Findings also demonstrate that levels of support are not commensurate with increased awareness (Glennie et al., 2012; Hudson and van Heerde-Hudson, 2012; Lindstrom and Henson, 2010). This suggests a significant disconnect between public support and public understanding, and the public awareness campaign agendas of INGOs, and the UK government’s policy endeavours to build public support. This thesis is an attempt towards understanding part of this disconnect by focusing on the UK Department for International Development's (DFID) policy endeavours towards public support. My research conducts a critical policy analysis, employing a discourse analytical approach, departing from the existing attitudinal data approaches. Specifically, I apply Bacchi's (2009) ‘What's the Problem Represented to Be' (WPR) framework, together with Foucault's governmentality insights. I look at two time periods, 1997-2003, following the establishment of DFID, and 2010-2015 under the Con-Lib Coalition government's leadership and examine how public support is constructed as a ‘problem', as a means of shedding light on possible reasons for the lack of increased public support. The findings show that public support is constructed as a ‘problem' meriting attention in three main ways: as a ‘problem' of public ignorance; of public accountability; and of emotions. The analysis reveals strikingly, that a number of the discourses operating that comprise the ‘problem of public support' target DFID policy workers, rather than ‘the public'. In fact, the actual public remain out of sight. I demonstrate how this construction of public support as a ‘problem' is an extension of governmental power, which serves to among other things, depoliticise development objects, ‘recipients' and ‘donors', and reinforce existing inequalities, rather than challenge them. In turn, this means these three components of problematisation legitimise the role of DFID. My findings show that these problematisations of public support promoted in DFID's work, if embodied, at best, may stifle public support, and at worst, may reduce it. Therefore, these problematistions require urgent attention if future efforts at building public support are to ‘succeed'.
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Hicks, Bentley G. (Bentley Garth) Carleton University Dissertation Law. "Interests and the public interest in law and public policy: a case study in aboriginal policy in Canada." Ottawa, 1995.
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Barnett, John B. "Addressing Policy Challenges to Woody Biopower Production| Social Acceptance, Biomass Certification and Limited Policy Support." Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10982309.
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Forestlands have been identified as a valuable resource to mitigate climate change due to the biome’s capacity to both sequester greenhouse gases and substitute for fossil fuels. Woody biomass has been proposed as a substitutable input for coal-generated electricity as economies attempt to transition to renewable power while addressing economic development goals. However, increasing the intensity of forest management for energy production has the potential to result in significant ecological, economic and social consequences at local, regional and global scales. In this context, my dissertation explores the capacity of existing policy frameworks to stimulate and support sustainable power production from forest biomaterials. In Chapter Two, I explore the interactions between shifting goals, actors and institutions in influencing incentives that shape today’s policy mix for woody biopower production in Wisconsin. The study’s results reveal that the state’s shifting focus away from using renewable energy as a means to pursue climate change mitigation and energy security goals combined with an absence of supportive coalitions has resulted in the dismantling of support for the woody biopower policy framework. In Chapter Three, I use data from a household survey of Tomahawk, Wisconsin residents to evaluate support for woody biomass production for power generation. Results show that respondents in biomass producing communities are more supportive of biomass sources such as forestry residues and forestry thinnings than dedicated harvesting operations. In addition, the results indicate that using an ecosystem services approach can help explain differences in support between these respondents and provide insights into socially acceptable forms of biomass harvesting operations. Chapter Four evaluates the use of sustainable forest management certification programs as a policy instrument to source sustainable woody biomass. The study evaluated the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification programs using bioenergy sustainability criteria found in the academic literature. The analysis shows a deficiency in these programs to address key criteria pertaining to climate change mitigation and would be improved by coupling sustainable forest management programs with bioenergy sustainability schemes such as designed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.
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Smith, Stephanie Lynette. "Public policy & maternal mortality in India." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.
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Letovsky, Robert. "Public policy and the Quebec aerospace sector." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ47721.pdf.
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Yuen, Chi-Lok. "Essays on air transport and public policy." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7627.
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The rapid growth in air travel demand in the last few decades has led to two major
public policy issues in the aviation industry. First, it has placed enormous pressure on the
existing airport infrastructure. As a result, airlines, passengers and shippers are suffering
from serious congestion delays at the facilities, implying a significant economic loss to
the society. Second, given the increasing air travel demand, aviation greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions - a major contributor to man-made climate change - are growing at a
rapid pace. Different public policies are proposed by policy makers and scholars in a
number of different disciplines for the two issues. This thesis aims to investigate and
evaluate some of the policies from different perspectives.
To deal with the airport congestion problem, the congestion pricing is considered
to be one of the most feasible and simplest solutions, and economists also argue that it
would be welfare-improving. However, the congestion pricing has not really been
implemented at airports in practice. Chapter 2 considers the case of variable passenger
time costs in the airport congestion pricing analysis, and examines its welfare-redistributive
issues. This may help us to explain the unpopularity of the congestion
pricing in practice. The Chapter also explores a case where the self-internalization - an
important hypothesis suggested in the literature - may be incomplete. Chapter 3
investigates the effects of congestion pricing at a gateway on its hinterland's road tolls,
road congestion and social welfare. The problem will become more practically relevant,
as it is expected that gateway congestion pricing will be getting more popular in the near
future.
Another possible solution to deal with the problem of capacity shortage at airports
would be to utilize the existing facilities more efficiently. Chapter 4 measures the airport
efficiency in China, and empirically investigates the factors, including competition and
policy changes, affecting it. Chapter 5 considers another major public policy issue in the
aviation industry - GHG emissions. The Chapter provides an analytical framework for
examining the issue, and investigates the effects of unilateral GHG control measures on
airline competition, market output, consumer benefits and world emissions.
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Miller, Nigel James. "Essays in economic growth and public policy." Thesis, University of Hull, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.395682.
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Kato, Michiya. "Unemployment and public policy in interwar Japan." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269775.
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This thesis focuses on the nature and extent of interwar Japanese unemployment and public policy responses to it, issues which remain relatively neglected in the historiography. It details the spasmodic attention devoted by government to the unemployed in the immediate aftermath of the First World War and how attitudes towards the out of work evolved in response to the changes in the economic environment, both national and international, down to 1938. Particular attention is paid to contemporary attitudes both inside and outside of government towards the related issues of public works, unemployment insurance and industrial rationalization. In addition, unemployment policy is examined in the context of wider budgetary and fiscal concerns, principally with regard to the restoration and abandonment of the gold standard, and in light of the efforts made from the early 1920s to improve upon the rudimentary estimates available to policy makers of the scale and nature of unemployment problem.
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Zajonc, Tristan. "Essays on Causal Inference for Public Policy." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10163.
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Effective policymaking requires understanding the causal effects of competing proposals. Relevant causal quantities include proposals' expected effect on different groups of recipients, the impact of policies over time, the potential trade-offs between competing objectives, and, ultimately, the optimal policy. This dissertation studies causal inference for public policy, with an emphasis on applications in economic development and education. The first chapter introduces Bayesian methods for time-varying treatments that commonly arise in economics, health, and education. I present methods that account for dynamic selection on intermediate outcomes and can estimate the causal effect of arbitrary dynamic treatment regimes, recover the optimal regime, and characterize the set of feasible outcomes under different regimes. I demonstrate these methods through an application to optimal student tracking in ninth and tenth grade mathematics. The proposed estimands characterize outcomes, mobility, equity, and efficiency under different tracking regimes. The second chapter studies regression discontinuity designs with multiple forcing variables. Leading examples include education policies where treatment depends on multiple test scores and spatial treatment discontinuities arising from geographic borders. I give local linear estimators for both the conditional effect along the boundary and the average effect over the boundary. For two-dimensional RD designs, I derive an optimal, data-dependent, bandwidth selection rule for the conditional effect. I demonstrate these methods using a summer school and grade retention example. The third chapters illustrate the central role of persistence in estimating and interpreting value-added models of learning. Using data from Pakistani public and private schools, I apply dynamic panel methods that address three key empirical challenges: imperfect persistence, unobserved student heterogeneity, and measurement error. After correcting for these difficulties, the estimates suggest that only a fifth to a half of learning persists between grades and that private schools increase average achievement by 0.25 standard deviations each year. In contrast, value-added models that assume perfect persistence yield severely downwardly biased and occasionally wrong-signed estimates of the private school effect.
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Strömbäck, Elon. "Policy by Public Procurement : Opportunities and Pitfalls." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Nationalekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-107988.
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In Paper [I], we theoretically assess green public procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy instrument and its ability to lead to the achievement of environmental objectives. Central to our analysis is the extent to which polluting firms choose to adapt to the public sector's environmental requirements and to invest in greener technologies. Our main finding is that the potential of GPP to function as an objective-effective instrument of environmental policy is limited and can actually be counterproductive. From an environmental policy point of view, it is crucial that GPP aims for environmental standards beyond just the technology of the polluting firms and that it is designed with reference to defined environmental objectives. In Paper [II], we use data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts to provide novel empirical evidence regarding GPP and its effect on the potential suppliers' decision to submit a bid and their probability of being qualified for supplier selection. We find only a weak effect on supplier behavior, and this suggests that GPP, as used in practice, does not live up to its political expectations. However, several environmental criteria appear to be associated with increased complexity, as indicated by the reduced probability of a bid being qualified in the post-qualification process. As such, GPP appears to have limited or no potential to function as an environmental policy instrument. In Paper [III], I examine how GPP is organized in Sweden and how the potential suppliers respond to varying buyer market shares using data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts. The level of GPP stringency is found to vary systematically across authority types, buyer market share, and political coalition in the relevant council or in Parliament. The results also indicate quite a substantial dispersion in GPP stringency, suggesting a low degree of coordination among contracting authorities when implementing the policy. After controlling for GPP stringency and other covariates, increased buyer market share is associated with a significant increase in the probability of potential suppliers submitting a bid. The European Commission encourages public authorities to split procurement contracts into multiple contracts in order to increase the competiveness of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In Paper [IV], I use data from Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts to study the effect of contract size and number of contracts on SME participation and probability of winning. The results indicate that SME participation is negatively related to both contract size and the number of contracts in the procurement. A possible interpretation is that reduced contract size in order to stimulate SME participation is counteracted by reduced incentives for them to enter into procurements with multiple contracts. Medium-sized firms are also more successful when bidding for smaller contracts relative to large firms. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the award rate for SMEs is positively correlated with the number of contracts in the procurement.Green Public Procurement: An Efficient Environmental Policy Tool?
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Dietz, Simon. "Equity in environmental policy : investigating public perceptions." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.429504.
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Westwell, Alan Reynolds. "Public transport policy in conurbations in Britain." Thesis, Keele University, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.314625.
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Wahab, Ibrahim Bin. "Urban public transport policy for West Malaysia." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.318961.
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