Browsing Public Affairs by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 36
-
Application Behavior as a Consequential Juncture in the Take-Up of Postsecondary Education
The submission of an application, while typically required to access a public program, has generally been taken for granted as an inconsequential step in the process through which an individual pursues a program or policy’s ... -
Challenges to Effective Third-Party Certification in Environmental Policy
This dissertation expands club theory to include motivations of club owners as well as club members to better predict outcomes of interest to policy makers. A club is an organization that creates voluntary standards such ... -
Childhood income dynamics and adult adiposity
(2014-02-24)Conventional wisdom—reflected in literature reviews as well as newspaper and magazine stories—holds that poor children are at risk for developing obesity and that there is a negative gradient between income and body mass. ... -
College Is A Big Investment. Does Receiving College Scorecard Information Help Students Evaluate Which One Offers The Best “Bang For The Buck”?
College Scorecard is a U.S. Department of Education website, launched during the Obama Administration, that provides information on the average costs and returns, in terms of average earnings after leaving college, associated ... -
Consequences of Misassignment to Treatment: Examining Targeted Policy Interventions in Education
In education, students are often assigned to specialized programs or receive targeted interventions based on some standards and requirements. The criteria used to select the students for such targeted policies must weigh ... -
Creating a Performance Culture? Informal Institutions and Education Reform
(2014-02-24)Performance management, despite its popularity as a strategy to improve public service quality, has had mixed results. One reason is that successful reform depends not just on changes in formal systems but also on changes ... -
Criminal Justice Policy, Race, and the Dynamics of Admission to Prison
Research has long documented racial and economic disparities in imprisonment and the recidivism rate. Despite studies that suggest these disparities cannot be fully explained by differential involvement in crime, scholars ... -
Do all of these meetings matter? Three essays concerning the impacts of collaborative watershed governance.
My dissertation presents three related projects. In each project, I make a novel contribution to the understanding of collaborative environmental governance in theory and practice. I focus on a common application of ... -
The Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Project: A Case Study of Government-to-Government Co-Management
(2013-07-25)The contribution of indigenous groups in natural resource management is generally believed to enhance management practices and produce positive outcomes for its participants, by improving stewardship and encouraging ... -
Engaging the Public in Management: Voluntary Practice, Citizen Complaints, and Deliberating Oil and Gas Risk
Management of emerging technological risks is challenged by scientific uncertainty about relevant impacts and frequent gaps between expert and lay perceptions of risk. Engaging in deliberation can help to foster learning ... -
Essays investigating gender and development in rural Ethiopia
Gender and development is a primary goal in international development policy, and the status of women and girls is so important to the development agenda that the United Nations explicitly stated gender equality as its ... -
Essays on Food Insecurity and Food and Nutrition Assistance Policy in the United States
This dissertation investigates many facets of means-testing in the United States through the lens of public food assistance. In Chapter 1, I speak to the literature on “administrative burden,” or individual-level barriers ... -
Essays on Government-led Collaborative Governance
Governments increasingly use collaborative governance as a strategy for policymaking and management. This dissertation is a collection of three essays each addressing an important question regarding government-led collaborative ... -
Essays on Intertemporal Choice under Uncertainty
Abstract Essays on Intertemporal Choice under Uncertainty Pradeep Singh The dissertation investigates intertemporal decision-making under uncertainty. In particular, I analyze how two traditionally under-explored sources ... -
Essays on State Business Tax Incentives and Policy Diffusion
States' use of tax incentives to lure business investment has drawn a lot of attention from policymakers, the public, and academics. Despite mixed assessments of their efficacy in creating net increases in jobs and ... -
Essays on Women’s Control over Income, Maternal Cash Transfers, and Rainfall Shocks: Evidence from India and Malawi
In this dissertation, I conduct three studies on women’s economic empowerment in India and Malawi. The first study examines the effect of an Indian maternal cash transfer program on child nutrition. The second study explores ... -
Foundations for Change? Advocacy and Participatory Grantmaking Strategies in the U.S. Philanthropic Sector
Philanthropic foundations are not merely patrons that provide grant funding to worthy causes. Iseek to develop an understanding of philanthropic foundations as active political actors that attempt to influence social and ... -
Four Essays on Decentralized Markets in Management and Policy
Governments often create markets to serve management or policy goals. The creation of these markets requires developing the institutional capacity to disseminate market information in order for the market to achieve those ... -
Hidden Agents: Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) in the Palestinian Territories
(2013-07-23)Recently, there has been a great deal of scholarly and popular interest in the activities of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the Middle East. In particular, socio-economic services provided by FBOs have generated a ... -
Households' perceptions of earthquake risks and protective measure adoption intentions
Preparedness levels vary among individuals who face common threats of natural hazards in the region in which they live. The studies in this dissertation explore the factors that may explain such differences, examining the ...