Thesis advisor: Fabio Schiantarelli / My doctoral research focuses on analyzing how credit policies and regulations affect the credit access of constrained firms. The first chapter focuses on the effectiveness of a national-level directed credit program in India. I exploit a policy-induced variation in program eligibility to study the differential impact of the program across the firm-size distribution. In the second chapter, I evaluate the impact of an export program that subsidized short-term export loans for manufacturing firms in India. I estimate the effect of the credit subsidy scheme on subsidized firms by mapping the eligible product lines to firms while controlling for firm- and sector-level differences across firms and accounting for shocks to export demand. Chapter 1. Governments around the world implement programs to improve the credit access of small businesses. Evaluating the impact of policies undertaken is important to ensure that the policies achieve the desired outcomes. However, in the absence of randomized policy assignment and the availability of controls for the credit demand of firms, establishing a causal link between the program eligibility and the improvement in credit access is an econometric challenge. In the first chapter “Could Directed Lending Programs Hurt Small Businesses? Evidence from India,” I study the impact of an expansion in a size-based directed or preferential credit policy that targets small businesses in India. In 2006, the Indian Government expanded the official definition of small businesses, thereby including relatively bigger firms in the pool of firms eligible for its large-scale directed credit program called the priority sector lending program. The discontinuity in eligibility to the nation-wide credit program helps identify the impact of the program across the firm-size distribution. Larger eligible firms are likely to be favored by banks because making bigger loans to larger firms helps banks economize on transaction costs while still meeting their directed lending quotas. Exploiting the eligibility discontinuity and using a modified difference-in-differences strategy, I find that the benefits of the policy intervention flow disproportionately to the larger firms. Newly-eligible firms experience an increase in the rate of growth of institutional credit, as well as higher investment and sales growth. The smaller, previously-eligible firms, on the other hand, are crowded out in the bank credit market, when compared to a reference group of ineligible firms. The positive impact on newly-eligible firms is highly correlated with firm size, even within the group. The financial constraints literature documents the role of banking relationships in overcoming credit constraints for small firms, specifically, the duration of the relationship and the multiplicity of bankers. Using the information on bankers of the firms and the duration of each firm-bank pair, I find that the firms with longer and multiple banking relationships experience less crowding out. While my analysis confirms the results from the empirical literature on the positive role of longer bank relationships and the multiplicity of bankers, I do not find evidence supporting the relationship-lending advantage of small and local banks. These findings suggest that the comparative advantage of small banks in relationship-lending is limited by the cost-minimizing incentive of banks. Moreover, firms that borrow from banks that are farther away from the mandated directed lending target experience less crowding out as well. Smaller firms located in districts with more intense local competition from newly-eligible firms are also crowded out more, implying that such policy expansions could potentially worsen the existing regional disparities in access to institutional credit across the country. This study points to an important side effect of a well-intentioned policy intervention, aimed at increasing credit access of all small firms, and simultaneously providing banks with more lending avenues to achieve their directed lending targets. By virtue of its design, however, it distorts the lending incentives of banks, allowing them to exploit the policy shift as an opportunity to lower transaction costs. This suggests that in a setting with lending quotas if institutional lenders are unable to satisfactorily lower transaction and information costs, they will make loans to the largest eligible borrowers, whenever possible. Future policy design must be guided by research that assesses the overall impact of existing programs, in order to develop programs that expand access to finance while limiting economic distortions. Chapter 2. In “The Impact of Credit Subsidies on Export Performance,” I study the impact of an export credit intervention on the export performance of firms in the subsidized product lines in India, both at the intensive and at the extensive margin of exports. The Government of India formulated the Interest Rate Subvention Scheme in 2007 to reduce the cost of short-term credit for exporters in employment-intensive sectors, given their important contribution to the GDP and the workforce employment. Short-term loans of exporters are mainly working capital loans in the form of pre- and post-shipment export credit. Between 2007 and 2013, the government announced subsidies on short-term bank loans on a semi-annual or annual basis for specific sectors or product lines. The immediate goal of the scheme was to minimize short-term credit frictions of SMEs across all sectors, and large firms in export-oriented labor-intensive sectors. The long-term goal of the scheme, as has been understood in recent years when the subsidies were expanded, was to provide Indian exporters credit at internationally competitive rates. I construct a detailed data set which matches the balance-sheet data on medium and large exporting firms in the Indian manufacturing sector from 2006-2013, with their eligibility status based on products manufactured by them. To control for export demand shocks, I create a demand index that measures the product-level shocks to export demand, aggregated across importer countries for the firms in the sample. There are three key findings in this paper. First, I find that the impact of subsidies is estimated at about 5-8% in a difference-in-differences sense, compared to non-subsidized firms. The subsidies are not effective in the event of a substantial drop in world demand, as that experienced in 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial recession. This points to the limited usefulness of credit support as a policy tool during a major downturn. Second, the impact of credit subsidies is increasing in pre-existing fiscal benefits enjoyed by exporting firms, implying that there is a complementary effect of existing export incentives. The impact of the subsidy is also highly heterogeneous across firm-specific characteristics. Larger and more productive firms benefit to a lesser extent than their counterparts. In contrast to the findings in the literature, firms’ financial health indicators such as liquidity and leverage do not have any differential effect on the subsidized firms. Also, subsidized firms with longer bank relationships benefit relatively more. Finally, I do not find any impact on the export participation of firms, which is not unexpected given the short-term and unanticipated nature of the subsidy s cheme. The findings from these two studies are policy relevant not only for India but for other developing economies that implement similar policies. If government authorities and regulators in India want to effectively evaluate similar credit subsidy programs, they must be forward-looking and collect appropriate data that facilitate the evaluation of these programs, especially for small and micro-firms. Future research evaluating credit support programs would benefit immensely from improved data on variables such as employment, expansion in product variety and export destinations, as well as loan-level details of firms. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

The Refugee Act of 1980 established the first comprehensive U.S. refugee policy. It codified a refugee definition and created the annual consultation process, which requires the president to consult with Congress before determining annual refugee ceilings and resettlement plans. While the Refugee Act of 1980 remains intact, the annual refugee admissions and resettlement plans have changed considerably. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze this policy to explore its changes from 1980-2018 through the lens of social construction theory. According to this theory, the social constructions of target populations affect policy designs that are adopted with respect to these populations. Policy designs can create and legitimize divisions among different target populations causing some to be perceived and treated as more deserving than others. This dissertation uses a qualitative research design to analyze narratives within presidential proposal documents and congressional hearings that are held as part of the annual consultation process. These documents serve as the data for this dissertation. I undertake a detailed analysis of the documents of one annual consultation process and related congressional hearings for each president in the period between 1980-2018. In these documents and hearings, different policy actors (congressional members, representatives of the executive branch and state and local governments, and other experts) provide testimony and expert opinions on refugee admissions and resettlement. It is in this context that refugees as a target population are constructed and policies to deal with refugees are debated and discussed by various policy actors. To understand these constructions and the context in which they are created, the narrative analysis elements offered by the narrative policy framework are used as a method. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Includes bibliographies.

Evidence-based practices and comparative effectiveness research are salient topics in public policy. Empirical validation of agency operating processes provides agencies and policy-makers the opportunity to address uncertainty surrounding effectiveness. While this is an increasingly accepted rational approach to public policy, the exact mechanism for how this operates is less known. In order to evaluate several theoretical assumptions and normative rational expectations inherent in this approach, the implementation of a state legislative mandate stating policy expectations for behavioral health evidence-based practices is assessed. This study sought to assess whether implementation patterns and associated outcomes reflect "rational mechanism" policy expectations. While the premise of this research surrounds a state behavioral health legal mandate, results inform broader health policy efforts. Study results identify some evidence that the policy yielded "rational mechanism" processes and outcomes, but also indicated that other mechanisms may have influenced implementation patterns. In addition, evidence of a link between policy and outcomes is at best inconsistent. Further research on evidence-based policies using definitional and measurement frameworks applied in this study is clearly warranted.

Youth substance abuse in Oregon reached epidemic proportions in the early 1980s. A response to this social issue from the Governor's Office, the state legislature, and the Office of Alcohol and Drug Programs during 1983-1985 is the foundation of this case study. Oregon, a small state of three million, was faced with a growing problem of youth and adult substance abuse. Legislative leaders, agency staff, and Governor Atiyeh recognized an opportunity to create public policy to solve problems of substance abuse including crime. The focus on substance abuse included streamlining several budgets with substance abuse monies in various state agencies. The intent of this study was to recreate the development of public policy specifically in the area of youth substance abuse during the years 1983-1985. The final policy, Oregon House Bill 2124 (1985), represented the work budgets with alcohol and drug monies in various state agencies. The intent of this study is to recreate the development of public policy specifically in the area of youth substance abuse during the years 1983-1985. The final policy, Oregon House Bill 2124 (1985), represented the work of several political entities, and presented recommendations for substance abuse treatment, budget alignments among several agencies with alcohol and drug monies, and finally, prevention of youth substance abuse. This dissertation established that leadership and politics affected policy development more than the variables of economics, special interest groups, or research which were chosen from the literature in policy development. Research was the variable studied in depth to determine if policy developers utilized what was known about youth substance abuse to develop policy goals. Several barriers to the use of research and rational methods for policy development were uncovered. The study found that the use of research was regarded as important among policy developers, but their practice was not at all congruent with that belief. There were many studies on youth prevention and social competency training available to policy planners which may have supported more specific policy recommendations. No collaborations between researchers and policy developers occurred in this case study. The barriers to collaborative efforts with researchers and the use of policy analysis methods were uncovered in this study. The final policy document presented to the legislature lacked specific recommendations for well researched programs which appeared to be the result of political considerations rather than rational policy development. Finally, this case of policy development revealed a process that was inconsistent, politically driven, disregarded available research, and resulted in broad policy goals which have not been exceptionally successful in limiting or even addressing youth substance abuse over the nine years of implementation by the same administrator who significantly helped to develop them.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2017 / Mineral resources can act as key for economic growth and have the potential to transform economies and societies. The extent to which such transformation takes place varies depending upon the method of their use. Pakistan is gifted with significant mineral resources that have the potential to lift its economy and bring prosperity to its citizens. For this to happen, Pakistan must formulate a mineral policy based on leading practices to attract mining investment and increase the sector contribution to GDP in the range of 3 – 5%. The fundamental objective of this research is to investigate the process of mineral policy development of Pakistan against leading developing minerals-based economies and to formulate a strategic fit mineral policy framework, keeping in mind its fragile political, socio-economic and security environment. Developing countries with mineral wealth must try to gain maximum benefit from their mineral resources. These are national assets and should be managed responsibly and not used unwisely. For the gap analysis between Pakistan‘s current mineral policy framework and leading developing countries, five criteria were formulated. Two basic principles were kept in mind with the choice of countries; first, a developing country like Pakistan should be selected; and second, at least two countries should be Islamic. Eight developing courtiers, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, India, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Turkey were selected for analysis. The key elements for the mineral sector of Pakistan are; Pakistan‘s mineral sector is lacking an enabling institutional framework for efficient access to mineral resources; it lacks an enabling fiscal and regulatory framework for mining to enhance the economic attractiveness of the sector; and the absence of a mining Cadastre System to secure mineral rights prevents security of tenure. Six stakeholders, Government and its implementation bodies; Mining industry; Local communities and their representatives; Law enforcing agencies (LEA's); Religious Monarchs; and Financial institutions were identified and their role defined in policy development framework. A new mineral Policy Framework was formulated based on seven key enablers, namely; institutional framework; stable political economy; legal framework; regulatory framework; fiscal framework; stakeholder participation; and sustainable development. A new organisational structure of the Ministry is proposed based on the generally accepted organisational structure of tiers, implementation and regulatory bodies. An implementation plan based on three building blocks was developed for implementation of the new Mineral Policy Framework. Implementation of an enabling Institutional framework and other key elements of mineral policy framework were suggested to be implemented through the constitution of a Mineral Development Advisory Committee (MDAC). A PakMining Cadastre system was suggested to be constituted under the new Ministry for secure minerals rights system. System design and the geometrical architecture of the PakMining Cadastre System were also suggested. / MT 2017

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg In fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geography and Environmental Studies 31 May 2018 / South Africa will be dependent on coal for power generation for many decades to come, before a complete transition is achieved where more energy will be generated from non-fossil fuel sources. Through case studies of Hendrina and Kendal Power Stations, this study explored how the management of fly ash (FA) waste in South Africa can be improved to minimise its impact on the environment and human health and examined the potential recycling applications that can benefit local communities. The study drew insights from an environmental justice framework to examine the pollution impacts that FA is exposing to the local community. The environmental justice theory is based on the principle that all people have a right to live in an environment that enhances their wellbeing. Empirical evidence obtained from local community’s in-depth interviews revealed that FA is impacting on the health of communities by exposing them to respiratory and other illnesses and it is also affecting their livelihoods which primarily involves farming. A just transition theory was employed to examine potential socio economic opportunities that can be derived from FA recycling to fulfil redistributive measures that can reduce inequality and eradicate poverty in local communities. Some of Eskom’s power stations like Hendrina are nearing the end of their lifespan since their commissioning in the 1960’s and 1970’s. To aid a just transition, ash recycling was found to have the potential to address the socio economic situation of the power station’s employees and the local communities. The study found that local communities generally lack knowledge about coal ash recycling and need to be empowered and supported to partake in ash recycling ventures. The study argues that a shift in the ash recycling regime is needed in order to benefit local communities and facilitate a just transition to a clean energy production. / MT 2018

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