In most West European countries in the 1980's significant changes took place in the direction of national housing policies. These policy changes frequently involved a substantial switch of state subsidies away from support for social housing investment towards intensification of market processes. These broad changes in housing policy renewed interest in research that could provide a framework for understanding these events. Indeed, over the past decade housing policy research has generated a number of new concepts and approaches such as privatization, recommodification and the structure of housing provision approach. However, very little theoretical research or development occurred and the field remained dominated by the Convergence Theory paradigm with one challenger: Power Resources Theory. In the case study of Finland that follows it is these two theories that are utilized to examine the meaning and content of changes in Finnish housing policy. The Finnish case study revealed a housing policy sector that contradicted Convergence Theory. Power Resources Theory provided a more relevant framework although its deficiencies suggested that institutional and ideological structures played a more significant role than has been previously acknowledged.

The proposition of this research is that the use of geographic information systems (GIS) is capable of generating significant social benefits and that benefit-cost analysis methods including measures of willingness-to-pay can be an effective approach to the valuation of those benefits. It is based on the assertion that measurement of benefits from the use of GIS, especially those that are non-market based, is not only important and difficult, but highly useful and informative as well. The issues considered include the defining of the economic characteristics of spatial data, an examination of economic methods that have proven to be useful in similar circumstances, the selection of cases that will allow for the results of this study to apply to other cases, and an analysis of the characteristics of environmental applications. This research studies a subset of the full range of GIS applications, those that have to do with the environment. The focus on this sub-set of GIS applications is for two reasons; the nature of complex environmental problems and the range of the benefits that are likely to arise from the use of GIS for environmental planning and management problems. This research has involved the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. In each effort at measuring the benefits of GIS detailed information is needed to understand the manner in which the information products are used and to construct a valid approach to measurement. The case study approach offers some desirable features. Its more informal nature offers the potential to gather information that may be useful when seeking to measure non-market benefits. It offers the potential for a series of sequential steps base on information gathered during an initial round of interviews and the ability look at each case in greater detail than might otherwise be possible. The particular approach used in this research involved three levels of interviews. Four key conclusions from this research follow: (1) Methods that rely on measures of willingness-to-pay are useful tools. (2) Efficiency benefits in some cases are not as significant as effectiveness benefits. (3) Measuring only some of the benefits of using GIS is sufficient in many cases. (4) Benefits may occur several organizations or years removed from the original GIS use. In summary this research has resulted in improving methods with which we can study the benefits of using GIS to help resolve complex environmental problems. The case study approach produced results that should be replicable in other studies. It also succeeded to the extent that it was possible to look through this approach and make some observations about broader issues and to generate a number of interesting propositions that could form the basis of other research efforts.

This research develops a combined qualitative and quantitative activity based analysis methodologies framework for integrated fixed activity chaining schedules (IFACS). What is central to my dissertation is the extent to which the type, sequence, duration, and timing of fixed activities influence trip chaining. The goal is to improve the practice of travel behavior forecasting by modeling the activity patterns and chaining behavior of individuals with restricted schedules. Cluster analysis methods are applied to narrow down the endless possibilities of individual trip decision-making into a manageable group. Then space-time prism concepts are applied to locate unique activity travel patterns. Qualitative examples show that aggregate and individual trip-chaining behaviors are not easy to model. Informed by the qualitative analysis results, the framework incorporates both discrete choice and time-to-event models as quantitative analysis tools. The quantitative models cover two levels of chaining: trip link and whole journey. Logit models are used to analyze the choice to make a chained link right after the completion of an activity, and the decision to conduct a chained journey. Poisson models are used to examine the decision to make a number of chained links on a journey. Hazard-based duration models are used to analyze time of chaining events by studying the duration of a chained journey, then the duration of time elapsed till a chained link is made right after a fixed activity with the goal of defining a time threshold to the occurrence of trip chaining. Integrating results from qualitative and quantitative methods leads to a better understanding of how people make their trip-chaining and travel behavior decisions. Data from the 1998 Mobidrive six-week travel diary survey is used in the analyses. This framework focuses on the effects of five types of fixed activities on trip-chaining behavior: work, work-related, school, further education, and club/group meetings. Understanding factors influencing a person's decision to participate in a trip chain allows motivations behind trip-chaining behavior to become more tangible. One of the highlights of the analysis results of the modeling framework is discovering that the chaining behavior of individuals is influenced in different ways among different population subgroups.

In response to changing social, political and economic realities in their own societies, many universities and colleges in the developing countries are departing significantly from a philosophy which strictly adheres to traditional academic, familiar and basic functions of teaching and research, and are moving towards a more utilitarian role; several of these institutions have made the adage: 'take the college out to the community and bring the community into the college', an implicit part of their working philosophy. By 'community', they mean the vast majority of people living in the rural countryside. However, the task of understanding this emerging role is complex, and past efforts have met with increasing frustrations. Observers in education and development in the developing countries are now asking the question: What are the factors which characterize a successful relationship between higher educational institutions and the process and practice of rural development? The purpose of this research study is to examine, by a case study approach, the rural development activities of a number of higher learning institutions in India, using an analytical framework based on an intensive research of theories and practice of education and development. This is further supplemented by a series of actual field interviews and discussions with staff/faculty, and students of more than six educational institutions in India, two of which were finally selected for the purpose of specific and detailed analysis. The analytical framework consists of major concepts, processes, roles, and linkages underlying the institution's philosophy, goals and objectives, staff and student participation, rural people participation, relationship with government agencies including the political apparatus, methodologies including program planning and implementation, integration of functions (research, teaching and community service), and internal organization and administration. Using this framework, the study identifies the major constraints and implications underlying well-meaning university efforts in rural development. New perceptions and insights derived from the analysis are further proposed as generalizations for the benefits of educational planners, researchers, policy makers, university administrators, staff and faculty.

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Much has been written and theorized concerning the emergence of technologically dynamic industrial regions. These regions are characterized by the spatial clustering of small and medium-sized firms into flexible production networks. Economic growth models speak to the virtues of spatially concentrated, inter-linked firms and their ability to quickly respond to changing global market demands. According to these models, emerging industrial clusters and expansive competitive strategies emanate from the collaboration among firms within a region where cooperative yet competitive inter-firm relations create the ability to exploit certain "competitive advantages" in an uncertain global economy. Empirical case studies of industrial clusters in the United States have included the center of semiconductor production in the Silicon Valley of California and the concentration of mini-computer producers along the Route 128 Corridor in Massachusetts. These so-called "core clusters" have received the greatest attention due to their technological dynamism and global competitiveness. Home-based core clusters also hold an attraction because they offer the potential for comparative case studies with technologically dynamic clusters within other industrialized nations. Attempts to compare and emulate industrial development patterns in more celebrated geographic regions has limited scholarly research to more advanced industrial sectors of the economy. Mature industrial sectors have received far less attention, despite their growing vitality and contribution to the economic base of their respective regions. The empirical case study of the plastics industry of North Central Massachusetts uncovered a unique industrial cluster with a distinct spatial pattern and organization of production. The case study and contextual analysis offer a formative perspective on a reemerging industrial region that helped to explain the correlation between the spatial concentration of firms and the local production network. The conclusions provide a wider and more varied explanation of regional industrial development, and a meaningful framework for the formulation of appropriate reindustrialization policies and strategies. This has clear implications for industrial planning and development practice. Appropriate and successful economic development planning will need to rely more on grounded interpretive research, require greater local capacity building, and consider the development of more formalized networks of institutional support.

Results indicate that the urban forest resource inventory data collected in this study by trained volunteers is valid, and its accuracy compares favorably to levels found among a control group of Certified Arborists. In addition to successfully collecting urban forest field data, both the community and the individual volunteers received substantial indirect benefits. They developed greater environmental awareness, became more informed about "urban" forests, and they recognized their own abilities to improve the quality of urban life through participation in a satisfying project that provided the basis for a more active and informed political voice in promoting urban forest initiatives.

The State of Oregon is using the Placement Information Base, PIB, as part of an assessment process to determine the type of placement needed by Medicaid clients. While used for functional assessment, PIB has not been empirically studied for its use as a screening or predictive instrument to differentiate between the need for nursing home care and community care. This dissertation addresses the question of whether PIB is suitable for use as a screening instrument for nursing home placement decisions. Both PIB's measurement and predictive capabilities are examined. Using secondary PIB data on 2287 elderly Department of Human Resources clients, four highly reliable scales were developed. Alpha coefficients range from .75 to .90. These scales were found to measure the theoretically important dimensions of Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), Social functioning and Mental functioning. Ten discriminant function equations, using PIB items and scales as predictors, were developed and cross-validated to compare those elderly currently residing in the community and those currently residing in nursing homes (n = 1772). For each of the functions the predictive accuracy was at least 79 percent with the derivation sample and even higher with the cross-validation sample. Functions containing only single items predicted as well or better than those containing scales. A comparison between the discriminant function equations and three a priori decision rules accompanying the PIB indicate that each of the discriminant function equations is predictively equivalent to one of the a priori decision rules and superior to the other two. The findings of this dissertation suggest that any one of the discriminant functions or the very high probability a priori decision rule could be used as an equitable and economically feasible screening instrument for nursing home placement. The choice of a particular function or the decision rule should be guided by practical and theoretical considerations. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This study examines the question of whether there is a role for the single room occupancy (SRO) hotel as a form of housing for a select group of low-income, urban elderly persons. Such a focus was selected because it is the single room type of housing, with neither individual kitchen nor bath, which HUD defines as substandard. This definition is viewed as problematic for several reasons. First, it has been a major barrier to the use of Federal funds to support such housing either through rehabilitation or rent subsidy, and second, it has been a major incentive to the use of Federal funds to remove such housing through programs like urban renewal. The study question is examined from several perspectives. One perspective looks at the hotel resident, his preferences and lifestyle, and compares these findings with a similar analysis of Section 8 apartment residents who previously resided in SRO hotels. Another perspective examines the cost of living for an SRO hotel resident in downtown and several other neighborhoods located throughout the City (Portland). A final perspective compares the cost to operate and maintain, rehabilitate, construct new, and subsidize SRO hotels and Section 8 apartments. This final perspective also compares the rate of return an owner receives from investing in the two forms of housing. Analysis of the study data confirms that: (a) there are preferential and lifestyle differences between the present and past hotel residents which reflect their differing housing choices, (b) the cost of living for an SRO lifestyle is least expensive in the downtown neighborhood, and (c) SRO hotels are less costly than Section 8 apartment to produce and operate from the standpoint of overall cost and amount of subsidy required, and SRO hotels can provide a reasonable return on investment. In conclusion, the study proposes that SRO hotels provide an appropriate setting for a select group of elderly persons, can be decent, safe, and sanitary, and as such, should be made the object of an intense Federal effort to facilitate their rehabilitation as single room housing units.

This research focuses on the measurement of monetary benefits and costs associated with tourism in metropolitan areas. Most studies on the impact of tourism have been at the national or state level and are not directly appropriate to more limited geographic units. The planning agencies and Chambers of Commerce that are normally involved in promoting tourism work with the metropolitan area, a jurisdiction which is different from that on which most previous studies have been done. In this study, an answer to the following research question is sought: Do public expenditures attributable to tourism outweigh the revenue benefits derived from tourism in a metropolitan area, or is the taxpayer subsidizing the tourism industry? The Portland metropolitan area was selected as a case on which to develop a methodology for ascertaining the economic impact of tourism. Since the tourism industry is extensively fragmented, data were collected from several sources to measure its impact. Using these data, a methodology for weighing monetary costs against benefits attributable to tourism was developed. Three methodological sequences were carried out in the study. The first two were models to compute income and employment multiplier effects. These models helped in the development of intermediate inputs applied in executing the last methodological sequence--the monetary benefit-cost model. The analytical findings strongly support the following two hypotheses: (1) Tourism provides significant employment creation and income generation possibilities. (2) Tourism creates more benefits than it causes service costs to the metropolitan area. For example, it was found that the income and employment multiplier effects from tourists' spendings in the area were 1.1024 during the study period. Also, while the metropolitan area spent $27,873,133.80 in providing services to tourists, it realized $33,516,481.17 in monetary benefits from tourists' spendings. when monetary costs were subtracted from benefits, the metropolitan area realized a net monetary benefit of $5.6 million from tourists' spendings in the area.