Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Economics, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 14, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4786. Adviser: Eric M. Leeper.

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Chapter 2 compares government consultation via an opinion poll and a citizens' jury". In a jury, about fiffteen volunteers spend several days learning about a policy choice before voting. If the public is ill-informed, the government trades-off "information" against participation". Jurors have better information than poll respondents, but constitute a smaller sample. More- over, participation costs may bias the jury sample. Indeed, the literature suggests that costs might induce "neutrality": over-representation of the minority to the extent that the result is uninformative. I show that although the minority will often be over-represented, "neutrality" is a knife-edge result here so juries may be worthwhile. Extensions consider compensating jurors and excluding "special interests". Chapter 3 uses evidence from the allocation of regeneration funding to motivate a model in which central government may ask councils to compile apparently pointless dossiers to ap- ply for money, because the dossiers provide information about councils' competence. I then consider when the government might prefer a simpler but less flexible auction-type process. The UK government's ability to "ring-fence" money, obliging councils to spend it on its priority, is central to chapter 3. Chapter 4 develops the analysis of auctions in this context. With variations in competence, ring-fencing effectively imposes type-specific minimum bids. I characterise equilibrium bidding and show that the ring-fencing constraint may not only increase bids, but actually induce councils to contribute resources. Continuing the themes of participation and competence in the policy process, chapter 5 examines parish councils' use of a general spending power. I find parishes with more well-educated and older citizens (groups with generally higher political participation) are more likely to use their powers. Further investigation suggests that these citizens matter because they are involved in governance, rather than because they exert democratic pressure. This has impli- cations for wider neighbourhood governance policy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Dept. of Political Science, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 8, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-05, Section: A, page: 1775. Adviser: Elinor Ostrom.

This dissertation has been written in the belief that the analysis therein is an original and useful contribution to the understanding of the problems of mobilizing surplus rural labour in Pakistan and similar countries. [...]

<p> Poverty remains the scourge of the modern world. Millions of people live in poverty despite the best efforts of the most powerful governments in the world. Due to a myriad of political and historical reasons, the most vulnerable of these are in Africa, and the sub-Saharan region of Africa remains the poorest region in the world. Over the last two decades, the world's two largest economies, the United States and China, have emerged as the preeminent aid donors to the African continent. The purpose of this research is to analyze the competition between both development models, discern which model is responsible for the alleviation of the most poverty and assess the human values questions that arise from both approaches. </p><p> The analysis used data from 2004&ndash;2008 because the timeframe is considered the golden age of American Aid to the continent, is free of data skewed from the 2008 economic downturn and represents a mature Chinese foreign aid mechanism. Chinese and United States aid allocations to Angola, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, often the poster childs of negative connotations of Chinese foreign aid, were analyzed and compared from this timeframe. </p><p> Despite various problems with the quality of data and considering the long-term viability of the poverty alleviation, the data showed a positive correlation to both the United States' and Chinese models of aid and poverty alleviation. The data also showed a clear indication that the Chinese model affected poverty levels at a greater measure than the United States' model. </p><p> Based on the data and research concerning the two development aid models, the American development aid system was found to be characterized by a bureaucratic process, insistency on aid conditionality, and a focus on good governance that collectively neglected poverty reduction. The Chinese model was found to be more conducive to poverty reduction due to a minimal development aid structure, nominal aid conditionality and a consistent focus on infrastructure projects, despite the system's opacity which presented some trouble in data collection. </p><p> Three primary human values concepts also arose from the dichotomy of the two development aid problems. The impoverished were found to be better served by a focus of development aid on infrastructure rather than good governance. The United States' focus on good governance was found to essentially punish those in poverty for their government's ineffectiveness. Finally, the ascension of the Chinese development aid model changed both the Chinese and United States' development aid model positively.</p>