Bureaucrats are hired to produce public goods. Yet, despite the distributive implications of this canonical rationale, bureaucrats are generally absent from theories of "who gets what." The three papers in this dissertation advance a role for bureaucrats in the distribution of public goods and services premised on their work in policy implementation. I provide new theory and evidence to answer three questions. The first paper asks the question: under what conditions do bureaucrats’ actions generate inequalities in the provision of public services? The second paper inquires: how does the design of bureaucratic oversight institutions influence a state's capacity to implement policy and citizen access to services? The third essay asks: how does the co-production of public goods by politicians and bureaucrats influence voters' ability to hold politicians to account? In the first paper, I study the conditions under which bureaucratic bias (discrimination) in the allocation of services generates inequality in access. I argue that citizens' principal mechanism of control over bureaucrats is to complain to a politician. When politicians respond to complaints by tightening oversight of bureaucrats, differences in citizens' access to complain induce bureaucrats to devote more effort to groups with the loudest voices. I test this theory using a national-scale factorial audit experiment of Colombia's two largest national social welfare programs to measure bureaucratic effort behaviorally. I find that bureaucrats provide less information about social welfare programs to poor citizens and internal migrants. Consistent with the theory, such bias manifests most strongly in places with greater inequalities in citizens' ability to access the state and on tasks where oversight from politicians is most likely. These results are unlikely to reflect taste-based discrimination or screening. This paper shows that inequality in access to public goods and services can emerge even when politicians' budget allocations to public goods are equitable. In the second paper, I examine the distributional consequences of the use of citizen complaints in bureaucratic oversight. I study the adoption and consequences of bureaucratic oversight institutions in the context of service provision. Specifically, I consider a politician's choice to use (or ignore) information generated by complaints when monitoring a bureaucrat. Complaints generate information that direct a politicians' remediation of bureaucratic decisions and may increase bureaucratic effort. However, when costs of complaint vary across the population, the use of this information generates inequality in the distribution of service outputs, improving the access of citizens that can complain while reducing the access of citizens that cannot. Further, relying on citizen information can build or erode a state's capacity to accurately implement public policies, depending on the distribution of these costs across the population. This paper introduces citizen complaint systems as an institution that shapes both policy implementation capacity and distributional outcomes in comparative perspective. In the final paper, I start from the observation that in many theories of electoral accountability, voters learn about an incumbent’s quality through the observation of public goods outcomes. However, politicians rely on bureaucracies to produce public goods. Across contexts, politicians work with bureaucracies of markedly different qualities. In this paper, I argue that accountability relations between voters and politicians yield different empirical implications at different levels of bureaucratic quality. I introduce a model of electoral accountability with a voter, a politician, and a bureaucrat. The model identifies observational equivalencies between (i.) the implications of pooling equilibria that emerge at high and low levels of bureaucratic quality (with informed, rational voters) and (ii.) the findings of existing studies that are interpreted to indicate a lack of accountability due to uninformed or irrational voters. I demonstrate the plausibility of the model by introducing and validating an original measure of bureaucratic quality in Brazilian municipalities. I use this measure to extend four studies on corruption and accountability. I conclude with implications for the comparative study of accountability across the world's democracies.

The Swedish entrepreneurial environment is a heavily male-dominated field characterized by unequal conditions, a significant gender gap, and discriminatory practices. Research is filled with contradictory arguments discussing how gender is not an issue in the world of entrepreneurship, when in fact this conceals gender equality issues that are still prevalent today. This study aimed to describe and explain, from an incubator perspective, the challenges and opportunities that arise from working with gender equality in entrepreneurship. The purpose was also to study the effects these efforts have on the ventures partaking in the incubator’s program, as well as their perceptions of it. Based on a literature review of gender equality in entrepreneurship, a qualitative approach deemed necessary to explain the complexity of this issue. This research performed a case study on one Swedish incubator consisting of two samples. Data was collected through in-depth interviews held with the incubator team and online questionnaires were distributed to some ventures currently partaking in the incubator program, as well as to some alumni. The results indicated that there were more challenges than opportunities involved in working with gender equality in entrepreneurship. The most frequently addressed challenges for female entrepreneurs related to contexts of receiving financial aid from investors, the unequal opportunities given by supporting actors such as advisors, banks, lawyers etc., and the effect of gender stereotypes. In the analysis it was identified that women’s unequal opportunities consisted of, among others, women receiving different questions than men, having to defend their ideas to a larger extent, and consistently being viewed in a traditional manner concerning family-care constraints. However, many of the identified challenges for female entrepreneurs could be used in favor of the incubator. Meaning that the incubator could turn the challenges into opportunities for helping female entrepreneurs in their incubator program. For instance, the incubator can help reduce the barriers for entrepreneurs who want to pursue industries typically dominated by the opposite gender, this in turn would create a larger diversity across industries. The incubator had a positive influence on the ventures and their perceptions indicate that equal conditions are provided between the genders. The relationship was difficult to fully describe and explain as the incubator’s gender equality work was novel. Future research could investigate more in-depth the underlying reasons why gender inequality issues still pertain, but also more about what actions could be done to address the issues.

The relationships between gender and the environment have been explored most fully throughout the field of ecofeminism, which examines environmental problems through the lens of gender, revealing the ways that the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature are conjoined and mutually reinforcing. However, ecofeminism has often been ignored, re-named, or subjected to critiques of gender essentialism. As a result, I return to the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests on Vancouver Island, British Columbia to re-examine the theory and praxis of ecofeminism. I argue that the main environmental organization, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS), consciously invoked ecofeminist principles of equality, consensus and non-violence to direct the camp and campaign. Ecofeminism within Clayoquot Sound kept gender equality at the forefront of the environmental movement while challenging traditional hierarchical power relations and systems of dominance that many social movements experience. Clayoquot Sound was therefore a watershed social movement that integrated a gendered perspective into environmental discourse, analysis, and action. I urge further research and reflection among both activists and academics regarding the intersections between environmentalism and feminism, especially in today’s worsening climate crisis. / Graduate

Gender equality work has been and continues to be an ongoing topic not only in Sweden but also in other parts of the western world. Even though the topic about gender equality work has been going on for a long time, there are still various inequalities when it comes to the division of housework. The purpose of this study is to investigate how couples view and reason about the division of housework among the younger and older generation. By the younger generation we mean those between 25-35 years old and the older generation, between 50-70 years old. The questions at issue used in this thesis are: How do heterosexual couples reason about the division of responsibilities of homework? In which ways does it differ between the younger and older generations regarding the division of household chores? The theory used in analysing our results was the capital metaphors described by Pierre Bourdiue and Beverly Skeggs. Furthermore, we have used the qualitative method of research. We used qualitative interviews with semi-structured questions. This way we gave our participants more room to answer questions freely in their own way, but it also enabled us to ask some follow up questions in areas we wanted to understand more. The results show that couples divide housework in different ways. The central part in the division of responsibilities is that whoever is available or free is the one who is currently allowed to perform the task. Some divide housework according to skills, interest, or gender. Furthermore, the older generation gender-marks household chores to a greater extent than the younger generation. In the older generation, women tend to account for tasks that are seen traditionally feminine and men those that are masculine. In the younger generation, the division of household chores is more mixed. Where both accessibility and interest play a big role. Anyone who likes certain tasks may perform them, it does not necessarily have to link to a gender. / Jämställdhetsarbetet har varit och fortsätter att vara en pågående diskurs inte bara i Sverige utan också i övriga västvärlden. Även om jämställdhetsarbetet har pågått länge finns det fortfarande olika ojämlikheter när det gäller fördelningen av hushållsarbetet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur par ser på och resonerar kring fördelningen av hushållsarbete hos den yngre och äldre generationen. Med den yngre generationen menar vi de mellan 25–35 år och den äldre generationen, mellan 50–70 år. Frågorna som används i denna undersökning är: Hur resonerar heterosexuella par kring ansvarsuppdelning av hemarbetet? På vilka sätt skiljer det sig mellan den yngre och äldre generationen när det gäller uppdelningen av hushållssysslor? Teorin som används för att analysera vårt resultat var de kapitalmetaforer som redogörs av Pierre Bourdieu och Beverly Skeggs. Vidare har vi använt den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden där vi använde kvalitativa intervjuer med semistrukturerade frågor. På det här sättet gav vi våra deltagare mer utrymme att svara på frågor fritt på sitt eget sätt, men det gör det också möjligt för oss att ställa några uppföljningsfrågor inom områden vi vill förstå mer. Resultaten visar att par delar hushållsarbete på olika sätt. Den centrala delen i ansvarsfördelningen är att den som är tillgänglig eller fri är den som för närvarande får utföra uppgiften. Vissa par delar även upp hushållsarbetet efter färdigheter, intresse eller kön. Vidare könsmarkerar den äldre generationen hushållssysslor i större utsträckning än den yngre generationen. I den äldre generationen tenderar kvinnor att ta på sig hushållssysslor som ses som traditionellt kvinnliga och männen de manliga. I den yngre generationen är det mer blandat hur man delar upp hushållssysslorna. Där både tillgänglighet och intresse spelar en roll. Den som gillar vissa uppgifter får utföra dem, det behöver inte nödvändigtvis kopplas till ett kön.

As covid-19 spread, it quickly forced work from home into many organizations. When the restrictions then eased, organizations chose to deal with the decline in offices in various ways. In this study, representatives of organizations that to varying degrees have opened up for work from home are interviewed. The purpose of the study is to investigate how organizations promote gender equality or reproduce the gender power order, based on work from home in the new hybrid working life after the covid-19 pandemic. Central to the study is to examine how organizations have handled the transition from work in the office to work from home and whether the gender equality perspective has been taken into account. The theoretical framework used includes Acker, Hirdman, Moss Kanter and Walby, which describe patriarchal structures, gender contracts, gender structuring and various processes for gender-based structures in organizations. The method that has been used is qualitative interviews with a semi-structured interview guide. The informants, who all work within HR, have all in one way or another been involved in how the new hybrid working life is to be handled within each organization. The results of the study show a varying degree of awareness of how the new hybrid working life affects men and women differently, but the majority of the organizations have not had a gender equality perspective at work. Several informants experience that women are more positive about working from home than men. The results also show to some extent that organizations with a larger proportion of men among employees seem to be less aware of the gender equality perspective or place less emphasis on it. / När smittspridningen av covid-19 tog fart tvingade det snabbt fram arbete hemifrån i många organisationer. När restriktionerna sedan lättade valde organisationer att hantera tillbakagången till kontoren på olika sätt. I denna studie intervjuas representanter för organisationer som i olika grad öppnat upp för arbete hemifrån även fortsatt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur organisationer främjar jämställdhet eller reproducerar könsmaktsordningen, detta utifrån arbete hemifrån i det nya hybrida arbetslivet efter covid-19-pandemin. Centralt för studien är att undersöka hur organisationer hanterat omställningen från arbete på kontor till arbete i hemmet och huruvida jämställdhetsperspektivet har tagits hänsyn till. Det teoretiska ramverk som använts är bland andra Acker, Hirdman, Moss Kanter och Walby vilka beskriver patriarkala strukturer, genuskontrakt, genusstrukturering och olika processer för könsbaserade strukturer i organisationer. Metoden som har använts är kvalitativa intervjuer med semi-strukturerad intervjuguide. Informanterna, som alla arbetar inom HR, har alla på ett eller annat sätt varit involverade i hur det nya hybrida arbetslivet ska hanteras inom respektive organisation. Studiens resultat visar på en varierande grad av medvetenhet om hur det nya hybrida arbetslivet påverkar män respektive kvinnor olika, men majoriteten av organisationerna har inte haft ett jämställdhetsperspektiv i arbetet. Flera informanterna upplever att kvinnor är mer positiva till arbete hemifrån än vad män är. Resultaten visar också till viss del att organisationer med större andel män bland medarbetarna tycks vara mindre medvetna om jämställdhetsperspektivet eller lägger mindre vikt vid det.

No description available.

The thesis is made up of three chapters that work on three distinct topics in macroeconomics. The first chapter is a theoretical work on monetary policy, in which a coherent and intuitive large-scale Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model matching with particulars of the Chinese economy is established to understand how and why Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) works within Chinese monetary policy regime. The second chapter reveals the relationship between phenomenon of inequality and secular stagnation with a three-period Overlapping Generations (OLG) model built within a heterogeneous agent framework. It also points out workable ways of conducting macroprudential policy given the aforesaid two phenomena. The third chapter both theoretically and empirically examines effectiveness of the currency board system in Hong Kong using an advanced macroeconomic modeling toolbox as well as a workhorse model used by a mass of central banks that is further modified to be in line with reality of the Hong Kong economy.

The thesis is made up of three chapters that work on three distinct topics in macroeconomics. The first chapter is a theoretical work on monetary policy, in which a coherent and intuitive large-scale Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model matching with particulars of the Chinese economy is established to understand how and why Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) works within Chinese monetary policy regime. The second chapter reveals the relationship between phenomenon of inequality and secular stagnation with a three-period Overlapping Generations (OLG) model built within a heterogeneous agent framework. It also points out workable ways of conducting macroprudential policy given the aforesaid two phenomena. The third chapter both theoretically and empirically examines effectiveness of the currency board system in Hong Kong using an advanced macroeconomic modeling toolbox as well as a workhorse model used by a mass of central banks that is further modified to be in line with reality of the Hong Kong economy.

With a population of around 40 million people, Kurds are considered the largest nation without an independent state. Indeed, since the geographical division of Kurdistan in 1923, Kurds have been the victims of various forms of discrimination and oppression by the nation states of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. They deprived Kurds of their legitimate political, social and cultural rights and they oppressed their demands for political and cultural freedom through violent means. With the eruption of civil war in Syria, the regime decided to withdraw its army from the Kurdish region of Rojava. The Kurds seized the opportunity and used the power vacuum to establish their interests and agenda through establishing a democratic structure in northern parts of the country. However, instead of building a Kurdish nation-state, the people of Rojava developed a hybrid political structure known as Democratic Confederalism. Today, this system functions through hundreds of councils and assemblies in northern Syria. In the course of my study, I conducted a content analysis to see whether the structure of Rojava’s political structure corresponds to a democratic model that can facilitate the development of human rights in general and the empowerment of women in particular.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2001. / In the context of social development, the developmental perspective on Social Welfare, and gender equality (gender theory and gender analysis), an extensive literature and empirical study was undertaken, to explore the contribution of Social Work to the social and economic development of women as a special population of the poor in rural communities. Exploratory and descriptive research, using documents, interviews and direct observation, was used to study the rural neighbourhood, the demographic profiles of the general public and decision making participation of a sample of household heads and community leaders. From both the theoretical and empirical studies, it was evident that women's contribution to development was being systematically undervalued in the rural communities, and within households. Essential to this analysis was that there was an overall socio-cultural framework for stereotyping women's roles in rural communities. Not only were they overburdened by the multiple roles, their practical and strategic gender needs were marginalised, leading to their further subordination. In addition, as an institution of society, the way both the department of social welfare and population or department of social development and the social service system functioned, was influenced by institutionalized gender in equality actually many considerations of gender in relation to welfare and health tended to remain focussed on women as users or service providers (volunteers), rather than assessing how health and welfare or social services, reinforced gender in equalities and, in doing so undermined social justice while also at times undermining women's and family welfare. k At the local level, it was very apparent that all important decisions were made by men, especially those determining access and allocation of productive resources needed to survive. This study also revealed that local government and other service providers in rural areas often developed projects in a top-down fashion, where local people were informed or consulted, but were not expected to make decisions that would be acted upon. Local economic development (large scale government or heavily funded public works projects) were often treated as technical and administrative issues, with very marginal, if any, political and socio-economic considerations from the viewpoint of the disadvantaged majority, the women and the poor, in particular. In the latter even the tribal leaders were essentially marginalized. Based on the findings of the study, the thesis proposes a model, which provides a framework that is inclusive enough to serve both the clinical and community - work orientated social workers and generalist social workers. The polarization, where either the personal (individual) or the social (institutional) are emphasized at the expense of a holistic integrated consideration, is rejected. Instead, the feminist perspectives involving the reconceptualization of power, viewing the 'personal' as 'social' and the validation of people's experiences, interalia, are emphasized. Project planners should ensure the inclusion of multi-disciplinary teams with both males and females at all stages of the research process, that is, the problem identification, the design, the implementation and evaluation. Data must be disaggregated by socio-economic strata and gender, and there must be an examination of inter-household and intra-household processes, particularly in the spheres of decision making, responsibility and labour input. This is important because of the importance of empowerment of the individuals and groups to access resources they need, and to have a role in the production of personal and public services in order to improve the quality of their lives and that of their communities.