Thesis (Ph.D.)--Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Willoughby, Katherine; Committee Member: Eger, Robert; Committee Member: Kingsley, Gordon; Committee Member: Sjoquist, David; Committee Member: Wallace, Sally.

The National Department of Health is the executive department of the South African government which is assigned to the national health issues of the country. This research was however aimed specifically on the budgeting process within the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Health. This was provisioned by assessing the significance of the budgeting system and its correlation to efficient and effective healthcare service delivery. The aim of the research was to highlight on how policies have an effect on the budgeting system at the provincial level, considering the provincial health department is responsible for the provision of publicly funded health services. This research assessed the budgeting system in the Eastern Cape Department of Health in an attempt to propagate effective and efficient health service delivery for the general citizenry. This was a qualitative study design which harnessed the merits of secondary data as the main code of the research design which enabled the comprehension of the budgeting system in the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Data was analysed using thematic analysis to examine the distinctive themes and sub-themes identified from within the reviewed literature. The Eastern Cape Province is succumbing to insufficient funding at provincial level and this has a clear-cut reflection on the administration of services within respective departments, particularly the Health Department. This is despite the fact that the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 promotes the objectives of good financial management aimed at maximizing service delivery through the effective use of the limited resources. Resultantly it was fundamental to comprehend on the issues underpinning the scope of budget reporting as well as budget accountability and the effect it has on service delivery in the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Recommendations were thus given based on the discussed and derived themes to ensure that there is an appropriate budgeting system to ensure efficient and effective provision of health care services in the Eastern Cape Department of Health.

O bem-estar social depende das decisões tomadas pelos gestores públicos. O direito de voto deve ser exercido com a maior racionalidade possível, de tal forma que o interesse coletivo se sobressaia sobre o privado. Para tanto, a sociedade deve absorver a maior quantidade de informação, propiciando não apenas a fiscalização da administração como também a participação na escolha pública. O Índice de Qualidade do Gasto Público representa um método capaz de auxiliar na tomada de decisão. Reflete o retorno social, em termos de indicadores, das despesas per capita realizadas, permitindo estabelecer uma hierarquia das microrregiões e definir referenciais de qualidade do gasto público. Aplicando o referido método para as microrregiões do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, funções Educação e Cultura, Habitação e Urbanismo e Saúde e Saneamento, observa-se a presença de deseconomias de escala, ou seja, o aumento da despesa não gera um retorno proporcional em termos de indicadores sociais, revelando ineficiência na alocação dos recursos públicos. / Social well-being depends on the decisions taken by government administrators. The right to vote should be exercised with the greatest rationality possible, in such as way that public interest outweighs private interests. In order to do so, society must absorb the greatest amount of information, empowering not only the assessment of administration but also participation in government choice. The Government Spending Quality Index represents a method capable of assisting the decision making process. It reflects social return, in terms of indicators, of per capita executed expenses, allowing a hierarchy of micro-regions to be established and references in quality government spending to be defined. Applying the aforementioned method in the micro-regions of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Education and Culture, Habitation and Urbanism, and Health and Sanitation functions, one notes the presence of diseconomies of scale, that is, the increase in spending does not generate a proportional return in terms of social indicators, revealing inefficiency in the allocation of government recourses.

O bem-estar social depende das decisões tomadas pelos gestores públicos. O direito de voto deve ser exercido com a maior racionalidade possível, de tal forma que o interesse coletivo se sobressaia sobre o privado. Para tanto, a sociedade deve absorver a maior quantidade de informação, propiciando não apenas a fiscalização da administração como também a participação na escolha pública. O Índice de Qualidade do Gasto Público representa um método capaz de auxiliar na tomada de decisão. Reflete o retorno social, em termos de indicadores, das despesas per capita realizadas, permitindo estabelecer uma hierarquia das microrregiões e definir referenciais de qualidade do gasto público. Aplicando o referido método para as microrregiões do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, funções Educação e Cultura, Habitação e Urbanismo e Saúde e Saneamento, observa-se a presença de deseconomias de escala, ou seja, o aumento da despesa não gera um retorno proporcional em termos de indicadores sociais, revelando ineficiência na alocação dos recursos públicos. / Social well-being depends on the decisions taken by government administrators. The right to vote should be exercised with the greatest rationality possible, in such as way that public interest outweighs private interests. In order to do so, society must absorb the greatest amount of information, empowering not only the assessment of administration but also participation in government choice. The Government Spending Quality Index represents a method capable of assisting the decision making process. It reflects social return, in terms of indicators, of per capita executed expenses, allowing a hierarchy of micro-regions to be established and references in quality government spending to be defined. Applying the aforementioned method in the micro-regions of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Education and Culture, Habitation and Urbanism, and Health and Sanitation functions, one notes the presence of diseconomies of scale, that is, the increase in spending does not generate a proportional return in terms of social indicators, revealing inefficiency in the allocation of government recourses.

Contribuições recentes em teoria econômica têm sugerido que os efeitos do gasto do governo sobre o consumo privado dependem da interação entre agentes otimizadores e não-otimizadores, dada a restrição de liquidez dos últimos. Este trabalho analisa empiricamente tal hipótese estimando modelos de correção de erros em painel uniequacionais (P-ECM) e multiequacionais (P-VECM) para um painel com 48 países, assumindo uma estrutura de dependência de corte transversal e utilizando alguns dos mais recentes procedimentos de cointegração em painel. Sob a hipótese de que em países em desenvolvimento existe uma maior fração de agentes não-otimizadores (restritos ao crédito), analisa-se a existência de efeitos distintos entre países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento. Os resultados indicam que o gasto do governo crowds in o consumo privado agregado no longo prazo, sugerindo que o gasto do governo e o consumo privado podem ser descritos como bens complementares, e que os efeitos são duas vezes maiores nos países em desenvolvimento relativamente aos desenvolvidos, dando suporte às hipóteses testadas. / Recent contributions in economic theory have proposed that the observed effects of government spending on private consumption depend on the interaction between optimizing and non-optimizing agents, i.e., those who are liquidity constrained. This dissertation empirically analyzes this hypothesis by estimating panel error-correction models both uniequational (P-ECM) and multiequational (P-VECM) in a panel of 48 countries, assuming cross-sectional dependence structure and applying some of most recently developed methodologies on panel cointegration. Under the hypothesis that developing countries have a higher fraction of non-optimizing agents (with credit constraints), the dissertation analizes the existence of different effects on developed and developing countries. The results show that government spending crowds in private consumption in the long run, suggesting that government spending and private consumption can be described as complementary goods, and that the effects are two times as larger in developing countries as in developed ones, supporting the tested hypothesis.

Submitted by Débora Morais (morais.debora@gmail.com) on 2012-09-04T00:04:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Debora Morais - Versão final.pdf: 320015 bytes, checksum: 22c924dfc03055e0ea63193844dbcc2c (MD5) / Rejected by Vitor Souza (vitor.souza@fgv.br), reason: Falta a folha de aprovação no arquivo digital. on 2012-09-04T18:05:15Z (GMT) / Submitted by Débora Morais (morais.debora@gmail.com) on 2012-09-04T19:40:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Debora Morais - Versão final.pdf: 609808 bytes, checksum: f80fedee58a73f391a6746106c39359b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vitor Souza (vitor.souza@fgv.br) on 2012-09-04T19:43:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Debora Morais - Versão final.pdf: 609808 bytes, checksum: f80fedee58a73f391a6746106c39359b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-15T18:18:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Debora Morais - Versão final.pdf: 609808 bytes, checksum: f80fedee58a73f391a6746106c39359b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-28 / This study aims to estimate a natural real rate of interest quarterly series for Brazil through a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model, from 2000´s first quarter to 2011´s fourth. The model represents a closed economy with households maximizing CRRA, profit maximizing firms in imperfect competition and a government with a balanced budget fiscal policy and a Taylor type monetary policy rule, in a context of price rigidity. In this framework, the neutral real interest rate was calculated based on productivity and government spending shocks, which were considered the most appropriate ones for the Brazilian economy. Moreover, we analyze the responses of the natural rate to productivity and government spending shocks, its behavior thru the estimated period and its sensibility to alternative calibrations. Finally, by comparing the behavior of the interest rate gap and inflation, we found negative correlations of 56% and 83% for the full period estimated and for a latter-day sample (from 2006´s first quarter to 2011´s last), respectively, indicating some reliability in the obtained series. / Este trabalho objetiva estimar uma série trimestral para a taxa de juros real neutra brasileira via modelo de Equilíbrio Geral Dinâmico Estocástico (DSGE), para o período compreendido entre o primeiro trimestre de 2000 e o último de 2011. O modelo representa uma economia fechada, com famílias maximizando utilidade do tipo CRRA, firmas maximizando lucro em um mercado de concorrência imperfeita e um governo com política fiscal de orçamento equilibrado e regra de política monetária à la Taylor, em um contexto de rigidez de preços. Neste arcabouço, a taxa de juros real neutra foi calculada com base nos choques de produtividade e de gastos de governo, que foram considerados os mais relevantes para a economia brasileira. Adicionalmente, analisou-se o impacto dos choques de produtividade e gastos do governo sobre a taxa neutra, assim como seu comportamento ao longo do período estimado e sua sensibilidade a calibragens alternativas. Por fim, ao comparar o comportamento do hiato de taxa de juros vis-à-vis à inflação, encontramos correlações negativas de 56% e 83% para todo o período estimado e para uma amostra mais recente (do primeiro trimestre de 2006 até o último de 2011), respectivamente, indicando certa consistência na série obtida.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study was motivated by low rates of economic growth and insufficient investment in infrastructure to balance infrastructure backlogs and growth that the South African economy has been facing in recent years. The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of disaggregated government investment and consumption spending on economic growth in South Africa using the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique and Error Correction Model (ECM). Annual time series data spanning the period 1983– 2017 was employed. Earlier studies conducted in South Africa measured the impact of aggregated government expenditure on economic growth using different methodologies, including estimating procedures, model specifications and time frames. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to study the effect of disaggregated government investment spending on the South African economy. This study, therefore, examines the disaggregated government spending on education, health, defence and social protection along with other control variables. The ARDL cointegration test result indicates the existence of a long-run relationship between the variables. The estimated ECM model reveals that the short-run impact of each explanatory variable is significant in explaining changes in economic growth in South Africa. These results will enable the spheres of government to formulate and adjust economic development policies that will produce the needed economic growth in line with the radical economic transformation programme in South Africa. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Thesis (M.Sc. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Agricultural production measures the performance and efficiency of a country’s agricultural sector. The state of agricultural production can be assessed through the value of agricultural production, which is a product of agricultural gross production and output prices in monetary terms. The study examines the relationship between the value of agricultural production, government spending on agriculture, and other selected variables. Annual data for the value of agricultural production, government expenditure in agriculture, consumer price index, average annual rainfall, food import value, and population from 1983 to 2019 were collected from different sources and were used in the analysis for this study. The Johansen cointegration test was used to determine the existence of a long-run relationship between the value of agricultural production and selected variables by using both the trace and eigenvalue tests. The results indicated that there is a long run relationship among the variables. The study further used the Granger causality test to check the causality between the value of agricultural production and government expenditure in agriculture. The results show that there is no causal effect between the two variables. Lastly, the study used a Vector autoregressive (VAR) model to determine the relationship between the value of agricultural production and selected variables. The results of the VAR model indicated that government expenditure on agriculture, average annual rainfall, food import value, and population positively affect the value of agricultural production. The study also found that the consumer price index negatively affects the value of agricultural production. The study recommends that the government increase its spending on the agricultural sector, which could be in the form of research investment in technologies such as climate-smart agricultural technologies. Additionally, the study recommends that policymakers should review the monetary policy of South Africa to ensure price stability and prevent inflation. Lastly, the study recommends that the South African government should discourage imports and encourage South African agricultural producers to produce more major imported food products.

This dissertation consists of three papers at the intersection of social policy and immigration. The first paper analyzes the impact of immigrant welfare exclusion on government social spending at both an aggregate and specific social program level, using cross-national social expenditure panel data from 21 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries between 1990 and 2015 and taking advantage of the significant variation in welfare exclusivity across OECD countries by year. The second paper utilizes the variation in states’ response to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion to investigate its effects on low-income immigrants’ inter-state mobility, specifically in-migration, and out-migration. Finally, the third paper utilizes data from the National Survey of Children’s Health to examine the effect of the announcement of the Trump administration’s revised Public Charge rule on insurance coverage and other health outcomes for children of immigrant parents.