<p>This dissertation investigates the economic behavior of families in developing settings. Utilizing uniquely rich, longitudinal survey data from Indonesia, it demonstrates the complexity of market environments facing rural households, as well as the importance of extended family networks in determining the health and well-being of young children. These essays serve as an illustration of advances in development economics that are possible when fundamental models are revisited and examined with new longitudinal data. The results of these exercises are important not only for updating economic models of behavior, but for what they reveal about the complexities of decision making, and for the effective design and evaluation of development policy around the world.</p> / Dissertation

Following the principle as caring PID (People In Need) actively, respecting the needs of PID and assisting PID who are elders, orphans and low income households with self-sufficiency, Social Assistance Program aims to ensure that their living standards are above the poverty line. However, officers (Li-clerks) and undertakers of social assistance section are indispensable to applications for social assistance because, in most cases, these public servants must be active to assist PID. The purpose of this study is to analyze how officers and undertakers of social assistance program perceive the Public Assistance Act and related social assistance laws and how they use discretionary behaviors on social assistance when facing applicants for low income households and encountering the problems which arise from the process of enforcements of social assistance policy. This study also intends to analyze how applicants for social assistance perceive the qualification check and whether or not the social assistance programs function effectively under the regulations of social assistance qualification system. Besides, this study chooses Chijin District in Kaohsiung city, where people receive relatively scarcer resources, to be the object of study and does in-depth interviews with officers, undertakers of social assistance programs and applicants for the qualification of low income households. Findings and suggestions come last. The main findings of this study are as follows, 1.The functional roles that officers and undertakers of social assistance section are supposed to do should be established. 2.Due to the qualification check under paper review, the assistance programs are unpractical. 3.The structure of administrative bureaucracy limits the access to social assistance services. 4.The regulations cannot regulate a changing society; the resilient discretional behavior can complement the ineffectiveness of regulations instead. 5.The social assistance resources from civil society could instantly assist PID, which could relieve the ineffectiveness of the qualification review system. 6.Assistances with subsidy in cash ignore the needs of each case. The following is the suggestions of this study, 1.Creating incentives as many as possible for PID being independent will help PID away from poverty. 2.The integration of governmental resources for social assistance and civil social assistance is important. 3.The regulation of social assistance should leave some spaces for appropriate discretion behaviors.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System provides third-party verification for environmentally sustainable construction. LEED certified buildings often provide healthier work and living environments, however, it does not provide any direct economic incentives to the owners and developers. An early research suggested that there was a significant correlation between appraised unit value of a parcel and LEED sustainable site criteria for public transportation access. Moreover, the regression model for predicting appraised unit value of a parcel suggested that the coefficient of Number of Light Rail Stations was positive, while the coefficient of Number of Bus Stops was negative. This result contradicted our original expectation that both number of bus stops and light rail stations could have a positive effect on the appraised unit value. Hence it becomes important to conduct further research to explain this phenomenon. In this research, Pearson correlation was examined to determine whether there is a significant correlation between median household income and the number of bus stops and light rail stations for a given parcel that meet LEED sustainable site criteria for public transportation access. After confirming no significant correlation exists, multiple regression analysis was applied to establish a regression model for predicting unit value of a given parcel using number of bus stops and light rail stations for a given parcel that meet LEED sustainable site criteria for public transportation access, median household income and parcel area as the independent variables. Result of Pearson correlation indicated that there was no significant correlation exists between median household income and the number of bus stops and light rail stations for a given parcel which met LEED sustainable site criteria for public transportation access. Findings of multiple regression analysis suggested that all independent variables were significant predictors for unit value of a parcel. Besides, this regression model had a higher adjusted R- square value than that of the model which was established by Bhagyashri Joshi. It means that this regression model could better predict appraised unit value of an unimproved parcel.

International academia expressed doubt that china¡¦s statistical surveys reflect actual economic performance in 2001, in regard to the China¡¦s statistical accuracy, many scholars put forward different opinions. And compared the Chinese government's official figures with the countries of the world, lie in the question of investigating information on¡§ the degree of public¡¨ and the statistical surveys of¡§ report to a higher level officials¡¨. The main purpose of this research is probing into the problem of the Chinese government's official figures via the surveys of Chinese household income to prove that the distribution income of China to the initial data inaccuracy making China¡¦s household income unable to reflect the true. Therefore, we should doubt that China's statistics for lacking credibility on household income. Through the analysis structure of this text, we find out the following¡Gfirst of all, under the centralization type statistical system, the local statistical organization undertake the job of¡§survey¡¨ and¡§analysis¡¨ as the role of ¡§the sportsman and concurrently referee¡¨ make the question of statistical standard unable to improve. Secondly, with the Chinese non-sampling error proportion is far too larger. China statistical year book reported Chinese household income date merely conform to the ¡§salaried family¡¨¡F those who worked in the state-owned enterprise, but surveys date are not suitable for rural family and non state-owned enterprises worker¡¦s family. Moreover, through analyzing China¡¦s statistical education; the protection of the relent law and the impetus of the civil statistical work, my research discovered that the Chinese government's official figures are less accurate than those of industrialized countries and the supervision function are very weak. Finally, China has transformed its planned economy system into an initial socialist market economy system that interwove by the various forms and multiple interests relation, therefore strengthened the difficulty of statistical surveys of the professional. Especially under the turn rail environment deepening the degree of high-level and low-level officials¡§ the individual information asymmetric¡¨, and after the dismantling of the old supervise management system, the new statistical supervisal system is unable to confine yet. Contemporary the implemented statistical surveys of socialist market economy are more error then those of planned economy. On the above analyzes, I suggested that the Chinese government¡¦s official statistics should strengthened the sophisticated data compiling systems such as American statistics system that adopted the statistics system of social feedback and the statistics of decentralize, unable china to increase its social statistics and reduce the question of statistical surveys of¡§ report to a higher level officials¡¨, and heightening the Chinese statistical data a little more accurately.

It will be hard to do or be easy to do when an organization starts to change. It is so called that think globally and act locally. This research is a system thinking approach of study about how an organization starts to change. It is a case study of the household-registration offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung. This case is selected with its bureaucracy in the past, but now we can see their changes. It is worthy to study more deeply. This research begins with studying the development process of the household-registration offices in Taiwan and then inquires the backgrounds and results, which could help us to understand it. This point of view focuses on the changing processes in 1990¡¦s. Household-registration offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung began their reforms from 1990 early. It is the incentive that mayors in Taipei and Kaohsiung could be elected directly by the residents in the two cities. However, computerization was the main reason that satisfied people substantially. Computerization makes the waiting time shorten. Household-registration offices could focus on many conveniences to the people further. The reform of household-registration offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung began with the simple change and it could be seen the result immediately. The reform of household-registration offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung started with some slight matters. For instance, bureau chiefs build a promotion system and a merit system, and they earned staff¡¦s support to continue making change. Improving the environment of offices could make officers happy and then change their attitudes, so it is easy to earn citizens¡¦ commendations. Merit system could promote competition among offices and make officers endeavor further. Moreover, we can say that morale, merit, and competition can make the actions of reform produce reinforce feedback loops. It should be noticed that bureau chiefs¡¦ requests and participations in reform are the key factors to start changing, and then changing will become everyone¡¦s job. The result is to earn citizens¡¦ satisfaction.

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In rapidly changing environment, organizations always think hard how to arrange changes, and it makes the ¡§organizational change¡¨ becomes a hot topic. But if the changing methods can¡¦t match with the original organizational culture, organizational members¡¦ resistance makes the change initiative fails. The household registration is the sections that gets widespread approval in governmental administration renovation, although it belongs to the governmental organization that be concerned the hardest organization to change, it still produced remarkable changing achievements. This research uses household registrations as studying case and tries to use the dynamics concept of system thinking to show the structure which hide in the back of phenomenon. It means to discover how the example to initiate change along with its original culture and take organizational culture as the main shaft to analyze and discuss the change continuity. And it is using interviewing and reference analysis to understand the content of culture and using ¡§The cultural dynamics model¡¨ to understand the transformation process of inter-level in order to make the context of research more accurate. There are some conclusions in this research: (1) the structure of household registrations results in the core culture of authority, and it can¡¦t avoid using superior-authority and supervision to drive the change. But thinking of the conflict between change things and organizational culture and the flexibility of organizational function to promote suitable change initiative. (2) Organizational members¡¦ sense of honor, confidence, and sense of responsibility because of positive feedback make them change the attitude. The members become to join change activities spontaneously. Then the loading of superior lightens. (3) Although behavior and attitude may influence the core of culture, but the process of culture change is slow and difficult. After changing, the domain culture of household registrations is still authority. If the concept of authority is opposite to the change or the positive feedback diminished the result of change will be influenced. As a whole, superficial change drives the change in household registrations. But it¡¦s better to initiate deep change, vision setting, after change initiative, and the change may last a long time.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-248). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Tübingen. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.W.S.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 183-198.