Limao and Panagariya (L&P, 2007) modify Grossman and Helpman’s (1994) lobbying model in an attempt to understand why anti-trade bias is the predominant pattern in observed trade policy. L&P (2007) propose that governments seek to reduce inequality between sectors by modifying trade policies in a way that reallocates income from the smaller to the larger sector. We assess the empirical validity of L&P’s (2007) theory by exploiting the World Bank Distortions to Agricultural Incentives database (Anderson and Valenzuela, 2008), using their measure of trade bias as our dependent variable. We find little empirical support for L&P’s (2007) theory, and estimated coefficients on most control variables are insignificant. Lagged trade policies are significant determinants of current trade policy, suggesting the presence of policy persistence. We conclude that it is difficult to generalise L&P’s (2007) theory across a wide and unbalanced panel of countries that extends from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Situated within Toronto's expanding and increasingly segregated educational marketplace, this study examines how parents of students at one elite publicly funded specialized arts high school make meaning of their school choice decision. Utilizing a Neo-Marxist framework, I explore the role that material and symbolic resources play in making this school choice both available and exclusive. I conduct a critical discourse analysis of parent narratives to expose how they mobilize dominant discourses of the arts in order to produce the school as a good choice, and themselves as good parents. This research challenges dominant conceptions of the arts in education by showing how the arts are used to reinforce, obscure, and justify existing social hierarchies in school settings and society at large. This study further serves as an example of how arts education research can move beyond positivist conceptions of the arts.

How would a housing system work in a just society? How do we account for differences in opportunity according to one’s birthplace? These two questions, both a result of our recent housing crisis, can be addressed through inquiries into policy, economics, history, or other forms of social sciences. In this paper I attempt to address these questions instead through a philosophical lens by examining the principles that guide the distribution of goods in our society. It is from such a theory that we can construct the fairest government or economic policies. Theories of distributive justice try to account for the fairest distribution of goods in a society. I take one such theory, John Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness, and apply it to the distribution of housing. I begin by deconstructing the core principles of Rawls’ theory and analyzing how each applies to housing. Then I make an argument about the fairness of these outcomes. My conclusion is, in fact, Rawls theory does not adequately account for the importance of housing in our society. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate the inequalities that face families throughout our society by illustrating the profound impact of housing on one’s well-being as well as one’s opportunity to succeed.

Issues of pension viability are at the forefront of gerontological debate. The uncertainty of long-term effects of the societal aging process on public pensions and the constant public policy struggle to maintain income levels among pensioners are critical points of discussion. As existing pension policies are examined and amended, policymakers increasingly rely on experts of pension research and income inequality for policy frameworks. Gosta Esping-Andersen's (1990) Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism has provided the seminal typology for nearly two decades. His typology consists of three regimes: liberal, conservative, and social-democratic. The purpose of this research was to examine and compare the outcomes of historical pension policy in a social-democratic nation (Finland) with pension-receiving cohorts in a comparison nation of each regime: liberal (the United States), conservative (Germany), and social-democratic (Sweden). Specific aims were: to investigate the continuing viability of Esping-Andersen's typology at a national (macro) level; to explore a new analytical approach by disaggregating the population and conducting micro analyses; and to examine the value of using more sensitive inequality indices (Atkinson and Theil) in lieu of the commonly used Gini Index. Finland provides a case study focus of the comparative analysis. Analysis of Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data confirms that Esping-Andersen's typology remains viable at the macro level for the liberal United States. However, conservative Germany and social-democratic Sweden and Finland may be shifting their respective classifications with possible convergence of the conservative and social-democratic regimes info a European regime.

The concept of economic development has broadened to include environmental quality and population health. Interactions between income and pollution, income and health, and pollution and health have been studied separately by researchers from various disciplines. This study attempts to unify several different research strands and analyze simultaneous interactions between population health, measured by the infant mortality rate, pollution, and income in one endogenous system. Socioeconomic, racial, and rural urban disparities in infant mortality, pollution, and income are analyzed. The simultaneous equation system, estimated using the two-stage least squares method, tests whether pollution effects on infant mortality are outweighed by income effects. The study finds that income is a stronger determinant of infant mortality than pollution. Evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve is ambiguous. Disparities in infant mortality, pollution, and income are correlated with counties rural-urban status, income inequality, and ethnic diversity. Regional patterns identify wide geographical differences in levels of pollution, income, and infant mortality. The Southeast region stands out as a region with the highest infant mortality rate, relatively high levels of air pollution and chemical releases, and low per capita incomes.

To date, the scholarship covering the Black Codes has centered on these laws' role as the predecessor of Jim Crow. Little study has been given to the laws as a whole--the one encompassing work being Theodore Wilson's Black Codes of the South. Other studies have examined the Black Codes' effect on specific states; however, no specific study has been done on the Black Codes of Kentucky and Tennessee nor has any study been made of these laws' relation to the antebellum Slave Code. This project therefore will represent an attempt to show that the Black Codes of Tennessee and Kentucky bear a direct relation to those states' antebellum Slave Code. The Black Codes of Tennessee and Kentucky were in many instances revised Slave Codes. Often this revision entailed only the removal of the word slave. In other instances, laws applying to free blacks remained on the law books following Reconstruction since they did not apply specifically to slaves and the federal government did not demand their repeal. Both states attempted to pass additional laws which applied to solely freedmen following the Civil War; however, due to Tennessee's position as a former Confederate state, its efforts were thwarted. These aspirations show Kentucky and Tennessee's desire to maintain the antebellum status quo and do not represent the beginning of Jim Crow law. This project will rest mainly on sources from the 1865-1866 period, primarily codes Tennessee and Kentucky's General Assemblies passed during these years. It will also include Slave Codes passed between 1800 and 1860 which were either revised or still in effect during the Black Code era, 1865 to 1866. Whenever secondary sources are used it will be the intent of the author to utilize the primary quotations from within those texts. Finally, it will be seen that the Black Codes of Kentucky and Tennessee owe their form as well as their function to the Slave Code. Likewise it will be clearly seen that the Black Codes were an attempt by Southern legislatures to hold on to the social and racial hierarchy of the antebellum South.

The aim of the study is to investigate the glass ceiling and the gender wage gap and reasons behind gender inequality in the banking sector of Sweden and Pakistan. / <p>Please find the attached master thesis pdf file.</p>

A family of parameterized Thue equations is defined as F_{t,s,...}(X, Y ) = m, m ∈ Z where F_{t,s,...}(X,Y) is a form in X and Y with degree greater than or equal to 3 and integer coefficients that are parameterized by t, s, . . . ∈ Z. A variety of these families have been studied by different authors. In this thesis, we study the following families of Thue inequalities |sx3 −tx2y−(t+3s)xy2 −sy3|≤2t+3s, |sx4 −tx3y−6sx2y2 +txy3 +sy4|≤6t+7s, |sx6 − 2tx5y − (5t + 15s)x4y2 − 20sx3y3 + 5tx2y4 +(2t + 6s)xy5 + sy6| ≤ 120t + 323s, where s and t are integers. The forms in question are “simple”, in the sense that the roots of the underlying polynomials can be permuted transitively by automorphisms. With this nice property and the hypergeometric functions, we construct sequences of good approximations to the roots of the underlying polynomials. We can then prove that under certain conditions on s and t there are upper bounds for the number of integer solutions to the above Thue inequalities.

Thesis (M.Cur. (Community Health Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Limao and Panagariya (L&P, 2007) modify Grossman and Helpman’s (1994) lobbying model in an attempt to understand why anti-trade bias is the predominant pattern in observed trade policy. L&P (2007) propose that governments seek to reduce inequality between sectors by modifying trade policies in a way that reallocates income from the smaller to the larger sector. We assess the empirical validity of L&P’s (2007) theory by exploiting the World Bank Distortions to Agricultural Incentives database (Anderson and Valenzuela, 2008), using their measure of trade bias as our dependent variable. We find little empirical support for L&P’s (2007) theory, and estimated coefficients on most control variables are insignificant. Lagged trade policies are significant determinants of current trade policy, suggesting the presence of policy persistence. We conclude that it is difficult to generalise L&P’s (2007) theory across a wide and unbalanced panel of countries that extends from the 1950s to the 2000s.