Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1921. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. [181]-186.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Justus Liebig-Universität Giessen, 1975. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [481]-[515]).

Thesis (doctoral)--Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-295).

In Illinois, school boards that initiate dismissal proceedings against a tenured teacher without a clear understanding of teacher dismissal case law risk the possibility that an underperforming teacher could be reinstated to a teaching position. The purpose of this study was to examine the history, frequency, and legal basis of tenured teacher dismissals in Illinois for the period from 1990 through 2008 in an effort to identify, through quantitative (frequency counts) and qualitative (content analysis) methods, trends and/or patterns in tenured teacher dismissal hearing officer decisions and appellate court cases. The study was a replication, in part, of Paul W. Thurston's 1990 study of tenured teacher dismissal in Illinois. During the period from 1990 through 2008, 62 Illinois school districts dismissed 219 tenured teachers. Of the 219 dismissal cases, hearing officers upheld 142 dismissals (65%) and overturned 77 dismissals (35%). Dismissal cases generally fell into seven distinct categories: insubordination/absence, drug/alcohol misconduct, personal misconduct, sexual misconduct, physical abuse, incompetency, and lack of qualification to teach. Hearing officers tended to uphold a teacher's dismissal if the teacher had been previously warned and/or if the teacher's misconduct had done damage to students or the school. Hearing officers tended to overturn a teacher's dismissal if the school district failed to follow district and/or legal procedures and/or if the district failed to prove the charges against the teacher at hearing. In conclusion, school districts that are willing to accept the time and financial responsibility of dismissing a tenured teacher can effectively do so for certain insubordination, drug/alcohol misconduct, personal misconduct, sexual misconduct, physical abuse, and incompetence offenses. School districts must prove that the teacher's misconduct has done damage to students or the school, and the district should, when possible, issue a warning before attempting dismissal proceedings. School districts must also strictly comply with both district and legal procedures when dismissing a tenured teacher.

1.1\xThis thesis studies land expropriation disputes from the angle of property right, exploring its origins from the relationships between township (town) government and villagers, village collective and villagers, and different villagers, focusing on peasants' resisting low land expropriation compensation instead of their fighting against land expropriation. Specifically, this research will discuss three questions. What is the nature of property right? How had the landed property rights been regulated and adjudicated? How do women gain and loss their land rights and interests?;1.2\xIn terms of the nature of property right, two kinds of idea are widely spread in academic circle; the first follows a materialist-legalist viewpoint and considers property rights as a bundle of rights, whereas the second adopts a constructivist perspective and considers property rights as a network of social relations. With defected land institutions and peasants' complicated social life, both of the two ideas cannot provide a suitable explanation for some new phenomena in land expropriation disputes, leaving a gap between property right theory and practice. Building on the foundation of Zhang Xiaojun's (2007) idea of "multiple property rights" and drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's discussion of capitals, this research will propose the idea of "composite property rights" to systematize the discussion. This concept examines the transformation of symbolic, social, and cultural capital into economic capital, and in turn the transformation of economic capital into property rights. In so doing, I hope to provide a better framework for understanding the mechanisms through which various capitals can be mobilized to "realize" the landed property rights.;1.3\xSince this research regards composite property rights as the nature of property right, the answer of the second research question then transfers into: what are the characteristics of the practical logic of composite property rights? Basing the rationale of resistance on peasants' local perception of land rights, peasants explore an action strategy, boundary-treading resistance. This concept reveals their tactics on three different relationships. First, as to the relation with the state, the peasants' resistance treads on state laws and land institution by taking advantage of their capitals. Second, in terms of the relation with local government and developers, their strategies rely on probing counterparty's loopholes, treading on boundaries of administrative enforcement of policy. Third, in regard to the relation among villagers or familial relationship, their behaviors challenges the village rules and traditions, treading on the boundaries of traditional moral principles.;1.4\xIn order to use the two concepts, this research specifically analyzes women's striving for land rights and interests. After building a framework of membership, this research transfers the third research question into a specific one: since rural land is owned by rural collective economic organization, how can an individual become its member? In sum, women's tactics include (1) taking full advantage of village collective's self-contradictory decision which admits their huji but refuses their cuji, (2) revoking their previous promise, and (3) exploring the loophole of household register management. During their striving for membership, they utilize their various capitals: (1) they use money as deposit to get villagers meeting's support, or gift to gain cadre's favor, to move in/back their huji, (2) with their relatives' help, they can get information and other support.;1.5\xBy attaching all kinds of capitals to the property right transformation from economic capital to economic property right, peasants' resources can be transformed into capitals; and these capitals enter their citizen life, alleviating their pauperization. At the same time, boundary-treading resistance characterizes land-lost peasants as peasant-citizens who keenly take petty advantage of others and merely try to be smart, so their resistance has a long way to catch up with safeguarding rights of citizen.

In academia, after a reasonable probationary period of service and upon the achievement of tenure, the recipients of tenure are entitled to a continuing appointment at an institution without mandatory retirement and with only limited grounds for revocation. Advocates of tenure argued that it protected academic freedom through economic security. Opponents of tenure argued that it fostered inefficient and unproductive behavior. This dissertation developed a framework for examining academic tenure in U.S. economics departments. I constructed a dataset of tenured U.S. economics professors who were Ph.D. recipients between 1990 and 2006 and tracked their publications. In the first chapter, based on difference-in-difference analysis I found that tenure has a direct effect on the choice of research direction/focus. In general, tenured groups had a higher degree of specialization than non-tenured groups after they received tenure. For some tenured groups, even if their extent of specialization decreased after tenure, when I controlled for unobserved heterogeneity, tenure still had a positive effect on extent of specialization. This result suggested that the job security provided by tenure made tenured faculty more narrowly focused on their research. Using path analysis in the second chapter, my finding suggested that the extent of specialization was one of the key factors which might influence a scholar’s productivity. In addition, the extent of specialization helped explain gender differences in academic productivity. The results revealed that the effect of gender on productivity through the degree of specialization was more notable among older generations, and in most fields, gender differences in extent of research specialization mediated gender difference in research performance; although there were some fields in which gender difference in the research process could not explain gender difference in research performance. The third chapter expanded our understanding of advancement in academics by exploring a new dimension of inquiry: whether the extent of specialization in scholars’ research programs improved promotion prospects. Using discrete event analysis, my research showed that the extent of research specialization contributed to career acceleration, although gender difference on the prospects of advancement in academics was not significant.

While many African governments have made legislative changes to the formal economic institution of land law in order to strengthen land tenure security, very few have seen these changes take hold (Bruce & Knox, 2009). This thesis demonstrates that Uganda is no exception. In exploring the interactions between the formal, informal, political, economic and social institutions which influence land tenure behaviour in Uganda, and how decentralization impacts this institutional structure, this thesis offers a first step in understanding how state-led land reforms can be undercut at the local level, causing unintended outcomes. From reinforcing the legitimacy of informal customary tenure systems to fostering inter-ethnic competition, the District of Kayunga demonstrates how Uganda’s 1998 Land Reform has created unexpected impacts that continue to impede its implementation. It also offers ideas on how failed institutional adaptations may impact local perceptions of land tenure security. This thesis also investigates and pushes the boundaries of New Institutional Economic (NIE) theory. It explores how decentralization within a formal economic institution can influence informal social and political institutions to create complex and ever evolving incentive structures. It also examines the role of organizations and individuals in an effort to understand the intersection between these two categories of actors and the institutional structure. Fluid interactions whereby organizations and individuals are incentivized by institutions, but also resist and adapt to institutional change, demonstrate the added complexity of organization-institution interdependency within the NIE framework.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66).