Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 101 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-101).

This dissertation studies the relationship between output growth rate and its volatility. This study sheds light on International, Regional, and Development Economics literature. In the first chapter, we revisit the relationship between output growth rate and its volatility using cross-section techniques for our panel data set from 60 countries from 1970 to 2019. In addition to the conventional volatility measurement of the standard deviation, we incorporate the higher moments, such as skewness and kurtosis, as volatility measures. Higher moments further sharpen our understanding of the volatility and growth rate relationship. We also examine the role of the irreversibility of investment, a purported proximate factor for increased volatility in theory but not applied to empirical models, on the growth rate. We find that a higher level of the irreversibility of investment tends to reduce the growth rate. In the second chapter, we examine the growth-volatility relationship covering manufacturing activities at the two-digit level in 32 countries. In particular, we conduct a comprehensive analysis to reveal the long-term relationship between output growth rate and volatility over 1970 – 2019 within countries and across sectors. We have data for each manufacturing subsector for each country over a long period. We have redefined the growth rate and volatility measures with alternative definitions such as cross-country and cross-sector across time. This offers additional advantages from an econometric perspective, as the large cross-sectional dimension is beneficial when estimating the determinants of growth rate. Moreover, our study assesses the evolution of the long-term relationship between economic sectoral growth rate and sectoral volatility over time. Overall, we find that growth rate and volatility are negatively related, with a few exceptions. The third chapter investigates the relationship between regional growth rate and volatility in U.S. state regions. We use disaggregated data for manufacturing activities over the period 1977 – 2021. We find a significant positive relationship between sectoral volatility and GDP per worker growth rate across the U.S. states regions, meaning that manufacturing volatile sectors for the U.S. are growing faster. This finding is also robust in including additional control variables in the analysis, thus confirming that volatility does not capture the effect of other potential determinants of GDP growth in the manufacturing sectors. We further examine how policy structure and geographical similarity affect regional growth rates, in which we distinguish between the Democrat and Republican Parties and Coastline and Non-Coastline states. We find that the growth rate and volatility relationship has been weaker for Democrat-leading states and geographically more open states (states with a coastline). This suggests that the growth rate and volatility relationship can be altered by having a supporting fiscal policy or having a more open economy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 11, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-188).

Exposure to community gun violence is increasing a sense of anxiety and hypervigilance in American society today. Whether or not they are direct victims, American children and adolescents often become casualties of community gun violence. Their safety, well-being, and even survival are at risk due to continued exposure to gun violence in their communities. This study utilized a retrospective sample of adolescents derived from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) to understand the prevalence and severity of cognitive and emotional symptoms associated with childhood exposure to community gun violence compared to other types of adverse childhood events. The results showed that adolescents who have been exposed to community gun violence self-reported higher levels of negative emotion and cognitive disturbance in comparison to peers who have had no exposure to these forms of adverse events. Compared to these peers reporting no adverse events, an increase of 30% was observed in negative emotions and 33% in cognitive disturbance when the adolescent is exposed to community gun violence. An increase of 22% in negative emotions and 30% in cognitive disturbance was observed when an adolescent is exposed to other forms of community disorder. Finally, adolescent participants who were exposed to childhood adverse events other than community disorder and gun violence reported 8% greater negative emotions and 28% greater cognitive disturbance than peers reporting no adverse events during adolescence. These results suggest that exposure to gun violence promotes negative emotionality and increases cognitive disturbance.

The 2000 Surgeon General report declared dental caries (tooth decay) a "silent epidemic" [1]. Dental caries is preventable, yet it is the most common chronic disease among children and adolescents in the US [2]–[6]. US dental care systems have fallen short of preventing avoidable oral diseases and their consequences, despite enormous dental expenditures. Self-care through oral hygiene, a key health behavior for caries risk reduction, is not practiced nearly as consistently or accurately as dentists and health organizations would like [7],[8]. Evidence-based and cost-effective preventive dental treatments exist but are underutilized. Value-based care (VBC) is an effort to strengthen the quality of dental care, decrease unnecessary expenditure and increase cost-effectiveness through an emphasis on prevention. This paper has three aims. Aim #1 is to understand the current dental VBC landscape through a narrative review. It synthesizes the available literature on dental value-based models and their challenges. Aim #2 discusses the need for quality metrics to help meet VBC goals. It evaluates New York State’s (NYS) quality assurance of dental care among NYS’s Medicaid recipients 0-20 years of age through their Quality Assurance Reporting Requirement (QARR). Aim #3 proposes a revision of metrics and identifies the needed indicators for NYS’s quality assurance of preventive dental care for Medicaid recipients 0-20 years of age. Under Aim #1 Sixty-nine abstracts were reviewed. Forty-six articles met the inclusion criterion and were classified according to four prominent themes: dental metrics, interprofessional collaboration, information technology, and care/case management. Common challenges were identified in dental VBC, including but not limited to, the requirement for interdisciplinary, interoperability; too much involvement of stakeholders; variations in dental treatment modalities and coverage; and challenges in developing appropriate metrics. While initiatives in the peer-reviewed articles leveraged value metrics for the assessment of their programs, no studies among the 46 articles evaluated statewide governmental quality measures’ effectiveness for VBC. Gray literature was therefore utilized for Aim #2. The second aim discusses the need for quality metrics to help meet VBC goals and identifies tested and scalable dental metrics. Healthcare Effectiveness Data Information Set and Dental Quality Alliance were found to be the leading dental metric developers. NYS’s Quality Assurance Reporting Requirement (QARR) indicators were identified as the lead metric set used to evaluate NYS’s Medicaid Managed Care plans and Managed Care Organizations. Several limitations were identified in NYS’s QARR dental metric. It is limited to one dental indicator, it does not measure the quality of dental services and has unintended consequences. Under AIM #3, ten recommended steps are provided for the NYS Department of Health Office of Health Insurance Program (NYS DOH OHIP) to strengthen their quality assurance of preventive dental care among Medicaid recipients 0-20 years of age. The ten steps NYS DOH OHIP can take to develop a dental metric set aimed to assess and improve the utilization of preventive dental services are as follows, 1. Define value from the perspective of the patient 2. Select tested, specific, and measurable metrics 3. Metrics need to be attainable, relevant and anchored within a time frame 4. Metrics need to be appropriate proxies 5. Account for patient characteristics, when feasible 6. Strive for standardized data collection and harmonization 7. Build appropriate information technology infrastructure 8. Reimburse dental providers through alternative payment models 9. Strengthen Provider Accountability by Improving QARR’s Use of Dental Metrics 10. Amend QARR to strengthen quality assurance of preventive dental services A final set of recommendations proposes revisions to NYS’s assessment of preventive dental services through QARR. The recommendations provide technical details on the needed amendments and additions for a more robust metric set to improve NYS’s quality assurance of preventive dental care among NY’s youngest Medicaid recipients. The final set of recommendations which will make system-level changes in dental care delivery and shift NYS towards dental VBC are as follows,  Revise QARR’s oral health indicator to measure the percentage of all enrolled children under age 21 who received dental services within the reporting year  Replace QARR’s dental screening encounter code (D0190) with comprehensive (D0150) or periodic (D0120) oral examination codes  Create a metric for the application of sealants in the erupted, unrestored adult molar teeth of children.  Create a metric for the application of topical fluoride at least once every six months on all teeth of children and adolescents under the age of 21  Utilize existing tested and validated preventive dental metrics  Raise statewide QARR benchmark metrics annually to encourage higher utilization and success of services  Tie performance metrics’ achievement to reimbursement (P4P)  Evaluate implemented metrics for their effectiveness in reducing the need for restorative services to help achieve VBC goals among NYS Medicaid recipients 0-20 years of age  Release an open comment period to seek stakeholders’ perception

After a review of K12-University partnership models, research into the current local and national education reform context, and an in-depth analysis of contextual factors in the launching of an initiative, the author proposed a program design for K12-University partnerships that included five essential components necessary for successful implementation. These components, also termed leverage points, were: clarity of the problem, outcome planning, a theory of change, clear stakeholder enrollment and commitment, and flexibility. Actively acknowledging and factoring in the fluid nature of public education initiatives, the author framed this program design within that of the emergence principle of complexity theory, which drove the rationale for flexibility in the model. The study then turned to a deep review of the successes and lessons learned from a K12/University partnership that was launched without the benefit of this program design. Finally, the study analyzed this specific K12/University partnership through the lens of the five essential components and made recommendations about the efficacy of this specific model. In the current national climate of declining resources and the need for more effective and innovative partnerships in the K12 and University settings, this program design offered a roadmap for local partnerships throughout the country to positively impact the student success.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 175-179. / by Sandra Kanter. / Ph.D.

Three independent studies drawing on the cases from different spaces and times comprise this research project, but they share a common theme: how do expansive reforms that open up paths to political participation take place? The first paper takes up the case of the motor voter reform, which allows people to register to vote at driver's license offices. The reform was widely legislated by U.S. states before the passage of the National Voter Registration Act in 1993. The paper investigates the factors that helped promote the reform at the state level by breaking down the reforms along two dimensions: the voter registration location and the implementation method. Motor voter legislation could either stand alone or be accompanied by agency-based registration (ABR), which includes registration at social service public agencies that primarily serve the poor. A reform could be implemented in an active or passive way. While ABR and active implementation had the potential to mobilize previously alienated socioeconomic groups, motor voter reform itself and passive implementation were expected to have a partisan-neutral and limited impact, respectively. Using data collected from the archived materials of the leading advocacy organization of the reform, Human SERVE, I test the following three general hypotheses statistically: 1) the Democratic Party is interested in mobilizing the poor, 2) electoral competition enhances mobilization efforts by parties, and 3) liberal political culture promotes inclusive electoral institutions. All three hypotheses find some support in the empirical analysis. The second paper focuses on a candidate selection method reform in contemporary Japan. Throughout the first decade of the twenty first century, the (then) opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) used kôbo, an open-recruitment candidate selection method, which was purported to open up the party nomination to non-traditional outsider aspirants. The DPJ's action presented a puzzle: searching for low-electability amateur candidates instead of traditional quality candidates seemed paradoxical for a party preparing to take over power. The paper reveals that using kôbo was a transitional strategy for a young party building itself under the mixed-member majoritarian system. I argue that recruiting "fresh faces" was not what really motivated the use of kôbo, by showing how kôbo increasingly produced insider candidates over time. The third paper investigates the development of direct primary in nineteenth century Pennsylvania. The historical origins of the U.S. primaries have mostly been discussed in terms of statewide legislations around the Progressive Era, which made the primaries mandatory for the two major parties. This paper focuses instead on the voluntary adoption phase that took place under the party by-laws, paying special attention to the case of Pennsylvania after 1842. I argue that the party elites of county organizations initiated the introduction of the primaries in order to prevent defection and to preserve party unity. As the vote share of a party increased, the party nomination became more valuable, and more people competed for nomination. More disgruntled nomination losers would run as independents, hurting the electoral prospects of a given party in the general election. For party leaders, whose overwhelming concern was the maintenance of party unity, the direct primary system offered a solution by presenting the primary winner as a focal candidate to the party voters. The primaries made it harder for losers to defect later, with the transparent features of their procedures. Thus, the stronger the party, the more likely it was to adopt the direct primary. The paper tests this hypothesis empirically with an original data set built from hundreds of archived local newspapers. To my knowledge, this is the first study on nineteenth century county-level party activities to use comprehensive data covering most counties from a single state. The findings have broader implications as to how party competition affects the choice of candidate selection methods, and the role which competition among elites plays in the democratization of the intraparty decision-making mechanism.

Heart disease, including principally coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the top cause of mortality in the United States among adults ages 35 and older. Disparities in CHD mortality between socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups, such as whites and blacks have persisted for decades. These social gaps persist despite advances in treatments, preventive measures, and decreases in population prevalence of smoking that have done much to reduce the burden of CHD overall. While these differences in disease burden have been well documented, there is a poor understanding of what interventions might narrow these differences. An equity-efficiency tradeoffs (EET) framework is a useful lens through which to consider this problem. Tradeoffs between equity of intervention efforts and efficiency of the returns on such efforts arise when public health interventions are deployed across groups of unequal socioeconomic position. While such interventions may achieve overall and intra-group improvement, this improvement may come at the expense of stable or widening inter-group differences. Aiming to add to this literature, we took three approaches. First, we critically assessed the literature in order to identify and summarize prior work on EETs across cardiovascular outcomes. We aimed to identify the questions that empirical studies should answer for a given policy, from an EET perspective. Second, recognizing both that tobacco taxation is an effective policy intervention on CHD, and that we have little evidence from United States based studies that it influences racial gaps in CHD we used as an example this policy intervention to examine the treatment efficiency inherent in raising tobacco taxes from an equity lens. We conducted an empirical study to estimate the treatment effectiveness of US tobacco taxation on smoking and CHD mortality. Third, we simulated the equity and treatment efficiency effects of pharmaceutical (Statins), taxation (tobacco) and early education interventions on CHD mortality, and racial gaps in CHD mortality. Our scoping review of EETs in cardiovascular disease (Chapter 2) yielded a very small number of studies (n=6), that explicitly engaged equity and efficiency, and provided information on their trade-offs in the context of CVDs. Despite a paucity of evidence, we identified 2 important lessons: (1) movement toward equity in the context of interventions on those with a high burden of CHD risk factors may be achieved by targeting deprived populations. Second, pairing these “high risk” with structural interventions can provide substantial movement toward not only efficiency, but also equity. Our nationally representative observational, state-level study of the effects of tobacco taxation on smoking prevalence and CHD mortality by race and gender (Chapter 3) showed that between 2005 and 2016, tobacco taxes were associated with reductions in both outcomes. The strongest reductions in smoking prevalence were observed among black non-Hispanic women, while an increase was observed among black non-Hispanic men. Our simulation study (Chapter 4) showed that the equity and efficiency effects of population health interventions in the context of reducing racial disparities in CHD may vary by gender. Among men, compared to no intervention, an education intervention was associated with the greatest reduction in racial disparities in CHD mortality, while among women, a $3 tobacco tax intervention was associated with the greatest reduction in racial disparities in CHD mortality. Additionally, among men, tobacco taxes were an equity lose intervention, while for women, in contrast, tobacco taxes were nearly always a win-win intervention. Conversely, compared to tobacco taxes, statins are in some cases a win-win intervention for men, and in all cases a lose-lose intervention for women. Our findings support the utility of an EET lens in the reduction of racial disparities in health, and point to the need for more scholarship and broader integration of this lens into public health practice. Consideration of the interplay between equity and efficiency in population health interventions offers a deeper understanding of intervention effects than the consideration of either dimension alone. In some cases, we need not trade equity for efficiency in the reduction of racial inequities in health.

This dissertation describes the role of architects in the development of the prison system in the United States. In the late eighteenth century, penologists sought to standardize conditions in penal institutions and to develop reliable methods for the social conditioning of inmates. Architects designed prisons that embodied the standards of penal theory, arguing that the form of an institution could serve as a powerful means of assuring that prison routine adhered to the dictates of modern penology. While early prison architects focused upon the development of a standard institutional type, the growth of the penal bureaucracy in the twentieth century forced them to develop a structural vocabulary commensurate with the scale of the modern prison system. They broke the prison down into a series of flexible components, each of which could function effectively in diverse institutional contexts. As criminologists sought to address the ostensible urban crisis in the 1960s, moreover, architects envisioned the extension of the new carceral infrastructure to the city. These techniques served the standardization of the prison system in the twentieth century. Like the early prison architects, modern designers sought to make each element of their structural vocabulary determinative of the activities of inmates and guards in penal institutions. By freeing these elements from the compositional order of early penal institutions, moreover, architects facilitated the rapid expansion of the prison system and the extension of carceral space into new contexts. By the 1970s, the refinement of advanced techniques for the construction of prisons meant that architects no longer played a pivotal role in shaping the prison system. As legal policymakers abandoned rehabilitative penology and emphasized the punitive function of confinement, the techniques of efficient prison construction developed by architects served a massive institutional building campaign whose sole justification was the incapacitation and segregation of the inmate population.