The successful implementation of the Canada/British Columbia Agreement to Enhance the Employability of Social Assistance Recipients (the “SAR”, or Four Corner” Agreement) can be explained by a revised version of Mazmanian and Sabatier’s 1983 theory of implementation. This framework is also able to account for some of the limitations that the initiative faced. The analysis of the SAR Agreement is placed in the context of the on-going dilemma of work and welfare and in the evolving ideological climate in the B.C. welfare system from an ideology of redistribution, to one of liberal developmentalism, emphasizing opportunity before work. The case-study provides a history of the implementation of the SAR Agreement in B.C. at both the policy-formulation and field levels of government, and gives an overview of the agreement and its results. This information is gained through reports, government documents and interviews with officials involved in the SAR Agreement. Application of the revised theory of implementation to the agreement illuminates the ingredients critical to the success of the SAR initiative in British Columbia. Among the most important determinants of success were the intensive cooperation between federal and provincial agencies, the amount of discretion given to local officials when combined with the expertise and resources of those officials, the correct causal theory underlying most project designs, and the flexibility of the agreement respond to past successes and failures. The agreement was limited by the lack of general guidelines to provide officials with a sense of direction, by the possibility of conflicting goals of outside agencies, and by problems with the invalid causal theory underlying a few programs.

The successful implementation of the Canada/British Columbia Agreement to Enhance the Employability of Social Assistance Recipients (the “SAR”, or Four Corner” Agreement) can be explained by a revised version of Mazmanian and Sabatier’s 1983 theory of implementation. This framework is also able to account for some of the limitations that the initiative faced. The analysis of the SAR Agreement is placed in the context of the on-going dilemma of work and welfare and in the evolving ideological climate in the B.C. welfare system from an ideology of redistribution, to one of liberal developmentalism, emphasizing opportunity before work. The case-study provides a history of the implementation of the SAR Agreement in B.C. at both the policy-formulation and field levels of government, and gives an overview of the agreement and its results. This information is gained through reports, government documents and interviews with officials involved in the SAR Agreement. Application of the revised theory of implementation to the agreement illuminates the ingredients critical to the success of the SAR initiative in British Columbia. Among the most important determinants of success were the intensive cooperation between federal and provincial agencies, the amount of discretion given to local officials when combined with the expertise and resources of those officials, the correct causal theory underlying most project designs, and the flexibility of the agreement respond to past successes and failures. The agreement was limited by the lack of general guidelines to provide officials with a sense of direction, by the possibility of conflicting goals of outside agencies, and by problems with the invalid causal theory underlying a few programs. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Lui, Hor Yan Joyce. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-184). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / English Abstract --- p.i / Chinese Abstract --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.v / List of Tables --- p.vi / List of Figures --- p.vii / Table of Contents --- p.viii / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Research Area and Objectives --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Background and Conceptual Framework --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Significance of the Research --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4 --- Research Methodology --- p.9 / Chapter 1.5 --- Chapter Organization --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- Hong Kong in the Midst of its Transformation --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- A State of Euphoria: Prelude to the Crisis --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- Post 1997 Crisis --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3 --- Development of Social Security in Hong Kong --- p.20 / Chapter 2.4 --- The Paradox --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- Welfare Debate --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1 --- Social Democratic Welfare Regimes --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Essential Characteristics --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2 --- The New Right --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Social Development Approach as an Alternative --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Governments' Responses in the West --- p.39 / Chapter 4.1 --- Workfare Programs Gaining Currency --- p.39 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Origin and Development of Workfare Programs in the West --- p.41 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Debates in the Rhetoric of Workfare --- p.44 / Chapter 4.1.2.1 --- Mandatory versus Voluntary --- p.45 / Chapter 4.1.2.2 --- Work-first versus Education-first --- p.47 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Common Goal shared by various Emphases --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- Effectiveness of Workfare Programs --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.1.1 --- The Bright Side --- p.51 / Chapter 4.1.4.2 --- The Dark Side --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Hong Kong Government's Responses to the Paradox --- p.54 / Chapter 5.1 --- Multi-directional Interventions --- p.54 / Chapter 5.2 --- Workfare Initiatives --- p.56 / Chapter 5.3 --- Focus of the Present Study --- p.66 / Chapter Chapter Six: --- Research Methodology --- p.68 / Chapter 6.1 --- Overview of the Research Design --- p.68 / Chapter 6.2 --- Philosophical Orientation and Justifications --- p.70 / Chapter 6.3 --- Sampling --- p.72 / Chapter 6.4 --- Data Collection Method --- p.75 / Chapter 6.5 --- Data Analysis --- p.77 / Chapter 6.6 --- Ethical Concerns --- p.84 / Chapter 6.7 --- Research Rigour --- p.85 / Chapter 6.8 --- Reflections --- p.87 / Chapter 6.8 --- Limitations of the Study --- p.89 / Chapter Chapter Seven: --- Major Findings of the Study --- p.91 / Chapter 7.1 --- Profile of the Interviewees --- p.92 / Chapter 7.2 --- Characteristics of the IEAP Studied --- p.95 / Chapter 7.3 --- Major Findings --- p.96 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- Users' Overall Impression on the IEAP --- p.100 / Chapter 7.3.1.1 --- Participants' Views --- p.100 / Chapter 7.3.1.1.1 --- Positive Views --- p.100 / Chapter 7.3.1.1.2 --- Negative Views --- p.102 / Chapter 7.3.1.2 --- Practitioners' Views --- p.103 / Chapter 7.3.1.2.1 --- Strengths of the IEAP --- p.103 / Chapter 7.3.1.2.2 --- Weaknesses of the IEAP --- p.104 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Factors Attributing to Successful Employment --- p.108 / Chapter 7.3.2.1 --- Fresh CSSA recipients --- p.108 / Chapter 7.3.2.2 --- Participants' differential views on Welfare Dole versus Work --- p.109 / Chapter 7.3.2.3 --- Adaptability of the Participants --- p.114 / Chapter 7.3.2.4 --- Family as an important source of Motivation --- p.115 / Chapter 7.3.3 --- Program Factors Facilitating Successful Employment --- p.119 / Chapter 7.3.3.1 --- Being-first Orientation --- p.119 / Chapter 7.3.3.2 --- Use of Social Capital in the Community --- p.124 / Chapter 7.3.4 --- Factors Inhibiting Successful Employment --- p.126 / Chapter 7.3.4.1 --- Age --- p.126 / Chapter 7.3.4.2 --- Market Constraints --- p.127 / Chapter 7.3.4.3 --- Low Economic Incentives --- p.129 / Chapter 7.3.4.4 --- Inadequacies of the Human Capital Development --- p.131 / Chapter 7.3.5 --- Barriers in Achieving Total Self-Reliance --- p.132 / Chapter 7.3.5.1 --- Poor Financial Management --- p.133 / Chapter 7.3.5.2 --- Low Market Wages --- p.134 / Chapter 7.3.5.3 --- Flex-Work --- p.135 / Chapter Chapter Eight: --- Discussion and Implications --- p.138 / Chapter 8.1 --- Success Factors Leading to Employment --- p.138 / Chapter 8.1.1 --- Culture versus Economic Incentives --- p.140 / Chapter 8.1.2 --- Family Solidarity --- p.142 / Chapter 8.1.3 --- Being-first Orientation: An Alternative to Education-first and Work-first Approach --- p.148 / Chapter 8.2 --- Barriers to Sustainable Employment and Self-Reliance --- p.155 / Chapter 8.2.1 --- Long Spell on Welfare --- p.156 / Chapter 8.2.2 --- Low Economic Incentives --- p.157 / Chapter 8.3 --- Implications and Conclusion --- p.160 / Appendix 1 The Distribution of the 40 Operating Agencies --- p.164 / Appendix 2 Questions in the Interview Guide --- p.166 / Appendix 3 Case Summary and Analysis Sheet --- p.169 / Appendix 4 Within Case Display for Participant B --- p.172 / Bibliography --- p.173

This dissertation studies the impact of institutional interventions on labor markets in the United States, Norway and India. The labor markets studied are diverse, and include the criminal sector in the United States, the healthcare sector in Norway and the market for workfare employment in rural India. Chapter 1 studies whether juvenile offenders are deterred by the threat of criminal sanctions. Existing research, which studies adolescent crime as a series of on-the-spot decisions, finds that deterrence estimates are negligible at best. This paper first presents a model that allows the return from crime to increase with previous criminal involvement. The predictions of the model are tested using policy variation in the United States over the period 2006-15. The results show that when criminal capital accumulates, juveniles may respond in anticipation of increases in criminal sanctions. Accounting for these anticipatory responses can overturn the conclusion that harsh sanctions do not deter juvenile crime. Chapter 2 studies the impact of a graduate's first job on her career trajectory, and how job-seeking graduates’ respond to the persistence of these "first job effects". For identification, we exploit a natural experiment in Norway, where doctors' first jobs were allocated through a random serial dictatorship mechanism until 2013. We use administrative data on individual outcomes to confirm empirically that the residency allocation mechanism effectively randomized choice sets of hospitals across medical graduates. We then use the resulting variation in individual doctors’ choice sets to show that first jobs affect doctors' earnings, place of residence, and specialization in the long run. Chapter 3 evaluates the effects of encouraging the selection of local politicians in India via community-based consensus, as opposed to a secret ballot election. I find that financial incentives aimed at encouraging consensus-based elections and discouraging political competition crowd in younger, more educated political representatives. However, these incentives also lead to worse governance as measured by a fall in local expenditure and regressive targeting of workfare employment. These results can be explained by the fact that community-based processes are prone to capture by the local elite, and need not improve the quality of elected politicians or governance.

In this project a four week computer-based career assessment program was developed to equip employable welfare recipients in San Bernardino with the necessary tools to explore, seek, obtain, and maintain employment that is self-sustaining. The first three weeks of the curriculum addresses major areas of career development, while the last week focuses on job searching.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

The study explored a model that integrates human capital, family resource, employment and psychosocial factors to explain variation in economic self-sufficiency (ESS) among single mothers. A sample of 851 single mothers on Aid to Families with Dependent Children was selected from the Washington State Family Income Study data base. Data from a three-year period (6/88-5/91) were utilized to describe and analyze single mothers in transition from welfare. When compared to a sample of non-poor single mothers, mothers on public assistance differed significantly in several ways: They were younger, had more children and were more likely to have parents who received public assistance. Educational levels were significantly lower, as was employment activity. Economic self-sufficiency was measured as the ratio of welfare benefits to household income. Degree of ESS improved over the three-year period: While 60 percent of single mothers relied on welfare for more than half their income in the first year, only 45 percent did by the third year. In analyzing differences in degrees of economic self-sufficiency among single mothers, the following groups of mothers had significantly higher degrees of welfare reliance: never-married and divorced mothers; mothers with a child under age two; mothers with three or more children; non-white mothers; and mothers living in public housing. A path analysis was conducted to determine the relative influence of human capital, family resource, employment and psychosocial factors on later economic self-sufficiency. Number of children and receipt of subsidies positively affected welfare reliance. Education, number of adults in the household and number of months employed negatively affected degree of welfare reliance. A key finding was that, after controlling for differences in human capital, family resources and employment activity, workplace support retained a highly significant, inverse relationship with degree of welfare reliance. Sense of personal control and social support had both direct and indirect effects on degree of welfare reliance, establishing that psychosocial factors mediate impacts of human capital, family and employment factors on economic self-sufficiency. The results support the viability of utilizing stress models to examine objective economic outcomes in future research. / Graduation date: 1993

This thesis makes an argument for the importance of a high level of commitment from local departments of social services, area businesses, and community organizations to the implementation of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program. It contends that such a commitment is a necessary pre-condition for JOBS to ever be successful. It then examines the level of commitment these actors have to JOBS in Roanoke, Virginia in order to explore the process by which local commitment to JOBS is created. A case study was conducted to determine what mechanisms, if any, are currently in place to support such a commitment. Of even greater significance, this analysis suggests the importance of changing our method of evaluating social welfare policy. We need to move beyond analyzing the actions of participants and the impact a program has on participants to illuminating the entire process by which social welfare policy operates if we are to fully understand its impacts. Upon examining the legislative history of the Family Support Act of 1988 (JOBS is the centerpiece of this act) I found no substantial discussion of the importance of encouraging local commitment to JOBS. This suggests that sustaining local commitment was not considered a high priority by federal policy makers. An examination of the actual level of commitment from a local department of social services, area businesses, and community organizations suggests there is a great deal of work yet to be done in establishing an integrated community-based approach to welfare reform. Based on the results of this research, I concluded that community commitment to JOBS can best be established by increasing commitment from all three levels of government. I also developed a hypothesis. Higher levels of commitment from within a locality will be associated with more "successful" JOBS programs. Although the newness of JOBS precludes the immediate testing of this hypothesis, future research can be conducted to determine if we find higher levels of commitment in areas with more successful JOB programs. / Master of Arts

In recent decades, research from across the social sciences has demonstrated a strong, consistent and causal link between unemployment and a wide range of negative outcomes. These outcomes go beyond economic problems, incorporating issues such as low well-being, poor health and weak social capital. During the same time, successive UK governments have expanded the use of active labour market programmes (ALMPs): a wide range of interventions that aim to move unemployed people closer to the labour market. ALMPs have been widely evaluated since becoming a central part of UK social policy, yet the majority of studies focus almost exclusively on economic outcomes, such as re-employment and wage levels. This is despite the weight of evidence suggesting unemployment is as much a social problem as an economic one. This discrepancy has led to a small but growing body of research suggesting that ALMPs might play a role in modifying some of the health and social costs of unemployment: beyond simply moving people closer to the labour market. Using a mixed methods research design, this study examines whether ALMPs achieve this by considering four key questions. First, are ALMPs associated with higher well-being, health and social capital compared to the alternative of 'open unemployment'? Second, if there is an association, how robust is this and is there any evidence of a causal function? Third, does the context of an ALMP - such as the specific type of scheme and the kind of participant - matter for understanding outcomes? And fourthly, how and why do people's experiences of unemployment and ALMPs shape their health and well-being? The findings presented in this thesis offer five original contributions to the study of the health and social effects of ALMPs. First, there is a dichotomy in the effects of ALMPs: participants have higher well-being than the openly unemployed but similar health and social capital levels. Second, ALMPs are most effective in changing how participants feel about and evaluate their lives but are largely unsuccessful in mitigating negative emotions like anxiety. These two findings are evident in both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, suggesting the possibility of a causal function of ALMPs. Together, the findings suggest that the positive well-being effects of ALMPs are not necessarily linked to improved health or social capital but because participants begin to think about their lives in a different, more positive way. Third, well-being gains are experienced by both short-term and long-term unemployed people but disappear upon re-employment. This finding has an important implication for policy, with ALMPs seemingly effective as a short-term protective well-being measure. Fourth, this is the first UK study to explore whether ALMPs work more effectively for different types of unemployed people. The findings presented in Chapter Seven show that work-oriented ALMPs are more successful than employment-assistance programmes, whilst men, younger people, those with fewer qualifications, lower occupational status and lower pre-programme well-being experience the largest benefits of participation. Fifth, the qualitative analysis presented in Chapter Eight argues that ALMPs worked best when schemes reversed the perceived ‘losses’ associated with unemployment. Three processes of loss were identified - agency loss, functional loss and status loss – which, it is contended, help explain both the observed effects of ALMPs and the broader experience of unemployment. The thesis concludes with policy suggestions for improving the capacity of ALMPs to mediate the experience of unemployment.