This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first chapter, I investigate the effect of long-term income shocks that affect only one side of the marriage market in India. The asymmetric shock is due to two factors - (1) a jobs-based affirmative action program that affects the occupations and wages of a group of castes that were historically against, with a strict upper age limit on eligibility and, (2) a social norm that determines which member works outside the household. The program results in a differential positive income shock for young men in the treated group. The income shock is found to affect the marriage market in several ways. First, there is no effect on the marriage rate of treated men. However, conditional on marriage, treated men pair up with spouses that have higher educational attainment, are taller, and have a higher BMI. They are also more likely to marry outside their own community. Second, treated women are overall less likely to marry, and their choice of spouse is unaffected conditional on marriage. Finally, controlling for observables, treated husbands are found to have greater decision making power within the households that are formed. There is no significant effect for treated wives. A structural model of the marriage market based on Choo and Siow (2006) is used to investigate the aggregate marital welfare effects of the policy. The estimates find that up to 80% of the benefit of the affirmative action policy accrues to men within the treated group. These findings suggest that (1) a larger share of the welfare gains from affirmative action policies accrue to the household member that actually receives them, and (2) that the marriage market is one mechanism through which the distribution operates, in addition to the intra-household bargaining process that is standard in the literature. In the second chapter (joint with Ashna Arora, Rakesh Banerjee and Siddharth Hari), we study the political economy of public service delivery. Local governments in developing countries play a crucial role in the provision of local public goods and the functioning of social welfare programs. This chapter investigates the relationship between the size of elected local government councils and public service delivery. We use a natural experiment from India, where the number of politicians at the village level is an increasing, discontinuous function of village population. We set up a regression discontinuity design to study the impact of a larger elected council on the targeting of welfare schemes as well as the allocation of private benefits by politicians to themselves. We find that larger councils improve access to a large scale workfare program, especially for traditionally disadvantaged communities. We also find that increasing the number of council members increases appropriation of private benefits by the council head but not by ordinary members. These results have implications for policy design. In the third chapter (joint with Ritam Chaurey), we investigate the relative effects of manager supervision on different types of labor. Across a large cross section of firms, we find that managers spend more time in supervisory roles when a larger share of contract labor is employed. This finding is then established causally using a differencein- differences approach, exploiting variations in labor regulations across Indian states and rainfall-driven demand shocks. Using the causal approach, we find that (i) there is no significant change in total management input in response to short run demand shocks, suggesting that the institutional factors of the market for managers has larger search/firing costs than that for industrial workers. However, (ii) managers are observed to spend more time in supervisory roles when relatively more contract labor is employed in response to demand shocks. Contrary to the literature, we also find that (iii) there is no productivity change when there is an influx of contract labor. These findings suggest that there are complementarities between manager supervision and contract labor input, even relative to other types of labor, and that the manner of deployment of management capital within a firm is endogenous, conditional on the total amount.These findings could account for one of the features that is widely observed in empirical studies - firms in regions with strong employee protections have lower steady state productivities.

Thesis (MPA) -- University of Limpopo, 2011

Abstract not available

The Commonwealth departmental machinery of government is changed by using Orders in Council to create, abolish or change the name of departments. Since 1906 governments have utilised a particular form of Order in Council, the Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO), as the means to reallocate functions between departments for administration. After 1928 successive governments from Scullin to Fraser gradually streamlined and increasingly used the formal processes for the executive to change departmental arrangements and the practical role of Parliament, in the process of change, virtually disappeared. From 1929 to 1982, 105 separate departments were brought into being, as new departments or through merger, and 91 were abolished, following the merger of their functions in one way or another with other departments. These figures exclude 6 situations where the change was simply that of name alone. Several hundred less substantial transfers of responsibilities were also made between departments. This dissertation describes, documents and analyses all these changes. The above changes can be distilled down to 79 events termed primary decisions. Measures of the magnitude of change arising from the decisions are developed with 157.25 units of change identified as occurring during the period, most being in the Whitlam and Fraser periods. The reasons for the changes were assessed and classified as occurring for reasons of policy, administrative logic or cabinet comfort. 47.2% of the units of change were attributed to policy, 34.9% to administrative logic, 17% to cabinet comfort. Further conclusions are drawn from more detailed analysis of the change and the reasons for the changes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p><font face="ArialMT"> <p align="left">The study recommends that performance management has to be approached from an integrated perspective. The process of the design of performance management must include a thorough consultation with major stakeholders. The implementation of the system has to be supported and driven by top leadership and management. The change management process should be supported by a proactive communication strategy and it should be managed strategically and by competent staff. A reward system that distinguishes high from mediocre performance should be put in place. Programmes must be implemented to ensure high levels of staff motivation. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms must be put in place to ensure implementation of sustainable performance management systems. These recommendations led to the design of an integrated performance management system. The study concludes that integrated performance management, as a multidisciplinary methodology related to organisational strategy, structure, culture, systems and processes, should be regarded as a critical tool for improving motivation and performance of individuals, teams, departments and the public service as a whole.</p> </font></p>

Examinations have long been adopting for the selection of the public officials and become an essential tradition in our country. For centuries, the examination system, incorporated with fairness, has served as the recruitment mechanism and its functions and value still remain. The Senior Civil Service Examination traces its roots to the traditional examination systems and has become the most important examination. In order to recommend the brightest and ablest for the notion¡¦s recruitment and service, it is necessary to look into the background and the implementation status of the Senior Civil Service Examination system after seven decades since its establishment, while reviewing its capacity in response to the changes of the external environment. In addition, the reengineering of the examination system from the western countries to meet the challenges of new century is also the subject of the concern. This paper has three purposes. First, investigate the establishment and the current development of the Senior Civil Examination and explore its implementation and the potential problems. Second, research the recruiting system from other counties such as United Kingdom, United States, Germany, French, and Japan, etc. and take their experience as the reference. Last but not least, provide a feasible proposal to improve the effectiveness of our existing Senior Civil Examination for the public officials. Three different methodologies are used in this paper, the Document Analysis method, the Comparative method, and the In-depth interviewing method. The objective of this paper is to propose a suggestion of innovation and development for our existing Senior Civil Examination system for the public officials in regard to aspects such as the implementation status of our current examination systems and the experience learned from other countries. Keywords: the public officials, examination, the examination system, the Senior Civil Service Examination, background¡C

Since the ¡§Reinventing Government¡¨ trend started in 1980s, it soon became a sweeping fashion around the world. Looking into the objectives of these ¡§reinventing government¡¨ projects, they mainly expect to build an innovative, flexible and responsive government by introducing corporate management mechanism, so that governmental departments may provide efficient, flexible, innovative and governable services as private enterprises do, and hence the country¡¦s competitiveness can be greatly enhanced. Promoting the ¡§reinventing government¡¨ project is the goal of all countries around the world nowadays, and Taiwan and China are no exception. Content of the ¡§reinventing government¡¨ project mainly includes: organizational restructuring, manpower and service restructuring and legal restructuring. No matter in what direction the government reform takes place, formulation and execution of the government policies have to be carried out by civil servants. Therefore, a good official training system is critical for the achievement of the government reform, and also the focus of this study. In Taiwan area, different reforming emphases are set down in response to the government¡¦s reform, and for meeting the needs of different periods. Major reforms have also been presented in the manpower restructuring of civil servants. The training concept and goal of ¡§lifelong leaning¡¨ has been introduced recently, representing a lively and spirited effort in upgrading both quality and quantity of the civil service manpower. In China, since the adoption of the open-door policy in the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Communist Party Congress in 1978, the country has progressed towards a modern performance-based personnel administration system, and importance has been attached to the training of civil servants. Moreover, the country¡¦s accession to the WTO will definitely constitute another major impact on the training of civil servants in China. This thesis starts from the common base on the two governments¡¦ reform, to deduce the future ¡§civil service manpower development¡¨ from their respective ¡§governmental organization¡¨ trend and ¡§governmental operation¡¨ trend. In addition, the actual civil official training situation of the both sides of Taiwan strait is analyzed for discussing the sticking points of their respective civil official training systems and recommending the necessary amendment in the future. It is expected to provide a reference for subsequent researchers and for legislation or amendment of the official training system of the two governments