This paper examines the financing of professional athletic venues and why certain franchises are able to obtain high percentages of overall stadium funding from the public. Existing literature shows the negligible effect of new athletic venues on the local economy and per capita income, and therefore the benefits from such a project are largely intangible. I use an ordinary least squares regression and show that the more successful a team is the less public funding they tend to receive. I also find that broad city statistics do not represent the specific areas that policy makers consider when making decisions about spending public money.

In this study, the primary question that is addressed is that of whether there exists a relationship between juvenile arrest rates and public school funding. Using publically available FBI arrest data, data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), and Census data, I used two OLS models to answer this question. The first model suggested that there was no statistically significant correlation between school spending per child and juvenile arrest rates. However, it indicated that juvenile arrest rates were correlated with median income, percentage of children below the poverty line, percentage of Black, Hispanic, and Mixed children in the state. The second model had conflicting results. The model suggested that with a $1000 increase in school spending per child, there would be a 0.46 percentage point decrease in juvenile arrest rates. In addition, it maintained that there was a statistically significant correlation between median income and juvenile arrest rates; however, the direction of the effect was positive.

This thesis explores the relationship between funding practices and the non-profit sector through a case study of one community-based organization, called Ma Mawi wi Chi Itata Centre, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The thesis traces implications of the shift to project funding models and outcomes-based management for the communitybased organizations (CBOs). The research draws on Foucault’s governmentality analytic to illuminate how funding practices relate to neoliberal discourses and traces the tensions and resistances that are created by funding policy interventions at the point of practice. I argue tensions arise between: competition and collaboration; textual accountability and community need; reporting, learning, and teaching; different problem solving approaches; and individualism and community building practices. CBOs are intimately wrapped up in the project of governing. They are not either, a symbol of citizen engagement or a symptom of a decimated state; rather they are both, part and parcel of a system in which we are both governed and govern. / Graduate

This study explores the stories of Executive Directors of Delegated Aboriginal Child Welfare Agencies in regards to cultural planning for Aboriginal children being adopted into non-Aboriginal homes in British Columbia. This qualitative study used an Indigenous methodology to describe and interpret the elements of cultural planning for adopted Aboriginal children by interviewing Executive Directors of Aboriginal child welfare agencies in the province of British Columbia. The purpose is to provide knowledge about cultural planning and safety agreements in conjunction with Aboriginal agencies and to also gain an understanding of how Aboriginal agencies are able to meet their commitment to retain their adopted children’s’ Aboriginal identity and maintain their connections to culture, community and or family. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six Executive Directors who volunteered for this study. Their stories were audio taped and analysed utilizing a thematic analysis. Two main themes emerged from the analysis were 1). Funding and 2), Legalizing Cultural Agreements. Ceremony was stressed throughout the interviews and is an integral part of Indigenous people and adequate funding needs to be re-addressed to support Aboriginal children in their best interests. Training continues to be a factor for adoptive parents to learn about the history of Aboriginal people and learning ways to best support the children they are adopting by learning about the rich cultures they belong to and how they will be able to make those connections. Funding of operational dollars for Aboriginal agencies appears to be at the fore front in every aspect of the cultural planning process. / Graduate

The community radio sector is an important cultural resource for the Australian community. It is experiencing rapid growth with an increase in the number of licensed radio stations, however, government funding has not proportionally increased and this is threatening the financial viability of many stations. The key issue addressed in this research is the need to find ways to enhance community radio's sources of funding without imperilling its status as a not-for-profit sector. This study argues that there is no inherent conflict between entrepreneurial principles and not-for-profit principles, and as long as all revenue is invested back into the station, then there should be no limit on income generation for community radio. Overseas community radio experience supports this argument.

Background Hospitals in Iran have mainly been managed in a centralised system and funded historically through annual budgeting with little autonomy at hospital level. The current annual budgeting system is inequitable and is not reflective of hospital activity. Hospital resources are not distributed with regard to efficiency indicators and lobbying and political power of the managers are common issues influencing budget. Evidence suggests that hospitals in Iran will be even further challenged due to the growing and aging population. Reform of funding policy, particularly in hospitals, is now being considered as a critical step to improvement of Iran’s health system. Objectives This is a study of the theoretical and practical aspects of the implementation of casemix funding of hospitals in Iran. It aims to identify the knowledge and attitude of hospital managers and staff about the feasibility of casemix; to investigate availability, reliability and completeness of hospital discharge and financial data; to measure the appropriateness of the Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRGs); to build up a basis for further studies on casemix funding of hospitals; and, to assist the efficient use of scarce resources among and between hospital systems. Methods First, a descriptive survey, using an eleven-item questionnaire, was conducted to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes of hospital managers and key staff about casemix funding and its appropriateness. Second, patients’ clinical and demographic information were collected from the discharge system of a single study hospital, to evaluate the accuracy and completeness of these data for adopting casemix in Iran’s hospitals. This information was used to classify patient episodes into DRG classes using the LAETA Grouper and AR-DRGs. Third, DRG cost weights were calculated based on the internationally accepted principles of 'activity-based' cost accounting and cost-modelling, taking into account current realities of hospital accounting structures, availability of data, as well as time and budget constraints. To identify whether there is any association between modelled cost weights and length of stay at the DRG level, two statistical measures, the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression coefficient were calculated using the STATA statistical package. Finally, a total of 465,531 acute inpatient separations, from 35 hospitals, was used to examine the performance of AR-DRGs in the study environment. L3H3; IQR; and 10th- 95th percentile methods were used for excluding extreme cases. The coefficient of variation (CV) and reduction in variance (R2) were used to measure the degree of homogeneity achieved by the classification system and the extent to which the dispersion of lengths of stay could be explained by grouping the cases into the discrete DRG classes. Results The staff survey results showed that 75% and 58% of the participants had not ever heard of the terms casemix and DRGs, respectively. The majority of the participants described casemix and DRGs as a cost allocation and/or funding tool rather than a classification system useful for management and performance measurement. The most common barriers to casemix implementation outlined by the participants included: the lack of good foundation knowledge; difficulty in data access; and lack of or incomplete knowledge of the chief managers and staff about the casemix. The data quality study findings suggest that the accuracy and completeness of the available data in the study hospital is variable and not highly reliable. The grouper identified invalid records of principal diagnosis, age, sex, and length of stay for 4% of total separations. No complication and comorbidity effects were recorded for 93% of cases. Although general practitioners are employed as gate keepers to control coding accuracy, there is no standard quality control to secure the accuracy and consistency of coding either at the physician or coder level. Coders, except in a few cases, have not been formally trained. According to the data study, the estimation of DRG cost weights using a clinical costing approach is almost impossible due to inadequate financial and utilisation information at the patient level, poorly computerised 'feeder systems', and low quality data. In contrast, the cost modelling approach, using Australian service weights resulted in the average DRG cost weight of 2.723 million Iranian Rials (equal to US $295). A regression coefficient of 0.14 (CI = 0.12 − 0.16) suggests that the average cost weight increases by 14% for every one day increase in average length of stay. Classifying a total of 465,531 acute inpatient separations using AR-DRG resulted in 579 DRG classes. Although reduction in variance (R2) for untrimmed data was low (R2 = 0.17) for LOS, trimming by L3H3, IQR, and 10th-95th percentile method improved the value of R2 to 0.53, 0.48, and 0.51, respectively. Low values of R2 for DRGs within several MDCs such as MDC 02, 05, 10, 15, and MDC 20 were identified. Conclusion This study concludes that the implementation of the casemix funding of hospitals in the Iranian health system and in Iranian Social Security Organisation in particular, is quite feasible and that AR-DRGs would provide a useful basis for introducing casemix in the system. However, the effective implementation of casemix in Iran would depend on a number of factors including: active cooperation and contribution of hospital staff at all levels and in all departments in the implementation process and provision of reliable data; updating hospital information systems; improving the quality of costing information; adopting an appropriate classification system, and, finally, adequate scrutiny of health care providers’ behaviours through the regular assessment of hospital performance and quality of care.

In 1988, the Australian Federal Government released the document Higher Education: A Policy Statement which was intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the higher education sector. This paved the way for the application of performance indicators (Pls) across higher education, most notably the creation of a link between Pls (called the Composite Index) and the research component of the annual government funding to universities. Although PIS for teaching became popular, funding for the teaching component was not directly attached to PIS and remained largely based on student enrolments. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of university academics in Australia on the effects of research and teaching as a result of the introduction of funding based on research Pls. The academic literature suggests that Pls can bring about desirable effects but it also warns that their imposition, particularly by the government on universities, may lead to unintended and undesirable effects, such as goal displacement and strategic manipulation, which may be designed to enhance apparent research performance. To guide the investigation, it was hypothesised that the government's Pls which focus on research will be integrated into the universities' internal policies; will encourage universities to place a high priority on the research activities funded by the Pls; will lead to significantly more paperwork; will contribute to a significant change in the approach to research but not to teaching; and will result in academics adopting negative attitudes towards Pls. Two basic sources of information were obtained to evaluate these hypotheses. First, the administrations of selected universities were consulted, and staff interviewed, to gauge the degree of change that had been implemented by the universities. Second, a questionnaire was constructed in order to assess academics' attitude towards Pls, and their perceptions of an association between Pls and their institutional reward system. The questionnaire also assessed changes in research, teaching and paperwork activities. The universities selected characterised the different kinds of universities found in the Unified National System of the Australian higher education system. One hundred and fifty-two academics from these universities were surveyed by the questionnaire. Thirty percent of these academics participated in a structured interview. The disciplines from which the academics were selected for participation included arts/humanities, science, and professional studies which included a natural science based profession and a social science based profession. In addition, a case study of one of these universities was carried out. The institutions were found to have reorganised their internal policies to incorporate and focus on the Pls in the government's Composite Index. The academics surveyed were generally found to have negative attitude towards their institutional Pls, although staff of higher rank had relatively more positive views. Reasons for their dissatisfaction included the inability of Pls to capture the various dimensions of academic work and privileging research over teaching. For a majority of the academics, the introduction of Pls was associated with a rise in paperwork load and a change in the approach to research in terms of focusing on publications and external research grant applications, particularly those counted in their institutional PI-based funding schemes. The time devoted to these activities, as well as the number of publications and grants for which they were expected to apply, have significantly increased. It was found that staff did use various strategies to maximise their PI scores, such as writing shorter papers in order to increase the quantity of publications. The proportion who changed their approach to teaching was also sizeable; most of them were concerned about getting students through their courses with minimum fuss by having lower ambitions for students and pandering to their superficial needs. However, the proportion who changed their teaching was significantly less than those who changed their research. One possible reason could be the lack of special incentives to increase their emphasis on teaching.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1987. / Thesis Advisor(s): Boger, Dan C. Second Reader: Andrus, Alvin F. "September 1987." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 23, 2010. DTIC Descriptor(s): Army Budgets, Decision Making, Goal Programming, Antimissile Defense Systems, Army Operations, Coefficients, Computer Programs, Hierarchies, Linearity, Management, Military Strategy, Mathematical Models, Operations Research, Personnel, Sensitivity, Theses, Army Research. DTIC Identifier(s): Army strategic defense command, Analytic hierarchy process. Author(s) subject terms: Goal Programming " Analytic Hierarchy Process, R&D Project Funding Models. Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-167). Also available in print.

Aim: There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of Social Enterprises (SE) to improve the welfare of society. Few empirical studies have attempted to investigate what are the challenges SEs face and how they manage them. A number of researchers have reported that SEs often have a negative connotation. The aim of this study is to investigate challenges social enterprises face in Sweden.Method: The study adopted a Qualitative approach. Primary data is gathered by interviewing 10 managers of social enterprise from 5 different SEs in Sweden. The interview was made in three different locations, Gävle, Uppsala and Tierp. De-coding the qualitative research data through content analysis, an interpretive analysis was used classifying the data concerning responses by highlighting important messages.Findings and Conclusion: SEs face diverse challenges: Funding, Public Image, Sales, Network and Cooperation, Governance/Structure, Leadership and Management. One of the more significant finding to emerge from this study is that, the foundations-access to finance is one of the critical challenges on which the fate of each SE depends. Most of the times, societies do not acknowledge the role of social enterprises and the values they bring to the society. From this, SEs cannot attract support of any kind. SEs lack the understanding and significance of marketing. Making people understanding SEs’s role, would provide them with a positive public image and thereafter support.Suggestions for future research: The study has a small sample size and results cannot be generalizable. A natural progression of this work is to analyse: Challenges on SEs with focus on Society, The impact of Society on SEs, Public identity of SEs and importance of Society.Contribution of the thesis: Dependency on fundraising, grants and donations are heavily connected with widespread lack of understanding the impact of SEs on society. SEs managers should apply different marketing tactics to communicate their role in welfare of the community.

There is an increase in the consideration of ecosystem services (ES) within the planning, policy, and research sectors. The increase in sectors working with ES is leading to an increase in scale mismatches, where ecosystem services are being mismanaged, leading to problems. Using a combination of methods these scale issues were investigated. A systematic review of both scientific and grey literature was undertaken which analysed 112 documents and led to a survey of 72 subjects who were working with ES across different sectors, and finally 19 in-depth interviews were undertaken, in order to understand fully the scale issues, and potential solutions being used. The systematic review found that a lot of ecosystem service scientific literature was based on, or had connections with, the global issue of climate change, this was in contrast to the survey that found that both researchers and those in policy are working at a regional spatial scale or below. The in-depth interviews attributed this to many factors including the pressure to publish in high-impact journals, and applying for funding. The survey found that the different sectors are working at different scales, and where they do work at the same scale, the definition they place on that scale term is different. The survey and in-depth interviews found that funding can influence the extent of a project and funding timelines lead into the temporal scale of a project. Funding can encourage collaboration with stakeholders and between sectors in order to pool resources and expertise. Alongside clarity of terms used and expectations for the project, collaboration was also put forward as one of the methods which can alleviate scale mismatches.