This dissertation consists of three essays focused on policies that hold the potential to reduce gender and socioeconomic gaps in the developing world. The first two chapters focus on higher education while the last chapter focuses on STEM gender gaps during primary school. Chapter 1 looks at the impacts of new transportation infrastructure on access to college, college choice, completion, and early labor market outcomes. I use novel geolocated administrative data and a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits the rollout of two new public transportation lines in Lima, Peru. I document that a 17% decrease in commuting time to college correlates with a significant 6% rise in enrollment rates, predominantly observed in private educational institutions. Notably, among the beneficiaries of this transportation policy, female students tend to opt for low-quality private colleges connected to the newly established transportation lines. Conversely, male students are more likely to enroll in public colleges, which are more geographically dispersed across the city. I use a college choice model and find that for every standard deviation increase in post-graduation expected wages, male students exhibit a willingness to commute up to 55% longer than their female counterparts. Furthermore, over the medium to long term, improved transportation accessibility is associated with a 12% boost in college graduation likelihood and a 6% increase in access to white-collar employment. Chapter 2 studies the effects of an increase in college-quality information on graduates’ labor market outcomes. It takes advantage of new higher education reform that regulates universities’ compliance with a set of basic quality standards and awarded or denied operating licenses based on it. This new regulation resulted in 50 closures out of 144 institutions. Using administrative labor market data, I estimate a difference-in-differences approach that takes advantage of the staggered nature of licensing decisions. Using administrative labor market data and a staggered difference-in-differences approach, we find positive effects of positive news about graduates’ human capital: within one year of the licensing announcement,wages increase by 8%, employment by 7%, hours worked by 8%, and the likelihood of being employed in a large firm and the public sector by 6% and 5%, respectively. Most effects are concentrated among graduates with shorter or no tenure at their current job, while we don’t find significant effects for workers with longer tenure. This suggests that uncertainty about workers’ productivity is reduced over time, with public signals affecting workers’ welfare. Chapter 3 studies the case of a program that provides weekly science workshops to primary school girls and evaluates whether this program improves educational achievement, attitudes, and aspirations using an experimental design in Peru. We find no significant effects on girls’ academic performance until after 2 years of the program. However, we find that girls who participated in the program are more overconfident about their grades in science, have strong negative perceptions of non-STEM majors, and trade-off school time for personal projects.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

M.A. (Geography) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The Acres Homes Transit Company in Houston, Texas is Texas' first African American owned and operated bus company. Some say it is the first in the South. The company was developed during the height of the civil rights period. It serves as an establishment of economic empowerment during the oppressive civil rights era. The video is a historical visual documentation of the bus company from its beginning to its end. An accompanying written profile describes the research process, the pre-production, production and post-production stages, as well as future proposals for the documentary.

Within the past few decades, commuter rail routes in several major metropolitan areas have been implemented to provide an alternative to automobile transportation. Urban planners in these cities are looking to commuter rail to mitigate congestion and pollution. However, research on the impacts of commuter rail development on the surrounding retail landscape is still needed. In metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth, the Denton County Transportation Authority recently opened its new A-Train light rail service linking suburban Denton and downtown Dallas. This thesis examines urban changes that occurred in the years before and after the A-Train line's 2011 opening, with a focus on restaurant and retail development in the vicinity of the A-Train stations in Denton County. This analysis evaluates changes in retail density and type, the population surrounding stations, and municipal initiatives that shape the retail landscape of station vicinities. This was done by gathering field data, retailer listings, population data, and conducting interviews with local businesses and city planners. The findings suggest that A-train stations have had a differential impact on the surrounding landscape, depending on the existing retail landscape, the types of retailers present, and the current state of municipal infrastructure that promotes accessibility. Overall, results suggest that urban planners play a vital role in harnessing the potential of commuter rail to promote nearby retail growth.

Yu Hongbo. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-138). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH --- p.i-ii / ABSTRACT IN CHINESE --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iv-v / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vi-viii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ix / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.x-xi / Chapter CHAPTER I --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter 1.1 --- Problem Statement --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Purpose --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- Significance --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- Methodology --- p.8 / Chapter 1.5 --- Outline of the Thesis --- p.9 / Chapter CHAPTER II --- LITERATURE REVIEW / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- Origin of GIS --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- Development of GIS-T --- p.15 / Chapter 2.4 --- Capabilities of GIS-T --- p.18 / Chapter 2.5 --- Structure of a GIS-T --- p.19 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Data Models for GIS-T --- p.19 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Relational DBMS and Dueker-Butler's Data Model for Transportation --- p.22 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Objected-oriented Approach --- p.25 / Chapter 2.6 --- Main Techniques of GIS-T --- p.26 / Chapter 2.6.1 --- Linear Location Reference System --- p.26 / Chapter 2.6.2 --- Dynamic Segmentation --- p.27 / Chapter 2.6.3 --- Planar and Non-planar Networks --- p.28 / Chapter 2.6.4 --- Turn-table --- p.28 / Chapter 2.7 --- Algorithms for Finding Shortest Paths on a Network --- p.29 / Chapter 2.7.1 --- Overview of Routing Algorithms --- p.29 / Chapter 2.7.2 --- Dijkstra's Algorithm --- p.31 / Chapter 2.7.3 --- Routing Models for the Multi-modal Network --- p.32 / Chapter 2.8 --- Recent Researches on GIS Data Models for the Multi-modal Transportation System --- p.33 / Chapter 2.9 --- Main Software Packages for GIS-T --- p.36 / Chapter 2.10 --- Summary --- p.37 / Chapter CHAPTER III --- MODELING THE MULTI-MODAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2 --- Elaborated Stages and Methods for GIS Modeling --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3 --- Application Domain: The Multi-modal Public Transportation System --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Definition of a Multi-modal Public Transportation System --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Descriptions of the Multi-modal Public transportation System --- p.44 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Objective of the Modeling Work --- p.46 / Chapter 3.4 --- A Layer-cake Based Application Domain Model for the Multi- modal Public Transportation System --- p.46 / Chapter 3.5 --- A Conceptual Model for the Multi-modal Public Transportation System --- p.49 / Chapter 3.6 --- Logical and Physical Implementation of the Data Model for the Multi-modal Public Transportation System --- p.54 / Chapter 3.7 --- Criteria for Routing on the Multi-modal Public Transportation System --- p.57 / Chapter 3.7.1 --- Least-time Routing --- p.58 / Chapter 3.7.2 --- Least-fare Routing --- p.60 / Chapter 3.7.3 --- Least-transfer Routing --- p.60 / Chapter 3.8 --- Summary --- p.61 / Chapter CHAPTER IV --- DATA PREPARATION FOR THE STUDY AREA / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Study Area: Hong Kong Island --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- General Information of the Transportation System on Hong Kong Island --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Reasons for Choosing Hong Kong Island as the Study Area --- p.66 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Mass Transit Routes Selected for the Prototype --- p.67 / Chapter 4.3 --- Data Source and Data Collection --- p.67 / Chapter 4.4 --- Geographical Data Preparation --- p.71 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Data Conversion --- p.73 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Geographical Data Input --- p.79 / Chapter 4.5 --- Attribute Data Input --- p.86 / Chapter 4.6 --- Summary --- p.88 / Chapter CHAPTER V --- IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROTOTYPE / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.89 / Chapter 5.2 --- Construction of the Route Service Network --- p.89 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Generation of the Geographical Network --- p.90 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Setting Attribute Data for the Route Service Network --- p.95 / Chapter 5.3 --- A GIS-T Prototype for the Study Area --- p.102 / Chapter 5.4 --- General GIS Functions of the Prototype --- p.104 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Information Retrieve --- p.104 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Display --- p.105 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Data Query --- p.105 / Chapter 5.5 --- Routing in the Prototype --- p.105 / Chapter 5.5.1 --- Routing Procedure --- p.108 / Chapter 5.5.2 --- Examples and Results --- p.110 / Chapter 5.5.3 --- Comparison and Analysis --- p.113 / Chapter 5.6 --- Summary --- p.118 / Chapter CHAPTER VI --- CONCLUSION / Chapter 6.1 --- Research Findings --- p.123 / Chapter 6.2 --- Research Limitations --- p.126 / Chapter 6.3 --- Direction of Further Studies --- p.128 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.130

This dissertation examines unequal outcomes of urban transportation policies in the neoliberal era. It focuses on inequalities in the Portland, Oregon metro area between 1994 and 2011 as measured in three key areas: 1) access to public transit; 2) the journey-to-work; and 3) "household-serving" trips. Growing concern over the harmful impacts from an increasing dependence on cars has led planners in the U.S. to encourage a modal shift from private car to public transit, bicycling, and walking. The required policies to make this modal shift possible, however, might inadvertently be benefiting "choice" riders at the cost of transport disadvantaged groups. Other contributing factors to this unequal benefit appear to be the suburbanization of poverty, an ongoing gentrification of central areas, and market forces that make it difficult for low income groups to afford housing in transit-rich neighborhoods. The Oregon Household Activity and Travel surveys are used to answer the three major research questions in this dissertation: what has been the effect of neoliberalism on access to public transit?, how do gender, race/ethnicity, and income inequality affect the journey-to-work in Portland?, and how do household-serving trips vary by gender in Portland? Six hypothesis are tested in answering these questions. Those related to access to transit draw on Fred Block's theory of the capitalist state and the "urban growth machine" concept, both of which predict spatially unequal outcomes from neoliberal ideology. Hypotheses about the journey to work draw on a rich body of literature around social relations in the household and the job market, as well as residential location. The final question, about household-serving trips, draws on theories of gender socialization. Findings showed that: (i) individuals in the Portland metro area had less access overall to bus public transit in 2011 than in 1994; (ii) impoverished dependent riders have lost access to transit service over time, whereas choice dependent riders increased their access to public transit; (iii) low income groups have been "forced" into greater car-ownership, in part due to the lower access to public transit; (iv) women in Portland have shorter journey-to-work trips than men; (v) Blacks have longer journey-to-work trips than Whites and Latinos; (vi) low-income individuals have shorter journey-to-work trips than higher income individuals; and (vii) women with children make more household-serving trips than men in similar family structures.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-248). Draws on insights of feminist and post-structuralist theorists to question the way in which urban travel is currently reflected upon by urban professionals and the potential effects of these modes of reflection. Argues that in refusing to explicate the counter practices and counter stories of travel, researchers also ignore the potentially disruptive ways of thinking about and intervening in urban travel and urban space. Uses the City of Adelaide in South Australia, as a site through which to examine the way in which the spaces, bodies, and conduct of travel have been objectified and subsequently intervened upon by urban experts.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-248). / vi, 248 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Draws on insights of feminist and post-structuralist theorists to question the way in which urban travel is currently reflected upon by urban professionals and the potential effects of these modes of reflection. Argues that in refusing to explicate the counter practices and counter stories of travel, researchers also ignore the potentially disruptive ways of thinking about and intervening in urban travel and urban space. Uses the City of Adelaide in South Australia, as a site through which to examine the way in which the spaces, bodies, and conduct of travel have been objectified and subsequently intervened upon by urban experts. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geography & Dept. of Politics, 2002?