Students of public policy have, until recently, centred their attention on the process by which policies are formulated, based on the implicit assumption that a well-formulated policy will be faithfully implemented. Disillusionment with policy outcomes in many areas has led to a concern for understanding the factors which influence the implementation of policy. As a first step, this study develops a theoretical role for an identifiable implementation process within a larger public policy process. The study develops two related models. The first identifies four structural components in the implementation process: policy output, initiation of implementation, implementation action and information feedback. The second model hypothesizes the important elements which characterize an implementation process and influence the movement from a policy output to a policy outcome. Eight elements are identified: implementing actors, policy objectives, resources, interested actors, policy environment, incentives and sanctions, stakes, and rules. The hypothesized linkages among the elements are described. Based upon these two models, the determinants bf policy outcome are posited. In addition to the eight process elements, these include: technical tractability of problem, policy environment, decision-making environment, and uncertainties. The theoretical framework is applied to a case study bf the Canada-British Columbia Okanagan Basin Implementation Agreement (OBIA). The stages leading up to implementation of the recommendations bf an earlier framework planning study are described. The initiation of implementation culminated in the signing of a joint federal-provincial Implementation Agreement which responded to the recommendations of the plan but re-interpreted many bf these. The analysis demonstrates the importance of a pre-implementation phase wherein policy objectives and intentions are re-examined, interpreted, and operationalized prior to implementation action. Action under the OBIA is described and analysed for four specific cases concerning water quality, water quantity, international aspects, and public participation. The empirical conclusions indicate the technical aspects of the OBIA have been implemented according to the obligations of the Agreement. Departures from the Agreement were based on careful technical analysis. Implementation was viewed by the implementers as a technical, mechanistic process with little regard to social value uncertainties. The study provides an examination of the utility of the theoretical models. It concludes that the hypothesized variables can describe the functioning of an implementation process and provide a comprehensive analytical picture. The highlights of the conclusions are: the jurisdictional breakdown between the federal and provincial governments as interpreted by and reflected in the objectives of the key implementing actors was very significant in shaping the outcome. The specificity of the policy output in terms of intentions and articulation of uncertainties had an impact as did the rigidity of the implementation mechanism. Resource constraints were a significant determinant of outcome, supporting a proposition that resource availability be carefully analysed in a pre-implementation phase. Interested actors had an influence in proportion to the degree of direct impact implementation measures had upon specific interests. Uncertainties in technical and quantitative areas appear to have been well managed, whereas value uncertainties were generally not considered. The study evidence suggests if an implementation process is inflexible and cannot adapt to changing social circumstances by embracing uncertainties, it will become irrelevant, and the current issues will be considered outside of the implementation process. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Until recently, proofs establishing the existence of gains from trade have used the assumption that the government can alter the distribution of income by a set of lump sum transfers , i.e ., the government has at its disposal a set of household specific transfer instruments. However, recent work has been devoted to situations where these transfer instruments are inadmissible. Dixit and Norman (1980: 79-80) demonstrate that a government that can alter all domestic commodity taxes can ensure that no individual is made worse of by moving from autarky to free trade. It turns out, however, that this Dixit and Norman proof of the gains from trade shows only that the autarky equilibrium can be replicated under free trade and not that positive gains will occur. One of the purposes of this thesis is to investigate the problem of the gains from trade when a variety of tax and transfer instruments are available. It is fruitful to regard the problem of the gains from trade as a policy reform question: can the government in the home country find a small (differential) perturbation in the country's initial international trade prohibitive tariffs which, accompanied with a suitable (differential) perturbation in the country's commodity tax structure, results in a strict Pareto improvement? In order to answer the question, a model for the production side of an economy is presented in Chapter 2. It is established that, under some very weak conditions, there are (differential) tariff perturbations that improve the country's initial net balance of trade. In Chapter 4, it is shown that these productivity gains can be distributed to the consumers in the economy in a strict Pareto improving way by suitably adjusting the country's initial commodity tax rates. The principal tool for establishing these results is a duality theorem: Motzkin's Theorem. Chapter 3 develops two approximative formulae for measuring the productivity gain accruing from a change of tariffs. Some examples of strict Pareto improving perturbations in commodity taxes and tariffs are given in Chapter 7. These include proportional and uniform reductions of tariffs as well as a change toward uniformity in the country's initial tariff structure. Next, the government is assumed to be able to adjust only the home country's initial vectors of tariffs and lump sum transfers but not the vector of commodity taxes. Conditions for strict Pareto improving tariff and transfer perturbations to exist are developed. In Chapter 9 it is shown that neither the existence of strict gains from trade under commodity taxation or under lump sum compensation necessarily implies the other. Examples of strict Pareto improving changes in tariffs, taxes and transfers are given in Chapter 10. These include proportional reductions of tariffs and/or taxes and movements toward uniformity in the tax rates for domestic and tradable commodities. The role of normality of commodities in consumption in policy recommendation results is also discussed. Chapter 11 develops sufficient conditions for a perturbation in the home country's tax structure, which causes international trade, to be strict Pareto improving. In Chapter 12 the goal of the government is to choose a policy that reduces the level of economic inequality associated with the initial observed equilibrium in the economy. It is shown that inequality reducing perturbations in commodity taxes and tariffs exist, if the preferences and initial commodity endowments of the consumers satisfy certain conditions. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

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This thesis focuses on issues surrounding energy regulation, and specifically regulation of pipelines that carry petroleum products in South Africa. The introduction of a regulator for petroleum pipelines is part of an ongoing process taking center stage in the South African government's petroleum industry policy arena. Independent regulation of energy industries is a recent phenomenon in South Africa. There is much activity in deciding which regulatory models should be adopted in the energy sector. The thesis analyses a government policy decision to introduce a regulator of petroleum pipelines. Among some of the key issues that receive attention are the following: • Is the petroleum pipeline industry in South Africa large enough to justify an independent regulator? • Do pipelines in South Africa enjoy monopoly rents? If they do, is the establishment of an independent regulator the most cost-effective way of dealing with monopoly rents? • How effective would such a regulator be in the current structure of the country's petroleum industry? Road and rail transport systems carry vast quantities of petroleum products. Would it be more appropriate for the regulator to include all transporters of petroleum products? The thesis concludes that for an industry of such small size as pipeline transportation in South Africa, the necessity of a pipeline regulator might need to be reviewed. For a variety of reasons, there are strong reasons to conclude that a pipeline regulator will have minimum impact over key issues of the transportation of petroleum products.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-97). / This thesis evaluates implementation of budget reform within the Department of Health and Social Services in Mpumalanga, and the extent to which this has led to implementation of policy objectives and improved equitable service delivery.

Concern over "welfare dependency" has featured prominently in the public discoursearound social assistance programmes in numerous countries for many years. The notionthat social assistance payments tend to sap the recipient's initiative, independence andpropensity for securing paid employment is widespread and is often assumed to be anobjective fact (rather than a concept) by public officials, social commentators and themedia. Consequently, charges of "welfare dependency" have often been used as the basisfor cutting social assistance expenditure, restricting eligibility or preventing newinitiatives. In South Africa, for example, the concept has been used in opposition todeveloping a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG).With the aid of case studies focusing on recent social welfare deVelopments in SouthAfrica, Australia and Brazil, this study attempts to critically analyse the term "welfaredependency" to determine which social values and assumptions inform the concept. Inaddition, the study aims to determine how "welfare dependency" manifests incontemporary social welfare policy and, most importantly, determine if the utilisation ofthe concept is related to other socio-economic agendas.

After the November 2015 Paris, France terror attacks when a terrorist posed as a refugee, the United States and other Western countries increased their concern regarding the flow of refugees into their countries. The United States admitted more than 84,000 refugees into the country from September 2015 through October 2016. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and comprehend the lived experiences of law enforcement officers from the states of Michigan and Texas and their attitudes and behaviors toward refugees in their state. The main research questions addressed the lived experiences of law enforcement officers in the states of Michigan and Texas relative to stereotyping and bias toward refugees resettled within the US and If there are, how they view refugees and the greatest influences on law enforcement officers' perceptions towards refugees. Implicit bias theory provided the theoretical framework for the study. Data were collected using purposeful sampling and semi-structured recorded interviews of 9 law enforcement officers from the states of Michigan and Texas. This study findings suggested law enforcement officers’ early family experiences were related to stereotyping and bias toward refugees. The present research filled the gap in the literature by investigating if law enforcement officers have a stereotypical implicit bias toward refugees within the United States. The present study encourages positive social change through a qualitative prediction of law enforcement stereotypical implicit bias toward refugees.

For many American families, incarceration has become a way of life. Per the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated, there are more than 2.7 million children who have a parent in prison and some may have one or both in county jail. There are psychological implications in terms of the child's well-being, behavioral, academic, and emotional outcomes, and family-level processes. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the impact that a parent's incarceration has on a child even through adulthood. The research question examined how a parent's incarceration impacts the future of the child into adulthood. Data were collected for this study through interviews with 12 adults who had a parent who had been or; in many cases was still incarcerated. The findings indicated that there is a significant impact on children when a parent is incarcerated and that as a result, children may exhibit externalizing behaviors such as anger, aggression, and hostility towards others. The results of the study may inform social workers and others who serve this population.

The main aim of this dissertation is to broaden the understanding of the monetary policy transmission mechanism as it operates in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ultimate goal is to aid in the appropriate design and implementation of monetary policy for the attainment of developmental goals. The dissertation empirically explores four issues on the pricing, behavioural and output implications of monetary policy. The four questions that the dissertation attempts to answer in Chapters Two to Five respectively are: 1) Does the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission depend on the financial development of an economy? 2) Can monetary policy be used as a tool in easing pressure on domestic currencies in the foreign exchange market? 3) Do banks engage in excessively risky behaviour when monetary policy is expansionary? 4) Does monetary policy influence aggregate variables like private capital formation, growth and their interrelationships? Chapter Two tests the completeness of the pass-through of the central bank policy rate to bank lending rates on one hand, and the interest rate pass-through as a function of the level of financial development on the other hand. The results show that the pass-through of central bank policy rate to bank lending rates is asymmetric for three Anglophone West African countries, namely: Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria, which are seeking to ascend onto a single monetary framework. However, there is no evidence that financial development affects the pass-through of monetary policy. These findings still prove relevant, especially with regard to the quest for effective monetary policy implementation and the ascension onto a single monetary framework by these 3 countries. The motivation for this study stemmed from policy discussions and academic debates on the premise that financial development is a key element in the pursuit of effective monetary policy implementation, focusing on the three Anglophone West African countries between 1975 and 2011. The study employs the bounds testing approach to cointegration, and the Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) by Pesaran et al., (2001). The findings show significant differences in the interest rate pass-through of the 3 countries studied. Ghana and Gambia were characterised by undershooting in the response of lending rates to monetary policy changes whilst Nigeria was characterised by overshooting in bank lending rates. Financial development proved significant in some, but not in all the cases, while economic growth proved mostly insignificant in the transmission of the policy rate to bank lending rates In Chapter Three, we show that contractionary monetary policy of high interest rates is able to correct disequilibrium in the foreign currency market in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The chapter also provides empirical evidence about the impact of macroeconomic fundamentals on the domestic foreign exchange market. The study assesses the impact of monetary policy on foreign exchange market pressure (EMP) in developing country contexts focusing on some selected countries in SSA. EMP is the sum of exchange rate depreciation and change in foreign reserves that is required to restore equilibrium to the domestic foreign exchange market. The study was motivated by the fact that most of the SSA countries are developing economies that have negative net export positions and stand to lose significantly from consistently deteriorating foreign exchange positions. This study thus sought to measure the ability of monetary policy to significantly address currency pressures that arise from trading on the global market. The hypothesis that a tighter monetary policy stance can lend strength to a currency was tested in this study using Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) estimation in a dynamic panel setting. Data on 20 SSA economies for which data were available for the period 1991 to 2010 are used. The study found a negative and significant relationship between monetary policy and EMP, implying that contractionary monetary policy can ease EMP.