The thesis consists of three papers, summarized as follows. "Female Policymakers and Educational Expenditures: Cross-Country Evidence" This paper investigates the influence of women in politics on decision-making using public educational expenditures as the outcome of interest. The results suggest that an increase in the share of female legislators by one percentage point increases the ratio of educational expenditures to GDP by 0.028 percentage points. The effect of female legislators on educational policies is strengthened accounting for forms of government, but not influenced by left-wing government, electoral rules, parliamentary system and non-marriage. Moreover, this study supports the hypothesis that the identity of the legislator matters for policy. "Women in Politics: A New Instrument for Studying the Impact of Education on Growth" This paper tests the growth model of distance to the technological frontier, which states that an economy closer to the technological frontier should invest more in skilled labor since innovation is a skill-intensive activity. In contrast to Vandenbussche, Aghion, and Meghir (henceforth VAM) (2006), I use the proportion of female legislators as an instrument for skilled labor, instead of lagged educational expenditures. The results with the new instrument are consistent with the theoretical prediction and the previous results of VAM (2006). "Do Gender Quotas Influence Women's Representation and Policies?" This paper investigates the effect of applying gender quotas on policy decisions. The results show that an increase in the share of female legislators by one percentage point increases the ratio of government expenditure on health and social welfare to GDP by 0.18 and 0.67 percentage points, respectively. The robustness check supports that the effect of quotas on female legislators is likely to be translated into the influence of female policymakers on social welfare.

Education policy and funding is, and has historically been, the purview of the individual states. Each state developed its own education system and did so within the specific historical contexts unique to that state. Although federal involvement in education policy has grown drastically since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002, education policies and practices are still largely controlled by the individual states. In addition, for most states the single largest expenditure of state and local government resources is education. This dissertation addresses the question of whether differences in educational practices and policy outcomes are attributed to state political culture. A path analysis model was used to analyze causal relationships between state education policy outcomes and political culture, as well as other variables identified by the literature as strongly tied to student achievement or state policy outcomes such as: societal factors, economic factors, political factors, and education practices. A major goal of this research was to identify factors that may be influencing the success of national education policies, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964 (ESEA) and its subsequent reauthorizations such as the NCLB Act of 2002. These policies address long-standing education policy issues—such as the achievement gap between minority and impoverished students and their statistically higher achieving peers. The results indicate that political culture does influence differences in policy outcomes, although indirectly through other variables such as societal and economic factors. Very often factors such as societal and economic factors are treated only as causes or predictors of student achievement and other policy outcomes. This analysis shows these causes to themselves be functions of political culture, providing additional insight into factors influencing state policy outcomes in order to aid public administrators in the development and implementation of more successful policies.

xiii, 123 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / To complement a varied and growing literature in health economics, this dissertation is conducted in three substantive parts. First, I investigate the effect of public policy on health use and health outcomes, exploiting variation in the generosity of Medicaid eligibility to low income pregnant women across states and over time to identify an effect on common, yet costly, pregnancy complications. I provide new evidence on this important question from a nationally representative sample of hospital discharges for 12 states between 1989 and 2001. Second, I explore heterogeneity in individual demand for health risk reductions. Utilizing individual stated-preference data from matching surveys conducted in both Canada and the United States, I employ the Value of a Statistical Illness Profile framework to investigate differences in average willingness-to-pay (WTP) for health risk reductions across the two different cultures. Although existing literature has allowed for systematic variation in age to explain differences in health care demand, the differences in WTP have not been explained through systematic variation across other socio-demographic characteristics, subjective risks of the diseases in question, or differences between the Canadian and U.S. health care systems. I extend the literature by controlling for an expanded set of observable individual heterogeneity and comment on the degree to which estimates can be applied across cultures to inform varying policy decisions. The third paper studies factors affecting adolescent health risk behavior. Previous study finds that community size and the degree to which social networks are interconnected affect three economically significant outcomes: the frequency of adolescent misbehavior in school, degree of perceived safety in school, and grade performance. Other research has suggested peer effects on smoking behavior and drinking behavior. I investigate the degree to which social connectedness impacts adolescent health, specifically looking at outcomes for drinking and smoking, and the degree to which these effects can be disentangled from more commonly studied "peer effects" in health behavior. / Committee in charge: Trudy Cameron, Co-Chairperson, Economics; Glen Waddell, Co-Chairperson, Economics; Anne van den Nouweland, Member, Economics; Jessica Greene, Member, Planning Public Policy & Mgmt; David Levin, Outside Member, Mathematics

The twentieth century has witnessed a revolution in the ways in which the social division of labour is organised, and in terms of how waged work and caring for children are reconciled. This study explores family policy from the perspective of its capacity to manage the socio-economic risks emanating from combining the roles of breadwinner and caregiver which many parents are beginning to do in contemporary society. This study is focused on Russia and Sweden, countries which have a large share of their female population in the labour force and an institutionalised public policy directed towards meeting the challenges of childrearing in dual-earner families. In the first empirical stage of the study, I examine the establishment and development of family policies in these countries, and analyse their effects in terms of how they have attempted to reconcile the competing demands of work and family life in recent years, specifically, by focusing on three main components: parental leave regulations, the organisation of early childcare and education, and schemes of financial assistance and support for families with children (including their impact on poverty reduction, with the use of Luxemburg Income Survey data). The next stage, involved the exploration of the normative setting in which employment and parenting are realised. To do this I used survey data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), and its modules on Family and Gender Roles. In the final stage, by conducting in-depth interviews with families in Stockholm and St. Petersburg I was able to examine how decisions about using the available public means of assistance and support are negotiated within households, and which factors, other than public policy, influence such decisions. The results of these three empirical parts are juxtaposed in order to establish the relation between official inputs into family policy and the complex picture of its outcome in the two countries.

The rise of right-wing populism has been identified as a major threat to multilateralism, and its negative consequences for climate policy have already materialised. However, its impacts on environmental policy have been less studied, especially so regarding policy outcomes. In this paper, I strive to narrow this research gap by investigating the impacts of right-wing populism on environmental protection expenditure. I employ a panel regression analysis to examine populist government participation in all European Union member states, and I also separate countries that have experienced a right-wing populist government to explore differences across the party family. The results show no profound effects, which is anticipated. Environmental concerns are more easily conveyed within the right-wing populist logic than climate change mitigation measures, and many European PRRPs express pro-environmental policy stances - they are so-called green patriotists. Based on previous studies, I expand on this concept. Finally, the results indicate green patriotism might be influential for policy outcomes, which is another contribution of this paper to the research field.

There is a lack of knowledge on how alternative forms of sports facility provision influences end user's sports and physical activity behaviour, and the consequent impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis has undertaken a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system. It examines if strategic priorities and objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities, that are being influenced by macro level forces, along with their characteristics and ownership, influences individuals sport participation behaviour with a potential consequent impact on the policy outcomes of health, well-being and social capital. In the UK recently, sport policy objectives have focussed on increasing the population s participation in sport and physical activity to enhance a range of outcomes including health, well-being and social capital. Over the last three decades, there has also been significant changes in sport provision with the growth of private sector facilities, and public sector facilities being outsourced to private management. However, there is no evidence of the effectiveness of these alternative arrangements in delivering the policy objectives. There is limited knowledge on how different agents and actors in the sport delivery system function collectively to achieve these objectives or not, and a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system i.e., from policy, through facilities, to end users does not exist. This gap in knowledge is addressed in this thesis through the adoption of a mixed methods case study of Leicestershire and Rutland Sport-County Sport Partnership (LRS-CSP) region in the midlands of England. The sport participation of individuals who use differently owned and managed sport and fitness facilities in the LRS-CSP region is examined, and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital, from macro level (policy), meso level (facilities), and micro level (end users) perspectives. Data collected at these levels involves, semi-structured interviews with the regional managers (macro level) who are responsible for the development and provision of sport in the region, a quantitative survey involving the facility managers (meso level) who are responsible for the day-to-day activities of the facilities, and quantitative survey and focus groups of end users in the region (micro level). Surveys done at the meso and the micro level are matched to the facilities of a variety of different ownership and characteristics to explore the influence this might have on individuals participation frequency and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. The results show that government and public sport agencies priorities towards the sports sector which operate at the macro level of the sport delivery system influence the strategic objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities that are responsible for sport provision at the meso level of the sport delivery system. Public sport agencies and government bodies through their policies seem to have a significant influence over public sector including LMC facilities strategic decision making. However, this is not the case for the private sector facilities. Neither the strategic objectives of facilities nor their ownership and characteristics are shown to have a significant difference on the users sport participation behaviour, nor on the sport policy outcomes of their health, well-being and social capital. The largest influence on sport participation seems to be when individuals engage in sport with those they meet at the facility, indicating that facilitation of the co-creation of social capital among individuals could play a bigger role in increasing participation levels. Along with this, results also show that sport participation has a direct positive influence on individuals health which then enhances their well-being and social capital. This thesis contributes towards the long-standing debate about the relative value of different ownership types that span the public, private, and LMCs and their relationship with performance . The findings of the thesis suggest that, providing general availability of space for sport and fitness activities and by facilitating a network of opportunities with others and across activities is important in achieving the policy outcomes of improved participation and the consequent positive impact this has on health, well-being and social capital, and should be given priority in sport provision.

This thesis explores social policy outcomes of the FTLRP. The thesis comes from an appreciation that there has been a lot of attention that has been given to the process and outcomes of the FTLRP. Various and sometimes antagonistic analytical frameworks have been employed by different scholars who come from different epistemological standings resulting in academic polarity on the subject of the FTLRP in Zimbabwe. This thesis transcends all the analytical frameworks to provide a unique perspective of the extent to which the FTLRP achieved social policy outcomes. Some of the scholars who have written on this subject have grappled with some of the social policy outcomes without however a deliberate focus on social policy outcomes. The main contribution of this thesis to the body of knowledge is its exploration of the extent to which the FTLRP has been a social policy tool that has achieved social policy outcomes. This is important because for a long time land reform has not been generally considered as a social policy tool in the main stream social policy literature. The reason for this is that social policy literature has been dominated by OECD scholars who naturally focused more on social policy tools that are more relevant to their contexts. In the process they have sought to transpose the tools that are more prevalent in their contexts to Africa. Consequently, social policy tools from the global south, such as land reform, have not featured in any significant way in mainstream social policy literature. The thesis used the transformative social policy framework in both the research and analysis of the data. The conceptual framework identifies five functions of social policy namely redistribution, production, protection, reproduction and social cohesion. Using a mixed methods approach, the thesis interrogated the extent to which the five functions of social policy were realised by the FTLRP. Research findings have shown that the major outcome that was unequivocally realised was redistribution. This is so because the country’s agrarian structure dramatically changed from a bi-modal set up where 6000 white farmers owned more than 35 percent of the arable land to a new structure where about 180 000 households of diverse backgrounds, inter alia former farm workers, people from communal areas, civil servants, war veterans, pensioners, government senior civil servants and the unemployed, now work and live on the same land. The other four social policy functions were achieved to varying degrees. Lastly, the research looked at the human development outcomes of the FTLRP by focusing on the state of education in the resettled areas. The research observed that the FTLRP increased both primary (13%) and secondary (31%) education accessibility for the children of land beneficiaries. Due to the abrupt nature with which education services were on demand, the quality was compromised. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Government policies on subsidising higher education institutions may have a direct impact on the behaviour of researchers and managers respectively. Therefore, this thesis looks for clues on how higher education institutions respond to the government funding policies, with special reference to the New Funding Framework (NFF) introduced in South Africa in 2001. The funding framework specified that research funding would be determined only on the basis of research output. The NFF puts emphasis on the number of publications produced by higher education institutions per annum to determine their subsidy amounts. Governments use quantitative formulas to allocate research funds to higher education institutions based on their production of output. The current South African funding framework is arguably consistent with some international suggestions of the role that government funding can play in the implementation of national higher policies. This thesis uses higher education research output as a measure of knowledge production. As such, the thesis was set out to determine the effects that the research subsidy component of the NFF might have had on South African public higher education institutions‟ knowledge production between 2001 and 2006. The thesis argues that the subsidy component of the NFF has had positive effects on the knowledge production of South African public higher education institutions (HEIs). An empirical analysis of the output trends of South African HEIs for the period under review has shown a steady increase, more especially from 2003. The thesis attributes the new trend in higher education research output to the successful implementation of the NFF. It is thus concluded that considering the output trends of the period under review, the implementation of the NFF is yielding positive effects towards achieving its intended goal of increasing research output of South African public HEIs. / Public Administration / D. Admin. (Public Administration)

Government policies on subsidising higher education institutions may have a direct impact on the behaviour of researchers and managers respectively. Therefore, this thesis looks for clues on how higher education institutions respond to the government funding policies, with special reference to the New Funding Framework (NFF) introduced in South Africa in 2001. The funding framework specified that research funding would be determined only on the basis of research output. The NFF puts emphasis on the number of publications produced by higher education institutions per annum to determine their subsidy amounts. Governments use quantitative formulas to allocate research funds to higher education institutions based on their production of output. The current South African funding framework is arguably consistent with some international suggestions of the role that government funding can play in the implementation of national higher policies. This thesis uses higher education research output as a measure of knowledge production. As such, the thesis was set out to determine the effects that the research subsidy component of the NFF might have had on South African public higher education institutions‟ knowledge production between 2001 and 2006. The thesis argues that the subsidy component of the NFF has had positive effects on the knowledge production of South African public higher education institutions (HEIs). An empirical analysis of the output trends of South African HEIs for the period under review has shown a steady increase, more especially from 2003. The thesis attributes the new trend in higher education research output to the successful implementation of the NFF. It is thus concluded that considering the output trends of the period under review, the implementation of the NFF is yielding positive effects towards achieving its intended goal of increasing research output of South African public HEIs. / Public Administration and Management / D. Admin. (Public Administration)