Nearly 30 states have adopted or are transitioning to performance-based funding programs for community colleges that allocate funding based on institutional performance according to defined metrics. While embraced by state lawmakers and promoted by outside advocacy groups as a method to improve student outcomes, enhance accountability and ensure return on investment of public resources in higher education, limited research exists confirming the effectiveness of performance-based funding in meeting intended policy goals. The policy analysis examined performance-based funding programs administered in Florida as the status quo and Ohio as the policy alternative. Prompted by their Governors, both states recently developed new approaches to performance-based funding that move funding away from enrollment and tie substantial amounts to student outcomes. To provide a context for the policy analysis, the study chronicled the history of performance-based funding and accountability programs for higher education enacted by states and reviewed policymaking processes and influences. The study applied a multi-goal approach to compare the policy alternatives applied in each state. Although it is still too early to assess the effectiveness of the performance-based funding programs in both states, the review of both system and institutional level performance data and interviews with stakeholders in Ohio revealed little to no connection between the intended program goals and behaviors exhibited by colleges. Based on the study findings, policy recommendations were proposed to enhance the effectiveness of the performance-based funding program for the Florida College System. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Education. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 25, 2016. / Appropriations, Community college, Funding, KPIs, Performance, Performance-based funding / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas Kent Wetherell, Professor Directing Dissertation; Frances Prevatt, University Representative; David A. Tandberg, Committee Member; Bradley E. Cox, Committee Member.

<p> On October 1, 2013, the most visible component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) (ACA) went live. Health insurance marketplaces provided residents with a place to shop and receive subsidies for insurance plans that contained the essential health benefits required by the ACA. The ACA required each state to establish an exchange, but it also provided flexibility so if a state elected not to (or could not) build its own, the federal government would implement the marketplace. <b></b>A handful of states chose a hybrid implementation, which used the federal HealthCare.gov website but left certain decisions to the states. In the end, twice as many states chose to use the federal HealthCare.gov website compared to states that created a state-based marketplace and website. This trifurcated approach to implementing the health insurance marketplaces where residents were either served by a federally-facilitated, state-based, or hybrid marketplace, provides a unique situation for comparison and analysis relating to federalism and public policy implementation. </p><p> This policy analysis examines the implementation of the ACA&rsquo;s health insurance marketplaces in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It discusses enrollment success during the first five open enrollment periods across all three marketplace types. </p><p> Among the federally-facilitated, state-based, or hybrid marketplaces, was one type more successful than the others at enrolling residents in health insurance? What factors may have played a role in success or failure? This study discusses the ACA marketplaces as a case study in federalism and public policy implementation.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation is composed of three essays on the future of money. The first chapter addresses bitcoin&rsquo;s high price volatility relative to established currencies such as the U.S. dollar. Supply is fixed by a monetary rule; whereas demand fluctuates considerably. The intersection of bitcoin&rsquo;s inelastic supply with its enormously erratic demand causes its exchange rate variability. I explore two ways to make the bitcoin supply elastic: 1) change the bitcoin protocol to create or destroy bitcoins based on a macroeconomic algorithm, 2) create and maintain bitcoin banks that issue fractional reserve deposits, banknotes, or electronic tokens redeemable for bitcoin. </p><p> The second chapter provides a blueprint for implementing bitcoin as a national currency in the context of either dollarizing or a currency board. Implementation issues unique to digital currencies are explored. Candidate countries for transition are evaluated. </p><p> The third chapter analyzes the costs vs. benefits of financial privacy, against the backdrop of historical trends, current laws, and recent technology. Governments and corporations are tracking purchase history through credit cards and store loyalty cards. Guardians of bank secrecy have caved to government surveillance all over the world, ostensibly to fight crime and collect taxes. Aggregating this information, big data analytics can infer and disclose intimate personal details.</p><p>

<p> Traditional avenues of influencing planning decisions are not intuitive for diverse, historically underrepresented community residents in many neighborhoods and many immigrant residents come from societies where engaging in public discourse is discouraged or dangerous. The focus of this study, the Planning Outreach and Engagement Liaison (POEL) program, was designed to address these discrepancies, yet whether the program was successful is unknown. Using participatory democracy as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this case study was to explore whether the POEL program brought diverse residents together to participate in the neighborhood planning process. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with planners, community coordinators, public outreach and engagement liaisons, and members of non-governmental organizations (<i>n</i> = 10) and official government records and documents. All data were deductively coded and then analyzed using a thematic analysis procedure. Six themes emerged from the study including (a) measures of program success, (b) outreach and communication, (c) collaboration, (d) intimidation and fear, (e) time limitation, and (f) building relationships. POELs identified and understood that barriers such as lack of time, lack of child care, persistent fear of government intentions, and religious and cultural norms inhabit the process, but found that using outreach and communication promotes interest in and participation in neighborhood planning. When neighborhood residents are empowered and given information about the process, they make informed choices. The study promotes positive social change by showing that mitigating some of the barriers to participation supports greater inclusion of underrepresented persons in the neighborhood planning process.</p><p>

This dissertation investigates the political incentives for redistribution of income and allocation policies in competitive democracies. In Chapter 2, I examine incentives for political redistribution through in-kind transfers. By analyzing the political game between office-motivated politicians and self-interested citizens, I first show that in economies with competitive markets in-kind transfers are not required. Politicians can win elections targeting groups of voters with differential cash transfers. However, in-kind transfers arise in the presence of externalities in consumption. In that case, targeting groups of voters with in-kind rather than cash transfers allows politicians to attract simultaneously voters in additional groups with the same amount of resources. Politicians undertake political redistribution depending on the expected electoral returns obtained from targeting both cash and in-kind transfers into different groups. Furthermore, electoral competition leads the economy to achieve Pareto efficient allocations that markets cannot reach. Politicians internalize the presence of external effects when competing for marginal voters who could swing their vote. In Chapter 3, this dissertation investigates the politicians' incentives to pursue income redistribution when governments are constrained to levy taxes on labor income and this creates distortions. Politicians who strive to be elected may strategically redistribute through in-kind rather than cash transfers and overprovide consumption of goods. I show that the overprovision of in-kind transfers reduces the disincentive effects of taxation in labor effort and enlarges the pool of resources for political redistribution. As a result, politicians are able to implement larger redistributive transfers and improve the well-being of swing voters. Hence, electoral competition for pivotal voters provides politicians incentives to implement redistributive schedules that reduce distortions in labor markets and improve the efficiency of the taxation system. In Chapter 4, I investigate the effect of ideological preferences over the public provision of goods on the scope of government and the political redistribution of income. I first point out that the presence of both ideological politicians who compete for office and electoral uncertainty generates a partisanship effect. In particular, I show that pro-market (right-wing) politicians commit to lower public provision of goods and taxation schedules that implement larger income inequality than pro-government (left-wing) politicians. Furthermore, I find out that the public funding of goods through income taxation confers an electoral advantage to pro-market ideological positions. In fact, pro-market politicians can court moderate pro-leftist voters by promises of higher income which pro-government politicians are not willing to fund completely. As a result, right-wing party exhibits larger chances of winning elections and its proposal supports lower ideological sacrifice than the left-wing party.

This dissertation explores the behavior of health care providers and consumers, with a focus on understanding how changes in health policies affect the efficiency and quality of care of health care systems. Chapter 1 evaluates the impact of a change in Medicare reimbursements for nursing wages on hospital production decisions. Chapter 2 evaluates the impact of Medicare coverage policies on the utilization of cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography. Chapter 3 evaluates the impact of receiving treatment with antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS on the demand for substance use.

In the first chapter, I measure the impact of student loan debt on young, college-educated workers' decisions regarding labor supply and enrollment in graduate school. I exploit variation in student loan debt driven by the formulas that determine Federal Student Aid in order to identify these effects. Instrumental variable estimates indicate that in the initial years following graduation student loan debt seems to raise the likelihood of employment; the effect is most pronounced for female graduates. However, the evidence does not indicate that debt causes workers to opt into different types of occupations, as has been shown to be true among certain populations. Student loan debt also seems to lower the likelihood that an individual will obtain a graduate degree. These effects are too large to be consistent with the permanent income model, which predicts that graduates will effectively spread loan repayment over their lifetimes, causing only negligible changes in behavior during any single period. In the third chapter I examine lending mechanisms in the federal student loan program. Since the passage of the Higher Education Act in 1965, American students have been able to finance post-secondary education with federally subsidized loans. Until very recently students were able to access this credit through two channels; directly from the federal government or as a guaranteed loan from a private lender. The objective of this paper is to estimate the difference in loan default rates across the two lending programs. Since the programs serve distinct groups of students quasi-experimental estimation techniques are used to estimate this difference. The estimates suggest that the moral hazard created by the loan guarantee leads private lenders to generate higher rates of student loan default than direct lending. In the final chapter, I estimate the temporal pattern of earnings losses faced by displaced workers eligible for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. Data from the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation and is used to perform an event study analysis. The resulting evidence indicates that displaced workers face decrease earnings in the months prior to displacement, a large drop in earnings during the month of displacement and losses that persist up to 6 months after displacement. Displaced workers eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance face a similar pattern of earnings loss, but experience less loss during the period of displacement and greater losses during the period following displacement. Beyond the first month after displacement workers eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance do not experience losses in excess of other displaced workers. I also find that workers Eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance face higher rates of unemployment in the first three months following a displacement. By the fourth month the rate of unemployment is not different from other displaced workers. This evidence suggests that the additional benefits provided to unemployed workers under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program may not be warranted; these workers do not face persistent losses that exceed the losses experiences by other displaced workers.

The dissertation analyzes public policies of subsidization and regulation in three contexts. Chapter 1 develops a dynamic bunching empirical design and uses it to estimate the compliance cost that IRS reporting requirements impose on public charities. Chapter 2 estimates the effects of tax and enforcement provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 on charitable foundations and their donors. Chapter 3 estimates the impact of Pell Grant aid on student attainment and borrowing.

This study interprets the results of research into how one college met the challenge of change brought about by the Education Reform Act 1988, with reference to appropriate social research methodologies and a wide ranging review of relevant literature. The aim was to investigate how one college, well established in a traditional pattern, would respond to educational change stemming from a political culture which relocated emphases upon financial considerations, market forces and quality controls devolving from a business-like reorientation. A review of the college's aims and intentions, with an examination of the methods managers might adopt and options they might select in moving towards a business organisation, moved the research into a detailed investigation of sub-organisational micro-politicking. The research led naturally to an in-depth examination of the nature of management and management skills training within an educational institution, raising questions about the cross-discipline transferability of educational/business skills. Interview and established techniques of participant observation have exposed the lacunae between rhetoric, supposed practice and what has become the reality of change within the organisation. The research focuses upon the myth of 'professionalism' which, in the uncertainty of change, supports the new managerialism brought about by the Education Reform Act. An alternative strategy for educational change within the institution is suggested. The conclusion is a critique of educational management training within the organisation and locates both micro- and macro-educational management preparation within some commercial systems with which it might seek to identify.

A number of studies have suggested that the management of national parks might be best served if undertaken according to the principles of ecotourism, a concept that potentially provides a ‘win-win’ solution to the conflicting aspects of conservation and recreation in protected areas. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to critically appraise the potential of ecotourism as a framework for implementing tourism in a national park. More specifically, it seeks to explore the implications of actors’ values for the effective implementation of ecotourism policy. Many studies overlook the importance of the understanding and response of different values as fundamental aspects in the process of policy-making. Based on a case study of Sebangau National Park, Kalimantan, Indonesia, and using Schwartz’s theory as the fundamental conceptual framework, this research progresses the argument that the development of ecotourism policy should be seen in terms of the values espoused by relevant actors by seeking to identify the values and behaviours of the actors involved in ecotourism development in the park and the subsequent management implications. This study adopts the philosophy of pragmatism and mixed methods as its methodological approach, and is carried out in three phases: interviews (qualitative), focus group discussions (qualitative) and a survey (quantitative), followed by appropriate methods of analysis, such as performing ANCOVA and performing grounded theory to analyse qualitative data, supported by NVivo software. The results show that the Indonesian people, from the tourists’ perspective, embrace the culture of embeddedness with a tendency towards the value of Conformity that implies they are willing to follow regulations because they are aware of the importance of the local community and of the natural resources in the park. Meanwhile, the value of Benevolence should be the value espoused by policy makers because it is exerts a more significant influence on the concept of ecotourism in comparison with the other nine Schwartz’s values. In addition, even though several studies show that the value of Power tends not to be pro-environment, the involvement of actors who embrace it cannot be ignored in the policy-making process because it is required to demonstrate leadership, participation, self-determination, competence and self-efficacy behaviour. Moreover, the importance of the Hedonism value based on tourists’ perspective implies that tourists have the potential to behave in an anti-conservation manner for the sake of personal satisfaction; thus, it will lead to consumptive behaviour at tourist locations, even for ecotourism destinations.