This dissertation examines inspector discretion and industry compliance in the street-level implementation of building codes. In particular, this study examines the effects that agency-level, individual-level, and environmental variables have on the choice of inspectors to exercise discretion. Unique to this study is the examination of policy congruence between building departments and street-level inspectors as a predictor of industry compliance with regulatory policy. In addition, the various effects of building department enforcement philosophies, departmental capacity for enforced compliance, and environmental variables are considered. The findings indicate that regulatory policy implementation and impact are complex phenomena. There is no single, best predictor for determining what influences inspector behavior and industry compliance. Rather, this study shows that it is a multiplicity of factors, in concert, that shape regulatory outputs and outcomes. From this dissertation we can learn lessons that can be applied to other policy areas to create a better understanding of inspector discretion, improve industry compliance with regulations, and achieve more effective street-level implementation and understanding of policy impact.

Concern with bank failures and crises due to the increased volume and complexity of banking risks has emphasised banking regulatory policy that is aimed towards helping to ensure bank safety. In response to the changing banking environment, prudential supervision has increased in importance. This study is an empirical evaluation of the impact of the present and evolving supervisory system in Zimbabwe. The ultimate aim is to identify the most appropriate system that can best meet supervisory objectives. It is found that capital adequacy supervision is a central requirement for effective supervision. Three research methods were applied to the problem: field survey, theory and related statistical analysis, and simulation. The field survey established the pressures leading to supervision, and the objectives, instruments and likely effects of supervision in Zimbabwe. Theory and practical policy considerations were then used to draw out the potential empirical effects of supervision. For statistical testing purposes, supervision was proxied as the imposition of capital adequacy constraints. The general methodological approach used was to analyse trends in performance and condition of banks before and after the implementation of supervision. Since the Zimbabwean supervisory system is new, a comparative study of other developing countries' supervision was undertaken. Non-statistical, financial simulation experiments were then carried out to illustrate more clearly the important policy implications of the results. xviii The results confirmed the importance of capital adequacy analysis. It was concluded that capital ratios should be strengthened as volume of operations increased and the operating environment became risky. Whilst gearing ratios were useful in relating the volume of operations to capital strength, the results indicated the comparative suitability of adopting the risk assets ratios which facilitates more detailed risk appraisal. However, it was concluded that capital ratios, used alone, are not adequate indicators of overall prudential soundness. Close and adequate monitoring of all bank operations are also essential.

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Harold Lasswell (1936) defined politics as the exploration of "who gets what, when, and how." As such, one of the central concerns of democratic governance is the role that affected interests play not only in politics, but in the implementation of adopted policies as well. In this dissertation, I use both comparative method case studies, as well as pooled-time series statistical techniques, to examine the effects of political, economic and market forces, and competition between the affected interests on implementation of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The findings of this, as well as previous, research shows that state-level implementing agencies have some discretion in enforcement activities; however, closer examination shows that this discretion is rarely used. This lack of use of regulatory discretion by the state-level implementing agencies suggests that in most states, there is either sufficient competition between the affected interests to neutralize the excessive use of discretion in enforcement activity, or that there is insufficient pressure placed on the implementing agencies by the affected interests to warrant the use of discretion.

<p>My dissertation focuses on employing microeconomic techniques to study markets and questions that are important and complex, and also have potential policy implications. Two of my chapters analyze the health industry with an emphasis on hospitals, patient welfare, and regulation. The remaining chapter focuses on the housing market in Los Angeles and explores real estate flipping.</p><p>The second chapter of my dissertation studies the impact of state level regulations on hospital bed capacity decisions. The regulations are intended to decrease hospital investments without diminishing patient access. I find that the regulation decreases total hospital investment in bed capacity as expected. When running simulations to estimate how hospitals would behave differently were the regulatory policy changed, I find that total patient utility is negatively affected by the presence of the regulation as many patients get turned away from their preferred hospital due to overcrowding. This analysis has important policy implications as it suggests that the regulation has been ineffective in ensuring that patient welfare was unharmed by the restrictions.</p><p>The third chapter is based on joint research with Patrick Bayer and James W. Roberts and studies the housing market in the Los Angeles metropolitan area from 1988 to 2009. Using novel data, I identify which housing transactions involve flippers who aim not to live in the house, but rather to quickly resell it for financial gain. I find that flipper behavior varies based on how frequently I observe the individual engage in such behavior. Experienced flippers, who are observed to flip many houses in the data, target homes being sold at below market value and earn their returns from buying them at a discount. Their effect on long term prices in the neighborhood is negligable. Inexperienced flippers who are less active, seek to earn their profits by timing the market and are more active when house prices were rapidly appreciating from 1999 to 2005. Their activity increases housing prices in the neighborhood in the short term, but decreases them in the long term. Such results are consistent with the claim that real estate flipping contributed to the housing bubble.</p><p>The fourth chapter of my dissertation again focuses on the hospital industry and looks at the question of how patient composition changes as a hospital becomes busier and has to turn patients away. I develop a theoretical model which predicts that hospitals are more likely to turn away less profitable patients. As a result, when a hospital becomes more full and therefore is more likely to have to turn patients away, its composition of patients will change and become more profitable on the whole. I test this theory by empirically analyzing the effect of hospital congestion on the composition of hospital patients using hospital discharge data. The findings are consistent with my theoretical model as when hospitals become more crowded, the fraction of uninsured patients and mental health patients (who are typically not profitable to a hospital) decreases. This result suggests that hospitals are more likely to turn away unprofitable patients while continuing to admit more profitable patients.</p> / Dissertation

In 1993, the Canadian federal government made a decision with respect to the direction that the country would take in regulating agricultural products of biotechnology, commonly referred to as GMOs or GM crops. Following the lead of the United States, Canada adopted the innovative “product-based” approach to regulation, making it necessary for all GM crops to go through the regulatory system in order to gain approval for commercialization. However, the iteration that Canada’s adoption of the policy took differed from the form that the product-based approach took in the United States. Canada created a category of “plants with novel traits”, which is based on the concept of novelty and reflects the idea that products of newer technologies such as recombinant DNA are not fundamentally different than those developed through more conventional means. The United States does not require regulation on novel plants created through conventional means via a regulatory trigger which seeks out plant pathogens, present only in newer, recombinant technologies. As a result, many crops developed through more conventional modification techniques such as mutagenesis are not subjected to the American regulatory system, but are in Canada. The objective of this paper is to determine how Canada and the United States came to adopt the product-based approach to regulation, where the Canadian system began to differ from the American system, and why the Canadian system has not diffused internationally, despite being the most directly implemented representative of the product-based approach. This is accomplished via the application of the policy change, policy diffusion, and policy innovation literatures. Theories of policy change and diffusion are introduced. I trace the history and diffusion of novelty using the historical method, and test the applicability of other diffusion models to the case study in order to determine their predictive power in an international diffusion scenario. The innovation literature is also applied in order to explain how and why the product-based approach to regulation has been incorporated differently at multiple levels of regulatory policy. I conclude with an argument that Canada has lost a “standards war” with the United States for regulatory superiority, in light of lost marketability and a less permissible regulatory landscape, which must prompt us to re-evaluate our regulatory approach.

Contaminated land management has become a major concern for Nigeria. Sites affected by petroleum hydrocarbons from oil exploitation activities have been identified as a major environmental and socio-economic problem in the Niger Delta region. Though air and water regulations have received the most attention, the regulatory system for contaminated land remains largely undeveloped. As a result, Nigeria oil contaminated land governance lacks a clear and well-established policy framework; administrative structure and capacity; technical methods; and incentive structures. A consequence of these limitations is the inevitable ad hoc management of contaminated land in Nigeria. This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive and integrated contaminated land management policy framework for Nigeria. This work adopts a qualitative approach including critical review methodology and field surveys to investigate the current practice in contaminated land management in Nigeria. Key findings from this research clearly indicate an urgent need for a regulatory policy supported by a holistic and coordinated structure, coupled with improved technical capacity and additional resources to prevent new contamination and to address legacy contaminated sites. A technical strategy to identify and characterise contaminated land in terms of Source-Pathway-Receptor (S-P-R) linkages, a liability regime and the establishment of land use standards are required in Nigeria. Field surveys were used to pilot a proposed stakeholder engagement approach that integrates consideration of social values that could influence contaminated land management policy. Top ranked social values included drinking water, soil quality, and food and local supply chain. Based on this research a pathway for improving the current policy was proposed. The pathway identifies the need to engage stakeholders, educate and improve awareness, increase trust and transparency and integrate societal values into contaminated land management decision- making. An integrated risk assessment framework for contaminated land management in Nigeria was also proposed, and completed with a pathway for integrating the social values and sustainability indicators identified previously. The study proposes a timeline for achieving comprehensive contaminated land management policy in Nigeria. Finally, a multi-attribute methodology for contaminated land prioritisation in Nigeria was developed to identify and promptly respond to sites that pose the highest risk to receptors, considering the limited nature of resources for contaminated land management.

Introduction: Pharmaceutical sales visit claims of drug efficacy can influence physician prescribing. Efficacy claims may be susceptible to exaggeration in promotions for drugs approved on the basis of surrogate outcomes. They may also be different in countries with different sales visit regulations. Objectives: To compare the frequency of physician-reported claims of serious morbidity or mortality benefit in promotions for drugs approved on the basis of surrogate outcomes (where claims are unwarranted) with those approved on the basis of serious morbidity or mortality. Additionally, to compare the frequency of unwarranted claims of serious morbidity or mortality benefit by country of promotion. Methods: From 2009 to 2010, primary care physicians in Canada, France, and the United States reported via pre-set questionnaires on claims of serious morbidity or mortality benefit in consecutive cardiovascular drug promotions. Promoted drugs were either 1) approved on the basis of surrogate outcomes, or 2) approved on the basis of serious morbidity or mortality. Using generalized estimating equations, the frequency of reported efficacy claims was compared between the two promotion types. The frequency of unwarranted claims drug benefit was also compared by country. Results: 448 promotions were analyzed. Claims of serious morbidity or mortality benefit were reported in 156/347 (45%) promotions for drugs approved on the basis of surrogate outcomes and 72/101 (71%) promotions for drugs approved on the basis of serious morbidity or mortality, p<0.001. Despite stricter sales visit regulations, unwarranted claims of serious morbidity or mortality benefit for drugs approved on the basis of surrogate outcomes were reported most frequently in France (59%) compared to Canada (46%), p=0.2 or the United States (26%), p=0.02. Conclusions: Across countries, unwarranted claims of drug benefit were frequently reported in promotions for drugs approved on the basis of surrogate outcomes. These claims amount to off-label promotion and contravene national sales visit regulations. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Der vorliegende Band beschäftigt sich mit dem Verhältnis von Ordnung und Wandel mit Blick auf verschiedene der vorgenannten Facetten. Es nimmt damit ein Thema auf, das für Gert-Joachim Glaeßners wissenschaftliches Wirken prägend ist. Glaeßner hat sich immer wieder aus unterschiedlicher Perspektive mit der Frage beschäftigt, wie politische Ordnungen mit gesellschaftlichem Wandel umgehen, ob politische Systeme zu Reformen fähig sind, diese vielleicht sogar anstoßen können, oder ob sie Veränderungen behindern.

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