This dissertation contains three essays in the economics of development. The first essay investigates the effects of the decentralization of governance over education to communities in terms of individual education outcomes. The next essay relates to the first by exploring the factors that drive communities to adopt decentralized governance, including forms of decentralized governance over education. The last essay returns to the topic of education by examining a policy aimed at decreasing the costs of post-secondary education for a minority group. Each essay probes these topics within the context of First Nations in Canada. The first essay examines the substantial impacts of education decentralization on high school attendance and completion through the analysis of First Nation education self-government agreements in Canada. These agreements are important institutional arrangements that transfer the authority over education from the federal government to First Nations. I exploit confidential microdata and exogenous variation in the implementation of education self-government agreements to perform the analysis. My results indicate that self-government agreements focused exclusively on education increase high school attendance by 5 to 9 percentage points and high school completion by 3 to 5 percentage points. However, the effects on high school completion rates under multi-sectoral self-government agreements implemented together with comprehensive land claim agreements and for self-government agreements that focus on education alone differ dramatically for women and men. High school completion improves by 8 to 11 percentage points for women, but drops by a staggering 17 to 25 percentage points for men. These results have important policy implications for education decentralization in general, along with implications for the particular case of First Nation education self-governance in Canada. The second essay identifies the determinants of decentralized governance by exploring the First Nation self-government agreement claim and implementation processes. I use a novel dataset on self-government agreements and confidential microdata to perform the analysis. My results support the notion that we can treat self-government treatment variables as exogenous, when controlling for reserve fixed effects. This is not an onerous condition to impose. Specifically, I do not find any factors of economic or statistical significance for claims for my richest and most-preferred specification, which includes controlling for reserve fixed effects. Contrary to the results for claims, I find that education and income are important factors for implementation, but only conditional on a reserve having previously made a claim. However, this significance disappears, once I relax this condition and compare the determinants of implementation against reserves that may or may not have made a claim. The third essay examines the substantial impacts of a targeted policy that provides postsecondary tuition and living expense subsidies for Aboriginal Canadians. To identify the effects of the policy, I exploit a reform of the policy's eligibility requirements in 1985 that lead to a large increase in the number of individuals with access to the subsidies. My results indicate that the reform lead to economically and statistically significant increases in the likelihood of attaining any post-secondary education for a group of women whose eligibility was particularly targeted by the reform and for women generally. These increases range from about 4 to 7 percentage points. The effects for men are positive, but much smaller and not significant.

Nobel laureate and economist Elinor Ostrom earned a Nobel prize in economic sciences in 2009 for her research on a community's ability to self-govern a common pool resource with the use of eight design principles. While Ostrom's accumulated efforts to analyze these principles and apply them to community resources have earned widespread recognition, these principles have yet to take off on a grand scale as a blueprint for self-governance systems globally. There is also a lack of empirical evidence that supports these principles as empirical investigations have yet to manipulate the principles individually or as an intervention package as independent variables. The purpose of the present study is to empirically test Ostrom's eight design principles in a tabletop game model of a community utilizing a common pool resource (CPR) by implementing as well as removing the principles within an adapted version of the board game Catan. In three groups, the CPR almost always fully crashed in baseline but not when Ostrom's principles were in place as game rules. Results indicated that Ostrom's design principles may organize participant responses and maintain resource levels over time more effectively than without Ostrom's rules applied.

Inom mjukvaruteknik finns en mångfald processmetoder där var och en har ett specifikt syfte. En processmetod kan enklare beskrivas som en upprepningsbar uppsättning delsteg i syfte att utföra en uppgift och uppnå ett specifikt resultat. Majoriteten av processmetoder som har hittats i denna studie inriktar sig på den mjukvaruprodukt som är att utveckla. Det verkar finnas en brist på processmetoder som kan användas av mjukvaruutvecklare för att utveckla sin personliga utvecklingsprocess. Med personlig utvecklingsprocess menas, hur den enskilda utvecklaren väljer att strukturera det egna arbetet i syfte att uppnå ett visst re- sultat. Självstyrandes-utvecklarramverket (även kallad SGD-ramverket) är i skrivande stund ett nyligen utvecklat processramverk med syfte att bistå den individuella utvecklaren att ut- veckla sin personliga utvecklingsprocess. Kort beskrivet är ramverket tänkt att innehålla alla aktiviteter som kan komma att uppstå i ett utvecklingsprojekt. Problemet är att detta ramverk inte har utvärderats ännu och därför vet man inte om ramverket är relevant för att uppfylla sitt syfte. För att rama in och vägleda studien formulerades ett antal problemfråge- ställningar (1) Är ramverket fullständigt för ett mindre företag med avseende på aktivite- ter?, (2) Hur hög är kostnaden för SGD-ramverket i form av tid? Målet med studien är att bidra till framtida studier för ramverket genom att utföra en akt- ionsstudie där SGD-ramverket utvärderas utefter ett par specifika utvärderingskriterier. En induktiv kvalitativ forskningsmetod användes för att genomföra denna studie. Med in- duktiv metod menas att slutsatser dras utifrån empiriskt insamlad data och utifrån dessa ut- formas generella teorier. Mer specifikt användes metoden aktionsstudie. Data samlades in genom loggning och tidsloggning under aktionsstudiens gång. För att utvärdera ramverket användes utvärderingskriterierna (1) Fullständighet, (2) Semantisk korrekthet (3) Kostnad. En narrativ analys fördes över insamlad data för dessa kriterier med hänsyn till problemfrå- geställningarna. Resultat från utvärdering visade att ramverket inte ansågs fullständigt med hänsyn till dess aktiviteter. Dock näst intill fullständigt då enbart ett fåtal aktiviteter behövdes tilläggas i den utförda aktionsstudien. Totalt 3 extra aktiviteter lades till utöver de 40 som redan finns. Ca tio procent av den totala arbetstiden i aktionsstudien var i tillagda aktiviteter utanför Självstyrandes-Utvecklarramverkets ordinarie aktiviteter. Ramverkets aktiviteter ansågs även vara för granulärt formulerade i sammanhanget av ett mindre företag. Ramverket an- sågs vara högst relevant för att förbättra den individuella utvecklarens egna process. Kost- nad för införsel av Självstyrandes-Utvecklarramverket i denna studie speglar tiden det tog tills tidsanvändningen av Ramverket ansågs stabilt. Denna införelsekostnad uppskattades i form av tid och bestod av ca 3.54% av en åttatimmars arbetsdag, detta uppskattade ske un- der en införselsperiod på 24 dagar. Total tillämpningskostnad för användning av ramverket i den utförda aktionsstudien är i snitt 4,143 SEK/timme alternativt 662,88 SEK/månad. Schablonkostnaden som har använts ligger på 172,625 SEK/timme. / Within software engineering there is a diversity of process methods where each one has its specific purpose. A process method can be described as being a repeatable set of step with the purpose to achieve a task and reach a specific result. The majority of process methods found in this study are focused on the software product being developed. There seems to be a lack of process methods that can be used by software developers for there individual soft- ware process improvement. Individual software process improvement, refers to how the in- dividual software developer chooses to structure their own work with the purpose to obtain a specific result The Self-Governance Developer Framework (also called SGD-framework) whilst writing this is a newly developed process framework with the purpose of aiding the individual soft- ware developer to improve his own individual software process. Briefly explained the framework is intended to contain all the activities that can come up in a software project. The problem is that this tool has not yet been evaluated and therefore it is unknown if it is relevant for its purpose. To frame and guide the study three problem questions has been for- mulated (1) Is the framework complete for a smaller company in regards to it activities? (2) How high is the cost for the SGD-framework in regard of time? The goal of the study is to contribute for future studies for the framework by performing an action study where the Self-Governance Developer Framework is evaluated against a set of chosen evaluation criteria. An inductive qualitative research method was used when conducting the study. An induc- tive method means that conclusions are derived from empirically gathered data and from that data form general theories. Specifically, the action study method was used. Data was gathered by keeping a logbook and also time logging during the action study. To evaluate the framework, some evaluation criteria was used which were (1) Completeness, (2) Se- mantic correctness, (3) Cost. A narrative analysis was conducted over the data that was gathered for the criteria. The analysis took the problem formulations in regard. The results from the evaluation showed that the framework was not complete with the re- gards of the activities. Although next to complete as only a few activities were further needed during the action study. A total of 3 extra activities were added over the regular 40 activities. Around 10% of the time spent in activities were in activities outside of the Self- Governance Developer Framework. The activities were considered to finely comminute for the context of a smaller company. The framework was considered highly relevant for im- proving the individual software developers own process. The introduction cost in this study reflect on the time it took until the usage of the framework was considered consistent. In this study it was approximately 24 working days with a usage about 3.54% of an eight-hour work day. The total application cost of usage of the framework in the performed action study was on average 4.143 SEK/hour or 662,88 SEK/month. The template cost used was on 172.625 SEK/hour.

Test av informationssystem är en viktig del inom systemutvecklingsprocessen för att minimera felaktigheter och förbättra tillförlitligheten av system. Trafikverkets IT enhet hade ett fastställt och strukturerat testarbete för high-level test däremot hade de inte ett fastställt strukturerat testarbete inom low-level test. Vi fick i uppdrag att undersöka metoder och arbetssätt som fanns inom low-level test. Vi skulle också jämföra system som genomgått ett strukturerat testarbete inom low- och high-level test mot system som genomgått ostrukturerat low-level test och strukturerat high-level test. Målet med examensarbetet var att föreslå lämpliga metoder och arbetsätt inom low-level test för Trafikverkets IT enhet. Målet var också att ge en rekommendation ifall ett strukturerat testarbete inom low- och high-level var att rekommendera i jämförelse mot system som genomgått ostrukturerat low-level test och strukturerat high-level test. Genom litterära studier och intervjuer med Trafikverkets resurser genomförde vi vår undersökning och kom fram till vårt resultat.Vår rekommendation för Trafikverket IT var att de ska använda sig utav testdriven utveckling eftersom utvecklarna var osäkra på vad som skulle testas och metoden skulle klargöra detta. Dessutom ville de ha valmöjligheter och riktlinjer som skulle ge dem en mer bestämd arbetsstruktur. Vi rekommenderar också en anpassning av Self-Governance ramverket där aktiviteter väljs ut för varje projekt av en metodansvarig eller projektansvarig (Scrum Master) som bestämmer vilka aktiviteter som ska utföras på individ- och gruppnivå. / Testing of information systems is an essential part of the system development process to minimize errors and improve the reliability of systems. Trafikverket IT unit had a structured testing in the test phase high-level, however, they had not a structured testing in the development phase, low-level tests. We were assigned to examine methods and working methods in low-level test. We also would compare systems that had undergone a structuredtesting in low-and high-level test against systems that had undergone an unstructured low-leveltest and structured high-level test.The goal of the thesis was to propose appropriate method/methods in low-level test for Trafikverket IT unit. The goal was also to make a recommendation if a structured testing in low-and high-level were to be recommended in comparison with systems that had undergone unstructured low-level test and structured high-level test. Through literary studies and interviews with Trafikverket employees we reached our result. Our recommendation for Trafikverket IT is that they should use test-driven development because developers were unsure of what should be tested and the method would make thisclear. The developers also wanted to have options and guidelines that would give them a definite work structure. We also recommend an adaptation of the Self-Governance frameworkfrom where activities can be selected from each project manager (Scrum Master) that determines which activities will be performed in individual- and group level for each project.

The diploma thesis "Village elections in China - a step towards democracy?" focuses on the development of local institutions of village self-government that has taken place in China since mid-1980s. Author tries to explain the phenomena in broader context of development of entire Chinese countryside. Another goal of the thesis is to answer, whether the implementation of direct elections to Chinese countryside can help to promote democratization in China or whether it plays some other, different role.

Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience. We develop an overarching framework that describes the current and potential role of law in enabling adaptation. We apply this framework to different social-ecological settings, centers of activity, and scales, illustrating the multidimensional and polycentric nature of water governance. Adaptation typically emerges organically among multiple centers of agency and authority in society as a relatively self-organized or autonomous process marked by innovation, social learning, and political deliberation. This self-directed and emergent process is difficult to create in an exogenous, top-down fashion. However, traditional centers of authority may establish enabling conditions for adaptation using a suite of legal, economic, and democratic tools to legitimize and facilitate self-organization, coordination, and collaboration across scales. The principles outlined here provide preliminary legal and institutional foundations for adaptive environmental governance, which may inform institutional design and guide future scholarship.

How do democratic institutions function in authoritarian states? This study answers this question by examining the political institutions in rural China ¨C democratic elections of villagers committees and village oversight agencies. Using a nationwide survey on China¡¯s villager self-governance conducted in 2005 and in-depth case data collected in 2007 and 2008, this study finds that rural political institutions have significantly changed the political processes in China¡¯s countryside. The quality of village elections and the functioning of oversight agencies such as villager representative assemblies and financial supervision teams all have been crucial to affect the level of electoral participation and the quality of rural governance. The study shows that Chinese peasants are more active to vote as the village election methods feature more competitiveness and transparency. Moreover, higher quality of village elections and well-maintained village oversight structures have improved the quality of rural governance by holding village cadres more accountable to peasants¡¯ demands, as demonstrated in the higher level of peasant satisfaction with the performance of villagers committees in public services provision. The study also reveals that the effect of rural political institutions is a function of village economic conditions. The effect of village elections and oversight agencies in holding cadres accountable is significantly higher in villages that own substantial collective resources than in the ones that do not. This study challenges the traditional view in comparative politics that democratic institutions are established in authoritarian states for cosmetic purposes. It shows that, under economic pressure, political institutions matter in making democracy work in authoritarian regimes by encouraging political participation and generating better governance. It also suggests the necessity for the Chinese government to reinforce its efforts of standardizing village election rules and regulations and enforcing the establishment and maintenance of village oversight institutions.

If we consider various improving concepts of governance, we can distinguish two main trends in public choice economics. Neoclassical analysis provides a static view of competitive government, where the main idea is free choice and so-called vote with feet. Dynamic view adds understanding of competition as knowledge generating process and product differentiation. The aim of the work is to evaluate Charter Cities project from the perspective of static and dynamic competition in the government industry, and its potential for rules diffusion to the host country. Seasteading may seem utopian, but the realization would significantly address the problems of decision-making costs and differentiation of governments. Since concepts vary at first sight, purpose of the work is also to compare charter cities and sea cities in terms of their nature, risks, and final applicability in practice. Third, a closer form of activism is the decentralization of government and the transfer of responsibilities to the private communities. Since the government market is 30% of world GDP and is extremely closed and resistant to change, it must compare the three forms of institutional changes, identify under what conditions and in what timeframe are feasible and to determine their significance with regard to their specific nature.

The global economy infuses every aspect of our day to day lives, from the clothes we wear, to the food we eat, to our political choices. And with its ability to “mutate, shudder and shatter” (Dicken et al), the unpredictable ruptures associated with the global economy elude our ability to grasp its impact and to govern its activities. So how, as citizens, do we imagine governing ourselves when ‘nobody appears to be in charge any longer’? How does our understanding of the state apparatuses– the legislation, regulations, policies –speak to people’s day to day experience in their communities? This research addresses two broad questions: how are communities responding to externally generated ruptures and how do they govern themselves in response? I propose that responding coherently to rupture events is inhibited by community members’ lack of awareness of the complex interrelationships of the constituent elements of the economy, and secondarily, a tendency to see the state as the primary site of governance. Through interviews, surveys, and documentary research, this interdisciplinary study (political science, human geography, sociology and history) examines how three British Columbia communities – Tumbler Ridge, Tofino and Gabriola Island – were affected by recessionary ruptures and how they responded. Each of these communities exists within Indigenous spaces. Understanding how communities perceived their relationships with their Indigenous neighbours grounds the stories within the historical impacts of colonization, although it is not part of this thesis to investigate both sides of the ‘settler’-Indigenous relationship in these communities. By telling the story of each community’s response to rupture over time and comparing their trajectories, I draw conclusions comparing each community’s response and the outcomes. I pursue four areas of investigation: the degree to which communities understood their relationship with what I call the “capital economy” and others refer to as the market or capitalist economy, and how that understanding affected their response to rupture; how attitudes toward place shaped community responses to rupture; how community perceptions about their local economies affected the decisions they made and the strategies they employed to address economic and social challenges; and how the deployment of governance at various scales impacted the socio-economic health of the communities. The communities embraced a range of strategies from individual autonomous action, to networked autonomous action, to the creation of place-based governance entities as sites for action. Their effectiveness was determined by three factors. First of these is the degree to which communities saw the state as the locus of political action and the market economy as the primary agent for achieving community health and wellbeing had consequences for life control, self-determination and self-governance. Second is the extent to which the community was willing to work outside of the normative governance structures (normative in the sense that the state and corporate decision-making are commonly accepted as the primary and proper sources of governance and problem-solving) affected their ability to consider and create adaptive strategies that could respond to the unpredictable mutations of global capital. Finally, the failure in some communities to understand the ongoing impacts of colonization hampered their ability to create meaningful and ultimately productive relationships with their Indigenous neighbours, relationships that may have opened up valuable avenues to the wellbeing of all parties. I conclude that effective governance strategies capable of seeing communities through unpredictable ruptures will require five capacities: building on deeply situated knowledge; developing relationships across interests and social strata; employing ‘loose’ structure strategies; adopting approaches based on incremental persistence; and learning from Indigenous self-governance aspirations. Developing these local capacities will lay the foundation for a broader scope of political action. / Graduate

Since the signing of their Final Agreement and Self-Government Agreement in 2003, Kluane Fist Nation (KFN), located primarily in the southwestern Yukon, has been navigating their post-settlement realities as an autonomous self-governing First Nation. According to the Canadian state, these Agreements intended to achieve certainty for all Parties, including certainty over jurisdiction, and KFN's ability to govern their own land and peoples. Two decades into the implementation of their Agreements, I ask, what has been achieved in actuality? In partnership with Kluane First Nation, this research sought to produce results KFN desired and found valuable. As such, it explores KFN's chosen topic of Traditional Leases, alongside essential entwined elements such as KFN's enactment of value, their navigation of uncertain and precarious land claim legislation as techniques of jurisdiction and territoriality, and taking control of research within their Traditional Territory. This exploration stems from our research partnership, my ethical commitments to KFN, and research's methods and methodologies. I argue that in their work with researchers, and their policies and practices on the land, KFN is enacting their vision for a meaningful and good life, within ongoing settler-colonial attempts to maintain control. KFN is engaging in and enacting what they find valuable in their use of their land despite ever-increasing obstacles, and often in ways which remain invisible to the settler-state.