A simulation study consists of several steps such as data collection, coding and model verification, model validation, experimental design, output data analysis, and implementation. Our research concentrates on output data analysis. In this field, many researchers have studied how to construct confidence intervals for the mean u of a stationary stochastic process. However, the estimation of the value of a nonlinear function f(u) has not received a lot of attention in the simulation literature. Towards this goal, a batch-means-based methodology was proposed by Munoz and Glynn (1997). Their approach did not consider consistent estimators for the variance of the point estimator for f(u). This thesis, however, will consider consistent variance estimation techniques to construct confidence intervals for f(u). Specifically, we propose methods based on the combination of the delta method and nonoverlapping batch means (NBM), standardized time series (STS), or a combination of both. Our approaches are tested on moving average, autoregressive, and M/M/1 queueing processes. The results show that the resulting confidence intervals (CIs) perform often better than the CIs based on the method of Munoz and Glynn in terms of coverage, the mean of their CI half-width, and the variance of their CI half-width.

The level of increased central government that we have experienced during the last decades in school, for the purpose of increasing equality and to adapt the Swedish school to a certain international standard, clearly shows that increased control scarcely leads to improvement. The aim of this paper is to examine whether teachers believe that national tests contribute to equivalent assessment and increased goal attainment. Furthermore the teachers’ attitude towards and work with national tests is described. The paper is written from a school improvement perspective, where good examples from current research on what creates increased quality in school meaning increased goal attainment and equivalent assessment are related to research on school effectiveness and increased testing in schools. The study builds upon a quantitative survey among teachers in upper primary - and secondary school in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. The result shows that the teachers have a somewhat more positive than negative attitude towards national tests, as a whole. The teachers use the tests in their instruction and they are a part of their planning. The advantages mentioned are the possibilities of showing off good examples, making the curriculum concrete, prepare the students for the test and get guidelines and support in assessment and grading. The teachers in the survey don’t consider the tests giving a full image of the abilities of a student nor do they consider the tests themselves relevant for the student’s learning. The result also shows a certain variation in the attitude of the teachers. Teachers, who have worked the longest period of time, more than 20 years, are those with the best attitude towards the test and their ability to contribute to increased goal attainment and equivalent assessment. Teachers who have worked the shortest period of time are the most skeptical to the positive effects of the tests. The teachers generally consider the tests contributing to equivalent assessment to some degree, but have the least positive stance toward the ability of the tests leading to improved quality meaning increased learning and goal attainment.

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to approach a solution to reduce housing shortage, by using inspiration from an industrialized building concept, which can lead to the opportunity for underprivileged people to get a livable housing. The aim is to study how knowledge from industrialized building could be used for a more efficient way of building in developing countries similar to Colombia.   Method:Utilizing literature studies for achieving abutment to published research also giving the authors an observant mind. With this knowledge, participatory observations were made as action research to explore the prevailing procedure when establishing a house. Operating analyzes, interviews were held in Leticia for understanding observed decisions. To be able to critically analyze the results from the interviews and observations, collected data were compared with knowledge based on the authors’ reference frames.   Findings:Keystones identified as the overall concept are applicable on establishments in the western world, since the concept is designed after similar conditions. Capital is required designing a building system as well as establishing a factory for prefabrication of elements, conditions limited in developing countries. Climate conditions and prevailing corruption prevents implementation of the concept. Identified weaknesses during the observations, noted repetition of unnecessary and non-value adding activities. One conclusion is not to implement the entire industrial building system, only practice the mindset. Initially keystones are implemented such as planning, exchange of information and reflection of performed projects, in order to improve upcoming projects. These keystones require no direct capital, merely a mindset that should be implemented.   Implications:The outcome of this study is to enlighten the subject, since obvious weaknesses were noticed, with capacity for development. Further research is realistic because, in a long term it will help solving the housing situation. For example, using this result as underlay for education like creating more efficient building, enlightening planning for reducing unnecessary non value-adding activities. As a conclusion of the study, identified weaknesses during the establishment affects the efficiency, creating unnecessary costs. A developing country should focus upon emphasizing reduction of costs, since their economic status is already declining.   Limitations: The observations during the case study have been concentrating on one small-scaled project in Leticia, Colombia. No further observations have been made but complements such as literature studies and interviews. Due to lack of time and language barrier, the amount of collected empirical data was too limited to provide durable conclusions for question formulations. Since only observations were performed on one establishment, a general result cannot be submitted.

In the first essay, I assess the effect of indoor air quality (IAQ) in school buildings on student test performance and attendance rates. Results indicate that performance on standardized tests significantly improves while attendance rates are unresponsive to improvements in IAQ. The improvement in math scores ranges from 0.102 - 0.189 standard deviations per $500,000 spent on IAQ-related renovations and is 35% - 50% greater than the improvement in reading scores. For the same budget, results suggest that the improvement in math scores following IAQ-related renovations is several times larger than the improvement associated with class size reductions. In the second essay, I examine the responsiveness of the daily labor supply of fishermen to transitory variations in the daily wage using data from the Florida spiny lobster fishery. The applicability of this research is both narrow and general. Understanding this relationship is key to determining the effectiveness of landing fees as a means to regulate fisheries. Tracing out the labor supply curve is also fundamental to labor economics and policy. I find that the wage elasticity of labor supply (participation) is positive and statistically different from zero, with a point estimate of 0.967. This suggests an upward slopping labor supply curve and refutes the notion of reference dependent preferences. In the third essay, I examine the bias associated with ignoring the multi-species aspect of labor supply decisions in spatially explicit bioeconomic fishery models. Using a complete 15-year panel of all fishing trips made by fishermen possessing a Florida spiny lobster license, including non-lobster trips, I show that the simplifying assumption of a dichotomous choice structure at the first node (i.e. participate in the target fishery or not) is not innocuous and that predicted participation rates can change substantially with the addition of another species as an outside alternative in the first decision node. / text

Self-efficacy is the belief an individual has about his or her capabilities to successfully complete an activity. Self-efficacy stems from four sources: verbal persuasion, physiological states, past experiences, and vicarious experiences. Increases in self-efficacy in education are connected with an increase in academic achievement. The current study sought to answer the question of which of three treatment options would have the most positive effect on mathematical achievement and self-efficacy for correctly answering problems on a multiplication math test. Participants were third- and fifth-grade students identified by their teachers as struggling in math. Students either received training on skills designed to increase self-efficacy, participated in cross-age peer tutoring, or received a combination of both treatments. Achievement and self-efficacy were measured before and after treatment and four weeks following the end of treatment to measure the lasting effects.

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This thesis investigates the role of classmates in the academic achievement of an individual student. I propose a new strategy to identify ability spillovers and combine this strategy with a unique data set to estimate peer effects in education. Using this innovative approach, I quantify the average effect of peers on own academic achievement in middle school and analyze heterogeneity of own response to peers along ability and gender lines. In Chapter 1, I provide a comprehensive empirical analysis of linear-in-means model of peer interactions and estimate the effect of the average quality of peers on academic progress of six-graders in Ontario public schools. I provide convincing evidence of the validity of my identification strategy and show that the average quality of classmates measured by their lagged test scores matters for individual academic achievement. I find positive, large and significant ability spillovers from peers in the same classroom. To reconcile the broad spectrum of peer effect's estimates in the literature, I also investigate the impact of peers in the same school and grade. I show that once a peer group is aggregated to a grade or class level, the effect attenuates towards zero. In Chapter 2, I relax the main assumption of linear-in-means model and compare alternative models of peer interactions with the empirical results from the first chapter. My findings imply that all students unambiguously benefit from the presence of high achieving peers. At the same time, academic progress of high-achievers does not suffer from the presence of low-achieving classmates. This finding provides important policy implications for ability grouping of students in schools. With the help of a policy experiment I demonstrate that spreading out high ability students across classrooms is an efficient strategy to increase the achievement level of every student. In the third chapter, I introduce gender dimension into the analysis of peer effects and investigate the role of class gender composition on individual academic achievement. I employ two different identification strategies and find that large share of girls in a class facilitates academic progress of both boys and girls. While he average quality of girls is one of the determinants of own achievement, peer-to-peer interactions and improved discipline in a classroom, when more girls are present, also play an important role.

This thesis investigates the practice of high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria. Examining its colonial histories, its philosophical incongruities with African indigenous education, and its neocolonial foundations, it argues that high-stakes testing in Nigeria facilitates the erosion of a critical African worldview. It demonstrates that through high-stakes testing’s reproduction of social and regional inequalities, the unethicality of its systems and practices as well as its exemplification of Freire’s concept of normative and non liberatory education as the “practice of domination”; high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria seamlessly fits into the neo-colonial and neoliberal logic of education as a site of psychological colonization and the material exploitation of the people by the ruling elite.

This thesis investigates the practice of high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria. Examining its colonial histories, its philosophical incongruities with African indigenous education, and its neocolonial foundations, it argues that high-stakes testing in Nigeria facilitates the erosion of a critical African worldview. It demonstrates that through high-stakes testing’s reproduction of social and regional inequalities, the unethicality of its systems and practices as well as its exemplification of Freire’s concept of normative and non liberatory education as the “practice of domination”; high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria seamlessly fits into the neo-colonial and neoliberal logic of education as a site of psychological colonization and the material exploitation of the people by the ruling elite.

This thesis investigates the role of classmates in the academic achievement of an individual student. I propose a new strategy to identify ability spillovers and combine this strategy with a unique data set to estimate peer effects in education. Using this innovative approach, I quantify the average effect of peers on own academic achievement in middle school and analyze heterogeneity of own response to peers along ability and gender lines. In Chapter 1, I provide a comprehensive empirical analysis of linear-in-means model of peer interactions and estimate the effect of the average quality of peers on academic progress of six-graders in Ontario public schools. I provide convincing evidence of the validity of my identification strategy and show that the average quality of classmates measured by their lagged test scores matters for individual academic achievement. I find positive, large and significant ability spillovers from peers in the same classroom. To reconcile the broad spectrum of peer effect's estimates in the literature, I also investigate the impact of peers in the same school and grade. I show that once a peer group is aggregated to a grade or class level, the effect attenuates towards zero. In Chapter 2, I relax the main assumption of linear-in-means model and compare alternative models of peer interactions with the empirical results from the first chapter. My findings imply that all students unambiguously benefit from the presence of high achieving peers. At the same time, academic progress of high-achievers does not suffer from the presence of low-achieving classmates. This finding provides important policy implications for ability grouping of students in schools. With the help of a policy experiment I demonstrate that spreading out high ability students across classrooms is an efficient strategy to increase the achievement level of every student. In the third chapter, I introduce gender dimension into the analysis of peer effects and investigate the role of class gender composition on individual academic achievement. I employ two different identification strategies and find that large share of girls in a class facilitates academic progress of both boys and girls. While he average quality of girls is one of the determinants of own achievement, peer-to-peer interactions and improved discipline in a classroom, when more girls are present, also play an important role.