Taxation and spending on public goods, services and income transfers are among the most obvious and most frequent interactions that individual citizens have with their governments in advanced industrial countries. The variation across countries in the efforts made by governments to redistribute across different groups in society is one of the most fundamental questions of democratic capitalism. Despite a long-standing research literature, there remain important unresolved questions about how to explain such variation across countries. This dissertation presents three essays that examine possible causes of variation across countries. The first essay examines variation in preferences over government redistribution at the individual level. Using survey data from fourteen countries I show that working time has a systematic effect on preferences over redistribution: those who work longer hours prefer lower levels of government intervention. This result is robust to the inclusion of a number of controls that might undermine claims of a direct effect of hours on preferences, including measures of work ethic and attitudes towards work and rewards. The second essay examines how political participation may structure whose preferences matter in determining government redistributive policies. In a time-series cross-sectional analysis of the American states from 1978 to 2002 I employ direct measures of the income of the median voter to investigate the individual level logic underpinning expectations about the effects of inequality and turnout on spending. I find no support for the contention that turnout affects government spending via increasing the political representation of the poor. Neither is the argument that inequality leads to higher redistribution via its effects on the preferences of the median voter corroborated by the data. The third essay considers the impact of political institutions on redistributive policy outcomes by examining the asymmetric effect that multiparty competition has on the spending and revenue sides of government policy at the outset of the modern tax state. While fragmented party systems may expand spending, they tend to reduce the ability of governments to enact progressive reforms of direct taxation, thus leading to a paradoxical association between generous spending policies and regressive tax systems. Overall, the dissertation highlights how particular economic and political structures impact types and levels of redistribution across political jurisdictions in ways which have not previously been examined.

In the first chapter I study the effect of Proposition 13 on household mobility. Proposition 13, approved in California in 1978, limits the annual increase in property taxes for households staying in their homes. Because this is an annual limit, the annual tax savings increase over time. On moving, a household loses this favorable tax treatment. I estimate the extent to which these tax savings reduce household mobility. The study contributes to previous studies because: 1) I use a duration model to describe the decision to stay in ones home, and 2) I correct for a series of data imperfections. My analysis finds that the hazard rate of duration decreases by 3.6% for each $100 of annual taxes which are saved if the household stays in his home. In the second chapter I derive the optimal income tax schedule on imperfect labor markets with search. In the search framework workers and vacancies decide how intensively to search for partners, and whether to match with a potential partner when they meet one. Externalities created by workers and vacancies, in their choice of how intensively to search, create frictions on the labor market. This leads to suboptimal matches between workers and vacancies, and as a result suboptimal levels of output. I characterize the optimal income tax system, designed to both control for externalities and raise positive government revenue. In the third chapter I study the incentives of competing retailers to sign exclusive contracts for the provision of credit card services. In my model both the upstream market of credit card provision and the downstream retail market are competitive. All players on the market—credit card providers, merchants, and consumers/cardholders—act strategically. I find that exclusive contracts increase the perceived by consumers differentiation between retailers, and merchants profits. Exclusive contracts, however, are only feasible if a merchant can credibly threaten to expand into the credit card industry.

Using survey data from Bangladesh and Kenya with economic status measured by a wealth index and with three different geographic definitions of community, I analyze six competing hypotheses for how economic inequality may affect child stunting. I find little support for the predominant hypothesis that economic inequality as measured by a Gini index is an important predictor of individual health. Instead, I find that the difference between a households wealth and the mean household wealth in the households community is the measure of economic inequality that is most related to stunting in these countries. Using the same survey data, I then analyze general mechanisms and specific mediating factors that may explain the negative relationship between community-relative household wealth and child stunting. Of the two most prominent mechanisms in the literature, I find support for a neomaterial mechanism in both countries, but find no support for a psychosocial mechanism in either country. However, a group of maternal and family planning factors constitutes the most important mechanism in both countriesï¼› the most important individual mediators include the mothers BMI, the number of persons per sleeping room, the quality of the mothers prenatal and delivery care, the childs birth order, and, in Kenya, the childs use of a bednet. Finally, I consider young childrens right to health under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although the CRC recognizes rights corresponding to almost all of the factors that cause child mortality and growth faltering, its effectiveness has been reduced by substantive limitations on those rights, procedural limitations in enforcing those rights, and an inefficient state party reporting process. In particular, Kenyas few successes in realizing those rights all occurred recently and mainly involved societal factors, which have not yet produced improvements in childrens right to health. By contrast, Bangladesh achieved earlier successes that primarily involved household and proximate factors and has experienced significant decreases in child mortality and growth faltering rates. UN initiatives to amend the CRC by adding a complaints mechanism and to improve the reporting process may not significantly improve the CRCs effectiveness in promoting young childrens right to health.

Under what conditions can leaders use government spending to reduce the incidence of coup detat and civil war? My dissertation addresses this question by considering when leaders might use public goods public health, education, etc.) and private goods graft, elite pacts, etc.) to co-opt potential revolutionaries and coup plotters. The dissertation begins with a formal model of the strategic environment in which leaders decide to allocate resources and challengers opt whether to fight the regime Chapter 2). The model is solved for two sets of hypotheses that are tested with quantitative analyses in subsequent chapters. The third chapter turns to the spending hypotheses and shows that the leaders of weak regimes alter government spending to placate their most likely challengers. Weak exclusive regimes increase public goods provision while they are vulnerable to popular challenges, while weak inclusive regimes increase private goods provision to purchase the support of powerful elites. Chapter 4 evaluates the stability hypotheses to determine whether these shifts in spending successfully reduce the likelihood of coup and civil war. The findings are mixed. Weak and exclusive regimes can reduce the likelihood of civil conflict by more than 50% by increasing public goods provision from one standard deviation below to one standard deviation above the mean. However, increased private goods provision does not offer the same benefits for inclusive regimes. Chapter 5 uses a nested analysis case comparison of two transitional sub-Saharan democracies to better understand how weak inclusive governments can remain stable without shifting money from public goods provision toward elite interests. The project results in three major contributions. First, governments shift public and private goods provision as they become more or less vulnerable to domestic extra-institutional challenges. Second, benevolence pays for the leaders of exclusive regimes. When these regimes are weak, there exists a very strong positive relationship between public goods provision and regime stability. Finally, the leaders of inclusive regimes need not decrease public goods provision to reduce the likelihood of coup and civil war, but some democratic institutions are more conducive to both social welfare and regime stability than others.

Since the early 1990s, Saudi Arabia has placed great emphasis on political and administrative reforms in order to strengthen local authorities and create more opportunities for citizen participation in decision-making. Therefore, it is important to inquire to what extent the intended goals and objectives of these reforms have been achieved and what their impacts on the efficiency and the effectiveness of municipal authorities in managing local development and service provision have been. This study seeks to examine the impact of recent political and institutional reforms on the responsiveness of local authorities and their effectiveness in managing local affairs and services, particularly in light of the 2005 municipal elections and the new structure of municipal councils. It is here argued that these political and administrative reforms have put into effect a more enabling institutional framework for measures and practices of good governance and decentralization but that their success is conditioned by the capacity of local authorities to adopt, practice, and maintain these measures. The focus of this study is on the practice of local elections and their implications for decentralized local governance and citizen participationï¼› it is supported by investigative research into the interaction between local authorities and local citizens, as understood in light of responsiveness of local authorities and the newly established local councils. The findings indicate a large gap between large urban and small municipalities (amanats), in terms of financial capacity, citizen participation, cooperation with the private sector, and in terms of administrative capacity. This gap extends to amanats’ institutional performance and outcome, particularly in terms of municipal business and construction, developed municipal areas, and municipal roads. In general, the findings of the study confirm that sub-national demographics and socioeconomic variations play a vital role in determining the capacities of local authorities to fulfill their responsibilities.

This study considers the development of social partnership in Ireland via a comparative analysis of institutional friction, political and economic conditions and causal ideas. Starting from the punctuated equilibrium framework as developed by Baumgartner and Jones, this work asks “What explains episodes of dramatic policy change?” The analysis utilizes a mixed-methods research design to address policy change across time and space, departing from conventional explanations to focus on the role of ideas in shaping policy choices. Using original data the punctuated equilibrium framework is tested in three stages, beginning with a comparative analysis of institutional friction within social welfare policies in three countries: Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Next, a time series model considers the effect of environmental conditions on policy outcomes over time. Finally, a qualitative process tracing analysis highlights the role of ideas in driving policy change under changing circumstances. Central to the argument here is the contention that shifting causal stories, as conceptualized by Deborah Stone 1989), drive episodes of dramatic policy punctuation in moments of shifting institutional, political and economic pressures. Findings from a multi-method analysis of quantitative and qualitative data confirm that institutional, political and economic factors alone are insufficient to generate policy change. In the case of Irish social policy, this study demonstrates that a changing conceptualization of partnership from the perspective of employers, unions and the Government produced a shared vision of the future that bound relevant political actors to a course of policymaking based on consensus and inclusiveness. Moreover, this shared blueprint for future development transcended partisan boundaries, linking Irelands major political parties to a new and cohesive policy trajectory. Finally, the conceptualization of poverty shifted to a multidimensional understanding based on the idea of social exclusion, motivating a comprehensive policy solution based on inclusivity for the future of Irish development. This work challenges the existing literature on policy change to better address the underlying causal mechanisms at work during episodes of punctuation, concluding that overlooking the role of causal ideas is a detriment to our comprehension of the policy process.

This study examines environmental group advocacy strategy for getting policy proposals onto the governmental agenda. Building upon the work of John Kingdon, I argue that interest groups can increase attention to their policy solutions by framing them as the answer to highly salient problems, which government is looking to act upon. Groups may shift these frames over time as various problems rise and fall in prominence, a process called “problem surfing.” I explore this proposition through case studies of environmental advocacy by the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund, and Natural Resources Defense Council in three policy areas: forestry, energy, and transportation. I analyze advocacy group communication materials—specifically, group magazine articles and congressional testimony—and track issue framing over a 25–35 year period. I supplement these data with interviews conducted with organizational staffers. I find that advocacy groups do problem surf for issues when framing their policy solutions, but not indiscriminately and not in an identical manner to one another. Problem surfing is influenced by several organizational variables, including group identity and issue niche, and variables related to the specific policy being promoted. These and other factors also affect the way groups engage in frame contestation to fight off competing packages of problems and solutions created by their policy rivals. This study contributes to research on agenda setting by pointing out that, at times, interest groups are solution-driven, and illustrates one way that groups can increase their chances of policy success. It also adds to our understanding of framing processes by asking questions about why policy actors decide to frame issues in a specific way at a given time. In so doing, it brings together insight from the policy process, interest group, and organizational theory literatures.

This dissertation looks at the role of domestic institutions in determining the impact of international trade on poverty and manufacturing performance in developing economies. The first chapter analyzes the impact of trade liberalization on small enterprises in India and investigates how these effects differ with bank presence in area in which enterprises are located. The second chapter studies the differential effects of trade on economically leading and lagging regions in South Asia. The third chapter focuses on the significance of credit market imperfections and labor market rigidities for capital intensities used in manufacturing. My findings highlight the importance of flexible labor markets, financial development and strong transport infrastructure in enabling developing countries to benefit from international trade.

This dissertation analyzes the joint effects of obesity, smoking, and binge drinking on wages and on unemployment by using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data set. The main objective of this study is to show that the effects of these behaviors on wages and unemployment may not be measured accurately in analyses that consider only one or two since these behaviors are correlated or tend to cluster. My results illustrate that failing to include one or more of the health behaviors in wage or unemployment regression would lead to an underestimation of the impact of being obese and an overestimation of the effect of binge drinking for both genders. However, when endogeneity is addressed by employing the Hausman-Taylor instrumental variable HTIV) method in wage analysis and the multivariate probit method in unemployment analysis, I find that the estimated parameters of obesity or binge drinking are not statistically significantly different whether these behaviors are considered individually or simultaneously. This study also conducts several sensitivity analyses. Firstly, the results reveal that the effects of these behaviors are not interactive. Secondly, the paper illustrates that the wage penalties for daily smoking are fairly constant over the wage distribution for both genders, but obesity affects the wages of males and females relatively more at lower quantiles of wages, and there is no wage penalty for being a binge drinker for either gender. Further, it is found that smokers are a heterogeneous group of people. In particular, the wage and unemployment effects of persistent smokers are different than beginning smokers and quitters. Moreover, obesity affects the wages and the likelihood of being unemployed of males only at the extremes of obesity. Lastly, I find evidence of wage penalties for being obese or a smoker in private sector jobs, but in the public sector only male smokers face lower wages.

Many countries would not be prepared today if they were hit with an influenza pandemic. The current state of Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning appears to vary at all levels as some plans are complete, some are not, and some surprisingly are still in the early stages. Unless countries develop model Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans, the consequences of being unprepared could be devastating to all of humankind. This study identified Critical Success Factors CSFs) for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning involves developing a plan in the event of the emergence of an influenza virus that causes serious illness and is spread easily and is sustainable among humans. Once the World Health Organization WHO) issues a pandemic influenza alert, all countries should be prepared. Currently, there is a scarcity of research that supports comprehensive CSFs as it relates to Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. This study investigated the CSFs necessary at all levels local, state, and national) to achieve model Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. In addition to identifying the CSFs, a second objective was to increase the awareness and the current knowledge of Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. Data was collected through surveys, interviews, and benchmarking methods. The researcher surveyed a panel of experts to identify critical success factors in Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. The goal of identifying CSFs is to provide those factors to countries as well as authorities on a local, state, and national level in order to develop model Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans. These CSFs will be helpful in creating model plans as well as further enhancing current plans. Several CSFs were identified during the survey, interview, and benchmark data collection process. They included the following: strong leadership support, plan development, having logical response plans, exercising plans, clear operations and implementation policies, adequate budget/resources, effective public communications and outreach, and staff training. All sources studied agreed and shared in common that having clear operations and implementation policies, staff training, plan development, effective public communication and outreach, and logical response plans are important CSFs for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. There are clearly benefits to providing CSFs for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. Being prepared can save the lives of millions around the world and as well as reduce economic and social impact. This study and the identification of CSFs for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning will add to the pool of research on model Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning.