Assisted living facilities represent a large portion of the long-term care facilities in the United States. Although there are not uniform policies regulating assisted living facilities, debates on the best way to ensure adequate staffing center on two approaches: required ratios or acuity-based staffing. The purpose of this study is...
Improving access to and uptake of antenatal care remains a persistent challenge for India. It is a far greater challenge for an underdeveloped, poorer and mostly rural state like Bihar. The 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-IV) of India reported that only 3% pregnant women in rural Bihar utilized full...
Noise is an environmental issue uniquely harmful to public welfare but essential to a well-functioning modern economy. Given the prevalence of noise especially in urban soundscapes, noise pollution has been recognized as a negative externality and an environmental stressor and thus has become an issue in public policy. Yet, as...
Scholars posit that the successful consolidation of post-communist Central and Eastern European democracies can be linked to their subsequent accession to the European Union (EU). This led observers to assume that the continued democratization of Hungarian society was assured due to their integration into EU institutions. However, since the 2010...
This essay evaluates the effectiveness of NGO strategies to promote program sustainability using a case study of two NGOs that install biosand water filters in Cambodia. While the ownership-focused strategy of cost-sharing is the most commonly used and studied, there is evidence to suggest that certain more neglected strategies can...
This dissertation focuses on the behavior of security returns around certain events that occurred in the Saudi stock market. In the first study, we measure and analyze the reaction of security returns around a major horizontal merger that occurred in the banking industry in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this...
Due to the current cultural paradigm that incorporates the desire to be environmentally friendly and mitigate rising fuel costs, arguments about the cost of public transit systems, ridership rates, and methods to increase use are frequent topics of public policy concern. In response to these cultural and economic concerns, the...
The negative effects of poverty on childhood academic outcomes are well documented by current research. Children in poverty experience pronounced positive effects of familial involvement on these same academic outcomes. Unfortunately children in poverty experience low levels of familial involvement. Current familial involvement policy is centered in the school environment....
From an organizational perspective, economic incentives are often used as a tool to induce behaviors which align the goals of individuals with the organization. As a fundamental concept, varied types of merit pay have been utilized to keep organizational and individual motives in sync. This can be illustrated in contracts...
This dissertation addresses issues concerning the behavior of firms, which has significant effects on performance. In the first study, we empirically investigate the effect of the reduction in number of firms on price competition in the U.S. macro-brewing industry. The number of macro brewing firms decreased from 766 in 1935...