Differentiation and dynamism within the IT development program

Information technology (IT) developments of large magnitude organize as collections of multiple projects into a single program, especially under dynamic conditions of market uncertainty that frequently change requirements or solutions midstream. Successful completion of an IT development program requires that the multiple teams work effectively together as well as independently in response to changes by relying on the differentiation of talent and knowledge available to the program manager. We consider and empirically support a model derived from principles in the multi-team systems (MTS) literature to determine the influence of differentiation among the IT program in the sharing of knowledge and information. The relationship from differentiation to program success is mediated by knowledge and information sharing, showing how to manage change through the dissemination of information and knowledge. Uncertainty of the market positively moderates the relation from differentiation among projects to information sharing. These findings contribute to the literature by empirically validating that MTS frameworks are exceptionally well suited for dealing with complex environments in the context of IT development.     

Local employment, poverty, and property value effects of geographically-targeted tax incentives: An instrumental variables approach

The federal Empowerment Zone (EZ) program is a set of tax incentives targeted to areas of select cities. I estimate the effect of the EZ program on employment, poverty, and property values by comparing areas that received an EZ to areas that applied (and qualified), but were rejected. Because of endogeneity concerns, I use political representation to instrument for EZ designation. OLS results show a positive and statistically significant effect of the program on employment and poverty. IV estimates suggest the program had no effect on employment and poverty, and instead had a large statistically significant effect on property values.     

Increasing physician supply in medically underserved areas

Physician supply in medically underserved areas has long been an interest of health and labor economists. I employ a rich database containing the location of physicians at 5-year intervals to compare the types of locations chosen by alumni and nonalumni of a United States program charged with increasing physician supply. Using a multinomial logit model with discrete unobserved heterogeneity to account for endogeneity of enrollment in the program, I find that eliminating the program would decrease the supply of physicians in medically underserved communities by roughly 10%.     

The effect of a large expansion of pre-primary school facilities on preschool attendance and maternal employment

We provide evidence on the impact of a large-scale construction of pre-primary school facilities in Argentina. We estimate the causal impact of the program on pre-primary school attendance and maternal labor supply. Identification relies on a differences-in-differences strategy where we combine differences across regions in the number of facilities built with differences in exposure across cohorts induced by the timing of the program. We find a sizeable impact of the program on pre-primary school participation among children aged between 3 and 5. In fact, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of a full take-up of newly constructed places. In addition, we find that the implicit childcare subsidy induced by the program appears to increases maternal employment.     

Guaranteed minimum income and unemployment duration in France

In this article, we use data from the European Community Household Panel to evaluate the impact of a French guaranteed income program, the RMI, on the hazard out of unemployment. Self-selection into the program is corrected using a multivariate duration model developed by [Abbring, J.H., van den Berg, G.J., 2003. The non-parametric identification of treatment effects in duration models. Econometrica 71 (5), 1491–1517]. We find that RMI receipt has a strong negative impact during the first months of program participation, but that this disincentive effect quickly falls to insignificant levels after six months. Household structure also appears to be an important determinant of the importance of the adverse effect of program participation.     

The Effectiveness of Local Government Active Labor Programs: The Case of the Benefits-to-Wages Program in Russia

This paper presents the results of an implementation evaluation of a Benefits-to-Wages (BtW) program operated in Perm, Russia. In part because of the low level of support for Active Labor Market Programs (ALPs) by Russian national and regional governments, municipalities have begun implementing ALPs of their own. Participation in the BtW program is limited to an unemployed adult in very low income family where at least one child is present. The program appears to be highly successful, with 74% of applicants finding jobs while still participating in the program. The assessment found that participation in the program, and job acquisition in particular, were important in raising participant families' incomes. Nevertheless, only about 10% of participants with jobs were lifted out of poverty. Receipt of certain social services and Employment Services, including training, had little impact on which participants succeeded in finding a job. Similarly, person attributes, such as education and prior work experience paid no statistically significant role. This pattern is consistent with a situation in which job requirements are modest and are met by most program participants. Various patterns indicate the program did have a positive effect on job acquisition, although the absence of a control group prevents any stronger statement.     

Measuring program success

Growth in the use of programs has led to a requirement of understanding what constitutes program success. A measurement construct for program success, which comprises four dimensions—delivery capability, organizational capability, marketing capability, and innovative capability—was developed based on 172 responses to a web‐based questionnaire to program managers. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and canonical correlation analysis were applied to test for the relationship between program success and program context. Results showed that the measurement construct for program success was stable over different types of program contexts. It provides a tool for further investigation into program success assessment.     

Accreditation and standards-driven program evaluation: implications for program quality assurance and stakeholder professional development

This study evaluates a language education program and assesses the influence of this program evaluation on program performance and stakeholder professional development. The research design makes use of mixed paradigms and methods. Positivism is followed to verify the extent to which the program meets predetermined quality standards through quantitative evaluation research, questionnaires and document and record analysis. In contrast, the qualitative paradigm is followed to uncover program evaluation impact on program components and stakeholders through qualitative evaluation and interviews. The study concludes the program maintains satisfactory overall performance with some components performing better than others. Likewise, evaluation of program evaluation improves program elements and faculty and program administration professional skills. The study therefore recommends program evaluation as an effective program improvement strategy. Program evaluation is also an effective professional development strategy that provides program administration, staff and faculty members with onsite opportunities to develop their professional skills. Moreover, evaluation of program evaluation should be an integral part of program evaluation to help program stakeholders not only do but also use evaluation alongside decreasing resistance to imposed review and reform.     

The market price of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program awards a subsidy to private developers who construct and operate housing units with income-targeted rent controls for at least 15 years. The program allocated $6.6 billion to developers in 2006, and over 1.6 million units have been subsidized under the program since its inception in 1987. A historical literature suggests place-based housing subsidies, such as the LIHTC program, will be more expensive in providing the same level of housing support to the poor than tenant-based strategies (i.e., housing vouchers). This paper uses an administrative data series of LIHTC subsidized properties in California to show the program encourages developers to construct housing units that are an estimated 20% more expensive per square foot than average industry estimates. It is additionally shown that due to liquidity constraints faced by LIHTC primary developers in how the subsidy is allocated, virtually all developers sell the tax credits at a substantial discount below their statutory value immediately after construction. This price is estimated to be $0.73 per $1 of tax credit, or $1.8 billion annually, as compared to alternatively allocating a lump sum grant to developers.     

设计方案论

阐述了方案在设计中的位置，价值和具备良好方案的特点以及如何寻求良好的方案。     

The effects of location-based tax policies on the distribution of household income: Evidence from the federal Empowerment Zone program

Location-based tax policies are redistributive as evidenced by their placement in distressed areas. However, the previous literature has focused on mean effects which can mask important effects that the program has on the distribution of households. Therefore, we extend the literature by studying changes in the entire household income distribution, in the context of the federal Empowerment Zone (EZ) program. We do not find evidence that the impoverished residents benefited from the program. Our findings are consistent with the areas becoming more attractive to high-income households. The improvements in the areas were concentrated in those portions of each zone that were relatively better-off prior to EZ designation. The results confirm the prior literature findings that the areas, on average, became more attractive but also suggest that the benefits of the program likely did not accrue to the lower-income residents of the EZ areas.     

政府监管对食品企业实施质量保证项目的影响分析

食品质量保证项目的实施对于维护消费者利益,提升产品质量具有重要意义。文章分析了政府监管下企业质量保证体系的现状,企业实施质量保障项目的动因及障碍,指出政府监管对影响企业实施食品质量保证项目具有关键作用,然后根据成本收益理论,从政府监管和企业效用方面分别进行分析,分析发现政府采取有效监管并对企业实施质量保证项目产生影响,需建立在一定条件之下,即政府监管的成本应接近于实施质量保证项目的效益水平与实际效益水平的差距;企业实施质量保证项目的净收益加上政府提供的补贴超过执行成本与补偿成本之差。此时,政府监管能促使企业实施质量保证项目。     

Sunn Pest Control Policies and Effect of Sunn Pest Damage on Wheat Quality and Price in Turkey

Wheat is a very strategic crop for Turkey as well as many other countries. Sunn pest is one of the most important pests of cereals particularly for wheat and barley in Turkey. Turkish governments have conducted sunn pest management (SPM) program, mainly based on chemical control since 1927. Neither farmers nor technical consultants have been satisfied with the SPM program conducted by the government. Therefore, the government purpose is to transfer SPM program to the farmers by providing technical information and equipments gradually. In this paper, effect of sunn pest damage on wheat price in Turkey is analyzed by using hedonic price function. The results show that sunn pest damage is the most effective factor and causes a significant decrease in wheat prices.     

Evaluating job-search programs for old and young individuals: Heterogeneous impact on unemployment duration

This paper exploits an area-based pilot experiment to identify average treatment effects on unemployment duration of treated individuals of two active labor market programs implemented in Portugal. We focus on the short-term heterogeneous impact on two subpopulations of unemployed individuals: young (targeted by the Inserjovem program) and old (targeted by the Reage program). We show that the latter program has a small and positive impact (reduction) on unemployment duration of workers finding a job upon participation, whereas the impact of Inserjovem is generally negative (extended durations). These results are robust to a wide variety of constructions of quasi-experimental settings and estimators. The identification of heterogeneous effects showed that the program results were less satisfactory for young workers, for those over 40 and for the less educated. Women also benefited less from the programs. The results seem to improve slightly for young workers in the 2nd semester of implementation, but they deteriorate in the medium term. The lack of wage subsidies in the Portuguese programs may explain the minor impacts obtained, when compared to similar programs.     

Managerial and program inefficiency for European meat manufacturing firms: A dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach

This paper proposes a dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach within the context of Data Envelopment Analysis to measuring input- and investment-specific managerial and program inefficiency for groups of firms characterized by different technologies. Dynamic managerial inefficiency refers to the distance to the firms’ group-specific dynamic frontier of best practices, and dynamic program inefficiency measures the difference between the group-specific dynamic frontier and the pooled dynamic frontier. The empirical application focuses on panel data of large meat processing firms in Eastern, Western and Southern Europe over the period 2005–2012. The results show that Eastern European firms have the highest dynamic managerial inefficiency for all inputs, but have the smallest values for dynamic program inefficiency. Western European firms perform worst in terms of program inefficiency for all inputs, while Southern European firms are the best with regard to dynamic managerial inefficiency. The results also reveal that regardless the dynamic inefficiency dimension considered, investments is the most inefficient input, followed by labor, and materials.     

MULTIPLE TESTING AND HETEROGENEOUS TREATMENT EFFECTS: RE‐EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF PROGRESA ON SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

The effect of a program or treatment may vary according to observed characteristics. In such a setting, it may not only be of interest to determine whether the program or treatment has an effect on some sub‐population defined by these observed characteristics, but also to determine for which sub‐populations, if any, there is an effect. This paper treats this problem as a multiple testing problem in which each null hypothesis in the family of null hypotheses specifies whether the program has an effect on the outcome of interest for a particular sub‐population. We develop our methodology in the context of PROGRESA, a large‐scale poverty‐reduction program in Mexico. In our application, the outcome of interest is the school enrollment rate and the sub‐populations are defined by gender and highest grade completed. Under weak assumptions, the testing procedure we construct controls the familywise error rate—the probability of even one false rejection—in finite samples. Similar to earlier studies, we find that the program has a significant effect on the school enrollment rate, but only for a much smaller number of sub‐populations when compared to results that do not adjust for multiple testing. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Private school vouchers and student achievement: A fixed effects quantile regression evaluation

Fundamental to the recent debate over school choice is the issue of whether voucher programs actually improve students' academic achievement. Using newly developed quantile regression approaches, this paper investigates the distribution of achievement gains in the first school voucher program implemented in the US. We find that while high-performing students selected for the Milwaukee Parental Choice program had a positive, convexly increasing gain in mathematics, low-performing students had a nearly linear loss. However, the program seems to prevent low-performing students from having an even bigger loss experienced by students in the public schools.     

The dynamic effects of an earnings subsidy for long-term welfare recipients: Evidence from the self sufficiency project applicant experiment

In the Self Sufficiency Project Applicant Experiment, new welfare entrants were informed that if they remained on public assistance for a year they would become eligible to receive a generous earnings subsidy offer. Those who satisfied the waiting period, and then left welfare and began working full time within the following year, were entitled to receive payments for up to 36 months whenever they were off welfare and working full time. A simple optimizing model suggests that the program rules created an unusual sequence of incentives: (1) to prolong the initial spell on welfare for at least 12 months to become eligible for the subsidy offer; (2) to lock in subsidy entitlement by finding full time work and leaving welfare in the 12–24 month period after initial entry; and (3) to choose work over welfare during the three years that subsidies were available. Consistent with these implications, comparisons between the experimental treatment group and a randomly assigned control group show that the program increased welfare participation in the first year after initial entry and lowered it over the following 5 years. We develop an econometric model of welfare participation and program eligibility status that allows us to separately identify the behavioral effects associated with the program rules. We find important responses to all three incentives, and that the program impact persisted after subsidy payments ended, although the effect decayed over time.     

A benefit/cost model to evaluate educational programs

Essentially, a benefit/cost model provides a procedure to evaluate a project in terms of its economic objectives. The analytic task is to determine the present value of all benefits less the present value of all costs, so that the projects which maximise this difference can be selected. There are private benefits (those appropriated by the persons directly involved in the project), and social benefits (those derived by others because of the project) that should also be taken into account when public policy is involved. Limitations of data preclude us from considering all the benefits, but in the present study of the benefits of an educational program, the following have been incorporated: (1) increases in earnings due to attaining higher levels of education; (2) benefits that accrue to the offspring of the present generation resulting from the influence of the educational attainment of parents on that of their children; and (3) the reduction in juvenile crime.

The model that is used to estimate these benefits includes thirteen separate equations. A major ingredient of all of these equations is represented by equation 4 in the model:

According to this equation, the private benefits of additional education are calculated as the difference between the expected economic returns with the program (designated T) and the expected economic returns without the program. Expected economic returns are estimated by the product of lifetime earnings for each level of education (V_i) times the probability distribution of obtaining the various levels of education (P_i), where i designates a level of education. These benefits will be different for individuals with different characteristics, designated ε.

The parameters of the model have been estimated by the use of Census data for earnings, and various special survey data for the probabilities of educational attainment and committing juvenile crimes. Essentially an educational program changes the probabilities of educational attainment, increasing the probability of graduating from high school and going on to college.

In this study, we applied the model to a Title I ESEA, program in San Francisco, California, during 1966–1967. Since the program was implemented in the elementary grades, we used the mathematics of Markov Chains to estimate the probabilities of eventual grade level attainment. We found that prior to the program, about half of the disadvantaged non-Negro males and considerably more than half of the Negro males could be expected to be dropouts. The model showed, however, that a Title I program in San Francisco costing $220 per child sufficiently raised test scores in elementary grades so that the expected dropout rates were reduced about 3 per cent for non-Negro and 2 per cent for Negro male pupils.