Administrative justice and the control of bureaucratic decision-making: A study investigating how decision-makers in local authority education departments respond to the work of redress mechanisms

This socio-legal thesis has explored the factors responsible for explaining whether and how redress mechanisms control bureaucratic decision-making. The research considered the three principal institutions of administrative justice: courts, tribunals, and ombudsman schemes. The field setting was the local authority education area and the thesis examined bureaucratic decision-making about admissions to school, home-to-school transport, and Special Educational Needs (SEN). The thesis adopted a qualitative approach, using interviews and documentary research, within a multiple embedded case study design. The intellectual foundations of the research were inter-disciplinary, cutting across law, socio-legal studies, public administration, organization studies, and social policy. The thesis drew on these scholarly fields to explore the nature of bureaucratic decision-making, the extent to which it can be controlled and the way that learning occurs in bureaucracies and, finally, the extent to which redress mechanisms might exercise control. The concept of control was studied across all its dimensions – in relation both to ex post control in specific cases and the more challenging notion of ex ante or structuring control. The aim of the thesis was not to measure the prevalence of bureaucratic control by redress mechanisms, but to understand the factors that might explain its presence or absence in a particular area. The findings of the research have allowed for a number of analytical refinements and extensions to be made to existing theoretical and empirical understandings. 14 factors, along with 87 supporting propositions, have been set out with the aim of making empirically derived suggestions which can be followed up in future research. In terms of the thesis’ contribution to existing knowledge, its comparative focus and its emphasis on the broad notion of control offered the potential for new insights to be developed. Overall, the thesis claims to have made three contributions to the conceptual framework for understanding the exercise of control by redress mechanisms: it emphasizes the importance of ‘feedback’ in relation to the nature of the cases referred to redress mechanisms; it calls attention to the structure of bureaucratic decision-making as well as its normative character; and it discusses how the operational modes of redress mechanisms relate to their control functions.

Mindfulness, autocompasión y estrés docente en el profesorado de Educación Secundaria

220 p.

Essays on Market Frictions and Securitization

This dissertation provides a novel theory of securitization based on intermediaries minimizing the moral hazard that insiders can misuse assets held on-balance sheet. The model predicts how intermediaries finance different assets. Under deposit funding, the moral hazard is greatest for low-risk assets that yield sizable returns in bad states of nature; under securitization, it is greatest for high-risk assets that require high guarantees and large reserves. Intermediaries thus securitize low-risk assets. In an extension, I identify a novel channel through which government bailouts exacerbate the moral hazard and reduce total investment irrespective of the funding mode. This adverse effect is stronger under deposit funding, implying that intermediaries finance more risky assets off-balance sheet. The dissertation discusses the implications of different forms of guarantees. With explicit guarantees, banks securitize assets with either low information-intensity or low risk. By contrast, with implicit guarantees, banks only securitize assets with high information-intensity and low risk. Two extensions to the benchmark static and dynamic models are discussed. First, an extension to the static model studies the optimality of tranching versus securitization with guarantees. Tranching eliminates agency costs but worsens adverse selection, while securitization with guarantees does the opposite. When the quality of underlying assets in a certain security market is sufficiently heterogeneous, and when the highest quality assets are perceived to be sufficiently safe, securitization with guarantees dominates tranching. Second, in an extension to the dynamic setting, the moral hazard of misusing assets held on-balance sheet naturally gives rise to the moral hazard of weak ex-post monitoring in securitization. The use of guarantees reduces the dependence of banks' ex-post payoffs on monitoring efforts, thereby weakening monitoring incentives. The incentive to monitor under securitization with implicit guarantees is the weakest among all funding modes, as implicit guarantees allow banks to renege on their monitoring promises without being declared bankrupt and punished.

Essays on Matching Markets and Their Equilibria

Matching theory and matching markets are a core component of modern economic theory and market design. This dissertation presents three original contributions to this area. The first essay constructs a matching mechanism in an incomplete information matching market in which the positive assortative match is the unique efficient and unique stable match. The mechanism asks each agent in the matching market to reveal her privately known type. Through its novel payment rule, truthful revelation forms an ex post Nash equilibrium in this setting. This mechanism works in one-, two- and many-sided matching markets, thus offering the first mechanism to unify these matching markets under a single mechanism design framework. The second essay confronts a problem of matching in an environment in which no efficient and incentive compatible matching mechanism exists due to matching externalities. I develop a two-stage matching game in which a contracting stage facilitates subsequent conditionally efficient and incentive compatible Vickrey auction stage. Infinite repetition of this two-stage matching game enforces the contract in every period. This mechanism produces inequitably distributed social improvement: parties to the contract receive all of the gains and then some. The final essay demonstrates the existence of prices which stably and efficiently partition a single set of agents into firms and workers, and match those two sets to each other. This pricing system extends Kelso and Crawford's general equilibrium results in a labor market matching model and links one- and two-sided matching markets as well.

Case study - balanced scorecard targets

Dissertação de Mestrado, Finanças Empresariais, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Os Parlamentos Nacionais como atores dessecuritizadores do espaço de liberdade, segurança e justiça da União Europeia : o caso da proteção de dados

A área da Justiça e Assuntos Internos é uma das áreas de mais rápido crescimento no contexto das políticas da União Europeia. As matérias nela incluídas – tradicionalmente consideradas áreas de soberania dos Estados-membros – suscitam com frequência questões ao nível da proteção de direitos fundamentais e da relação dos cidadãos com as autoridades estatais e supra-estatais. O Tratado de Lisboa atribui também aqui poderes inéditos aos parlamentos – tanto o Parlamento Europeu, como os parlamentos nacionais –, os quais, investidos da sua legitimidade representativa, podem agora desempenhar um papel fundamental na redução do défice democrático da UE, participando no desenvolvimento e aprofundamento das políticas europeias neste domínio, quer através de um escrutínio melhorado ex-ante e ex-post, quer colaborando na necessária e desejada aproximação da Europa aos cidadãos. O presente estudo avalia a evolução do Espaço de Liberdade, Segurança e Justiça à luz das teorias da securitização iniciadas pela Escola de Copenhaga e desenvolvidas pela Escola de Paris, com a finalidade de analisar o potencial de dessecuritização da agenda e das práticas através dos parlamentos. O caso da proteção de dados, reconhecido como direito fundamental, foi escolhido para aprofundar a análise, em função da utilização crescente pelas autoridades competentes de estratégias de intelligence e no contexto do elevado número de bases de dados policiais da União com características de interoperabilidade e do consequente aumento do recurso ao intercâmbio de dados de natureza pessoal, que ocorre no âmbito da cooperação operacional.

The export performance of the 2004 EU enlargement economies since the 1990s : a constant market share analysis

This study focuses the export performance of the 2004 EU enlargement economies between 1990 and 2013. The long time span analysed allows to capture different stages in the relationship of these new members with the EU before and after accession. The study is based on the Constant Market Share methodology of decomposing an ex-post country’s export performance into different effects. Two different Constant Market Share Analysis (CMSA) were selected in order to disentangle, for the exports of the new members to the EU15, (i) the growth rate of exports and (ii) the growth rate of exports relatively to the world. Both approaches are applied to manufactured products first without disaggregating results by sectors and then grouping all products into two different classification of sectors: one considering the technological intensity of manufactured exports and another evaluating the specialization factors of the products exported. Results provide information not only on the ten economies’ export performance as a group but also individually considered and on the importance of each EU15 destination market to the export performance of these countries.

Diseño de una guía para la evaluación del impacto económico de los proyectos de inversión ejecutados por la Alcaldía municipal de Santa Rosa de Lima, departamento de La Unión

Las Alcaldías Municipales, como entes responsables del bienestar y satisfacción de las necesidades de la población, tienen como una de sus actividades más importantes la ejecución de proyectos de inversión en diferentes áreas, tales como Infraestructura Vial, Edificaciones, Infraestructura Hidráulica e Infraestructura Eléctrica. Estos proyectos conllevan una serie de recursos, entre humanos, materiales y financieros para su realización, por ello se espera que un proyecto ejecutado provoque el mayor beneficio posible a la población ubicada en su área de influencia. Actualmente la Alcaldía Municipal de Santa Rosa de Lima no cuenta con un instrumento que permita medir el impacto económico real provocado por un proyecto, lo que impide identificar el nivel de éxito alcanzado. Para solucionar esta problemática, el presente trabajo de investigación persigue el objetivo primario de dotar a la Alcaldía Municipal de Santa Rosa de Lima de una Guía de Evaluación que permita medir el impacto real de los proyectos ejecutados, para lograr una eficiente toma de decisiones y mejorar la gestión municipal en beneficio de los habitantes del Municipio de Santa Rosa de Lima. Dado que los proyectos contemplan dos poblaciones (los miembros de la Alcaldía vinculados a la priorización, formulación y aprobación de los proyectos; y la población directamente beneficiada con la ejecución de aquellos) se desarrollaron dos instrumentos de investigación, la entrevista dirigida a los miembros de la Alcaldía y la encuesta dirigida a la población beneficiada con los proyectos. El universo de proyectos considerado para la investigación comprende 4 proyectos, uno por área (Infraestructura Vial, Edificaciones, Infraestructura Hidráulica e Infraestructura Eléctrica). Las principales conclusiones del estudio indican que los proyectos son necesarios para el desarrollo del Municipio, pero la forma actual de evaluación es incompleta porque no considera la evaluación ex-post, por lo que no se conoce el impacto real de un proyecto ejecutado. Ante esto, se hace necesario el diseño de una Guía de Evaluación que permita medir el impacto económico de los proyectos de inversión ejecutados por la Alcaldía. La Guía de Evaluación comprende criterios económicos, sociales y ecológicos de tal manera que se obtenga una evaluación ex-post integral de los proyectos y los resultados de la misma le permitan mejorar la toma de decisiones y la gestión municipal en beneficio de los habitantes del Municipio de Santa Rosa de Lima.

Metodología aprendizaje servicio en la cárcel modelo de Bogotá

351 p.

A Comparison Study of the English III/American Literature Success of African American High School Students and That of Students Whose Home Language is Haitian Creole

The purpose of the study was to compare the English III success of students whose home language is Haitian Creole (SWHLIHC) with that of the more visible African American high school students in the Miami Dade County Public Schools System, in an effort to offer insight that might assist educators in facilitating the educational success of SWHLIHC in American Literature class. The study was guided by two important theories on how students interact with and learn from literature. They are Reader Response Theory which advocates giving students the opportunity to become involved in the literature experience (Rosenblatt, 1995), and Critical Literacy, a theory developed by Paolo Freire and Henry Giroux, which espouses a critical approach to analysis of society that enables people to analyze social problems through lenses that would reveal social inequities and assist in transforming society into a more equitable entity. Data for the study: 10th grade reading FCAT scores, English III/American Literature grades, and Promotion to English IV records for the school year 2010-2011 were retrieved from the records division of the Miami Dade County Public Schools System. The study used a quantitative methods approach, the central feature of which was an ex post facto design with hypotheses (Newman, Newman, Brown, & McNeely, 2006). The ex post facto design with hypotheses was chosen because the researcher postulated hypotheses about the relationships that might exist between the performances of SWHLIHC and those of African American students on the three above mentioned variables. This type of design supported the researcher’s purpose of comparing these performances. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA), two way ANOVAs, and chi square tests were used to examine the two groups’ performances on the 10th grade reading FCAT, their English III grades, and their promotion to English IV. The study findings show that there was a significant difference in the performance of SWHLIHC and African American high school students on all three independent variables. SWHLIHC performed significantly higher on English III success and promotion to English IV. African American high school students performed significantly higher on the reading FCAT.

A Retrospective-Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship between Apportionment of Seat Time in Community-College Algebra Courses and Student Academic Performance

During the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase by postsecondary institutions in providing academic programs and course offerings in a multitude of formats and venues (Biemiller, 2009; Kucsera & Zimmaro, 2010; Lang, 2009; Mangan, 2008). Strategies pertaining to reapportionment of course-delivery seat time have been a major facet of these institutional initiatives; most notably, within many open-door 2-year colleges. Often, these enrollment-management decisions are driven by the desire to increase market-share, optimize the usage of finite facility capacity, and contain costs, especially during these economically turbulent times. So, while enrollments have surged to the point where nearly one in three 18-to-24 year-old U.S. undergraduates are community college students (Pew Research Center, 2009), graduation rates, on average, still remain distressingly low (Complete College America, 2011). Among the learning-theory constructs related to seat-time reapportionment efforts is the cognitive phenomenon commonly referred to as the spacing effect, the degree to which learning is enhanced by a series of shorter, separated sessions as opposed to fewer, more massed episodes. This ex post facto study explored whether seat time in a postsecondary developmental-level algebra course is significantly related to: course success; course-enrollment persistence; and, longitudinally, the time to successfully complete a general-education-level mathematics course. Hierarchical logistic regression and discrete-time survival analysis were used to perform a multi-level, multivariable analysis of a student cohort (N = 3,284) enrolled at a large, multi-campus, urban community college. The subjects were retrospectively tracked over a 2-year longitudinal period. The study found that students in long seat-time classes tended to withdraw earlier and more often than did their peers in short seat-time classes (p < .05). Additionally, a model comprised of nine statistically significant covariates (all with p-values less than .01) was constructed. However, no longitudinal seat-time group differences were detected nor was there sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that seat time was predictive of developmental-level course success. A principal aim of this study was to demonstrate—to educational leaders, researchers, and institutional-research/business-intelligence professionals—the advantages and computational practicability of survival analysis, an underused but more powerful way to investigate changes in students over time.

The Relationships between Elementary School Principals' Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Style and School Culture

The role of the principal in school settings and the principal’s perceived effect on student achievement have frequently been considered vital factors in school reform. The relationships between emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture have been widely studied. The literature reveals agreement among scholars regarding the principal’s vital role in developing and fostering a positive school culture. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between elementary school principals’ emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture. The researcher implemented a non-experimental ex post facto research design to investigate four specific research hypotheses. Utilizing the Qualtrics Survey Software, 57 elementary school principals within a large urban school district in southeast Florida completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), and 850 of their faculty members completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form 5X). Faculty responses to the school district’s School Climate Survey retrieved from the district’s web site were used as the measure of school culture. Linear regression analyses revealed significant positive associations between emotional intelligence and the following leadership measures: Idealized Influence-Attributes (β = .23, p = < .05), Idealized Influence-Behaviors (β = .34, p = < .01), Inspirational Motivation (β = .39, p = < .01) and Contingent Reward (β = .33, p = < .01). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed positive associations between school culture and both transformational and transactional leadership measures, and negative associations between school culture and passive-avoidant leadership measures. Significant positive associations were found between school culture and the principals’ emotional intelligence over and above leadership style. Hierarchical linear regressions to test the statistical hypothesis developed to account for alternative explanations revealed significant associations between leadership style and school culture over and above school grade. These results suggest that emotional intelligence merits consideration in the development of leadership theory. Practical implications include suggestions that principals employ both transformational and transactional leadership strategies, and focus on developing their level of emotional intelligence. The associations between emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, Contingent Reward and school culture found in this study validate the role of the principal as the leader of school reform.

The Relationship of Instructor Technical Literacy to the Academic Performance of Students in Career Academies

Career Academy instructors’ technical literacy is vital to the academic success of students. This nonexperimental ex post facto study examined the relationships between the level of technical literacy of instructors in career academies and student academic performance. It was also undertaken to explore the relationship between the pedagogical training of instructors and the academic performance of students. Out of a heterogeneous population of 564 teachers in six targeted schools, 136 teachers (26.0 %) responded to an online survey. The survey was designed to gather demographic and teaching experience data. Each demographic item was linked by researchers to teachers’ technology use in the classroom. Student achievement was measured by student learning gains as assessed by the reading section of the FCAT from the previous to the present school year. Linear and hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine the research questions. To clarify the possibility of teacher gender and teacher race/ethnic group differences by research variable, a series of one-way ANOVAs were conducted. As revealed by the ANOVA results, there were not statistically significant group differences in any of the research variables by teacher gender or teacher race/ethnicity. Greater student learning gains were associated with greater teacher technical expertise integrating computers and technology into the classroom, even after controlling for teacher attitude towards computers. Neither teacher attitude toward technology integration nor years of experience in integrating computers into the curriculum significantly predicted student learning gains in the regression models. Implications for HRD theory, research, and practice suggest that identifying teacher levels of technical literacy may help improve student academic performance by facilitating professional development strategies and new parameters for defining highly qualified instructors with 21st century skills. District professional development programs can benefit by increasing their offerings to include more computer and information communication technology courses. Teacher preparation programs can benefit by including technical literacy as part of their curriculum. State certification requirements could be expanded to include formal surveys to assess teacher use of technology.

Inclusividad y valores en educación

La educación se relaciona estrechamente con los valores. En la actualidad es frecuente el debate entre los que piensan que estamos en una sociedad sin valores y los que defienden la aparición de valores individualistas y económicos. Pero la formación en valores no es ajena al contexto social ni al modelo educativo. La tesis, Inclusividad y valores en educación, pretende poner en evidencia que los centros escolares inclusivos desarrollan valores de tipo social (respeto, sensibilidad social y trabajo en equipo) así como de tipo político (justicia, coherencia, verdad y responsabilidad). Para ello, se realiza previamente una revisión teórica sobre aspectos relacionados con los valores personales así como los principales agentes de transmisión. La educación inclusiva es aquella que reconoce, promueve y responde educativamente a la diversidad de todas y cada una de las personas, respalda el derecho a la educación, la equidad y la educación individualizada. Por ello, uno de los objetivos principales de este trabajo es identificar los valores que los adolescentes manifiestan en función del tipo de centro en el que se forman. Además del tipo de centro, se ha intentado dar respuesta a dos objetivos complementarios, analizar el tipo de valores dominantes de los estudiantes de Educación Secundaria en función del sexo y los valores del alumnado en función del lugar de procedencia personal y familiar. Respecto al diseño de investigación, se trata de un estudio de carácter ex-post-facto, donde no se manipula la variable independiente y se toman los grupos naturales de clase. La variable dependiente se observa a través de la búsqueda de los efectos que pudiera causar en ella la variable independiente. Se han realizado análisis descriptivo de las variables: valores y sus dimensiones e inclusividad y sus dimensiones; y análisis estadísticos para el estudio de las diferencias entre grupos. Se han adaptado dos instrumentos de medida. El Cuestionario de Valores (fiabilidad Alfa de Cronbach de 0,842), parte y actualiza la teoría de Eduard Spranger (1914), quien establece 9 tipos de valoración personal hacia la vida, vinculados al ámbito psicológico: económicos, estéticos, intelectuales, políticos, éticos, socio-afectivos, religiosos, cultura física y ecológicos...

Convivencia escolar en instituciones de educación secundaria: un estudio transcultural desde la perspectiva estudiantil

La convivencia escolar es uno de los componentes de la educación acerca del cual se ha desarrollado un extenso debate, por más de cincuenta años. La idea de establecer una definición operacional del constructo, acentúa la necesidad de desarrollar estudios comparativos transculturales que faciliten su entendimiento. De igual forma, se enfatiza en la escasez de instrumentos con propiedades psicométricas que permitan analizar las variables que definen la convivencia escolar. Por tanto, el presente estudio utilizó la metodología cuantitativa con un diseño de investigación transversal descriptivo de tipo no experimental (i.e., ex post facto) para analizar la convivencia en centros escolares en los países de Argentina, España, México y Puerto Rico, desde la perspectiva de las comunidades estudiantiles, con el fin de conocer sus diferencias, similitudes e identificar perfiles. Además, se empleó un instrumento cuyas características técnicas también se analizaron como parte de la investigación. Los resultados que se obtuvieron a través de los distintos análisis demostraron que, de manera general, los estudiantes valoran positivamente la convivencia en sus respectivos centros. Sin embargo, al comparar los tipos de agresiones entre los países, se encontró diferencia más alta, estadísticamente significativa, en las agresiones físicas que se cometieron en los centros escolares mexicanos. Asimismo, los estudiantes puertorriqueños fueron principalmente víctimas de agresiones verbales y psicológicas, mientras que los españoles se declararon mayoritariamente agresores verbales. Por otro lado, la variable normas para la convivencia escolar fue la que más influyó en el nivel de victimización y agresión. Las propiedades psicométricas que presentó el Cuestionario de Alumnos lo hacen un instrumento que podría ayudar al personal de los centros escolares a recopilar evidencias acerca de sus situaciones y, en consecuencia, desarrollar estrategias para mejorar la convivencia.