Thai, Khi V.

This dissertation analyzes administrative discretion in public policy implementation in application of a new framework of integrative approach to administrative discretion developed from deficiencies of the citizen participation, representative bureaucracy, and private-interest groups democracy frameworks. The new framework holds that public agencies use discretion to integrate in decision making views of elected authorities, private-interest groups, public-interest groups, and other groups that seek to influence implementation. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy is used as the case study, and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is the implementation setting. The dissertation answers the following question: How integrative of group views was DOE’s discretionary decision making in the implementation of NCLB? This research applies a structured content analysis method that consists of content analysis and a content analysis schedule (see Jauch, Osborn, & Martin, 1980). Using a Likert question, the dissertation developed six integration levels of DOE’s discretionary decision making from not at all integrative to extremely integrative and found that most decisions were very integrative.

Addressing the current homeland security challenges requires scholars,
practitioners, elected officials, and community partners working in unison to mitigate the
hazards confronting first responders. Built on public choice theory, this research
addressed a specific component of the emergency preparedness matrix: the most
preferred fire service organizational design. The fire department organizational designs in
this study included a Florida county, city, and independent special control fire district
(ISFCD) that serve residents on a full-time platform. The concurrent embedded
methodology used attempted to unearth which organizational design achieves economies
of scale based on quarterly emergency service calls: the centralized county model or the
decentralized city/ISFCD models. This study was an inquiry into the centralization versus
decentralization argument, with emphases on fire service scale economies and inter-local
service agreements Using multiple linear regression modeling accompanied by face-to-face
interviews with the respective fire chiefs, this research showed that the county and
ISFCD achieve scale economies over 44 quarters, fiscal years 2004-2014. Moreover, the
interviews uncovered that response times were the driving factor behind instituting
voluntary inter-local service agreements between the three fire departments. Other
positive benefits from the service agreements include an increase in personnel and scene
safety, dispatch center protocol enhancements, multi-company/jurisdictional training,
overtime savings on large-scale disaster incidents, and trust building.
The implications of this research for the scholarly and practitioner community
include a better understanding of the technical and allocative efficiencies within the fire
service arena. Melding public choice theory with strands of inter-local service agreement
literature provides policymakers and scholars with a template for uncovering the fire
service production/provision narrative. Though the centralization-decentralization
argument is not solved within the research scope presented, the future narrative as
uncovered in the research requires a citizenry inclusion. The future public choice
prescriptions regarding fire service consolidation requires not only statistical modeling,
but a normative democratic ethos tone incorporating multiple stakeholders with the
citizens’ concerns at the forefront.

This study is about advocacy coalitions' efforts at influencing the debate
surrounding the formulation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).
Policy change as utilized in the dissertation views the adoption of CERP as a change in
government policy on Everglades restoration that was achieved through competing
stakeholders and coalitions. As one of the largest environmental restoration projects ever
undertaken in the U.S. and possibly the most complex in terms of reconciling stakeholder
views and understanding the science of restoration, the federal government and the state
of Florida were keen on providing a formal participatory process for stakeholder input.
The formulation process leading up to the adoption of CERP forms a unique study in our
understanding of coalition behavior, their efforts at influencing governmental policy and
the way the deliberative and participatory process worked. The major purpose of the
dissertation is to examine the perceived effectiveness of stakeholders and coalitions,
specifically the environmental and agribusiness coalitions, to influence policy change in
Everglades restoration. The study looks at how policy change was achieved within the formal institutions established and other infonnal channels developed through
cooperation and consensus.
Utilizing the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), interest group and coalition
building literature, I hypothesize that the influence of coalitions in bringing about policy
change is affected by five factors: internal factors such as (I) heterogeneity of
stakeholders' beliefs, (2) membership size and external factors including (3) the presence
of policy brokers, (4) change in the systemic governing coalition, and (5) presence of
multiple coalitions. These factors are assumed to have contributed to altering or
changing the dynamics and the direction of discourse in the policy process. Data was
drawn from interviewing stakeholders who are members of the environmental and
agribusiness coalitions and from secondary sources.
The study shows that both the environmental and agribusiness coalitions perceive
their efforts to be effective and instrumental in impacting the events and issues in the
restoration process and particularly in influencing policy change. The study also reveals
that the deliberative and participatory process, although sometimes contentious, has been
a successful mechanism in allowing stakeholders to influence the formulation of CERP.

This dissertation examines factors with influence on the organizational cultural competence of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems. The purpose of this study was to draw on theories of representative bureaucracy and transformational leadership to assess cultural competence in Emergency Medical Services systems from the perspective of EMS leadership, within careful consideration of the external environment in which EMS systems operate.

The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of government spending on capital
investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 on GDP
and employment growth. This research utilized US quarterly data from 2003 QI to 2013
QII. In the first part the research used variables from the Keynes economic model and
utilized two-stage least square analysis to assess the effect of government spending on
GDP. The results from the regression analysis indicate that an increase of one dollar in
government spending increases GDP by 1.569 dollars. The researcher found that the
general government spending multiplier was 1.9. The coefficient for government
spending in the Recovery Act was 0.383, implying that for every one dollar in
government spending, Recovery Act spending on capital investments contributed 0.383
dollars.

Oakland (1994) defined fiscal disparities as "differences in fiscal effort required to achieve a particular fiscal outcome" (p. 199). Fiscal disparities among states create inequity, because the welfare of citizens across the nation is substantially affected by where they live. Since no systematic study about interstate fiscal disparities has been conducted, this dissertation attempts to fill this gap by examining (1) the trends of interstate fiscal disparities in the period of 1970 to 1992 and (2) the determinants of interstate fiscal disparities. The model used in this dissertation is developed after a thorough examination of the literature on fiscal disparities. The dependent variable is interstate fiscal disparity as measured by the difference between a state's general expenditure per capita and the mean general expenditure per capita of the fifty states, and by the standard deviation of the general expenditures per capita of the fifty states. Two groups of independent variables are identified from the literature: state fiscal capacity variables (state personal income per capita, state own-source revenue per capita, and federal grant-in-aid per capita) and environmental cost variables (percentage of state dependent population, percentage of state population living in metropolitan areas, percentage of state population living below the poverty line, and percentage of state population enrolled in public schools). Hypotheses that correspond to the model are tested using cross-sectional regression analyses and a time series analysis. There are three related findings about the trends of interstate fiscal disparities. First, interstate fiscal disparities increased over the period of 1970-1992. Second, interstate fiscal disparities increased in a faster pace during 1980-1992 than during 1970-1979. Third, interstate fiscal disparities increased to a much larger degree in public welfare, hospitals and health than in other state functions. There are two major findings about the determinants of interstate fiscal disparities. Both cross-sectional analyses and time series analysis found state own-source revenue per capita, federal grants-in-aid to state per capita, and previous year's state general expenditure per capita to be statistically related to interstate fiscal disparities. Time series analysis also found that the percentage of state population living in metropolitan areas, the percentage of state population living under the poverty line, and the percentage of state population enrolled in public schools are statistically significantly related to interstate fiscal disparities. The dissertation concludes with policy recommendations that can be used to address interstate fiscal disparities.

Comparative performance measurement is an anathema to most government officials. While internal comparison with national benchmarks or other similar agencies is an accepted management analysis tool, public comparisons are deemed too politically risky for all but a few governments, agencies, and non-profits. To avoid the unappealing prospect of being unfavorably ranked versus comparable agencies, governments cite two primary objections. First, performance measurement is considered an inexact science, subject to manipulation of input data and outcome scores that affects comparisons. Second, comparative measurement is considered unfair by governments because they maintain each operates in a unique environment of demographic and physical characteristics beyond their control which have significant effects on their ability to deliver quality services. This research addresses both of these objections to comparative performance measurement. It uses trained observer ratings, an accepted objective measurement system, and utilizes a scoring scheme that results in a ratio variable outcome score appropriate for comparisons and statistical analysis. The model was employed for external random testing of street appearance across 30 governments in Broward County, Florida, eliminating the possibility of manipulation by those being measured. In addition, the research evaluates the effects of twelve independent variables, which measure characteristics of each community's unique environment. The research question is whether the effects of the external environmental factors on the composite street rating scores are so significant as to make comparisons meaningless, as government officials contend. The findings of this research do indicate that white, educated, affluent residents tend to live in cities with better streets and that environment is an important element in street appearance. Further, the standard deviation scores indicate that the more diversity in the environment of a city, the more diversity in the quality of its streets. Nonetheless, the conclusion of the research is that although environment is significant, the methods and findings of the model can be employed to control for environmental effects in future comparative performance efforts to assuage the concerns of governments being compared.

This dissertation introduces a new definition of a corporate tax shelter as any deduction taken by a corporation that was not intended as a tax expenditure by Congress. Unlike predecessor definitions of tax shelters that utilize laundry lists of indicators, this new definition effectively excludes tax code abuses, yet allows for the employment of legitimate corporate loopholes. Under this new paradigm of a tax shelter, a simple macro-framework utilizing only readily-available data and public information produced results estimating the impact of corporate tax shelters on federal receipts similar to estimates produced by other researchers using complicated econometric models that rely heavily on confidential tax return information.

Auditing has become both a vital activity that validates correct operations of an accounting system and is an important tool to measure financial and public accountability. Preauditing implementation in Kuwait since 1994 has been designed to ensure and improve compliance with budgetary laws and regulations by governmental units before budget execution. The purpose of this study is to examine whether compliance has been improved in those governmental units that apply preauditing and to determine the factors that affect compliance with budgetary laws and regulations. The research framework is based on a literature review of governmental auditing, enforcement research, and the principal-agent model. Data for this study were obtained from survey questionnaires from financial auditors and managers in governmental units that apply preauditing and those that do not yet apply it. Also, interviews with key public officials added objective and documentary data about preauditing. Factor analysis was employed to summarize the main research independent variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the association and relationship between the independent factors and compliance with budgetary laws and regulations (dependent variable) and test the research hypotheses. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that four factors had a statistically significant association with the dependent variable. These factors were organizational enforcement of penalties, the financial managers' ethics and discretion, political enforcement by the National Assembly, and organizational control and accountability. About 50% of the variation is explained by the factors in the regression equation. The survey results indicate that preauditing has been successful in leading to improvement in compliance in those governmental units that apply preauditing. This finding is supported by the results of the objective data about the governmental units that applied preauditing for three fiscal years. On the other hand, a one way ANOVA analysis showed no significant statistical difference in regard to improvement in compliance with budgetary laws and regulations between governmental units that apply preauditing and those that do not. Based on the study's findings, practical recommendations are presented to improve compliance and the role of preauditing, as well as suggested directions for future research.

The active physician members of the Broward County Medical Association were sent a mail survey requesting information about their perceptions of and experiences with the managed care industry. Currently, as gatekeepers, physicians are the implement of the managed care system. From an organizational perspective, the role of implementer is a critical position and physicians are directly affected by and affect the operations of managed care as a healthcare delivery system. Even though managed care has the beneficial aspects of controlling healthcare costs and an emphasis on preventive care, it still appears that physicians perceive the managed care industry quite negatively. Because managed care does not appear to be a transitory phenomenon and is rapidly expanding in both the private and public sectors, it is important to identify the aspects of the managed care industry at are associated with the negative perceptions of physicians. The study focused on such topics as changes in the physician's level of satisfaction with both patients and practice that have been caused by managed care, the financial incentives used by MCOs to limit treatment and the ethical conflicts that these incentives can create for physicians, whether physicians need to participate in managed care to maintain their financial viability, the presence of gag clauses in physician contracts, the physician-patient relationship and how it is affected by the managed care environment, patient continuity of care, whether managed care should be regulated by the government, whether physicians have been penalized by or involuntarily disenrolled from MCOs, and whether physicians played by managed care rules or "game the system" or bent managed care rules to improve patient outcomes. This study also reviewed the professional and demographic variables that may influence differences between perceptions and experiences. The results indicate that there are few between group differences based on gender, practice location and years in practice. There are more differences based on race, type of practice, type of medical training, location of medical training, and percentage of practice income based on managed tare contracts. There appear to be many significant between group differences based on percentage of patients in managed care and number of managed care affiliations.