2010 Bright Ideas Conference Program

Event program for the 2010 Bright Ideas Conference at SFASU

2012 Bright Ideas Conference Program

Event program for the 2012 Bright Ideas Conference at SFASU

Write Free or Die: Vol. 03, No. 01

Student Writing, Quality vs. Quantity, Page 1 Upcoming Events, Page 1 Writing Committee Members, Page 2 Dangling Modifier, Page 4 Ask Matt, Page 5 Faculty Profile, Page 7 Grammar Box, Page 9 Past Perfect, Page 10 (WAC)ky Resources, Page 1

Towards Research Excellence for Development: The Research Quality plus (RQ+) Assessment Instrument

This document presents a framework and practical guidelines for assessing the quality of research for development. Referred to as the "RQ+"1 assessment instrument, it serves as a tool to guide the work of external evaluators hired by IDRC as part of the External Review process for prospectusbased programs."RQ+" is based on the premise that a credible, balanced and comprehensive assessment of the quality of research for development requires the consideration of elements beyond the research outputs only, or the use of conventional metrics. These additional elements include important aspects of the research process related to design, execution and the sharing of findings. For this reason, RQ+ indicates an approach that straddles output and research project assessment

Public Private Partnership for Equitable Provision of Quality Health Services

This report presents the findings of an independent Technical Review that focused on the promotion of Public Private Partnership (PPP) for equitable provision of quality health services in Tanzania. The report is meant to contribute to the Annual Joint Health Sector Review 2005. The ToR has been broadly defined, signifying the interest that many stakeholders currently take in PPP. The Review Team (RT), with two international and three national consultants, undertook efforts to consult stakeholders for prioritisation of the issues included in the ToR. The RT had access to a large number of official documents such as laws, by-laws, policy documents, guidelines, etc. and a wide range of studies on PPP set in Tanzania complemented by international literature. The RT undertook efforts to interview relevant persons and committees, associations, organisations, ministries, donors, etc. at the national level as well as in four districts, two rural and two urban. Nevertheless, time constraints did force the RT to limit itself and consequently not all actors that constitute the private health sector could be contacted. It is hoped that the Annual Joint Health Sector Review 2005 will allow a representative participation of all actors in the field of PPP to discuss this review and compensate for any issue or actor that was left out unintended

Information Disclosure Policies: Evidence from the Electricity Industry

A “third wave” of environmental policy has recently emerged that emphasizes information provision as an integral part of the risk mitigation strategy. While theory suggests information programs may correct market failures and improve welfare, the empirical effectiveness of these programs remains largely undetermined. We show that mandatory information disclosure programs in the electricity industry achieve stated policy goals. We that the average proportion of fossil fuels decreases and the average proportion of clean increases in response to disclosure programs. However, the programs also produce unintended consequences. Customer composition and pre-existing fuel mix significantly affect program response, suggesting that effective information disclosure policies may not be efficient.disclosure, information, fuel mix, electric utilities

Does the Quality of Training Programs Matter? Evidence from Bidding Processes Data

This paper estimates the effect of training quality on labor-market earnings using a Peruvian non-experimental training program, PROJOVEN, which targets disadvantaged youths aged 16 to 24 years. The identification of causal effects is possible because of two attractive features in the data. First, the selection of training courses is based on public bidding processes that assign standardized scores to multiple proxies for quality. Second, the program`s evaluation framework allows for the identification and comparison of individuals in the treatment and comparison groups six, 12, and 18 months after the program. Using difference-in-differences kernel matching methods, we find that individuals attending high-quality training courses have higher average and marginal treatment impacts. The external validity of our estimates was assessed by using five different calls of this program over a nine-year period.