Adoption, Stringency and Impact of Performance Management Systems: The Case of U.S. Public Higher Education

This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of performance management systems (PMS) by examining adoption, stringency, and impact of performance-based funding (PBF) in public institutions of higher education within the United States. The public sector has been under increasing pressure to be more accountable to stakeholders—that is, to perform better at lower cost. Yet, tracking the effectiveness of performance systems has been challenging, given the host of factors that affect results. Because of the growing use of performance systems, it is important to understand what factors affect the adoption and stringency of such systems, as well as their effectiveness. Currently, 39 American states have adopted PBF models to hold public institutions of higher education accountable for reaching state-mandated goals. To assess the stringency of PBF models, the present study develops a novel measure: the Performance Funding Uncertainty Index (PFUI). This index consists of five components reflecting the major elements of PBF models adopted across the nation. Analyzing 15 years of panel data from research institutions of higher education in 39 states the study finds that adoption and stringency of the performance systems are not determined by the same factors. While PBF adoption is more likely in politically conservative states with underperforming education systems, it does not spread in a geographical pattern as diffusion theory predicts. Republican-led state legislatures tend to implement more stringent PBF models. Yet, PBF systems do not gradually become more stringent over time. Rather, the systems reach a saturation point and eventually stagnate. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, the study also finds that the PBF adoption and operation failed to deliver on its main goal—that is, to increase graduation rates of public universities

Is Portugal really so arteriosclerotic? Results from a cross-country analysis of labor adjustment

Reputation indexes of employment protection have proven popular constructs in studies of the covariation of labor market institutions and macroeconomic outcomes. Portugal occupies an unenviable rank order in such measures of the stringency of employment protection. We critique this reputation in two ways: first, by offering a modicum of 'corrective' institutional detail on the nature of employment protection in Portugal; and, second, and more substantively, by offering a detailed analysis of the process of labor djustment in Portugal, benchmarked to other-country experience. The latter exercise – based on a two- and one-stage error correction model – reveals Portugal to have a very high speed of adjustment to deviations from the long-run employment-output equilibrium – a result that is clearly at odds with its allegedly sclerotic labor market. More in accord with received wisdom is the very smooth labor adjustment mechanism characterizing the United Kingdom. The most notable feature of the German results is the deterioration in that country's speed of adjustment in recent years. The Spanish case is distinguished by its erratic path of long-run adjustment. --

Random-set methods identify distinct aspects of the enrichment signal in gene-set analysis

A prespecified set of genes may be enriched, to varying degrees, for genes that have altered expression levels relative to two or more states of a cell. Knowing the enrichment of gene sets defined by functional categories, such as gene ontology (GO) annotations, is valuable for analyzing the biological signals in microarray expression data. A common approach to measuring enrichment is by cross-classifying genes according to membership in a functional category and membership on a selected list of significantly altered genes. A small Fisher's exact test $p$-value, for example, in this $2\times2$ table is indicative of enrichment. Other category analysis methods retain the quantitative gene-level scores and measure significance by referring a category-level statistic to a permutation distribution associated with the original differential expression problem. We describe a class of random-set scoring methods that measure distinct components of the enrichment signal. The class includes Fisher's test based on selected genes and also tests that average gene-level evidence across the category. Averaging and selection methods are compared empirically using Affymetrix data on expression in nasopharyngeal cancer tissue, and theoretically using a location model of differential expression. We find that each method has a domain of superiority in the state space of enrichment problems, and that both methods have benefits in practice. Our analysis also addresses two problems related to multiple-category inference, namely, that equally enriched categories are not detected with equal probability if they are of different sizes, and also that there is dependence among category statistics owing to shared genes. Random-set enrichment calculations do not require Monte Carlo for implementation. They are made available in the R package allez.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOAS104 in the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions in nine fields of activity to decrease SARS-CoV-2 transmission (Spain, September 2020–May 2021)

Background: We estimated the association between the level of restriction in nine different fields of activity and SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility in Spain, from 15 September 2020 to 9 May 2021. Methods: A stringency index (0–1) was created for each Spanish province (n = 50) daily. A hierarchical multiplicative model was fitted. The median of coefficients across provinces (95% bootstrap confidence intervals) quantified the effect of increasing one standard deviation in the stringency index over the logarithmic return of the weekly percentage variation of the 7-days SARS-CoV-2 cumulative incidence, lagged 12 days. Results: Overall, increasing restrictions reduced SARS-CoV-2 transmission by 22% (RR = 0.78; one-sided 95%CI: 0, 0.82) in 1 week, with highest effects for culture and leisure 14% (0.86; 0, 0.98), social distancing 13% (0.87; 0, 0.95), indoor restaurants 10% (0.90; 0, 0.95) and indoor sports 6% (0.94; 0, 0.98). In a reduced model with seven fields, culture and leisure no longer had a significant effect while ceremonies decreased transmission by 5% (0.95; 0, 0.96). Models R2 was around 70%. Conclusion: Increased restrictions decreased COVID-19 transmission. Limitations include remaining collinearity between fields, and somewhat artificial quantification of qualitative restrictions, so the exact attribution of the effect to specific areas must be done with caution.This work has been partially supported by GAIN (Galician Innovation Agency) and the Regional Ministry of Economy, Employment and Industry, Xunta de Galicia IN845D 2020/26 (Grant COV20/00604) through the ERDF (2014-2020). The research of DGU has been financed in part by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación under grants PID2021-122154NB-I00 and TED2021-129455B-I00, and by a 2021 BBVA Foundation project for research in Mathematics. He also acknowledges support from the EU under the 2014-2020 ERDF Operational Programme and the Department of Economy, Knowledge, Business and University of the Regional Government of Andalusia (FEDER-UCA18-108393).S

Scientists have favorable opinions on immunity certificates but raise concerns regarding fairness and inequality

Abstract During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected over 12,000 responses from a survey of scientists, who were asked to express their opinions on immunity certificates (also called “immunity passports”) as a potential instrument to lessen the impact of the crisis. Overall, we find that scientists perceive immunity certificates as favorable for public health (50.2%) and the state of the economy (54.4%) while one-fifth (19.1%) and one-sixth (15.4%) disagree. Scientists stipulate some concerns about fairness (36.5%) and inequality (22.4%) arising from implementation of immunity certification. We find some smaller differences among scientific fields, particularly between health scientists and social scientists, with the latter being slightly more positive about the effect of immunity certification. Scholars in the United States, including health scientists, are more likely to view the immunity certificates favorably and mention fewer concerns about this policy’s effect on fairness and inequality. Female scholars are significantly less in favor of immunity certificates, while scientists with more conservative political views hold more favorable opinions. Our results reveal that given the uncertainties during an early phase of a pandemic, scientists see scope for immunity certification to lessen the general societal impacts of the crisis

Most stringent test of null of cointegration: A Monte Carlo comparison

To test for the existence of long run relationship, a variety of null of cointegration tests have been developed in literature. This study is aimed at comparing these tests on basis of size and power using stringency criterion: a robust technique for comparison of tests as it provides with a single number representing the maximum difference between a test’s power and maximum possible power in the entire parameter space. It is found that in general, asymptotic critical values tends to produce size distortion and size of test is controlled when simulated critical values are used. The simple LM test based on KPSS statistic is the most stringent test at all sample sizes for all three specifications of deterministic component, as it has the maximum difference approaching to zero and lesser than 20% for the entire parameter space

Determinants of government consumption expenditure in Kenya

Government expenditure is a very instrumental demand tool in achieving economic stability and policy makers frequently use it to influence certain economic outcomes. Government expenditure majorly consists of two components: investment and consumption components. Many researchers concede that higher level of government consumption expenditure is growth retarding and therefore undesirable. The aim of the study was establish the economic, structural and political and institutional determinants of government consumption expenditure in Kenya. Government consumption expenditure in Kenya has grown relatively faster from Ksh 31.2732 billion in 1963 to Ksh 2107.2 billion in 2018. There is still scanty literature on this topic and yet consumption expenditure accounts for more than 55% of Kenya’s total public spending every year. Because Shonchoy (2010) panel analysis suffers from cross-sectional heterogeneity and fails to be informative about Kenya’s consumption spending, it became a motivation to examine the causes for the rise in Kenya’s government consumption expenditure. Studies done by Kanano (2006) explained the reasons behind growth in gross expenditure, while Maingi (2010) and Abwoga (2013) focused on the effects of public consumption expenditure on economic growth in Kenya. However, their studies did not attempt to explain the causes of its growth. Oketch, T. O. and Linge, T. (2018) examined the determinants of recurrent public expenditure in Kenya but, however, reduced their scope and narrowed on salaries/wages, social contribution and non-wage related variables such as rent & utilities, travelling expenses, hospitality and other consumables and that focus makes this study deviate from their study. In light of this arguement, this study followed quantitative and correlational studies design to establish the reasons for rise in consumption expenditure in Kenya and drawing from the public choice approach, three models were used:(i) Economic model; consisted of gross domestic product, foreign aid, inflation rate, foreign direct investment, interest rate, trade openness and external debt stock (ii) Structural model; consisted of urbanization rate, young population (below 15 years) and old population (above 64 years) (iii) Politico-institutional model; comprised of market liberalization, political liberty, political cohesion, corruption and elections. Published data obtained from World Bank, Country Data Portal (2018) were used. Following cointegration test results on the time series data for the period 1963-2017, VECM, VAR and OLS estimations techniques were adopted. The results were that in the long-run, while 1USD increase in GDP causes USD1.3 increase in government consumption expenditure, a unit increase in inflation rate would cause USD1.8 increase in consumption expenditure. However, 1USD increase in foreign direct investment and external debt stock causes, respectively, USD 0.07 and USD 2.6 drop in government consumption expenditure. Corruption, democracy and political instability have positive effects on government consumption expenditure in Kenya. Urbanization and population dynamics jointly affect the variable in the short-run. This study recommends that the government should strengthen its institutions that are mandated to deal with graft cases, create peaceful political setting at all times and ensure a friendly environment to foreign investor

Is Portugal really so arteriosclerotic? Results from a cross-country analysis of labor adjustment

Reputation indexes of employment protection have proven popular constructs in studies of the covariation of labor market institutions and macroeconomic outcomes. Portugal occupies an unenviable rank order in such measures of the stringency of employment protection. We critique this reputation in two ways: first, by offering a modicum of 'corrective' institutional detail on the nature of employment protection in Portugal; and, second, and more substantively, by offering a detailed analysis of the process of labor adjustment in Portugal, benchmarked to other-country experience. The latter exercise – based on a two- and one-stage error correction model – reveals Portugal to have a very high speed of adjustment to deviations from the long-run employment-output equilibrium – a result that is clearly at odds with its allegedly sclerotic labor market. More in accord with received wisdom is the very smooth labor adjustment mechanism characterizing the United Kingdom. The most notable feature of the German results is the deterioration in that country's speed of adjustment in recent years. The Spanish case is distinguished by its erratic path of long-run adjustment

The Concept of Stringency for Test Comparison: The Case of a Cauchy Location Parameter

Strategies for comparison of alternative tests do not receive much attention in econometrics. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of stringency and illustrate it in the context of a very simple hypothesis testing problem. Systematic use of this concept can be very helpful in evaluating relative performance of tests