Traditional public schools versus charter schools: a comparison of technical efficiency

This paper addresses the now famous question of “Does Money Matter?†in public education. While the general consensus is that additional expenditures may improve educational outcomes, this is by no means a guarantee. Indeed, some studies indicate that a school's resources are not an important determinant of student performance. As Adkins and Moomaw (2003) suggest, the true relationship between resources and performance may become more apparent in a better specified model accounting for technical inefficiency. Along these lines, we attempt to measure the technical efficiency gains of charter schools over traditional public schools using a stochastic frontier production model.Charter Schools

Three essays on data contaminants, outliers and macroeconomic time series

This thesis illustrates the effects of outliers on forecasting and on simulated general equilibrium models. The first essay demonstrates that using robust-estimation techniques may greatly improve long-run autoregressive forecasts if the model to be estimated is generated from a heavy-tailed distribution. The second essay continues with a similar theme. It shows that in the context of random contamination models, automatic autoregressive selection criteria may be severely inaccurate. If the estimated model is misspecified, forecasting accuracy may be considerably reduced. Once again, robust-estimation techniques limit the influence of the aberrant data---in this case from the contaminating distribution. The third essay demonstrates that calibrations, and thus simulation results, for International Real Business Cycle models can change if aberrant data is accounted for by using robust-estimation techniques. In the particular case examined in this essay, there is more evidence for higher levels of persistence in technology than indicated by OLS

Three essays on horizontal regulation limiting alcohol sales

2022 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.This dissertation considers the impact of loosening horizontal regulations that limit competition among alcohol retailers on producers, retailers, and consumers. A recent trend towards the liberalization of alcohol retail has led many states, including Washington, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Utah, Kansas, and Colorado, to relax horizontal restrictions and allow for the sale of alcohol at grocery and convenience stores. Prior to the law changes, the sale of almost all alcoholic beverages was restricted to liquor stores. The new retail channels have created opportunities and challenges for alcohol producers and traditional retailers while creating more choices for consumers. The first chapter provides a brief overview of the alcohol industry and regulation in the U.S. The second chapter examines how the legalization of full-strength beer sales in grocery and convenience stores impacted craft brewers in Colorado, a core region for craft beer production. A statewide survey of the marketing strategies of craft breweries revealed that the new retail channels brought limited change to how craft breweries sell beer. Large breweries appear able to leverage their scale and brand recognition to gain access to the grocery stores, while smaller breweries face significant logistical and distribution barriers. Grocery stores captured a substantial share of craft beer sales at the expense of liquor stores. Sales of craft beer in convenience stores remain negligible. The third chapter investigates the effect of liberalized beer sales on Colorado liquor stores. While prior research has examined the effects of alcohol liberalization on liquor stores at the state-level, the impact may vary between rural and urban communities. I exploit a novel dataset containing firm-level foot traffic patterns from SafeGraph Inc. to investigate the impact of liberalizing beer sales on liquor store foot traffic using two empirical approaches: interrupted time series analysis and state space forecasting. The policy change caused liquor store foot traffic to substantially decline in urban counties, but had no impact in rural counties, suggesting that rural liquor store shoppers did not substantially change shopping behavior. I discuss the implications for alcohol retailers, producers, and consumers. In my final chapter, I broaden my analysis of the effect of liberalized alcohol sales on liquor stores to include two additional states: Oklahoma and Kansas. I exploit heterogeneity in state policy to determine whether different levels of alcohol liberalization (e.g. legalizing beer and wine sales outside of liquor stores vs legalizing beer sales only) impacts the magnitude of the effect on consumers' decision to shop at liquor stores. I estimate the effect in each state using firm-level foot traffic data from SafeGraph Inc. and a novel difference-in-differences estimator. I find that alcohol liberalization had a substantial negative impact on liquor store foot traffic in all states, however, my ability to differentiate the impact of different levels of alcohol liberalization was limited. Results can help policy makers weigh the costs to liquor stores against the benefit to consumers

Some Thoughts on Systematic Reading Readiness Instruction

Of the many reading readiness factors, some are known to be immune to, or at least not easily impacted by, the effects of schoolilng. These include students\u27 socioeconomic and backgrounds of experience, their mental age and IQ, and their basic motivation and achievement orientations. Other readiness factors are recognized as being amenable to training--in other words, as being teachable and learnable. Happly, these include four of the most significant ones; auditory discrimination, auditory comprehension, visual discrimination, and visual memory. In the remarks that follow, an attempt is made to review selected instructional procedures in each of these areas

Contribution au développement d'un système de base de connaissances pour l'ingénierie des injections de coulis en milieux fissurés

Durant les dernières années, la méthode d'injection de coulis a beaucoup évolué, s'est raffinée techniquement permettant l'amélioration de son efficacité et de sa reconnaissance dans le milieu du génie civil. Un des nombreux éléments de cette évolution est l'utilisation de l'informatique sur le terrain pour le contrôle et le suivi des opérations. Cependant, l'injection reste pour l'essentiel une méthode intuitive, basée sur l'expérience des concepteurs et des opérateurs. En effet, la conception finale d'une campagne d'injection est réalisée selon les caractéristiques du milieu qui représentent des données très variables. Aucun système n'est offert actuellement afin de concevoir un programme d'injection proprement dit tel que raisonné par un expert du domaine. Pourtant, l'optimisation des solutions, la réduction des coûts en chantier et l'élimination des choix inadaptés nécessitent une méthodologie, un devis spécifique concernant les composantes du coulis, les méthodes de travail, les conditions opératoires et ce, en fonction des données de terrain. Dans le domaine informatique, seuls les systèmes à base de connaissances permettent de travailler avec l'incertain et des données empiriques tels que rencontrés en injection. L'application de ces systèmes à l'injection de coulis semble une perspective très prometteuse. Précédant la création proprement dite du système à base de connaissances, le savoir-faire et les connaissances dans le domaine de l'injection doivent être structurés suivant une approche méthodologique. C'est-à-dire mettre sur papier le raisonnement, qui se fait de manière automatique ou inconsciente chez un expert du domaine, pour en arriver à une solution adaptée aux conditions du terrain. C'est cette partie du développement, appliquée aux milieux fissurés, qui a été étudiée au cours de cette thèse. Plus particulièrement, la fonction principale de l'approche méthodologique proposée est de définir certaines variables techniques (composantes du coulis, méthodes de forage et d'injection, paramètres de contrôle en chantier) selon les variables disponibles du milieu (rocher, structures de béton ou de maçonnerie) où seront exécutés les travaux. Ainsi, un des objectifs est la structuration des variables du milieu par une hiérarchisation suivant leur importance sur la qualité de l'injection et l'attribution de valeurs possibles à ces variables. Enfin, l'approche méthodologique a été validée à l'aide de cas pratiques où la candidate a intervenu personnellement en tant qu'experte et a été en partie intégrée dans un programme informatique rendant plus concrète et accessible la structuration des connaissances réalisée

Complexes mono-oxo de rhénium(V) avec des ligands dérivés de la quinoline et de la cystéine

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Method for compression molding articles from lignocellulosic materials

Flakeboard or particle board panels and other composite articles made from wood flakes or other particulate lignocellulosic materials having a relatively high internal bond and improved resistance to moisture are made from flakes or particles which have a moisture content of at least 15%. A catalyst capable of accelerating the reaction between the flakes or particles, the binder and water is applied to the flakes or particles prior to the addition of a moisture-tolerant particle board binder, such as an organic polyisocyanate. A mat of the resulting furnish is compression shaped under pressure and at a temperature less than 250° F. for a time period sufficient to form a composite article of the desired shape and/or dimensions.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1088/thumbnail.jp