Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Urbanization and Advantages of Large Cities: Three Essays on Urban Development in China(2016) Li, Zhi; Ding, Chengri; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation, consisting of three essays on the urban development in China, provides empirical evidence for three related but different topics: urban growth pattern, agglomeration effects in production (production-side benefits of cities), and agglomeration effects in consumption (consumption-side benefits of cities). The first essay examines the growth pattern of Chinese cities at prefectural level or above by applying a non-parametric analysis. The kernel regression reveals the coexistence of a divergent growth pattern for large cities and a convergent growth pattern for small cities. The analysis comparing two different kinds of population data shows that excluding migrant workers in the count of urban population would underestimate the size and growth of large cities, which implies that rural-urban migrants move to large cities disproportionately. The results suggest that policies trying to control the growth of large cities have been ineffective in the past two decades. Using plant-level data in China, the second essay finds that the mechanisms of agglomeration economies vary with industry groups, and there is strong evidence supporting that regional industrial dominance would limit localization economies and diminish the productivity of firms. However, the negative effects of regional industrial dominance seem to be mitigated by a large and diverse urban environment. The conclusion points to the productivity-enhancing effect of agglomeration, and a competitive industrial structure is crucial for the success of the on-going industrial transformation and upgrading in China. Using survey data from China, the third essay reveals a positive relationship between city size and various categories of household consumption expenditures in China. By addressing several potential econometric issues, the analysis finds strong evidence of the agglomeration effect in consumption, which points to the important role that large cities play in enhancing household consumption. Taken together, this dissertation concludes that large cities in China have been dominant during the rapid urbanization and tend to keep growing disproportionately. Large cities in China are more productive and provide higher consumption amenities than small cities. Therefore, a market-driven urbanization process would be more efficient and effective for enhancing both productivity and consumption in China.Item Essays on the Relationship Between Income and Life Satisfaction in the United States(2015) Swenson, Kendall; Graham, Carol; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation presents three essays concerning the relationship between income and life satisfaction in the United States. The first essay examines whether the receipt of income assistance from public and private sources predicts life satisfaction. It identifies a negative association between the receipt of income assistance from government and private sources and life satisfaction, and finds that the association remains significant even after controlling for family income and other factors. The negative association between the receipt of income assistance and life satisfaction continues to exist across most of the income distribution, although the correlation is more uncertain for respondents in the very lowest income quartile. Another noteworthy finding from this essay is that income assistance from non-governmental sources is just as predictive of lower life satisfaction scores as is assistance from government means-tested welfare programs The second essay examines whether consumption is a better predictor of life satisfaction than is income. The essay finds that income and consumption are both predictors of life satisfaction, but that several other factors are even more predictive of well-being. In the full regression models health, marriage, and unemployment are much more predictive of life satisfaction than either income or consumption. The third essay examines the link between childhood family incomes and future life satisfaction. To analyze this topic, longitudinal data from the PSID is used to obtain mean family incomes when people were ages 13 to 17 between 1968 and 1994 and examines the life satisfaction of these individuals as adults in 2011. The primary finding from this essay is that the family incomes of youths are not strongly predictive of their future life satisfaction scores.Item STAYING POWER: THE MAINSTREAMING OF THE HARD-CORE PORNOGRAPHIC FILM INDUSTRY, 1969-1990(2009) Johnson, Stephen Patrick; Gilbert, James B; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When publicly screened hard-core pornographic films first appeared in theatres, in 1969, they generated less than $1 million in annual revenue. By 1990, revenue approached $600 million. By 2000, estimates placed U.S. revenue between $5 and $15 billion. This dissertation examines the hard-core industry's growth by concentrating on changes in the mode of consumption as well as noting changes in the films themselves. And it ties the story of the industry and its customers to the intersecting narratives of the Supreme Court, anti-pornography activism, and the Federal government. The industry provided a product desired by a large and growing number of Americans. Videotape technology moved hard-core film from the highly contested public space of the motion picture theatre to the more easily defended private space of the home. The more effective the films were in arousing viewers and the more secret their consumption, the more the industry grew. The nature of the debate over hard-core pornography favored those defending consumption. While opponents of hard-core emphasized pornography's putative harm, evidence for these claims never rose above the anecdotal level. Finally, successful prosecution of hard-core films became increasingly untenable. Even when Federal and state prosecutions increased during the 1980s, a grudging cultural toleration of hard-core films meant prosecutors could no longer rely upon juries to return guilty verdicts. The hard-core industry, buoyed by success and confident that it understood their consumers, employed various publications to create a sense of community, assure customers that the best films were the most sexually arousing, and that arousal was both right and proper. Masturbation is crucial to understanding the industry's growth. Because of an 18th-century medical masturbation panic that reached its peak in the United States in the late 19th-century and endured, 20th-century American courts grappled with an obscenity doctrine predicated upon a barely acknowledged, enduring belief in the dangers posed by masturbation. Ironically, hard-core film became, after the shift to videotape, an astonishingly convenient and effective fantasy tool. The hard-core pornographic film industry grew in direct relation to its ability to supply a product that facilitated private desire and masturbation.