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
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Item Examining the Influence of Selectivity on Alumni Giving at Public Universities: A Dynamic Panel Modeling Approach(2009) Simone, Sean Anthony; Titus, Marvin A; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the influence of institutional selectivity on alumni giving among public research universities, using a conceptual framework based on the economics of nonprofit organizations. This study introduces a dynamic panel modeling technique, which addresses many limitations that more traditional statistical models have when applied to panel data with lagged or "dynamic" variables. Using panel data from 147 public universities over 11 years, the analysis for this study compares the results from ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects, and instrumental variable (2SLS) regression with a dynamic fixed effects panel model using a procedure proposed by Blundell and Bond (1998). This dynamic panel modeling technique allows researchers to simultaneously discern the relationship between variables and take into account the possible endogeneity and omitted variable biases, as well as determine conditional convergence or divergence of the values of key observed variables over time.
The results indicate that ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and instrumental variable regression models yield different coefficients, standard errors, and probability values for hypothesis tests. Results from the most robust technique, a dynamic panel fixed effects model using system generalized method of moments, did not indicate that a statistically significant relationship exists between student selectivity and alumni giving. However, the presence of a law or medical program and institutional wealth were statistically significant. Additionally, there is no evidence of convergence or divergence of alumni giving rates.
The results from this analysis have a number of implications. First, the statistically insignificant relationship between selectivity and alumni giving challenges a major paradigm in the literature regarding the influence of this measure of prestige on alumni giving. Future studies should test the influence of other conceptions of prestige and donative support, using dynamic panel modeling, to see if the results are similar. Second, this analysis shows that statistical models prominent in the literature can yield misleading results when applied to panel data. Researchers, therefore, must take great care in using the most appropriate technique when examining dynamic panel data. Finally, this analysis indicates that more complex modeling techniques are required to study alumni giving over time.
Item A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Student Support Services Program(2009) Pacchetti, Ed M.; Rice, Jennifer K.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Document: A BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM Ed M. Pacchetti, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation Directed by: Jennifer K. Rice, Ph.D. This study extends previous research on the Student Support Services program, a federal program that works to ensure college retention and graduation for low-income and first generation students, by examining the benefits and the costs of higher-impact SSS projects. Higher-impact SSS projects are defined as such because the graduation rates of their participants exceed the national graduation rate for other low-income and first generation students who have not participated in the SSS program. Applying a methodology used in other benefit-cost analyses of education programs, this study explores how the benefits over 40 years following participation in higher-impact SSS projects exceed the costs of these projects. This study focuses on benefits and costs to society. The benefit measures utilized in this study include higher income, lower health care costs and lower costs of crime. The cost measures include grant award costs, institutional project contributions, Pell Grant costs and the costs of Stafford Loan subsidies. The findings show that at three discount rates of 3%, 7% and 10%, the benefits of higher-impact SSS projects consistently exceed their costs. In addition, in most estimates of the future value of benefits generated by higher-impact SSS projects, the benefits generated by these projects are significant enough to provide for the grant award costs of all SSS projects at 4-year colleges and universities in project year 2005-2006, the year that is the focus of this study. This study's findings have implications for future research. Because the benefits of higher-impact SSS projects are significant, future research should focus on identifying the components of these projects responsible for success and incorporating these components into less successful projects in an attempt to increase the college graduation rates of all SSS projects. However, this study emphasizes that benefit-cost analysis should be one of many measures used to evaluate SSS projects and determine program success.Item Allocating State Funds for Public School Library Media Programs: A Case Study of Education Policymaking in Maryland(2007-11-30) Bailey, Gail; Malen, Betty; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The research had three purposes: to determine what factors account for the legislative decision outcomes resulting in the allocation of state funds for Maryland's school library media programs in 1998 and the denial of continued funding in 2001; to test the capacity of an integrated policymaking model to account for legislative victory and defeat; and to add to literature on state education policymaking in Maryland and school library media funding decisions in state arenas. The study employed an integrated framework developed by combining Kingdon's (1995) multiple streams model with Mazzoni's (1993) power and influence model to examine each legislative decision making event as a political process influenced by the power of the players and shaped by developments in each of the multiple streams. In combination, these two frameworks helped to analyze how efforts to secure dedicated state funding for school library media programs succeeded in 1998 and failed in 2001. The investigator employed an exploratory case study to render a provisional interpretation of the two legislative decision outcomes regarding state funds for school library media programs. The case study produced findings that point to two significant factors that impacted the ability of advocates to secure categorical state funding for school library media programs in 1998 but not in 2001: (1) the key role played or not played by the governor and (2) contextual forces that either enabled or constrained advocacy efforts. The study demonstrates the utility of the integrated model in explaining state education policymaking. Kingdon's multiple streams concept provides broad analytic categories as manageable units of analysis and Mazzoni's power and influence categories provide the analytic tools required to map out the dynamics in each stream. The study includes implications for those who may want to influence education policy decisions in state arenas.Item The Effect of State Merit-Based Financial Aid on College Price: An Analysis of Florida Postsecondary Institutions(2007-06-11) Steele, Patricia E; Perna, Laura W; Rice, Jennifer K; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study extends two bodies of research, one that analyzes institutional price response to student financial aid and a second that examines the effect of state merit-based aid programs on institutions, by examining changes in tuition and fees, room and board charges, and institutional aid expenditures following the introduction of the Bright Futures merit-based aid program in Florida. Applying an economic theoretical framework to postsecondary education pricing, this study explores how institutions respond to the introduction of a new aid subsidy and how this response varies for different types of postsecondary institutions. Using descriptive and ordinary least squares regression analyses that include year fixed-effects and other controls, this study uses institutional data for the 1993-1994 to 2000-2001 academic years from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the Florida Bright Futures program to explore postsecondary price changes in Florida relative to a control group of institutions in selected southeastern states. The findings show that the introduction of Bright Futures was associated with an increase in tuition and fees at public four-year and public two-year institutions in Florida as well as an increase in room and board rates in public four-year institutions in Florida but no change in price at private four-year institutions in Florida. Some caution is warranted in interpreting these findings to mean that the aid subsidy alone caused the increase in price because the analyses show no change in price at institutions in Florida with the highest concentration of Bright Futures scholarship recipients. One explanation for the change in price in public sector institutions is that Florida had such low tuition rates relative to the U.S. average that Florida policymakers acted to close the price gap with surrounding states. The absence of a significant price change at private four-year institutions in Florida and institutions with high concentrations of Bright Futures recipients may suggest that these institutions responded to the increased flow of scholarship recipients by becoming more academically selective rather than by increasing their price. The study's findings have implications for policy and research. Specifically, the findings highlight the need for states to monitor the effect of state financial aid programs on prices in each sector in order to determine what portion of the subsidy is captured by students and what portion is captured by institutions. The study also identifies directions for future research.Item Foreign Portfolio Investment and the Financial Constraints of Small Firms(2005-05-27) Knill, April Thompson; Maksimovic, Vojislav; Finance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This essay examines the impact of foreign portfolio investment on the financial constraints of small firms. Utilizing a dataset of over 195,000 firm-year observations across 53 countries, I examine the impact of foreign portfolio investment on capital issuance and firm growth across countries and firm characteristics, in particular size. After controlling for firm-, industry- and country-level characteristics such as change in foreign exchange rate, share of market capitalization, relative interest rates and investment climate, I find that foreign portfolio investment helps to bridge the gap between the amounts of financing small firms require and that which they can access through the capital markets. Specifically, I find that foreign portfolio investment is associated with an increased ability to issue publicly traded securities for small firms in all nations, regardless of property rights development. For those small firms that do issue, the form of capital appears to be debt. Since small firms often rely heavily on bank lending, I also test for potential increases in credit for small firms utilizing the bank lending theory of monetary transmission. Results show significantly decreased short-term debt and increased long-term debt, supporting the contention that bank debt maturity to these firms has increased. This transition to longer-term debt could also be as a result of the increased public debt securities these firms are more able to access. The overall increased access to capital only leads to value-enhancing growth at the firm level in nations with more developed property rights. I find that the volatility of foreign portfolio investment is significantly negatively associated with the probability of small firms issuing publicly-traded securities as well as their firm growth, in periods when their domicile nations are deemed less 'creditworthy.' Results underscore the significance of a good financial system that minimizes information asymmetry and enhances liquidity, as well as property rights and country creditworthiness, to instill confidence in foreign investors.Item Four Decades of Change in U.S. Public Education: Essays on Teacher Quality and School Finance(2003-11-24) Corcoran, Sean Patrick; Evans, William N; Schwab, Robert S; Oates, Wallace E; Rice, Jennifer K; EconomicsSeveral decades of research in the economics of education have shown that both the quality and quantity of school resources are important for student outcomes. In this dissertation, I present two essays that address changes in both the quality and quantity of resources available to public schools over the past four decades (1960 2000). First, in chapter two I examine how the propensity for high test-scoring females to enter the teaching profession has changed over a forty-year period of occupational desegregation. While it has long been presumed that improved labor market opportunities for women have adversely affected the quality of teachers (over three quarters of whom are female), there is surprisingly little evidence measuring the extent to which this is true. In this essay, I combine data from five longitudinal surveys of high school graduates spanning the years 1957 to 2000 to evaluate this claim. I find that while the test score ranking of the average new female teacher has fallen only slightly over this period, the likelihood that a female in the top decile of her high school class entered teaching has plummeted. Next, in chapter three I examine the impact of rising within school district population heterogeneity and income inequality on local per-pupil expenditure and public school participation rates. Like the nation at large, the populations of school districts in the United States have become significantly more diverse, in (among other dimensions) racial and ethnic background, schooling, and income. Using a merged panel of school district demographics and financial data for 8,700 unified school districts over the 1970 to 2000 period, I look at the effects of this rising heterogeneity on the support for local public schools. I find that rising within-district income inequality is associated with greater per-pupil expenditure, a result consistent with a median voter model in which a lower tax price to the median voter results in greater per-pupil spending. Greater fractionalization in race and educational attainment appears to reduce per-pupil expenditure and increase enrollment in private schools.