Targeting specific populations can be an arduous task in survey research. While the ability of researchers to use intricate sampling techniques to build a geographically representative population has increased over the last fifty years, the ability to parse together a representative subsample of...

The purpose of this study is to examine how the contextual factors interact with individual characteristics to explain the number of children ever born to women and their contraceptive use in Kenya in 1993 and 1998. The present study provides a new perspective and findings on this debate by...

The dissertation explores the problem of institution-building in nascent capitalist economies, with the emphasis on the role of culture in the genesis of new institutional forms. To help better understand the nature of the post-communist transformation in Russia, I address the questions of...

This thesis is comprised of three chapters. The first investigates the implications of industrial clustering for labor mobility and earnings dynamics. Motivated by a theoretical model in which geographically clustered firms compete for workers, I exploit establishment-level variation in...

This project develops and applies a cost-benefit analytic framework to evaluate a specific policy option facing the state of Maryland: To operate an early release program for adult inmates within a therapeutic boot camp facility, or a traditional prison that also emphasizes treatment. Drawing on...

Data collected through Web surveys, in general, do not adopt traditional probability-based sample designs. Therefore, the inferential techniques used for probability samples may not be guaranteed to be correct for Web surveys without adjustment, and estimates from these surveys are likely to be...

This paper focuses on the relationship between income inequality and state capacity in South Korea. Korea achieved rapid economic growth accompanied by equity from the 1960s to the mid 1990s. However, after the 1997 IMF financial crisis, income inequality in Korea increased dramatically. This...

Do mothers earn lower wages than women who remain childless even after they enter midlife? Although prior research has documented a "motherhood wage penalty" among women in their childbearing years, research has not examined whether the motherhood wage penalty persists into midlife. This...

This study uses theories of organizational resiliency and distributed structure to analyze the development and maintenance of postsecondary correctional education (PSCE) in North Carolina. The study uses bounded case study methodology to focus on the partnership between the North Carolina...

This dissertation explores the role of efficiency of redistributive institutions (ERI)on redistribution. The first substantive essay proposes a theoretical model to explain thelack of strong empirical evidence in favor of a positive relationship between incomeinequality and redistribution. This...