Vassar College Digital Library

Vassar Scholarship

Vassar Scholarship, the institutional repository formerly known as Digital Window, reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community.  It provides access to a variety of collections, including senior theses and projects across a wide range of disciplines.

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Vassar Scholarship

Do NGOs make a difference: a case study of rural Rajasthan

Publication Date
2008-July-01
Document Type
working paper
Authors
Johnson-Lans, Shirley
Department or Program
Economics Department
Document Type
Working Paper
Abstract

An empirical analysis of effects of NGO interventions on health and education of women and girls in rural Rajasthan employs an original micro data set to address criticisms of NGO effectiveness. Isolating the effects of the NGO's programs from personal...

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Vassar Scholarship

Mixture models and convergence clubs

Publication Date
2008-January-01
Document Type
working paper
Authors
Johnson, Paul A.
Maria Grazia Pittau and Roberto Zelli
Department or Program
Economics Department
Document Type
Working Paper
Abstract

In this paper we argue that modeling the cross-country distribution of per capita income as a mixture distribution provides a natural framework for the detection of convergence clubs. The framework yields tests for the number of component distributions that are...

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Vassar Scholarship

The economics of a centralized judiciary: Uniformity, forum shopping and the Federal Circuit

Publication Date
2008-May-01
Document Type
working paper
Authors
Atkinson, Scott -- Alan C. Marco, and John L. Turner
Department or Program
Economics Department
Document Type
Working Paper
Abstract

In 1982, the US Congress established the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) as the sole appellate court for patent cases. Ostensibly, this court was created to eliminate inconsistencies in the application and interpretation of patent law across...

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Vassar Scholarship

The political economy of conditionality: an empirical analysis of World Bank Enforcement

Publication Date
2008-January-01
Document Type
working paper
Authors
Kilby, Christopher
Department or Program
Economics Department
Document Type
Working Paper
Abstract

Traditional aid conditionality has been attacked as ineffective in part because aid agencies - notably the World Bank - often fail to enforce conditions. This pattern undermines the credibility of conditionality, weakening incentives to implement policy reforms. The standard critique...

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