Organizational Unit:
School of Public Policy

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Micropolitans in Georgia
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006-07-12) Mahalia, Nooshin Ahangar
    The introduction of micropolitan areas as an official statistical category has raised questions about this intermediate category of formerly rural places. This thesis explores the conventional idea that small urban areas lack economic and social autonomy and that their development relies on proximity to metropolitan areas. Three central questions will examine the concept of autonomy among Georgia micropolitans with regard to income, industry and demographic structures. Workforce commuting patterns show micropolitans in the northern part of the state have less autonomy than those located in Southern Georgia. Policy should reflect these differences, address the reliance on declining manufacturing sectors, and concerns about poverty and education. Profiles of Georgia micropolitans and case studies of three micropolitan cities offer a baseline for policy makers and future researchers. The information provides the framework for questions about the dependence on metropolitans, the ability to provide jobs for the workforce and potential for economic development. Methods include regression analysis and a comparative case study of Georgia micropolitans with a developing Dutch region. The case of the Twente region highlights strategies to transform an old industrial area into an innovative hotspot with an educated workforce.
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    Nanotechnology enterprise in the United States: structure and location
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006-04-12) Bhaskarabhatla, Ajay Sivaram
    This thesis investigates the structure and location of the nanotechnology enterprise in the United States. Nanotechnology merits focus because of the high degree of innovative activity associated with it and due to its promise for regional economic development. I consider the particular sectoral and technical characteristics of nanotechnology. Building on insights from theories of high-technology industrial evolution, this thesis examines contrasting hypotheses about the location of nanotechnology firms. I find that regional academic R and D, availability of venture capital promote entry of nanotechnology firms.
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    Changing from the silo model to the horizontal layers model in public policy regulations: the implications and potential for the telecommunications industry
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-12) Spencer Logan, Lemuella C.
    The end of the Twentieth Century and the start of the Twenty First Century has been a tumultuous time for the Telecommunications Industry. Even as it moves forward to embrace the new technologies the Industry finds itself embroiled in issues of governance. The Industry finds itself in a dilemma since innovations increase at a rate faster than the laws can be changed and these render its existing laws and policies to be in some cases obsolete and inappropriate for the reality of the present. In the past, the United States of America has relied on vertically integrated top down laws and methods of regulating all the different parts in its Telecommunications Industry. These laws are contained in the different numbered Titles of this Countrys Legal Codes. Since the inception of these laws, emphasis was placed in creating and documenting policies structured by industry, sector and type of content. This form of regulation is usually referred to as the Silo Method. However, in recent years, especially in the regulation of the Telephony industry, the method of law and rule formulation moved from content regulation to one in which the technologies are getting regulated in what has been described as a Layers Method. This paper first considered whether the Silo Method of regulation is in actuality the same as using the Horizontal Layers method and showed that this is the case. Then it determined that Enhanced Services are the same as Basic Services and that Telecommunications Services are the same as Information services and showed that given that the pair sets as noted were the same, it went on to conclude that all these services were essentially the same. While studying to some detail the technologies of VoIP, the paper also showed that VoIP although an Internet technology is similar to traditional telephony, and is both a Telecommunications Service and Information Service based on the definition as given in the law as well as the technologies that are used and that as a result of this, the current regulatory environment for this service with regards to telephony is inconsistent. It concluded that Telecommunications policies though now adequate may need to be modified.
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    The Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership at Georgia Tech: Factors Influencing Successful Partnership
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-08-25) Berman, Brecca L.
    The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), one of the nations leading engineering schools, has limited institutional history of collaboration with surrounding K-12 schools. K-12 outreach is not a part of Georgia Techs mission, though recent years have seen greater outreach activities. Campus organizations have sponsored tutoring, academic schools have sponsored recruitment fairs and the College of Engineering has established a partnership with a high school. Two offices within Georgia Tech, the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and the Center for Education Integrating Science, Math and Computers (CEISMC), have been working to expand and deepen Georgia Techs K-12 outreach through a National Science Foundation grant program combining graduate student development and K-12 outreach. Through this program, the Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP), CETL and CEISMC seek to build meaningful and lasting relationships between Georgia Tech and local high schools. Given the novelty of mutually rewarding relationships between Georgia Tech and local high schools, this study attempts to account for differences in outcomes of the (STEP) program over its first three years. STEPs Project Officers at Georgia Tech developed dyadic relationships with high school personnel with the same programmatic goals in mind. However, at the end of three years, some of these pairings were more mutually rewarding. A narrative analysis of these relationships is presented through case studies and tested against a literature-based logic model depicting factors likely to lead to successful, inter-organizational partnerships.
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    The Economic Role of Universities in Medium-Sized Cities: A Case Study of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-07-18) Zecher, Sara Elizabeth
    The literature on knowledge economies does not offer analysis specific to medium-sized cities despite their distinct economic characteristics. More specifically, the role of universities in medium-sized cities is not documented. This study attempts to add to the body of knowledge on both medium-sized cities and knowledge economies by conducting a case study of the current efforts of a medium-sized city in Georgia. The Augusta-Richmond MSA and the Medical College of Georgia are analyzed. It is hypothesized that the university is the major driver to initiating the construction of a technology transfer infrastructure within the city, a necessary component to a knowledge economy. It is found that the Medical College of Georgia and the Georgia Medical Center Authority, a state entity, are the initiators of developing a technology transfer infrastructure while the local government has made less effort in contributing to the process. Findings show that the lack of visibility of both the Medical College of Georgia and the Augusta region, lack of existing industry in the region, lack of financial resources and lack of venture capital and entrepreneurs in the region are the greatest barriers to efforts to transition the region into successful knowledge-based economy.
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    Impacts of Discipline Mobility on Scientific Productivity
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-05-18) Kim, Euiseok
    This study examines curriculum vitae (CV) data from 447 scientists and engineers at academic research centers in the United States, ranging from post-doctoral researchers to full professors and research directors in order to figure out the pattern of scientific discipline trajectory and the relation of the scientists discipline mobility to productivity. This study shows that natural sciences have highest percentage of scientists who have the same bachelors degree field as their highest degree field and higher degree of mobility across the disciplines is negatively associated with their productivity. On the contrary, for life sciences, higher degree of mobility across the disciplines is positively associated with scientific productivity.
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    Social Networks and Its Uses in Collaborative Strategies
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004-07-27) Burks, Stephen D.
    In this paper, there are three policy scenarios that are explored and discussed. The first scenario comes from a dataset where little information is known about individual nodes and connection weights are placed based on the economic theory of increasing or constant returns. The second dataset was derived by taking a group of academic researchers (without any knowledge beyond co authorship alliances) working on a joint venture and exploring what combined research ventures would be most beneficial for future research outputs. More information concerning individual nodes and connections is given in this dataset, but the weights on connections are still developed according to rules of economic theory. The final set of data is developed by viewing the same co-authorship alliances as in the second scenario, but instead the data is examined more thoroughly and more accurate maps of authors connection weights are generated.
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    Science Government policy Korea
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004-06-07) Kim, Gouk Tae
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    Citizenship and Constructing Sense in Voting
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004-04-19) Changeau, Donald
    This is a study of the ways in which citizens construct sense in the voting booth while voting. The experimental design is a pretest posttest control group. The driving theory is that citizens want to convince themselves that they have made sense of the information presented to them. This is their singular value. The reason why this is upheld as the singular value is because without the capacity to construct sense in the voting process, voters would otherwise feel disenfranchised (i.e. deprived of the right to vote) and subsequently feel alienated (i.e. deprived of the rewards that can come from voting). Citizens will be given an opportunity to present bills; they will evoke certain keywords and phrases. The citizen will later evoke varied terminology when confronted with voting patterns from "Senators". The test for the citizen in this experiment will be to remove those Senators who are voting at random and provide reasons for either reelection to or removal from office. There are two anticipated results: 1) Senators voting in random patterns will be removed from office in an equal or lesser proportion than remaining Senators, and 2) responses to non-random voting patterns will evoke lesser variation in terminology employed.
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    Innovation and technology trajectories in a developing country context: evidence from a survey of Malaysian firms
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004-04-12) Hegde, Deepak
    This thesis investigates the relevance of currently used firm-level innovation concepts in a developing country context. I draw on the results of a comprehensive survey of manufacturing and service firms instrumented to assess the knowledge- capabilities of the economic sectors in Malaysia. The thesis presents a discussion of the extant literature on firm-level innovation and tests hypotheses regarding the impact of firms organizational structure, strategies, resources and environment as determinants of product, process and organizational innovations. These are examined from the classifying framework provided by Keith Pavitts model of technology trajectories to better understand the nature of innovation and its production determinants. I find that Malaysian firms -- across all sectors -- show a greater propensity to make process and organizational innovations as against product innovations. Soft factors like training, knowledge management practices and collaboration with market actors are used as significant inputs in their innovation process.