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Assimilation Of Foreigners In Germany, Jan Schiebler Dec 2014

Assimilation Of Foreigners In Germany, Jan Schiebler

All Dissertations

The first chapter of this dissertation is using data from the German SOEP panel, and I analyze the assimilation of immigrants in terms of initial wage gap and assimilation rate. The analysis consists of a basic assimilation model, a cohort model, and a source country specific model. The source country specific model allows us to distinguish assimilation rates for different groups of immigrants. I find that despite having the highest education of all immigrants, East European immigrants have the largest wage gap. Secondly individuals immigrating from former East Germany have a larger wage gap than immigrants from Italy and Turkey. …


Corruption And Productivity, Chris Kelly Dec 2014

Corruption And Productivity, Chris Kelly

All Theses

Corruption is suggested to have a negative impact on productivity and thus growth. Several studies have studied the relationship closely, including Hall and Jones (1999) and Lambsdorff (2003). This paper seeks to build on their foundation and specify a new and robust model by looking at the effect of corruption controls on total factor productivity through a two-stage least squares regression. Since it is through public institutions that corruption manifests, also examined are differences between `inclusive' and `extractive' institutions. Also important is the degree to which a state is centralized. Extraction by way of corrupt institutions differs in highly centralized …


The Determinants Of The Salary In Nba And The Overpayment In The Year Of Signing A New Contract, Nuoya Li Dec 2014

The Determinants Of The Salary In Nba And The Overpayment In The Year Of Signing A New Contract, Nuoya Li

All Theses

Based on lots of previous research, the salary in National Basketball Association is determined by both personal characteristics and on-court performance. However, which kind of performance seems more important? Furthermore, does signing a new contract have any incentive or effect on the player's performance which makes the player be overpaid or underpaid in the year of signing the contract? And which kind of contracts and what kind of players tend to be overpaid? In my paper I introduce the on-court performance, personal characteristics and salary. Then I build a connection between them and run 2 regressions to analyze the determinants …


Male Marriage Wage Premium And Marriage Market Competition, Da Deng Dec 2014

Male Marriage Wage Premium And Marriage Market Competition, Da Deng

All Theses

Three main hypotheses are proposed to explain the male marriage premium. They are marriage selection hypothesis, male-female labor specialization hypothesis and simply discrimination. This paper tries to test if marriage selection hypothesis explains the male marriage premium. The effect of marriage selection, which means males with higher productivity have higher possibility to be chosen into marriage, should be positively correlated to the marriage market competition level in the area and thus in area with higher marriage market competition, a higher density of high productivity males should be observed among married males. On the other hand, the labor specialization is a …


The Depressing Of China's Economy: The Effect Of Rural---Urban Educational Inequality And Absence Of Land Market, Huayong Zhou Dec 2014

The Depressing Of China's Economy: The Effect Of Rural---Urban Educational Inequality And Absence Of Land Market, Huayong Zhou

All Dissertations

This paper argues that too many workers were placed in traditional agricultural sector in China's economy after 1978. I investigate two factors which hindered the labor mobility from agricultural and non-agricultural sector: (1) human capital dierence between rural and urban workers brought by China's urban oriented public educational policy; (2) absence of land property rights and a well functioning land market. I incorporate those two frictions into a two-sector dynamic macro model. I calibrate the model and show that it provides a good fit for the evolution of GDP per-capita and employment share in agriculture in the Chinese economy. I …


Essays In Public And Corporate Finance, Joseph Newhard Dec 2014

Essays In Public And Corporate Finance, Joseph Newhard

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Each of the three chapters of this dissertation makes a unique contribution to the fields of public finance or corporate finance. In chapter one I show that tax-price is increasing in workplace risk due to a positive wage-risk response that is observed in the labor supply price for hazardous industries. This result implies that, holding human capital constant, workers in more dangerous industries will demand a relatively smaller public sector. I test this with county-level data on fatality rates and support for the two major party candidates in the 2004 US Presidential election. Taking Republicans to represent the party of …


An Empirical Analysis Of Consumer Behavior In The Online Auction Marketplace, Calvin Salter Dec 2014

An Empirical Analysis Of Consumer Behavior In The Online Auction Marketplace, Calvin Salter

All Theses

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a unique data set pertaining to eBay auctions, in particular auctions of the first generation iPad. This analysis will give some interpretations about consumer behavior in the consumer electronics market on eBay, especially how the reputation of sellers and the shipping price that sellers charge affects the final selling price of an item. Other economics variables are analyzed to provide a broader picture of pricing determinants. Reputation is an important mechanism to consider in any market. However, reputation in the eBay market is particularly important because buyers do not interact with the …


Does Health Insurance Have Influence On Obesity?, Wenyao Zhou Dec 2014

Does Health Insurance Have Influence On Obesity?, Wenyao Zhou

All Theses

Obesity in the United States has been continuing increasing and cited as a major health issue in recent decades. Many researchers have studied its socio-economic cause, but very few studies center on the potential influence that health insurance has on obesity. In our common sense, health insurance reduces the money that we pay for health care and makes many treatments' cost affordable which we may choose to give up originally due to our financial situation. However, everything has two sides. The benefits from insurance also can lead people to change their choices and behaviors. As an insured, people may take …


The Path To The Top: How Career Paths Differ Between College And Non-College Major League Baseball Players, Gerald Arnette Iii Dec 2014

The Path To The Top: How Career Paths Differ Between College And Non-College Major League Baseball Players, Gerald Arnette Iii

All Theses

In route to the Majors, there are two major pathways. Talented players may either sign with a Major League Team to start their careers in the in the Minor Leagues, or play NCAA Baseball. Using ordinary least squares (OLS), the career differences between NCAA and Minor League players will be examined. Major League players whose careers began after 1985 are included and are divided into quintiles by the player's career mean. Dividing the players into quintiles increases the accuracy of the analysis because the career path varies according to player ability. The College Players are divided into eras with particular …


Essays In International Economics, Eyup Dogan Aug 2014

Essays In International Economics, Eyup Dogan

All Dissertations

This Dissertation consists of three chapters. These chapters use the power of the gravity model widely employed in the international economics literature. The first chapter investigates how economic integration agreements impact countries' local technology, wages, prices and market access, and how to aggregate these effects to compute the changes in countries' welfare. By examining 16 countries that have harmonized with the European Union since 1980, we show that almost all of the participating countries experience welfare gains as a result of signing integration agreements with the European Union. The objective of the second chapter is to explain the determinants of …


Consumer Valuation Of Fuel Economy Over Time: 2003-2012, Mehmet Sari Aug 2014

Consumer Valuation Of Fuel Economy Over Time: 2003-2012, Mehmet Sari

All Theses

This study is in-depth analysis of consumer valuation of fuel economy with the objective of assessing how that value has changed over time using ten years' of data covering 2003 to 2012 model year vehicle sales. Marginal willingness to pay for incremental change in fuel economy is estimated using hedonic price model for each model year. This value is then compared with the expected value of fuel savings of the increased fuel economy. The results of analysis show that valuations of fuel economy by consumers vary across vehicle classes and over time. The results of comparison indicate that marginal willingness …


Solving The Sovereign Debt Conundrum: Nml Capital V. Argentina: A Law And Economics Perspective, Brian Park Aug 2014

Solving The Sovereign Debt Conundrum: Nml Capital V. Argentina: A Law And Economics Perspective, Brian Park

All Theses

Sovereign bond contracts create unique legal problems for bondholders, issuers, and courts. Specifically, when a sovereign becomes insolvent, there is no international workout mechanism through which the sovereign's debt can be efficiently restructured. Absent a mechanism similar to bankruptcy for sovereigns, some bondholders may attempt to resist restructuring in an effort to obtain a legal judgment for the full value of their initial investment. Until recently, the legal status and rights of these holdout creditors has been uncertain. However, a recent Second Circuit decision upheld creditors' rights to hold out or resist a sovereign's attempt to restructure its debt. Of …


Extension Assessments Of Farmer Interest In And Uses Of Climate Forecasts In Florida, North Carolina, And South Carolina, Alan Hooper Aug 2014

Extension Assessments Of Farmer Interest In And Uses Of Climate Forecasts In Florida, North Carolina, And South Carolina, Alan Hooper

All Theses

Farmers can reduce the risks associated with climate variability by using climate forecasts. Extension personnel, as knowledgeable informants about farmers, can assess farmer interest in and uses of climate forecasts in agricultural decision making. Three surveys of extension personnel were conducted in Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina to assess, among other things, farmer interest in and uses of climate forecasts. Models of conditional probabilities are estimated with data from the surveys to show how extension assessments depend on characteristics of the extensionist and her clientele. An extensionist with more than six years of experience is more likely to think …


Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Wage Differentials Using Nonparametric Methods, Eric Makela Aug 2014

Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Wage Differentials Using Nonparametric Methods, Eric Makela

All Dissertations

The vast empirical literature on wage differentials reflects extreme interest in the subject from economists, social scientists, and policymakers alike. A review of the literature reveals two noticeable shortcomings. First, nearly all past studies have assumed a linear relationship between earnings and worker characteristics without consideration as to the potential specification error this imposes on their estimates. Second, researchers have generally focused on simple mean effects rather than estimating the effects of characteristics and wage rates on earnings distributions as a whole. Using data from the American Community Survey, this Dissertation addresses both issues with a simple nonparametric approach, and …


Essays On The Political Geography Of The United States Of America, Wesley Harris Aug 2014

Essays On The Political Geography Of The United States Of America, Wesley Harris

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The Correlation between income and voting is very different based on what part of the country a voter resides. In rural areas, there is a strong and negative correlation between income and probability of voting for a Democratic Presidential Candidate, while in urban areas, the correlation is much weaker. This paper shows that once you control for not only individual specific characteristics of voters but also geographic characteristics such as racial diversity, population density, and economic diversity, the regional differences between the effects of income on voting disappears. One potential explanation for this geographical significance is in urban areas the …


Utilization Of Savings And Credit By Household Characteristics In Uganda And The Implications For Linkage Banking Programs, Kathryn Oswald Aug 2014

Utilization Of Savings And Credit By Household Characteristics In Uganda And The Implications For Linkage Banking Programs, Kathryn Oswald

All Theses

The objectives of this thesis are to 1) estimate the overall distributions of household characteristics, 2) estimate the overall distributions of access to savings and credit products, and 3) determine the relationship between household characteristics and access to savings and credit products from various formal, semi-formal, and informal institution types. The goal of this thesis is to provide a direction for future linkage banking programs by finding which household characteristics should be targeted by this type of program. Panel data published by World Bank from the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) collected in 2005/06 and the Uganda National Panel Survey …


Cost, Quality, And The Community College Enrollment Decision, Caroline Swiger May 2014

Cost, Quality, And The Community College Enrollment Decision, Caroline Swiger

All Dissertations

Numerous studies model whether students enroll in higher education, but few have investigated how students decide where to attend. Even fewer studies have considered how community college students make this nearly first noncompulsory human capital investment decision. This research focuses on the enrollment decisions of students whose first postsecondary destination after high school graduation is one of the nation's public two-year colleges, a group that comprises nearly 40 percent of the undergraduates in American higher education (Knapp et al. 2011). The first chapter introduces the reader to community colleges with a brief history of the schools, their role in higher …


Essays On The Effect Of Early Investments On Children's Outcomes, Lyudmyla Sonchak May 2014

Essays On The Effect Of Early Investments On Children's Outcomes, Lyudmyla Sonchak

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The first chapter of this dissertation evaluates the impact of state-level Medicaid reimbursement rates for obstetric care on prenatal care utilization across demographic groups. It also uses these rates as an instrumental variable to assess the importance of prenatal care on birth weight. The analysis is conducted using a unique dataset of Medicaid reimbursement rates and 2001-2010 Vital Statistics Natality data. Conditional on county fixed effects, a doubling of reimbursement rates yields an additional prenatal visit for black disadvantaged mothers, an 11% increase. The magnitude of the effect is somewhat smaller for white disadvantaged mothers. However, the effect of an …


Socioeconomic Indicators Of Family Forest Owner Use Of Federal Income Tax Provisions, John Hatcher May 2014

Socioeconomic Indicators Of Family Forest Owner Use Of Federal Income Tax Provisions, John Hatcher

All Dissertations

Family forest owners control a majority of the South's forest land and nearly half of its growing stock. These owners are a diverse group with widely varied objectives for ownership and management. Many family forest owners manage their holdings for timber production objectives and thus, are concerned with issues such as reforestation incentives and tax treatment of timber revenues. Their actual knowledge of the tax aspects of timber management varies, with some owners unaware of the federal income tax provisions that apply to timber. This study uses econometric techniques to establish socioeconomic predictors of family forest owner use of seven …


An Empirical Study On Return To Education In Urban China, Jin Han May 2014

An Empirical Study On Return To Education In Urban China, Jin Han

All Theses

This study uses the most recent household survey data from 2007 to estimate return to education in urban China. Most existing literature are based on the data from 1990s and early 2000s and find that the rate of return to education in urban China has experienced a rapid increase. This study investigates whether the return to education is still in an increasing trend in later 2000s and how the return to education changed in recent years. The estimates of return in this study are lower than the findings in early 2000s. The higher education expansion started in 1999 made unbalance …


Analysis Of Market Reactions To Tarp Loans Repayment Evidence From Banks, Le You May 2014

Analysis Of Market Reactions To Tarp Loans Repayment Evidence From Banks, Le You

All Theses

This research presented here mainly focuses on analyzing investors' reactions toward banks' announcement of TARP repayment. Considering huge difference among sample banks, I split the result of abnormal return into subgroups based on banks size and financial performance. And then I conduct comparisons of each group to reveal the possible effects on market reactions casted by size and financial performance. To confirm my results on market reactions to TARP repayment, I perform two regression analyses on both full sample and subsample with cumulative abnormal return (CAR) as dependent variable and controlled variables as independent variables. Data over the period from …


The Effect Of International Trade On Income, Huseyin Erpek May 2014

The Effect Of International Trade On Income, Huseyin Erpek

All Theses

In a modern economy, trade among people, firms, and countries is indispensable. There is also a close connection between the levels of trade and income and how they affect our standards of living. Many economists and policymakers believe in a virtuous circle: the more trade, the more income or vice versa. In order to see the relationship between trade and income, we investigated whether international trade affects the level of income. We analyzed international trades and incomes of eighteen countries in Western Asia Region in a period of 1950 to 2010. We used panel data with 687 observations. Our analysis …


Self-Reported Health: Cross-Regional Differences In The United States, 2010, Dongqi He May 2014

Self-Reported Health: Cross-Regional Differences In The United States, 2010, Dongqi He

All Theses

Although self-reported health surveys are used widely by governments, hospitals and companies, there has been little cross-regional investigation of the reliability of these self-reported inventories. I demonstrate the distribution of the self-reported health rate and some factors that may affect the distribution using a National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) sample that focuses on respondent aged between 50 and 85 in year 2010. Then I examine the relationship between self-reported health and real health by constructing disability weights and find that respondents' self-reported health is generally consistent with their real health status, except for west region, suggesting that more future works …


Essays On Adaptation To Climate Change, Margarita Portnykh May 2014

Essays On Adaptation To Climate Change, Margarita Portnykh

All Dissertations

Climate change represents a formidable challenge for mankind going forward. It is important to understand its effects. In this thesis I study how people adopt to climate change and argue that these responses could go a long way towards mitigating the effects of climate change. I show that in some cases accounting for such adaptation could completely reverse the negative effects of climate change. In the first chapter of my thesis I consider the general impact of adaptation without focusing on a particular adaptation mechanism studying mortality in Russia. Using regional monthly mortality and daily temperature data, I estimate a …


Residential Energy Demand And Energy Efficiency, Zhixin Wang May 2014

Residential Energy Demand And Energy Efficiency, Zhixin Wang

All Dissertations

The first essay investigates the relatively higher energy efficiency (EE) investment rates in housing units of homeowners versus those of renters. In the empirical analysis, discrete choice models are employed to explore households' EE investment behavior. After testing three groups of implications derived from the initial analysis, the paper suggests that due to the existence of contracting costs, landlords/renters make efficient decisions to invest less in EE than homeowners due to renters' increased mobility and the characteristics of typical EE investments. The second essay analyzes households' choices of energy efficient dishwashers and the potential influence from those choices on dish …


Analyzing The Impact Of Key Factors On An Individual's Life Expectancy From 1991 To 2006 In U.S, Jing Xue May 2014

Analyzing The Impact Of Key Factors On An Individual's Life Expectancy From 1991 To 2006 In U.S, Jing Xue

All Theses

Since the 20th century, U.S. health spending has continuously increased, but the residents' life expectancy has not reached the average level of OECD countries. In this paper, hazard duration models are built; primary demographic, geographic, socioeconomic and healthcare factors are taken into consideration. The main purpose of this paper is to study the effect of these factors on an individual's risk of mortality and life expectancy. We build a general model and two gender-specific models. Females are affected by relative deprivation, a measure of their position in the income distribution, much more than males. The effect of family income is …


Have Sentence Enhancements Had A Deterrent Effect On Crime And What Are The Social Welfare Implications Of These Laws?, David May May 2014

Have Sentence Enhancements Had A Deterrent Effect On Crime And What Are The Social Welfare Implications Of These Laws?, David May

All Theses

In the early 1990s many states adopted some form of sentence enhancement law for repeat offenders. A three-strike law in many states, most notably California's, was a common form of these laws. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, this thesis demonstrates that sentence enhancement laws reduce property crime rates by 10 percent or more. A basic cost-benefit analysis, however, leaves open the question of whether social welfare is enhanced by sentence enhancements.