Digital Commons Network^™

Essays On Growth And Input Misallocation In China, Wenya Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters that contribute to the study of input misallocation and TFP growth in China.

In Chapter 2, I compare the misallocation of intermediate goods to those of capital and labor, which have been extensively studied in the literature. To measure misallocation, I compute the dispersion of marginal products of intermediate goods across firms, and the potential output gains by eliminating this dispersion in China Industrial Enterprise Survey (CIES) data. Although the within-industry dispersion of marginal products of intermediates is smaller than that of capital and labor, gross output and value added gains from reallocating intermediate …

Essays On Debt In Macroeconomics, James G. Partridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My dissertation consists of three chapters, where the common theme among them is debt and saving. My work contributes to our understanding of how debt markets function for entrepreneurs, large corporations and households.

The first chapter studies how entrepreneurs used personal borrowing to fund their businesses during the Great Recession. One of the defining characteristics of this period was a “credit crunch” during which the supply of credit dropped for all borrowers. I show that changes in the finances of entrepreneurs between 2007 and 2009 are consistent with entrepreneurs using personal assets to secure lending for their businesses and overcome …

Essays On Policies Related To Immigration, School Choice, And Crime, Georgy Orlov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of three policy-motivated chapters in the area of applied microeconomics. In chapter 1, I estimate the impact of English-language courses on the wages of new immigrants. I develop a model of immigrants' investment in language skills which may affect wages directly, as well as change the proportion of pre-immigration skills transferred into the host-country economy. Using unique panel data, LSIC, I find that attending language courses for six months leads to a 0.3 standard deviations gain in language skills, corresponding to an average wage increase of 11.7 percent. The increase in the total return to language skill …

Data-Driven Public Diplomacy: A Critical And Reflexive Assessment, Hamilton Bean, Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

This essay presents a critical and reflexive assessment of contemporary efforts

to innovate the measurement and evaluation of public diplomacy. Analyzing a

recent and pivotal report called “Data-Driven Public Diplomacy,” it explains

how the institutional and ideological residue of the Cold War underwrites

these initiatives in the context of American activities in its contemporary “War

on Terror.” Inspired by Marx’s concept of the fetish—n under-represented

conceptual approach to public diplomacy research—he authors critique

the thinking of public diplomacy scholars and officials, arguing that both an

omnipresent past and a powerful form of technological fetishism are discernible

in the “Data-Driven Public …

The Impacts Of Negative Interest Rates On The Eurozone Economy, Cynthia Wang

2017 Undergraduate Awards

This thesis evaluates the effects of a monetary policy shock in the Eurozone. The investigation stems from the recent implementation of negative interest rates in select European countries and Japan. Impulse response functions are used to compare variable responses when not influenced by negative rates versus when significantly impacted by this monetary policy. The inconclusiveness in the comparison between these two models resulted in failing to reject the hypothesis that negative interest rates have yet to be successful in the Eurozone. However, any economy is a complicated environment that cannot be modelled precisely, as numerous other factors play a role …

2017-21 The Redistributive Role Of Government Social Security Transfers On Inequality In China, Meng Cai, Ximing Yue

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-23 China's Urban Gender Wage Gap: A New Direction?, Jin Song, Terry Sicular, Bjorn Gustafsson

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-02 Modeling Enrollment In And Completion Of Vocational Education: The Role Of Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Skills By Program Type, Leslie S. Stratton, Nabanita Datta Gupta, David Reimer, Anders Holm

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-08 The Potential Output Gains From Using Optimal Teacher Incentives: An Illustrative Calibration Of A Hidden Action Model, Nirav Mehta

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-17 New Patterns In China's Rural Poverty, Shi Li, Peng Zhan, Yangyang Shen

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-16 Public Policy And Long-Term Trends In Inequality In Rural China, 1988-2013, Hisatoshi Hoken, Hiroshi Sato

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-15 The Increasing Inequality Of Wealth In China, 2002-2013, John Knight, Shi Li, Haiyuan Wan

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-22 Social Policy Reforms And Economic Distances In China, 2002-2013, Qin Gao, Sui Yang, Fuhua Zhai, Yake Wang

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-19 Consumption Inequality In Urban China, 1995-2013, Qingjie Xia, Shi Li, Lina Song

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-24 The Effects Of Minimum Wage On Wage Distribution In Urban China: Evidence From The Chip Data, Xinxin Ma, Shi Li

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-18 Unequal Growth: How Household Incomes And Poverty In Urban China Have Developed Since 1988, With An Emphasis On The Period From 2007 To 2013, Bjorn Gustafsson, Sai Ding

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-27 How Heterogeneous Is Productivity? A Comparison Of Gross Output And Value Added, Amit Gandhi, Salvador Navarro, David Rivers

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Technological Fetishism And Us Foreign Policy: The Mediating Role Of Digital Icts, Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

This article looks back at an Obama administration foreign policy initiative called Internet freedom and discusses US responses to anti-American extremism involving digital communications technologies. It does this by using Marx’s concept of the fetish to argue that technological fetishism played a constitutive and mediating role in policymaking. Through this analysis – relating international relations with political economy and Marxist theory – the empowering implications of these technologies for American state interests are shown to be also disempowering. Most US officials were likely to be aware that digital communications technologies did not have the inherent powers that their policies implied …