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The Roaring Lion Of Berlin: The Life, Thought, And Influence Of Eugen Dühring, Arden Roy

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The life and influence of 19th-century German polymath Eugen Dühring remain but a mere footnote in the history of ideas, being primarily relegated to the status of little more than a theoretical rival to Marxism in the German socialist movement and the occasional object of Freidrich Nietzsche's rhetorical flogging. Despite the current consensus on the subject, Eugen Dühring was a scholar of vast, remarkable learnedness, contributing greatly to philosophy, economics, and the natural sciences. The aim of this talk will be to clear the fog surrounding the life and work of the controversial blind scholar and give an account of …

Prolegomena To A Buddhist(Ic) Critique Of Capitalism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

Not even three decades removed from Francis Fukuyama’s post-Cold War proclamation of the “End of History,” the Western world is now undergoing a crisis of conscience – at the very least – with respect to both capitalism as an economic system and neoliberalism as its less-recognized but ever-present ideological foundation. The financial crisis of 2008, the subsequent Great Recession, the Occupy movement(s) of 2011, the 2016 challenge of self-styled Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, and growing anxiety about the fate of the planet, particularly among the young, have opened up new avenues of critique, and brought …

Futurological Fodder: On Communicating The Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, And Employment, Michael E. Samers Dr

Geography Faculty Publications

This article examines the debate concerning the employment implications of the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (FIR) or the increasing presence of artificial intelligence and robotics in workplaces. I analyze three ‘genres’ associated with this debate (academic studies including neo-classical and heterodox/post-human approaches, the ‘gray literature’, and popular media) and I argue that together they represent ‘futurological fodder’ or discourses and knowledges that ‘perform’ the FIR and its purported consequences. I contend further that these genres involve a complex mix of ethics and politics, and I conclude with a reflection on the political implications of the FIR debate.

The Impact Of Information Shocks And Partisanship On The Evolution Of Covid-19 In Connecticut, Joslin Valiyaveettil

Honors Scholar Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life within the United States since early 2020. How people decided to behave during this time heavily influenced the trends that followed, triggering both health and behavioral economic concerns. Those trends seemed to vary based on the area and the beliefs of those constituents. This paper explores how partisan beliefs had an impact on the changes in case rates that occurred within the top 30 most populated towns in the state of Connecticut. In July 2020, former President Donald Trump sent out a tweet publicly endorsing face masks for the first time. …

Voting Your (Home)Values: An Empirical Assessment Of Homeownership And Voting Patterns In Seattle, Carter Fredrick Morfitt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In this paper, I draw on data from King County Elections and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Communities survey in an attempt to assess the predictions of the "homevoter hypothesis", which posits that homeowners tend to support policy measures that will boost their home values and oppose policy measures that could be perceived as a threat to their home values.

Writing Tips For Economics Research Papers, Plamen Nikolov

Economics Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Taxing Feminism, Anthony C. Infanti, Bridget J. Crawford

Book Chapters

Feminist perspectives are not new to tax law. The first academic piece bringing a feminist perspective to bear on tax law dates to the early 1970s, when Grace Blumberg published “Sexism in the Code: A Comparative Study of Income Taxation of Working Wives and Mothers.” Contemporaneously, none other than Ruth Bader Ginsburg (along with her tax lawyer husband Marty Ginsburg) brought a feminist perspective to bear on tax law when she argued Moritz v. Commissioner before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, as depicted in the movie On the Basis of Sex. Since then, numerous other contributions have been …

Framing The Chicago School Of Antitrust Analysis, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Fiona Scott Morton

All Faculty Scholarship

The Chicago School of antitrust has benefited from a great deal of law office history, written by admiring advocates rather than more dispassionate observers. This essay attempts a more neutral stance, looking at the ideology, political impulses, and economics that produced the Chicago School of antitrust policy and that account for its durability.

The origins of the Chicago School lie in a strong commitment to libertarianism and nonintervention. Economic models of perfect competition best suited these goals. The early strength of the Chicago School of antitrust was that it provided simple, convincing answers to everything that was wrong with antitrust …

Empty Discarded Pack Data And The Prevalence Of Illicit Trade In Cigarettes In California, James Prieger

School of Public Policy Working Papers

Illicit trade in tobacco products (ITTP) creates many harms including reduced tax revenues; damages to the economic interests of legitimate actors; funding for organized-crime and terrorist groups; negative effects of participation in illicit markets, such as violence and incarceration; and reduced effectiveness of smoking-reduction policies, leading to increased damage to health. To study the prevalence of tax avoidance and ITTP, we analyze a large, novel set of data from empty discarded pack (EDP) studies. In EDP studies, teams of researchers collect all cigarette packs discarded in publicly accessible spaces of selected neighborhoods. Packs are examined for the absence of local …

Is Antitrust's Consumer Welfare Principle Imperiled?, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust’s consumer welfare principle stands for the proposition that antitrust policy should encourage markets to produce output as high as is consistent with sustainable competition, and prices that are accordingly as low. Such a policy does not protect every interest group. For example, it opposes the interests of cartels or other competition-limiting associations who profit from lower output and higher prices. It also runs counter to the interest of less competitive firms that need higher prices in order to survive. Market structure is relevant to antitrust policy, but its importance is contingent rather than absolute – that is, market structure …

Health Care's Market Bureaucracy, Allison K. Hoffman

All Faculty Scholarship

The last several decades of health law and policy have been built on a foundation of economic theory. This theory supported the proliferation of market-based policies that promised maximum efficiency and minimal bureaucracy. Neither of these promises has been realized. A mounting body of empirical research discussed in this Article makes clear that leading market-based policies are not efficient — they fail to capture what people want. Even more, this Article describes how the struggle to bolster these policies — through constant regulatory, technocratic tinkering that aims to improve the market and the decision-making of consumers in it — has …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: March 9, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Nebraska consumer and business confidence fell during February 2018, dropping from the near-peak levels seen in January. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) fell to 101.6 in February from a value of 115.2 in January. The February value remains above the neutral level of 100.0. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) fell to 107.4 In February from 112.2 in January. Both monthly readings were well above the neutral value of 100.0 suggesting that business confidence remains strong. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 38 percent of respondents. But, there …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: February 2, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Consumer and business confidence rebounded in Nebraska during January 2018. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) rose to 115.2, well above the neutral level of 100.0 and a value of 93.3 in December 2017. This is the highest level recorded for the CCI-N since it was first released in February of 2016. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) rose to 112.2 in January from 107.5 in December. Both monthly readings were well above the neutral value of 100.0. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 40 percent of respondents. The …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: January 5, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Consumer and business confidence declined in Nebraska during December 2017. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) fell to 93.3 in December, well below the neutral level of 100.0. The index had reached a record level of 106.2 in November, but that high level of confidence was not sustained. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) fell from 114.1 in November to 107.5 in December. While lower, the December reading remains well above the neutral value of 100.0. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 38 percent of respondents. The availability and …

Capturing Regulatory Reality: Stigler’S The Theory Of Economic Regulation, Christopher Carrigan, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper offers a retrospective assessment of economist George Stigler’s classic article, The Theory of Economic Regulation. Stigler argued that regulation is a product that, just like any other product, is produced in a market, and that it can be acquired from the governmental “marketplace” by business firms to serve their private interests and create barriers to entry for potential competitors. He challenged the idea that regulation arises solely to serve the public interest and demonstrated that important political advantages held by businesses can contribute to industry capture of the regulatory process. Although his argument was largely based on …

Defending A Mixed Economy, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay reviews Jacob S. Hacker's and Paul Pierson's very engaging book, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget what Made America Prosper (2016).

Essays On Intergovernmental Fiscal Relationship, Bimal Soti

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to explore a number of issues in intergovernmental fiscal relationships in the United States. Three independent essays in the dissertation focus on three different issues of interest in public finance: the response of school districts and county governments to changes in state government grant allocations; political determinants of presidential disaster declarations; and the crowding out of federal transfers to states by private charitable donations with special reference to the proportion of federal welfare grants to all 50 U.S. states over the period 2005 - 2013.

Results in the first essay show that decreases in …

The Political Economy Of Oil Spill Damage Assessment: Nrda And Deepwater Horizon, Matt Nichols, Judith T. Kildow Dr

Working Papers

The federal effort to quantify and capture non-market damages to coastal ecosystems from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Phase II of United States of America v. BP Exploration and Production, centers on the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. This paper makes the case that the current NRDA process has done a poor job protecting the public interest and resolving the issues surrounding oil spills from deep water drilling activities. After 5 years, the findings of the NRDA still remain sealed from both affected maritime communities and academic researchers until litigation is settled with civil and criminal fines …

Three African Futures, John Page

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Africa has experienced a remarkable turn-around in economic performance since 1995. It grew at around 4.6 percent per year during the first decade of the 21st century, and the region boasts three of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries. Cheerleaders as diverse as the Economist and the World Bank have branded Africa the developing world’s next “frontier market”. But beneath the headlines lie some disturbing realities. Africa is not creating enough good jobs – those capable of paying decent wages and providing opportunities to develop skills – and it is not reducing poverty at the same rate as other parts of …

Endogenous Decentralization In Federal Environmental Policies, Howard F. Chang, Hilary Sigman, Leah G. Traub

All Faculty Scholarship

Under most federal environmental laws and some health and safety laws, states may apply for “primacy,” that is, authority to implement and enforce federal law, through a process known as “authorization.” Some observers fear that states use authorization to adopt more lax policies in a regulatory “race to the bottom.” This paper presents a simple model of the interaction between the federal and state governments in such a scheme of partial decentralization. Our model suggests that the authorization option may not only increase social welfare but also allow more stringent environmental regulations than would otherwise be feasible. Our model also …

An Empirical Analysis Of Cost Recovery In Superfund Cases: Implications For Brownfields And Joint And Several Liability, Howard F. Chang, Hilary Sigman

All Faculty Scholarship

Economic theory developed in the prior literature indicates that under the joint and several liability imposed by the federal Superfund statute, the government should recover more of its costs of cleaning up contaminated sites than it would under nonjoint liability, and the amount recovered should increase with the number of defendants and with the independence among defendants in trial outcomes. We test these predictions empirically using data on outcomes in federal Superfund cases. Theory also suggests that this increase in the amount recovered may discourage the sale and redevelopment of potentially contaminated sites (or “brownfields”). We find the increase to …

A Proposal For Developing An Arts And Cultural District In East Providence, Rhode Island, Lisa Bruce, Nicole Bush, Gregory Ehlinger, Kenya Fullen, Jonathan Lax, Susan Leonardi, Ana Santana, Neuci Silva, Eric Jacobs

Community Development

In an effort to prevent social polarization within the East Providence community amongst various social groups, we are recommending that the project target multiple census tracts in East Providence and the east side area of Providence. These census tracts are comprised of high-income and low-income families and individuals of all ages. Specifically, there are seniors who live within the neighborhood who might take advantage of expanded opportunities if they felt the area was safe and accessible.

American Influence In The International Financial Institutions, Shawn Rosen, Jonathan R. Strand

McNair Poster Presentations

As the world becomes more globalized and the prosperity of new, rising powers begins to challenge that of long-standing powers, many scholars and policy-makers have begun to examine America’s place in the global political economy. Ongoing changes in the world politi­cal economy such as the flourishing economies in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), continued integration in Europe, as well as questions about eco­nomic policies derived from American dominated neoliberal ideology have raised many doubts regarding how long the United States can remain the world leader. The conventional wisdom holds that the United States has enough …

(Review) A Short History Of Ethics And Economics: The Greeks, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

International Political Economy Reference Sources: An Annotated Bibliography, Theodore C. Schwitzner, Chad M. Kahl

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

International political economy is an emerging yet specialized field that combines political analysis with the study of markets, trade, and development. With the global economy having an interdependent effect on politics, environment, and society, and with several major economic events of the last 20 years, the authors perceived a need to provide a guide to the sources in this field. This paper seeks to address this issue. The authors identified resources using WorldCat and standard reference sources, such as American Library Association's Guide to Reference Books; the annual American Libraries’ “Outstanding Reference Sources” articles; American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) volumes; …

Labor Culture: Labor Morality Under Socialism, Vladimir Magun

Russian Culture

Soviet leaders had always taken a keen interest in workers' behavior and labor motives and sought to keep labor morality under strict state control. A complex network of values and regulations was developed for this purpose after the October Revolution of 1917. They were best articulated in the "political economy of socialism" which purported to present a scientific picture of the country's economic life. Textbooks on socialist economy were widely circulated in the Soviet Union and appropriate courses included into a core curriculum for all higher education institutions in the country. Basic tenets of socialist political economy were taught in …

Monetary Policy Essay, Dan Brocklehurst

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Shaping Economic Practices In China’S Post-Command Economy Period: The Interaction Of Politics, Economics And Institutional Constraints, Tonia Warnecke, Alain Blanchard

Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Publications

Although much has been published on China's economic transition, less research has focused on how Chinese culture and the Communist political system have interacted to shape the new Chinese economy. In this paper, we argue that China's post-command economy period reflects not only the 'new' infusion of neo-liberal ideology into the country, but also the consistent filtering of economic practices through a historical and complex institutional arrangement of cultural and political norms. The tensions between neo-classical free market principles and the overarching authority of the Communist state explain the variety of institutional constraints on actual economic practices in China. While …

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Fed. Reserve Board - Ben Bernanke Confirmation Hearing Q&A, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Question and answers from Ben Bernanke's confirmation hearing as distributed to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board.

Tolerance, Democracy And Fundamentalism(S) : Challenges In Time Of Systemic Bifurcations, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.