Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Communication Ethics Scholarship And Economic Spheres, Andrew Tinker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines communication ethics scholarship to understand how economics is understood within the field and to establish coordinates for scholars to discuss economic spheres as phenomena that affect communication ethics. Scholars draw from the tradition of virtue ethics to mark communication ethics inquiry as that which explores the practices that protect and promote the “good.” Philosophers of communication and communication ethicists have developed paradigmatic metaphors for the field that allow us to understand the formation of ethical guidelines within communities both familial, corporate, and national, that promote and protect various goods. These metaphors include “hierarchy” and “sameness” from Charles …

Using Behavior Economic Nudges To Facilitate Client Follow-Through In Financial Coaching, Charlene Hurst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While benevolence-based programs have been a large part of meeting immediate financial needs of the poor, they lack the relational aspect needed to facilitate long-term behavior change. Recently many social service organizations have adopted financial coaching as a promising replacement for benevolence programming. The field of coaching has dealt with its own challenges. Most coaching practitioners surveyed in 2016 and 2019 acknowledged lack of client follow-through as their number one challenge. Behavior economics offered nudges as a solution. Nudges are cues placed within the physical environment to prod clients toward behavior change. A quantitative field study was conducted to evaluate …

Multi-Level Governance Of Climate Change Adaptation: United Nations Negotiations And Adaptation Project Implementation In Nicaragua And Samoa, Anna E. Mcginn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement reaffirmed, with certainty, that the international community would continue its efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change impacts opening a new era of international cooperation on climate change. This thesis explores how both negotiations around climate change adaptation and adaptation project implementation have evolved in this post-Paris Agreement era (from adoption in December 2015 to present). Using the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Adaptation Fund as the central lens, the chapters explore international negotiations around the Fund as well as two Adaptation Fund funded …

The Effect Of Public-Place Smoking Bans On Risky Health Behavior Among Different Races And Ethnicities In The United States, Muntasir Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is an established body of literature on the effect of public-place smoking bans on smoking behavior. However, these studies focus on the effect of the public-place bans on the overall population and ignore racial/ethnic heterogeneity, therein. Given that there is ample evidence of racial/ethnic differences in risky health behaviors (such as smoking and drinking) in the United States, research that sheds light on this differential impact is necessary. Thus, the two studies presented in this thesis work estimates the heterogeneous racial/ethnic effects of public-place smoking bans on smoking and drinking-related behavior of U.S. adults.

In the first chapter we …

Grower Risk And Community Perception: Impediments To Growing Maine's Aquaculture Industry, Avery W. Cole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Maine has a long and proud history of working waterfronts and commercial fishing. However, in recent decades, aquaculture, or the harvesting or growing of aquatic life, has emerged as another player in the coastal economy. Globally, aquaculture is experiencing the fastest growth of any food sector in the world as it subsidizes floundering wild-capture fisheries (FAO, 2014). Maine and the rest of the United States have not yet participated in this growth, which has led stakeholders and policymakers like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to advocate for massive improvements to the sector by 2020 (NOAA, 2016). To ensure …

Comparative Spending Of Medicaid Dollars On Child Participants Of Kentucky’S Sobriety Treatment And Recovery Teams Program Versus A Matched Comparison Group., Matthew Thomas Walton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Child protective services agencies have long observed the complicating role that parental substance use and addiction plays in cases of child maltreatment. Families who struggle with these problems present unique challenges for child welfare professionals. These families are typically more difficult to engage, more likely to have children removed from the home, and have poorer outcomes when compared to other families. These poorer outcomes often include health problems. Addiction has well-known effects on health, and the specific manifestations of these problems for parents have been documented for years in child protection casework. However, what has been less investigated are the …

An Economic Analysis Of Student Loan Default, Arianna Castonguay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cumulative student loan debt in the United States has now surpassed $1.5 trillion. Moreover, since the turn of the century, cohort default rates of these loans have steadily risen across all types of institutions. The latest data from the U.S. Department of Education shows 10.8 percent of borrowers who entered repayment in fiscal year 2015 have defaulted within three years. In turn, the first chapter of this paper summarizes student loan policies as well as trends in debt and default. Furthermore, it highlights the consequences of high student debt and default for individual borrowers and the economy. Results show evidence …

Challenges To Economic Resiliency And Performance: Measuring The Regional Impacts Of Rurality And Space, Elena S. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is commonly observed that there are inequalities found in economic growth, development, and performance between different regions. Because of this, it is vital for regional planners to have knowledge to which economic problems are present (Armstrong and Taylor, 2000; Martin, 2005). With such knowledge, planners are able to tailor and implement regional policies in an informed manner that is better suited to address economic problems. Found in this work are two studies that contextualize separate economic problems which have been extensively discussed within regional sciences and rural studies.

The first study seeks to assess how a county’s degree of …

Local Food Policy & Consumer Food Cooperatives: Evolutionary Case Studies, Afton Hupper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Darwin’s theory of natural selection has played a central role in the development of the biological sciences, but evolution can also explain change in human culture. Institutions, mechanisms that govern behavior and social order, are important subjects of cultural evolution. Institutions can help stabilize cooperation, defined as behavior that benefits others, often at a personal cost. Cooperation is important for solving social dilemmas, scenarios in which the interests of the individual conflict with those of the group. A number of mechanisms by which institutions evolve to support cooperation have been identified, yet theoretical models of institutional change have rarely been …

Examining Citizens' Preferences For Aquaculture Using Discrete Choice Experiments, Olga Bredikhina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades, discrete choice experiments (DCEs) have become increasingly popular across different subfields of economics as a way to elicit citizens‟ stated preferences for product and service attributes as well as various environmental and infrastructure features. The DCE framework could be seen as a time- and cost-effective alternative to the revealed preferences framework that is based on data obtained using transactions observed in real-world markets. DCEs offer the advantage over revealed preferences data because they allow learning about consumer preferences for hypothetical products or product attributes without bearing the costs of introducing new products to the market. …

A Systematic Assessment Of Socio-Economic Impacts Of Prolonged Episodic Volcano Crises, Justin Peers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Uncertainty surrounding volcanic activity can lead to socio-economic crises with or without an eruption as demonstrated by the post-1978 response to unrest of Long Valley Caldera (LVC), CA. Extensive research in physical sciences provides a foundation on which to assess direct impacts of hazards, but fewer resources have been dedicated towards understanding human responses to volcanic risk. To evaluate natural hazard risk issues at LVC, a multi-hazard, mail-based, household survey was conducted to compare perceptions of volcanic, seismic, and wildfire hazards. Impacts of volcanic activity on housing prices and businesses were examined at the county-level for three volcanoes with a …

The Economic And Social Values Associated With Small South Dakota Lakes, Aaron Patrick Sundmark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The valuation of small fishing lakes is a vital component in understanding the importance of fishing and of recreational resources, in general. Knowing the values associated with such lakes is essential when prioritizing management activities. The overall value of a lake as a resource for human benefit is estimated as the summation of both instrumental and non-instrumental values. Instrumental values consist of economic and utilitarian values, as well as the values that a lake provides from ecosystem services. Non-instrumental values consider what the lake is worth as a good of its own, such as aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values gained …

Contrasting Chicago School And Kaleckian Theories: Industrial Organization, Income Distribution, And Historical Policy Significance In The United States, Henry Aaron Dobbs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role that long-run industry concentration plays in determining the distribution of income, particularly in the past four decades in the United States, as well as examining how industry concentration has developed during that period. The paper is especially focused on the fall in labor’s share of income. First, I examine current literature regarding trends in industry concentration and its relation to the distribution of income. Next, I examine the historical impact of the Chicago School of Economics on this subject, focusing on the school of thought’s propositions regarding industry concentration, their …

Changing The Rules Of The Game: Can Voicing For Social Responsibility Influence Market Behavior Toward Greater Inclusiveness In Economic Development?, Eileen M. Hoffmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines social responsibility within a capitalist economy by investigating socially responsible investing and, tangentially, corporate social responsibility. These concepts have been at the heart of economic and legal debates for hundreds of years, with no clearly defined consensus regarding how to account for multi-stakeholder welfare inside the market system. This point is brought to life by analyzing two dominant twentieth-century economic periods, 1945-1975/79 and post-1980, through the deliberations of Keynesian economics and Milton Friedman.

This thesis postulates that since the 2008 global financial crisis, a new (i.e. third) economic period is taking shape, ushered in by both the …

Financial Crisis And Bank Lending Behavior In Nigeria, Michael A. Oyakojo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bank lending is an important monetary policy transmission channel with significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria. The research was conducted to test the hypothesis that given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) / government financial intervention, there is a significant increase in the lending behavior of Nigerian bank during and post 2008 financial crisis. Total loan ratio is the proxy for bank lending behavior while the dependent variables are bank specific characteristics like total assets, core deposit ratio and macroeconomic variables like the 91-day Treasury bill rate and inflation rate.

Using the fixed effects regression technique, it was observed …

The Effects Of Fundamentals, Speculation, Government Policies, And International Capital Flows On China's Stock Market, Yanshen Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper, based on the relationship between the economy, policy and the financial market seeks to explore the leading force in China's stock market and identify how the government policies affect the stock market, through an analysis of the performance of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index over the past 10 years. Comparing the stocks' intrinsic value to their market price can present an aerial view of China's stock market. When the market prices deviated from fundamentals, we can find what government did to respond to the market and lead market opinions.

Through our estimation, comparing the sample fundamental prices with …

Automation And Adaptation: Information Technology, Work Practices, And Labor Demand At Three Firms, Spencer J. Rockwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of information and communication technology to automate routine tasks involves two types of innovation: technological and organizational. Together, improvements in technological capabilities and complementary changes made by firms in the way they organize work and implement work practices constitute the conditions under which machines substitute for or complement human workers. Building on the prevailing model of routine-biased technical change and recent insights into organizational complementarities, I conduct three qualitative case studies in health care and real estate to assess the relationship between technology and firm-level labor demand. Unique combinations of technological innovation, organizational complementarity, and decision-making at each …

How Informational Imperfections Lead To Sub-Optimal Solutions In Health Savings Plan And Potential Remedies In A Competitive Marketplace, Jacob Gene Dengg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the growing trend of consumer-driven health insurance, more consumers than ever have access to a high-deductible health plan paired with a health savings account, where consumers can save pre-tax income for healthcare but also face higher out-of-pocket prices, in hopes that consumers will become smarter shoppers. The Health Savings Plan is successful at lowering costs, but at the expense of consumers lowering their adherence to healthcare, raising health risk. Even in a competitive market, HSP plan designs require smart shoppers and more active healthcare self-management, but without dealing with the informational imperfections that need to be overcome to encourage …

Essays On Money And Labor, Kwabena Okyere Boateng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The price-specie-flow mechanism (PSFM) is a theory of the adjustment of the balance of trade and gold flows as a result of deviations in relative prices across countries under a gold standard. The PSFM is central to quantity-theoretic discussions of economic fluctuations under a gold standard as well as analysis of whether central banks follo``the rules of the game'' of the gold standard. In short, the PSFM is the standard working assumption when it comes to gold standard adjustment. However, at least since Adam Smith there has been an alternative to the PSFM that has come to be known as …

The Effects Of Market Fragmentation Around Corporate Events, Justin Steven Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Part 1, I investigate the effects of market fragmentation in the liquidity formation of initial public offerings (IPOs). Recent exchange officials cite increases in market fragmentation as a hindrance to the liquidity formation in IPO trading. We find that IPOs are less fragmented at the start of IPO trading relative to later periods in the IPO secondary market. We also discover that more underpriced issues experience greater fragmentation, both lit and dark, at the start of IPO trading. Our study also examines the level of undisplayed liquidity in IPOs, finding more hidden trading at the start of IPO trading …

Innovation, Ceos, And Ipos, Zhilu Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Part 1, I study if CEOs with innovative ability impose a cost upon their firms. I find that while there is a positive effect of a CEO’s innovative ability on firm innovation, the benefit is only when CEO’s innovative ability is useful for the firm. Further, firms with innovator CEOs spend more on R&D projects but with lower efficiency and hold more cash but with lower cash value compared to firms with non-innovator CEOs. These results suggest that innovator CEOs create an overinvestment problem. In Part 2, I study the effects of talent cycling on IPO long-run performance and …

Limited Negotiation In Embedded Ultimatum Games, Alexandros Vasios Sivvopoulos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study expands on previous work done on signaling/screening take-it-or-leave-it asymmetric information games where excess disputes occur. Two players engage in an embedded ultimatum game in a stylized legal framework of plaintiff versus defendant. The plaintiff has either a low or a high claim on the uninformed defendant. There is a computerized version of the embedded ultimatum game to test replicability of literature results. Two novel variations are introduced. In the first variation multiple sequential offers can be made by the proposer during a single period of the embedded game and in the second real time offers and counteroffers can …

Essays On Bubbles, Production, And Anti-Bubble Policy, Joseph Sebastian De Souza White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides two papers on asset market bubbles. The first chapter analyzes the welfare effect of anti-bubble policy in a macroeconomic model containing both an asset market and a goods market. Overall this chapter shows that anti-bubble policy decreases the welfare of asset seller increases the welfare of asset buyers and has no effect on the welfare of the production side of the goods market. The second chapter provides examples of strong greater-fool bubbles with three states of the world and three periods. It provides examples of strong greater-fool bubbles at various levels of endowment durability as well as …

Food Assistance Programs In The Us And Their Impact On Childhood Obesity, Jannatul Kawsar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Numerous food assistance programs (FAP) aim to ensure food security among low income American households. However, the literature suggests that participation in food assistance programs may be associated with the US childhood obesity epidemic. The goal of this study is to analyze the association between the number of major food assistance programs children participate in and childhood obesity. The major food assistance programs considered are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and the School Breakfast Programs (SBP). This is the first study to …

Three Essays On Corporate Bonds Issuance And Trading, Violetta Y. Davydenko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We explore the bond “clustering” phenomenon, using a sample of bond issuances in 2000-2015. Bond “clustering” is when the number of bonds issued that year exceeds three standard deviations above the mean number of issues for the firm over the sample period. We examine why firms opt for multiple issuances instead of a large one: exhaustion of debt capacity, refunding existing debt, timing favorable market conditions, managing working capital or financing profitable investment opportunities. Results indicate that firms do not cluster due to simply refinancing outstanding debt, but in order to manage their liquidity position and short-tern cash needs, to …

The Role Of The State In International Trade Theory And Policy: Historical Evidence From South Korea And Brazil, Sumaiya Nehla Saif

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the early 1980s, the economic performance of individual countries has been increasingly dependent on global dynamics. Neoliberal policies, including free trade, have been fostered by the global community for both mature and developing economies, led by the view that free markets constitute the driving force of economic growth and development. Accordingly, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) - in addition to the developments within mainstream economic theory - have contributed to portray the state as the carrier of inefficiencies and market distortions, which prevent the unfolding of economic freedom and …

The Size Of The Multiplier: Comparing Alternate Views After The Great Recession, Daniel Focht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reviews the major theoretical frameworks and their outlook on the government spending, its effectiveness, the implied size of the multiplier and how they differed in empirical studies. This is followed by an estimation of the government multiplier for the major U.S. fiscal policy, namely the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), after the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Own estimation of the size of the multiplier is presented using a standard SVAR model based on New Keynesian approach for time period between 2009 and 2018. In addition, following the classical economic theory, the multiplier is recalculated in the absence …

Does Medicaid Increase Emergency Room Use: Evidence From Oregon Health Program?, Md Fourkan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper strives to identify the relationship between Medicaid expansion and Emergency Department use. I use a Monte Carlo simulation for demonstrating the endogeneity problem and a copula model using the Oregon Health Program (OHP) data to show the previous literature has exaggerated the causal relation between Medicaid expansion and Emergency Department use. This paper can be divided into two parts. First, it tries to focus on the under-identification of multiple endogenous variables problem in typical econometrics papers, where researchers correct for a single endogenous variable but intentionally or unintentionally ignore the endogeneity of one or more other independent …

Multi-Step Forecast Of The Implied Volatility Surface Using Deep Learning, Nikita Medvedev

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Implied volatility is an essential input to price an option. Machine learning architectures have shown strengths in learning option pricing formulas and estimating implied volatility cross-sectionally. However, implied volatility time series forecasting is typically done using the univariate time series and often for short intervals. When a univariate implied volatility series is forecasted, important implied volatility properties such as volatility skew and the term structure are lost. More importantly, short term forecasts can’t take advantage of the long term persistence in the volatility series. The thesis attempts to bridge the gap between machine learning-based implied volatility modeling and multivariate multi-step …

Consumer Perceptions And Demand For Locally-Grown Vegetables In South Dakota, Richard Mulder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasingly popular topic in the food labeling field over the last 15 years has been the increasing body of research for food that is locally produced. Consumers’ definition of, attitudes toward, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for local food have been areas of interest for researchers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the current body of local foods’ research for vegetables by providing information on these areas of interest for the state of South Dakota. This study acquires data through a consumer-intercept survey conducted in grocery stores throughout South Dakota with a sample …