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Essays On International Trade And Economic Growth, Mateo Hoyos

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I study the relationship between trade and economic growth, with a focus on developing economies. I specifically provide a critical review of the consensus view in trade and growth, according to which a liberal trade regime is generally the best policy stance to promote growth. In the first essay of this dissertation, I provide evidence that the relationship between trade policy and growth may depend on economic structure: tariff reductions are followed by higher levels of GDP per capita for manufacturer countries, but lower levels for nonmanufacturers. Testing for mechanisms, I find the heterogeneity seems to be …

Three Essays On Macroeconomics And Development, Guilherme Klein Martins

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of essays that relate, in different forms, macroeconomic policies to economic development. Essay 1 provides evidence that austerity shocks have longrun negative effects on GDP. Besides addressing the important gap in the growing fiscal research regarding the short time horizon of the estimations, the paper analyzes two other important assumptions made in the literature regarding the (i) symmetry of episodes of fiscal expansion and contraction and (ii) uniformity of fiscal multipliers for different sizes of shocks. We use narrative fiscal shocks and propensity score reweighting in a local projections setup to account for the potential …

Maternal Age Differences In Cognitive Regulation: Examination Of Associations And Interactions Between Rsa And Eeg Frontoparietal Alpha Power Coherence, Jennifer D. Christensen, Martha Ann Bell, Kirby D. Deater-Deckard

Psychological and Brain Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Strong cognitive regulation is advantageous for flexible, responsive parenting. Optimal cognitive regulation is reliant on associations between physiological mechanisms of central and peripheral nervous system functioning. Across middle adulthood there may be shifts in how cognitive regulation functions, reflecting changes in the associations and interactions between these physiological mechanisms. Two physiological indicators of cognitive regulation are autonomic regulation of the heart (e.g., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) and activity of the brain’s frontoparietal network (e.g., frontoparietal EEG alpha power coherence, FPc). In the current study we examined maternal age differences (N = 90, age M = 32.35 years, SD = 5.86 …

Persistence In World Export Patterns And Productive Capabilities Across Two Globalizations, Isabella M. Weber, Gregor Semieniuk,, Junshang Liang, Tom Westland

Economics Department Working Paper Series

We construct a new global commodity-level export dataset to analyze the persistence of export patterns as proxies of productive capabilities across the first and the current waves of global- ization. We find that productive capabilities are path-dependent and historical capabilities are powerful predictors of countries’ incomes today. This is robust to controlling for persistence in geography, institutions, and colonial status, and confirmed by instrumenting past capabilities with asymmetric reductions in travel times following the switch from sailing to steamboats. We also show that the “great specialization” in primary goods and manufacturing goods exporters coincided with a great polarization in global …

Capital Nationality And Economic Development, Guilherme Klein Martins

Economics Department Working Paper Series

This paper reviews different literature strands and performs an empirical test to evaluate how capital ownership, particularly its nationality, might affect long-run economic develop- ment. Our results indicate that low and middle-income countries with larger foreign capital stock in 1980 had lower economic growth over the next 39 years. The estimations also indi- cate that these economies developed a less specialized export basket, which became relatively more concentrated in low-tech goods. The results are inverted to high-income economies, for which the effects are positive on GDP growth and export specialization and complexi- fication. The results are in line with the …

Activation Of Nrf2 At Critical Windows Of Development Alters Protein S-Glutathionylation In The Zebrafish Embryo (Danio Rerio), Emily G. Severance

Masters Theses

Perturbation of cellular redox homeostasis to a more oxidized state has been linked to adverse human health effects such as diabetes and cancer. However, the impact of altering the regulation of redox homeostasis during development is not fully understood. Specifically, this project investigates the role of the Nrf2 antioxidant response pathway and its effect on glutathione (GSH; cellular redox buffer) at critical windows of development. To explore this, we used zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) as a model due to the function of GSH and the Nrf2 being conserved among vertebrates. We exposed zebrafish embryos to three Nrf2 activators: two antioxidant …

Platforms And Power: Transnational Guatemala, Eric Sippert

Doctoral Dissertations

Moving beyond studies of social movements and NGOs, this dissertation examines how grassroots groups in Guatemala use transnational flows of goods, ideas, and people to create new organizational forms and types of political action. This case study of an organization of returned migrants, former combatants, and indigenous youth demonstrates how marginalized groups create platforms that facilitate connections between disparate actors across nation-state and identity borders. Drawing on field research in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, I explore how these platforms emerged, threats to them, their effects, and what they can teach us about political organizing in crisis. I begin by tracing the …

Pregnancy And Infant Development (Pride)—A Preliminary Observational Study Of Maternal Adversity And Infant Development, Katherine Bowers, Lili Ding, Kimberly Yolton, Hong Ji, Nichole Nidey, Jerrold Meyer, Robert T. Ammerman, Judith Van Ginkel, Alonzo Folger

Psychological and Brain Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Background

Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families have a markedly elevated risk for impaired cognitive and social-emotional development. Children in poverty experience have a high risk for developmental delays. Poverty engenders disproportionate exposure to psychological adversity which may contribute to impaired offspring development; however the effect may be mitigated by social support and other aspects of resilience. Our objective was to determine the association between maternal stress, adversity and social support and early infant neurobehavior and child behavior at two and three years.

Methods

We conducted a longitudinal mother-infant cohort study nested within a regional home visiting program in Cincinnati, Ohio. …

Diversity, Globalization, And Sustainability: Introduction To Human Geography, Toby Applegate

Sustainability Education Resources

Diversity, Globalization, and Sustainability is a wide-ranging introduction to the ways people shape the world they live in. We will study the themes and concepts of human geography through the current issues and large questions that guide them. Lectures and reading will focus on the geographic aspects of cultural diversity, population issues, states vs. nations, the global economy, development, urbanization and the human transformation of the earth. We will cover major subdivisions of human geography including cultural geography, population geography, economic geography, social geography, political geography and environmental geography.

Imperfect Information And Learning: Evidence From Cotton Cultivation In Pakistan, Amal Ahmad

Economics Department Working Paper Series

Information problems are pervasive in developing economies and can hinder productivity growth. This paper studies how much rural producers in developing countries can learn from their own experience to redress important information gaps. It builds a model of learning from experience and applies it using a rich dataset on cotton farmers in Pakistan. I test whether farmers learn from cultivation experience about the pest resistance of their seeds and use this information to improve selection and productivity. I find no such learning effect and this conclusion is robust to several parameters that could signal learning. The findings document the difficulty …

Implementation Of An Evidence-Based Screening Tool For Children For Detection Of Developmental, Behavioral And Family Issues, Lyndsay Goss

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Children are a vulnerable population who are at risk for a variety of developmental, behavioral and family concerns. Early intervention leads to improved outcomes. By implementing the comprehensive evidence-based screening tool the Survey of Well-being for Young Children (SWYC), within a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), outcomes for these children may be improved through early intervention.

Methods: The SWYC survey was provided to parents and guardians of children ages zero to five years at one pilot site at a FQHC in New England during well child visits (WCV) over a 6-week period. Implementation success was measured through review …

Effects Of Berberine On Development In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Zhuojia Qian

Masters Theses

Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid found in some plants and has many bioactivities including anti-microbial, lipid- and glucose-lowering, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, etc. However, there is limited knowledge about berberine’s effects on development and locomotive activity. Herein, in vivo studies were conducted to determine these effects of berberine using Caenorhabditis elegans as an in vivo model. Treatment of berberine at 50 μM starting at L1 stage significantly retarded the growth rate of nematodes, and reduced the length, width and moving speed of worms by 19%, 12% and 29%, respectively, compared to the control. In addition, triglycerides (TG) and protein content in worms …

Patterns Of Morphological Plasticity In Metriaclima Zebra And Danio Rerio Suggest Differently Canalized Phenotypes Due To Form-Function Relationships, Dylan Jockel

Masters Theses

In order to ascertain the degree of compatibility in developmental restructuring and behavioral plasticity between two fish species frequently made subject of laboratory research (Metriaclima zebra & Danio rerio), alternative trophic niche exposure experiments utilizing novel three-prong feeding treatments were conducted to obtain morphometric data, which demonstrated both species do bear some degree of plasticity. The results are somewhat complicated by differences in locality of detectable restructuring, which may be due to disparity in the form-function relationship for each species’ lineage. Each is notable in the manner of respective species’ jaw protrusion, as it is driven by anterior …

Determining Kinetic Parameters Of Thiamine Degradation In Three Nasa Spaceflight Foods In Thermal Processing And Long-Term Storage And Methods For Analyzing Microstructure And Precipitant Development In Real And Model Wines, Timothy R. Goulette

Doctoral Dissertations

The current NASA spaceflight food program encompasses a wide variety of commercial and custom-made edible products. These foods are designed to ensure each crewmember receives the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals to maintain adequate health during the entire spaceflight mission. With the desire for long-duration and exploration-class missions, such as the impending mission to Mars, the retention of important nutrients such as labile vitamins in spaceflight foods is critically important. For this reason, multiple studies were conducted to determine the vitamin degradation behavior of thiamine (vitamin B₁) within three spaceflight foods which demonstrated both significant …

‘Disarticulation’ As A Constraint To ‘Wage-Led Growth’ In Dual- Economies, Adam Aboobaker

Economics Department Working Paper Series

Much of the recent interest in the relationship between growth and distribution has focused on advanced economies and neglected issues of development and structural transformation. The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to this gap by arguing that, even in the short-run, some of the conclusions from neo-Kaleckian models may not be robust to developing country contexts with extreme income inequality and correspondingly polarized patterns of consumption. This argument is supported by a review of, amongst other, Kalecki’s writing on development and a two-sector model building on Razmi et al (2012). The paper can be interpreted as …

Aggregate Demand Policy In Mature And Dual Economies, Peter Skott

Economics Department Working Paper Series

Aggregate demand is important, both in the short and the long run, but a basic distinction must be made between dual and mature economies. Mature economies may suffer from a structural aggregate problem ('secular stagnation'): full-employment growth may be impossible in the absence of sustained fiscal stimulus. Dual economies with high levels of open or hidden unemployment, by contrast, do not face long-run structural aggregate demand problems. They require public investment in key areas, including education and infrastructure, but the key problems concern the composition of demand and the need to expand the modern sector. These economies face structural transformation …

Epigenetic Regulation Of Genomic Imprinting During Early Mammalian Embryonic Development, Chelsea Marcho

Doctoral Dissertations

Mammalian development involves remarkable changes, starting from a single-cell, totipotent zygote and ending with a developed organism comprised of diverse cells types with distinct morphologies, structures, and functions. Within three days of murine development, the two parental genomes merge into a single nucleus, begin zygotic gene expression, undergo epigenetic remodeling, and make the first lineage decisions. Diversity in cell-types is possible even though cells share the same genome. This diversity is achieved by the tight regulation of differential transcriptional programs. There are many ways these transcriptional programs can be initiated. Epigenetic alterations to the genome can drive transcriptional changes. Epigenetic …

Kuznets, Kaya, And Shapley: The Economic And Energetic Determinants Of Carbon Emissions And The Implications For Development And Environmental Policy, Heidi Garrett-Peltier

PERI Working Papers

With global climate change becoming an increasingly pressing concern, the relationship between economic growth and environmental outcomes is as important as ever to understand, particularly in designing policies for low- and middle-income countries that incorporate both environmental and development objectives. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) shows the relationship between income and environmental outcomes. In this paper we examine the existence and shape of the EKC for 132 countries for the period 2000-2010. We add to the EKC literature by using the technique of Shapley Decomposition to assess Kaya identity factors for these 132 countries, grouped into income quartiles. The Kaya …

Influence Of Household Chaos On Associations Between Physiology And Behavior, Sarah Mccormick

Masters Theses

Internalizing behaviors, or behaviors related to behavioral inhibition and the tendency to withdraw from novelty or uncertainty, are stable over time. There is substantial evidence indicating the association between greater resting right lateralized frontal EEG alpha asymmetry and negative affect as well as internalizing behaviors (Coan & Allen, 2003; Henderson, Fox, & Rubin, 2001; Fox, 1991). Further, right frontal asymmetry has been shown to be a stable marker of the presence of psychosocial risk (e.g. child maltreatment; see Peltola, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Alink, Huffmeijer, Biro, & van IJzendoorn, 2014 for meta-analyses). However, little is known about the influences of the home and …

Spreading The Washington Consensus Into Food And Agriculture Sectors: The Case Of The International Monetary Fund, Adel Daoud, Bernhard Reinsberg, Alexander E. Kentikelenis, Thomas H. Stubbs, Lawrence P. King

PERI Working Papers

The mandate and competence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) do not cover food and agriculture policies. Yet, signs indicate that IMF enages in these policies. Scholars lack a systematic empirical foundation to monitor the extent and impact of IMF’s operations on these sectors. Based on a combination of machine and human coding, we present a comprehensive database on IMF’s policy interventions in food and agriculture. Using new data on IMF conditionality between 1980 and 2014, we assess to what extent the IMF targets these sectors through its ‘conditionalities’—policies that governments need to implement to access IMF credit. The analysis …

After Post-Development: On Capitalism, Difference, And Representation, Kiran Asher, Joel Wainwright

Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Faculty Publication Series

The post‐development school associated with the thought of Arturo Escobar treats development as a discursive invention of the West, best countered by ethnographic attention to local knowledge of people marginalised by colonial modernity. This approach promises paths to more equitable and sustainable alternatives to development. Post‐development has been criticised vigorously in the past. But despite its conceptual and political shortcomings, it remains the most popular critical approach to development and is reemerging in decolonial and pluriversal guises. This paper contends that the post‐development critique of mainstream development has run its course and deserves a fresh round of criticism. We argue …

Genetic Diversity And Economic Development: Assessing The Key Findings In Ashraf And Galor (2013), Raymond Caraher, Michael Ash

Economics Department Working Paper Series

We replicate Ashraf and Galor (2013) and find that its conclusions concerning the association between human genetic diversity and economic development depend substantially on coding errors and sample selection. We correct the coding errors and add or update data on genetic diversity and population density from high-quality sources. We find little support for the hypothesis that variation in genetic diversity among subpopulations has a systematic relationship with economic development.

The Real Exchange Rate Policy Trilemma In Developing Economies, Arslan Razmi

Economics Department Working Paper Series

This paper discusses some of the inter-temporal issues that arise in the pursuit of real undervaluation to achieve rapid development. Policy makers face a trade-off between achieving a capital stock target in a given amount of time on the one hand and boosting real wages and output in the short run, on the other. This generates a trilemma whereby development-focused policy makers can choose to pursue two out of three desirables: (1) use the real exchange rate as an instrument of development policy, (2) meet the development target within a politically relevant time frame, and (3) maintain political stability. The …

Methylglyoxal Influences Development Of Caenorhabditis Elegans Via Heterochronic Pathway, Jiaying Wang

Masters Theses

Methylglyoxal is a highly reactive dicarbonyl compound, which is widely distributed in food products and beverages, and is particularly high in Manuka honey. In addition to its antibacterial effects, methylglyoxal is also known as a major precursor of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), that produces altered macromolecules (such as proteins and DNA), leading to abnormal physiological changes. However, the effects of methylglyoxal on development is unclear. Thus, this study aimed to determine the role of methylglyoxal in this aspect using Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). Treatment of methylglyoxal at 0.1 mM and 1 mM for 48 h significantly inhibited …

The Natural And Capital Infrastructure Of Potential Post-Electrification Wealth Creation In Kenya, Diego Ponce De Leon Barido, Simone Fobi Nsutezo, Jay Taneja

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publication Series

Background

It is widely accepted that electricity is an important element for improving levels of human development and wealth creation in rural areas. Yet, little research has explored the conditions under which electrification could lead to wealth creation post-electrification. Using Kenya as a case study, this paper uses natural capital (NC) and infrastructural capital (IC) data to compare the enabling environments under which electrification could lead to wealth creation (and persistent demand for electricity) post-electrification.

Methods

We use multiple spatial data sets to create three different metrics for NC and IC and use them to create a micro-enterprise development index …

Distribution And Population Dynamics Of Ungulates In The Mongolian Gobi, Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar

Doctoral Dissertations

The Mongolian Gobi is one of the most spectacular and important regions in Central Asia, comprising the largest area of intact grassland in the world. In recent years, a growing human population, expanding exploitation of natural resources, and the development of infrastructure in the region place increasing pressure on these species and their habitats. This dissertation has focused on three species of ungulates such as Mongolian saiga (Saiga tatarica mongolica) in western Mongolia, and Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus), and goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Southern Gobi. The study on endangered saiga antelope in …

Infants' Reasoning About Agents' Identity: The Case Of Sociomoral Kinds, Hernando Taborda

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent studies in development psychology suggest that early on infants are able to distinguish characters who display a cooperative behavior from characters who display an antisocial behavior. The current research builds on these findings and aims at determining the extent to which infants possess the sociomoral distinction of “good” and “mean” agents. In particular, we propose that infants represent sociomoral behaviors through kind-based categories. This hypothesis was tested in the current research across 5 different experiments by investigating how infants represent the identity of agents in sociomoral situations. Experiment 1 used a looking-time paradigm to demonstrate 11-month-old infants’ bias to …

The Political Economy Of Smallholder Incorporation And Land Acquisition, Alfredo R. Rosete

Doctoral Dissertations

Of late, development institutions and economists have argued that one way to accomplish the modernization, and thus, poverty alleviation in the rural sector is through smallholder incorporation- partnerships between agribusiness firms and smallholders in order to cultivate high valued export crops. Smallholders in developing countries often face numerous challenges that result in low incomes, and limited opportunities. As a result of these challenges, smallholders in developing countries continue to cultivate subsistence crops, or, use less technologically intensive techniques. Thus, many are unable to maximize the use of their holdings. Agribusiness firms may provide the material inputs, infrastructure, and transport needed …

Effects Of Adolescent Alcohol Binge Drinking On Prefrontal Myelin, Wanette M. Vargas-Rodriguez

Doctoral Dissertations

Alcohol binge drinking is highly prevalent in teenagers and is associated with various harmful health effects and social problems. During adolescence, brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are still undergoing active development, characterized by increases in white matter volume. While the morphological details and the cellular and molecular sequences governing adolescent white matter development are not fully known, it is known that this development process is sensitive and can be disrupted. Although consumption of alcohol in a binge drinking pattern has been linked to lower white matter integrity in humans, it is important to determine if alcohol is …

Colonial And Post-Colonial Origins Of Agrarian Development: The Case Of Two Punjabs, Shahram Azhar

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores the colonial and post-colonial origins of agrarian development by looking at the role of historical institutions, class formations and the state (ICS) in shaping the process. It contributes to the “divergence debates” in economics, which make an attempt to explain the ‘fundamental causes’ of divergence between countries. While one strand of the divergence literature presents the process as being functional to ‘geography’, a second strand focuses on the institutional legacies of colonialism; what is common to both sets of explanations, however, is the view that future outcomes are completely pre-determined by one or another time-invariant factor, leading …