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State Of Ohio: Insurance Industry And Occupational Highlights, Ohio Board Of Regents, Wright State University, Center For Urban And Public Affairs

Economic Development

Over 7,000 business establishments in Ohio employ 120,626 people in the Insurance Industry. Employment is expected to grow 1% a year to 2015, adding 6,323 workers, outpacing the national growth rate. In an analysis of the top ten states by employment size and industry concentration, Ohio is expected to grow at the second fastest pace.

Every year, the Insurance Industry has roughly 2,000 job openings for new and replacement jobs. The core of the industry is found in five occupations: insurance sales agents; claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators; insurance underwriters; insurance appraisers, auto damage; and actuaries. For those five occupations, …

Water Resource Distribution: Neoliberal Versus A Social Provisioning Approach, Laura Dotson

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

The purpose of this research is to examine how privatization of water resources has created social inequalities and environmental degradation on an international scale by understanding the ways in which water has become a market commodity, and how water resources are managed within a private framework versus a public framework. Two frameworks will be compared: neoliberal policy and the social provisioning approach to managing water resources. It is argued that social provisioning ought to be the focus of policy formulation so as to diminish the degree in which social inequalities and environmental degradation are generated by privatization. As a result, …

What Drives Productivity Growth At The Firm Level And Why Is It That Some Firms Outperform Their Peers?, Julie Ann Potter

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

Firms appear to outperform their peers when defined as exhibiting increased productivity growth. Specific factors have been shown to have a causal effect upon increased total factor productivity and thus the firm level with the implementation of: the use and diffusion of technological progress; diversification of firm assets through the acquisition of high productivity growth plant assets; the integration of information technology and information communications technology and the creation of innovative capacities and efficiencies. Likewise, specific factors have been shown to have a causal effect upon increased labor productivity and thus firm level productivity growth: the sharing of employee experiences …

Have Confidence In Your Interval Estimates: Improving Cognition Of Confidence Intervals Used In Business Forecasting, Jeffrey Maurath Price

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

Confidence intervals convey valuable information regarding the uncertainty of point estimates, and their utility to users of business forecasts is no exception. The conclusions drawn from these forecasts can be significantly impacted by the perception of a confidence interval's distribution, however. There is a tendency for business managers and other decision makers who lack statistical expertise, despite being generally well educated, to incorrectly assume confidence intervals are uniformly distributed. This study investigates the efficacy of various techniques for presenting confidence interval information at conveying the details of the underlying statistical distribution. The results demonstrate significant improvement in the accurate interpretation …

The Impact Of Opinion On Foreign Trade, Nikolaus Williams

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This paper examines the impact that opinion has on foreign trade. Specifically, the paper examines how opinion towards the U.S. impacts U.S. exports and how changes in opinion toward the U.S. impact U.S. exports. Using survey data from the Pew Global Attitudes Projects and export data, the paper examines these relationships for 21 countries between 2002 and 2010. Regression analysis of the panel data reveals that positive opinion levels and positive changes in opinion have statistically significant positive impacts on U.S. exports. However, this conclusion is somewhat tempered by the unbalanced nature of the available data which prevents a greater …

The Non-Linear Influence Of School Quality On Home Prices In The Dayton, Oh Msa, Thomas Andrew Welton

Masters Culminating Experiences (1993-2011)

This paper analyzes the Dayton, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) to examine the extent to which public school quality influences housing prices. Research is conducted in the Dayton region at both the city and neighborhood levels. City level analysis indicates a significant linear relationship between school quality and home prices. However, the results of this analysis are likely distorted by collinearity between school quality and neighborhood characteristics, such as crime rate. In an effort to mitigate collinearity and control for neighborhood characteristics, neighborhood level analysis is conducted using 933 individual homes located in areas where separate school districts border. The …