Business Commons^™

Professional Sports, Hurricane Katrina, And The Economic Redevelopment Of New Orleans: Revisited, Victor Matheson, Robert Baade, Callan Henderschott

Economics Department Working Papers

Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in late August 2005, resulting in damage to much of the city’s sports infrastructure and the temporary departure of both of New Orleans’ major league professional sports teams, the National Football League Saints and the National Basketball Association Hornets. The city spent over $500 million restoring the sports infrastructure in New Orleans, and both teams subsequently returned to the city. In addition, New Orleans has since hosted numerous mega-sporting events including the Super Bowl, NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four, and several college football national championships. This paper examines the economic impact of …

The Rise And Fall (And Rise And Fall) Of The Olympic Games As An Economic Driver, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

This paper traces the economic history of major sporting events focusing on the Olympics. Historically, the Olympic Games as well as other major sporting events have been considered costly events that place a burden on host cities. Only in relatively recent years, coinciding with the massive increases in the cost of hosting these events, have event organizers begun to claim that these events bring with them large economic benefits.

Point/Counterpoint: Is There A Case For Subsidizing Sports Stadiums?, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

In recent decades, governments have committed enormous public resources to subsidize construction of new stadiums, and the dollar value of taxpayer contributions for these subsidies continues to climb. Spending of taxpayer dollars includes both direct subsidies from state and local governments, as well as indirect subsidies from the use of tax-exempt bonds to finance construction. In granting stadium subsidies, governments claim that the stadiums are a public good that attracts tourists and businesses, thereby generating increased spending and job creation—benefits that flow to the community rather than to team owners. But do such benefits exist, and are they large enough …

Free Trade And Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethical Dilemmas In Global Economic Development, Sarah Papion

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through the lens of the free-trade-optimist, it is black and white: corporations bring jobs, and jobs equal a happy and healthy economy. A major oversight in this neoliberal Utopian ideology is that corporations are not in the business of building communities, nor do they have an interest in keeping their operations stationary enough to allow economic growth to occur over a span of years. Corporations abandon communities as quickly as they arrive to find their next cheap labor hub. Quite contradictory to the original purpose of free trade, economic growth in Free Trade Zones is not long term or secure. …

Innovation, Firm Size Distribution, And Gains From Trade, Yi-Fan Chen, Wen-Tai Hsu, Shin-Kun Peng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study a trade model with monopolistic competition a la Melitz (2003) that is standard except that firm heterogeneity is endogenously determined by firms innovating to enhance their productivities. We show that the equilibrium productivity and firm-size distributions exhibit power-law tails under rather general conditions on demand and technology. In particular, the emergence of the power laws is essentially independent of the underlying primitive heterogeneity among firms. We investigate the model’s welfare implications, and conduct a quantitative analysis of welfare gains from trade. We find that, conditional on the same trade elasticity and values of the common parameters, our model …

Career Coaching: A Study Of Veterans Health Administration (Vha) Leaders', Jerelyn Dugas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore and describe the impact of career coaching on the career performance growth and retention as perceived by healthcare’s emerging leaders who participated in selected coaching program institutes for a minimum of 1 year at VHA hospitals in Southern California.

Methodology: The researcher selected a qualitative multiple case study to explore and describe VHA leaders’ perceived impact of coaching on their career performance growth and retention. Further, the researcher conducted semi-structured, interviews with 15 participants to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of the participants at the …

Gdp And Refugees: An Economic Argument For Accepting Refugees, Michael Jarman

Marriott Student Review

This paper examines both the costs and benefits associated with accepting refugees and purports to show that accepting refugees is economically beneficial; increasing GDP in the long run. There is a substantial cost associated with accepting and sustaining refugees, both in providing necessities and in the impact that refugees have on local job markets. However, longitudinal data pulled from Denmark, Germany, and Turkey has shown that local markets do recover from the initial shock. Over time as refugees integrate into their host communities, they provide dividends in the form of increasing demand, greater mobility and wage increases for locals, and …

The Economic Impact Of Olympic Games: Effects Of Host Country Announcements On Stock Market Returns, Bryan Engelhardt, Victor Matheson, Alex Yen, Max Chisholm

Economics Department Working Papers

Roughly seven years before an Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepts bids from countries to host an Olympics. Subsequently, the IOC determines and announces to the world who has won (and lost) the right to host. Contrary to prior evidence, we find the announcements do not affect the bidding countries’ stock markets. We complement prior studies by including additional, more recent, years of announcements, by investigating whether there are effects prior to the announcement, and by testing for an effect both parametrically and non-parametrically.

Three Essays On Growth, Housing Market And Inequality, Shahrzad Ghourchian

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes three essays on growth, the housing market, and inequality. In the first essay, I analyze the effects of government consumption and government debt on long-run economic growth by considering the economic characteristics of the countries investigated. Linear regressions reveal that government consumption has a much bigger negative impact on long-run growth compared with the negative (and sometimes insignificant) effects of government debt. Nonlinear analyses further show that such effects are highly impacted by the economic characteristics of the countries investigated.

In the second essay, I study time-series fluctuations in the United States housing market from 2010 to …

Regulation And The Marginalist Revolution, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

The marginalist revolution in economics became the foundation for the modern regulatory State with its “mixed” economy. Marginalism, whose development defines the boundary between classical political economy and neoclassical economics, completely overturned economists’ theory of value. It developed in the late nineteenth century in England, the Continent and the United States. For the classical political economists, value was a function of past averages. One good example is the wage-fund theory, which saw the optimal rate of wages as a function of the firm’s ability to save from previous profits. Another is the theory of corporate finance, which assessed a corporation’s …

Building A Bridge Between Philanthropy And Profit: The History, Economics, And Politics Of Environmental Impact In A Commerce Society, Yekaterina Goncharova

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper examines our consumerist society through past and present data, business practice, supply chain, economics, and its impact on human and environmental well-being. Upon examination, the thesis aims to suggest change through social indicators and policy. It answers numerous questions surrounding both the problems and solutions associated with environmental policy. These include: the question as to what exactly is social and environmental impact investing? What are current changes impacting humanity’s ecological footprint? Why does society need to make changes? Most importantly, it assesses how we can change? Chapter 1 explores the past and what led to an increase of …

A Cross-Cultural Examination Of The Effect Of Employer Support On Employee Productivity, Shawn Tuman, Haley Lipton

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this creative, collaborative, capstone project is to conduct a cross-cultural examination of the effect of employer support on employee productivity by compiling, examining, and synthesizing conclusions from existing research. In a world of growing globalization and technological innovation, the speed of productivity is often the cornerstone that differentiates successful businesses from unsuccessful businesses, providing a competitive advantage to the quick while the others fall behind. Often this increased level of efficiency comes at a cost beyond the price of the product and the salary of employees, a deeper, psychological cost. By reviewing research focused in the United …

The Economics Of The World Cup, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

The quadrennial World Cup is perhaps the world’s most popular sporting event with millions of live fans and a worldwide television audience in the billions. It is also one of the most costly events to host with recent hosts countries such as Brazil and Russia spending around $12 billion putting on the tournament. This paper examines the costs and the benefits of hosting the World Cup with a focus on historical data and past economic impact studies.

The Effects Of Food Security On Socioeconomic Mobility In The United States: A Case Study In Allendale County, South Carolina, Taylor St Clarke

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between food security – defined as accessibility to an affordable, nutritious, and sustainable source of food – and socioeconomic mobility in the continental United States. This thesis is primarily focused on the effects of food insecurity on both individuals and communities, examining the chronic long-term effects of such insecurity on areas known as “food deserts,” which are often given status as areas of persistent poverty. This research further examines the effects of a sustained poor diet, brought about by food insecurity, on the individual and overarching community in a food desert and how such a …

The Digital Global Supply Chain: The Growing Case For Blockchain Technology Expansion Within Global Supply Chain, Jonathan Chichoni, Scott Webb Dr.

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In a competitive global market place, technology adoption and application in supply chain is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to acquire competitive advantages. Since blockchain’s advent to the global stage of modern disruptive technologies, several questions remain unanswered pertaining to the benefits that blockchain adoption poses to global supply chains. I apply a typology analysis to a corpus of company filings, press releases and industry studies to better understand the reasons for which global supply chains industry wide are adopting blockchain technology and the specific benefits which they seek to exploit through the use of blockchain. I characterize the …

Central Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report Fourth Quarter 2017, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Central Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

The Central Minnesota planning area is expected to experience continued economic growth over the next several months according to predictions of the Central Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). The leading index rose by 3.32 points in the most recent period, with three components producing positive readings. Increased St. Cloud area residential building permits contributed to this quarter’s rising LEI. In addition, an uptick in national durable goods orders and lower regional initial jobless claims also helped drive the index higher.

There were 1,331 new business filings with the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State in Central Minnesota …

Southwest Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report Fourth Quarter 2017, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Southwest Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Despite a negative reading of the fourth quarter St. Cloud State University Southwest Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI), economic fundamentals in Southwest Minnesota appear to be sufficiently strong to see a continuation of steady regional economic growth over the next several months. Two of four LEI components were positive in the fourth quarter. An increase in residential building permits in the Mankato MSA and higher new business filings of incorporation and LLC in Southwest Minnesota contributed favorably to the LEI. A weaker rural Minnesota economic outlook and higher initial jobless claims in recent months helped drag down this …

Twin Cities Area Economic And Business Conditions Report Fourth Quarter 2017, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Twin Cities Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Despite a fourth quarter decline in the Twin Cities Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI), economic growth is expected to remain steady in the Twin Cities over the next several months as overall economic fundamentals remain strong in this part of the state. The Twin Cities LEI registered a -3.07 reading in the fourth quarter. Three of five index components turned down in the fourth quarter, with recent weakness in the Minnesota Business Conditions Index-a general measure of statewide business conditions—and a reduction in the number of residential building permits in the Twin Cities metropolitan area having the largest negative …

Southeast Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report Fourth Quarter 2017, King Banaian, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Southeast Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Steady economic growth over the next several months is expected in the Southeast Minnesota planning area according to the prediction of the Southeast Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). After two consecutive quarterly declines in the LEI, the fourth quarter leading index rose by 1.18 points as two index components recorded positive values. Increased new filings of incorporation and LLC in the Southeast Minnesota planning area and an improvement in consumer sentiment helped lift this quarter’s LEI. A lower number of residential building permits in the Rochester area and a decline in the Minnesota Business Conditions Index (which serves …

Northeast Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report Fourth Quarter 2017, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Northeast Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

A steady pace of economic growth in Northeast Minnesota is expected over the next several months according to the predictions of the Northeast Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). Two of the five components of the LEI increased as the overall index was basically flat in the fourth quarter. A surge in Duluth metropolitan area residential building permits and lower initial jobless claims in the region contributed favorably to this quarter’s outlook, while weakness in a general measure of statewide business conditions, a lower reading on a supply manager’s index, and declining new business incorporations weighed on the leading …

An Inquiry Into The Causes Of Growth In Gross Domestic Product, Thomas Hext, Michael Davidsson

Paper Presentations

This study is an inquiry into the causes of growth in nationwide gross domestic product in the United States of America. The primary objective has been to measure the effects of taxation, saving rate and government investment on this important economic indicator. “Taxation” has been broken down into three components; personal income tax, corporate income tax and consumption tax. Personal income tax is separated once again into the highest and lowest brackets to facilitate more incisive analysis of the results. Consumption taxes are decided at the state level which meant that an average national consumption tax had to be calculated …

Shaping Our World For A Better Tomorrow: Sustainable Investing, Esg, And Industry Insight, Anna M. Ballate

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable investing is a relatively new field in the world of finance and banking. Even though there is tremendous growth in sustainable investments over the past few years, it is still a niche market that requires more transparency, standards, and incentives. Switzerland has become one of the leading countries for sustainable finance, exhibiting a growth in sustainable investments under management. Despite the vast amount of research and development on sustainable investing, there is still much confusion and negative perception in the professional banking world about the topic. This study is designed to fill the gap between the academic rhetoric behind …

The Path To Mainstream Finance: Exploring Complementary Currencies And Interest-Free Lending, Ema Di Fruscia

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper explores elements of alternative finance including complementary currencies, credit clearing systems, and Islamic Banking practices. I begin first by outlining the issues created by the mainstream western banking model, including wealth inequality, socioeconomic discrimination, environmental degradation, and the collapse of small businesses and local economies. I go on to introduce and define the concepts of complementary currencies, Local Exchange Trading Systems, and credit clearing systems; I argue that these systems challenge the popularly held perceptions that currencies and mainstream banking practices in general are immutable, given, or ideal. To support this assertion, I transition into my research findings …

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 …

Entrepreneurship Education Empowers Youth To Change Their Lives, Marianna Brashear, Jason Riddle

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) aims at equipping Title 1 schools with free, hands-on, engaging materials that any teacher can facilitate either individually or in a classroom setting with no background in entrepreneurship necessary. These versatile lessons, courses, and workshops teach the entrepreneurial mindset optimizing opportunities for grades 8-12 students no matter which life/career path they choose.

Northeast Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report First Quarter 2018, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Northeast Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

A steady pace of economic growth in Northeast Minnesota is expected over the next several months according to the predictions of the Northeast Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). Two of the five components of the LEI decreased as the overall index was basically flat for the second consecutive quarter. A decline in Duluth metropolitan area residential building permits and recently higher initial jobless claims in the region weighed on this quarter’s outlook, while recent strength in a general measure of statewide business conditions and improved new business filings contributed favorably to the leading index.

There were 643 new …

Southeast Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report First Quarter 2018, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Southeast Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Steady economic growth over the next several months is expected in the Southeast Minnesota planning area according to the prediction of the Southeast Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). After a quarter in which the LEI was largely unchanged, the first quarter leading index rose by 0.77 points as three index components recorded positive values. Increased new filings of incorporation and LLC in the Southeast Minnesota planning area, a rise in the Minnesota Business Conditions Index, and an improvement in consumer sentiment helped lift this quarter’s LEI. A lower number of residential building permits in the Rochester area and …

Southwest Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report First Quarter 2018, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Southwest Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

After experiencing a negative reading in the fourth quarter of 2017, the St. Cloud State University Southwest Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) turned positive in this year’s first quarter, indicating continued economic growth in Southwest Minnesota over the next several months. Three of four LEI components were positive in the first quarter. A larger number of new business filings of incorporation and LLC in Southwest Minnesota and a stronger outlook for rural Minnesota helped drive the leading index higher in the current quarter. A decline in initial jobless claims also helped lift the index. A decrease in the …

Twin Cities Area Economic And Business Conditions Report First Quarter 2018, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Twin Cities Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Strong economic growth is expected to continue in the Twin Cities planning area according to the predictions of the Twin Cities Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). The Twin Cities LEI registered a 4.94 reading in the first quarter of 2018 as four of five index components showed strength. An increase in the Minnesota Business Conditions Index—a general measure of statewide business conditions—and improvement in the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Minnesota Leading Economic Indicators Index each contributed favorably to this quarter’s LEI. In addition, an increase in the number of residential building permits in the Twin Cities metropolitan area …

Northwest Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report First Quarter 2018, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Northwest Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Strong economic growth is expected in the Northwest Minnesota planning area over the next several months according to the predictions of the St. Cloud State University Northwest Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). Four of five index components increased in the most recent quarter as the LEI rose 7.02 points. An increase in the Rural Mainstreet Index (which signals a more robust macroeconomic environment for rural America) and a larger number of residential building permits in Fargo/Moorhead and Grand Forks/East Grand Forks were among the positive components in this quarter’s leading index. A rise in the number of new …