Education Commons^™

Brain Drain In The Mountain West, Ember Smith, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Economic Development & Workforce

This Fact Sheet highlights the effects of major shifts in geographic mobility patterns of highly-educated citizens in the Mountain West (Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado). The phenomenon, dubbed “brain drain” by experts, is characterized by the out-migration of a group of highly-educated people. “Brain gain” describes the opposite: when a location attracts highly-educated people. Several states are keeping and welcoming more highly-educated adults, while other states are rapidly losing talent. This migration pattern has important implications for social, political, and economic issues facing the country.

The Impact Of Education Expenditures On Income Inequality: Evidence From Us States, Bryanna Seefeldt

Honors Projects in Economics

While the effect of various types of government expenditures on income inequality has been studied extensively, whether education expenditures impacts income inequality is less clear. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between education expenditures and income inequality. Specifically, I explore the impact of tertiary versus primary and secondary education spending on income inequality using panel data for 50 US states over the period 1987-2015. Using an ordinary least squares model with time and state fixed effects, I find that total and disaggregated education expenditures have a significant inequality-reducing effect on the income distribution. The findings support …

Can Students Studying Abroad Use Forward Exchange Rates As A Tool For Better Budgeting Their Semesters?, Emalee Dunbar

Honors Projects in Finance

Traveling abroad requires an immense amount of planning and attention to detail. Budgeting is a difficult task in one’s own country, but when planning across borders, that task becomes even greater. Differences in exchange rates and buying power have the potential to adversely affect the budget set ahead of time, placing more stress on the traveler. Financial tools available in the foreign exchange market, if used strategically, may provide a reliable method to budgeting travel abroad as accurately as possible. There are many individuals, students especially, that plan on traveling or studying abroad yet are on tight budgets. Having a …

Does Academic Performance Predict Workplace Productivity?, Jodie-Gaye Hunter

Honors Projects in Economics

This research examines if college GPA affects productivity and compensation in the workplace. It uses data collected from a survey of approximately 23,000 Bryant University graduates in different stages of their career. About 10 percent of the alumni surveyed completed the survey. The econometric model used in this study allows estimating the effect of GPA on income after controlling for various demographic and socioeconomic variables, including education, major, occupation, gender, among others. The empirical work provides evidence that GPA has a positive and statistically significant impact on workplace productivity for females, but GPA seems to be a weaker predictor of …

Reconciling The Rhetoric And Reality Of Student Loan Debt, Elizabeth Akers

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Student loan debt has increased over the past three decades. This lecture will identify the factors that led to that increase in student loan debt what economic and social factors drove that increase. The talk will also consider the economic effects of increased or decreased earnings generated by individuals with student loan debt. This analysis will present data to assess the validity of several widely-held beliefs about the impact of student loan debt in the United States (e.g., increased student loan debt is depressing the housing market) and apply data-backed evidence to determine ways in which current and proposed policies …

Diffusion Of Mobile Payment Systems Among Microentrepreneurs In Kenya And Tanzania, Dionne Nickerson

Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship and Creativity

The rapid rise of Kenya's mobile payment system, M-PESA , has grasped the attention of policy makers and private enterprise alike. In just six years M-PESA has transformed how money flows throughout Kenya, and similar systems are gaining traction elsewhere in Africa. This project examines the impact of mobile payment system adoption on the economic advancement of Kenyan and Tanzanian microentrepreneurs. This work will further the understanding of mobile payment systems’ contribution to the economic growth of microenterprises, which may have implications for poverty reduction in these two nations.

Why Economic Performance Has Differed Between Brazil And China? A Comparative Analysis Of Brazilian And Chinese Macroeconomic Policy, Fernando Ferrari-Filho, Anthony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper addresses a specific question: why has China grown so rapidly and Brazil not? To answer this question, it (i) establishes the basis for comparison between China and Brazil by contextualizing these countries within the BRICs concept, and (ii) presents a comparative analysis of Brazilian and Chinese reforms focusing only on the issue of macroeconomic policy, especially the monetary and exchange rate regimes, and its effect on growth.

Gender Audits As An Input To Engender Governance: Vibhuti Patel, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

‘gender audit’ is referred to as ‘mainstreaming’ public policy, including legislation, regulations, allocations, taxation and social projects, from the point of view of their effect on the status of women in a given society. Gender audits also analyse the income and expenditures of the government from a gender perspective. The basic assumption of a gender audits is that public policy impacts differently on men and women. The variance stems from the different roles of women and men in the family and from the lower economic status of women. The purpose of gender audits is to lead to changes in public …

Chayanov's Rule And School Reform, Alexander M. Sidorkin

Faculty Publications

Alexander V. Chayanov was a Russian economist and rural sociologist killed in Stalin's purges around 1938. He authored a theory of peasant economy that was quite influential in Western economic anthropology since translation of his major work in 1966. Marshall Sahlins successfully used his theory in Stone Age Economics and introduced "Chayanov's rule": "In the community of domestic producing groups, the greater the relative working capacity of the household the less its members work." Peasant societies have certain level of standard consumption determined by what a family with the lowest worker/consumer ratio can attain. In other words, a peasant family …

Dialogue With Evil, Alexander M. Sidorkin

Faculty Publications

This paper is a direct result of comments Dr. Barbara Thayer-Bacon gave me on one of my previous papers. I have been exploring possible implications of Mikhail Bakhtin's notions of dialogue and polyphony for educational theory. The assumption I borrowed from Bakhtin is that dialogue is the end and everything else in a means. In other words, Bakhtin seemed to reject any absolutes with the exception of dialogical relation. I thought, and still do now, that this is a very productive idea, and that dialogue understood as a relation can effectively describe something very central to human existence. Among other …

Providence's Unending Quest For Cash, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The mayor of Providence has a big problem. How can he balance a budget that addresses the needs of an increasingly large number of people, yet deal with a declining tax base that is less able to pay for theses extra services?"

Maine Alumnus, Volume 53, Number 1, September-October 1971, General Alumni Association, University Of Maine

UMaine Alumni Magazines - All

Contents:

Belt Tightening for 1971-72 --- Phi Kappa Phi's Homecoming --- Bruce Poulton Becomes Vice President --- Albert D. Nutting '27 --- Lyle C. Jenness --- Newman Center --- 25 Years of Enthusiasm for Maine, Rochester Area Alumni Association --- Why He Said Yes, New Campaign Chairman (Albert M. Parker) Talks with Alumni --- New Physical Education Facilities