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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Coopers Rock State Forest: How To Address Operations Cost And Shortfalls, Sullivan Wilcox Moore Jan 2020

Coopers Rock State Forest: How To Address Operations Cost And Shortfalls, Sullivan Wilcox Moore

Capstones and Honors Theses

Public lands provide opportunities for recreation and an escape from urban life. Coopers Rock State Forest in West Virginia features scenic views, hiking and biking trails, and other opportunities to get out and enjoy nature. However, despite increases in visitation, Coopers Rock operates under a deficit and faces backlogs of maintenance. Thus, this research attempts to estimate a value of Coopers Rock to visitors using the travel cost method and evaluates several fee-based policies through which Coopers Rock could capitalize on this visitation. Our results suggest that there are a range of values to visitors of visiting Coopers Rock State …


State Regulatory Heterogeneity And Clean Water Act Compliance, Quinn R. Beeson Jan 2020

State Regulatory Heterogeneity And Clean Water Act Compliance, Quinn R. Beeson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This research evaluates the impact of state regulations regarding Clean Water Act (CWA) compliance on wastewater and drinking water violations in the continental United States from 2007 to 2017. Using data collected from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), community characteristics and state regulations are analyzed for their effects on CWA compliance. We use count data analysis techniques and annual county-level data on CWA and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) violations from wastewater and drinking water facilities in the United States. The results show that total violations are higher when an additional state CWA regulation is implemented. One year after a …


The State And War On Poverty: British Welfare Development And Its Legacies For Malawi, 1930s-1983, Gift Wasambo Kayira Jan 2020

The State And War On Poverty: British Welfare Development And Its Legacies For Malawi, 1930s-1983, Gift Wasambo Kayira

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation documents the struggles and dilemmas that the Malawian state endured as it attempted to achieve its developmental goals from the 1930s to 1983. It contributes to histories of development by focusing on the interventions both the colonial and postcolonial states made to improve the living standards of African rural communities, the ideas which shaped state programs, and the behavior of the state which such interventions reveal. Scholars typically argue that state policy in Malawi was necessarily destructive and limited the economic progress of the local communities. The state deliberately pursued land, market, and other agricultural policies that constrained …


Three Essays In Applied Econometrics: Understanding Population Changes, Samuel P. Taylor Jan 2020

Three Essays In Applied Econometrics: Understanding Population Changes, Samuel P. Taylor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This body of work consists of three research projects developed around a central theme – what might cause a person to leave the place where they live? As a native and resident of West Virginia, this question is not a purely academic one. My region has long struggled with how to retain our “best and brightest” in the face of challenging socio-economic conditions. Looking at the question differently, understanding what negative influences may exist to cause a person that might otherwise have remained in a place to leave, could provide large influences on policy and strategy for retention of residents …


Three Essays On Energy Economics, Alexandre Ribeiro Scarcioffolo Jan 2020

Three Essays On Energy Economics, Alexandre Ribeiro Scarcioffolo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation consists of three essays that explore empirical issues concerning energy prices in the United States. In particular, it analyzes the price transmission within and across different energy markets and their interactions with the overall economy. The first essay evaluates the dynamic spatial integration in the U.S. natural gas market and the relative importance of each location in the overall price discovery process. I show that the regional natural gas market is on average well-integrated in both the short- and long-runs, although market integration has declined over the past few years due to pipeline capacity constraints in an increasingly …


Three Essays On “Production And Technical Efficiency”, Douglas Mugabe Jan 2020

Three Essays On “Production And Technical Efficiency”, Douglas Mugabe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation examines production and or technical efficiencies in agricultural and energy systems. The first essay examines production capabilities of smallholder corn farmers following Zimbabwe’s fast track land reform program of 2000. This paper accounts for semi-parametric production frontier to provide more reliable efficiency estimates than can be obtained using traditional parametric methods. The second essay examines efficiency and state level fuel substitution in the US electricity generation sector. I apply the recent fixed effects stochastic frontier estimation to understand the implications of changes in inter-fuel substitution for technical efficiency. The third essay examines the role of drilled but uncompleted …


Perceived Effects Of Bush Burning On Agriculture And Wildlife Resources In Ghana, Caitlin A. Wilson Jan 2020

Perceived Effects Of Bush Burning On Agriculture And Wildlife Resources In Ghana, Caitlin A. Wilson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Peace Corps was started in the 1960s by President John F. Kennedy. Ghana was one of the first established host countries that received Peace Corps Volunteers. There are five different sectors that volunteers can work in education, health, agriculture, environment, or community and economic development. Peace Corps service begins with ten weeks of pre-service training before volunteers swear in and are placed in communities throughout the country. Training covers topics such as global Peace Corps policy, health and security concerns, local language, and technical skills. I was placed in a small, rural community in the Northern Region of Ghana. My …