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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Economics

Brigham Young University

Faculty Publications

2008

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Gender Differences In The Response To Competition, Joseph Price Apr 2008

Gender Differences In The Response To Competition, Joseph Price

Faculty Publications

To investigate whether men and women respond differently to competition and whether this response depends on the gender mix of the group, the author examines outcomes of the Mellon Foundation's Graduate Education Initiative, a competitive fellowship program instituted in 1991 that was aimed at increasing graduation rates and decreasing time to degree. Men's performance, as measured by time to candidacy, increased 10% in response to the program, with the largest gains for men in departments with the highest proportions offemale students. Women did not increase performance, on average, but the response of women did differ greatly depending on the gender …

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Racial Bias In The Nba: Implications In Betting Markets, Tim Larsen, Joe Prince, Justin Wolfers Apr 2008

Racial Bias In The Nba: Implications In Betting Markets, Tim Larsen, Joe Prince, Justin Wolfers

Faculty Publications

Recent studies have documented the existence of an own-race bias on the part of sports officials. In this paper we explore the implications of these biases on betting markets. We use data from the 1991/92 - 2004/05 NBA regular seasons to show that a betting strategy exploiting own-race biases by referees would systematically beat the spread.

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Rolling In The Dough: The Continued Surge In Individual Contributions To Presidential Candidates And Party Committees, David B. Magleby Mar 2008

Rolling In The Dough: The Continued Surge In Individual Contributions To Presidential Candidates And Party Committees, David B. Magleby

Faculty Publications

The dramatic growth in the numbers of individuals contributing to presidential candidates and the surge in total amounts being contributed has generated substantial media attention in the 2008 presidential election. Individuals are giving more, in part, because the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) raised contribution limits and encouraged "max-out" donors to contribute to party committees as well. This study compares individual contributions to presidential candidates and party committees in 1999, the year prior to the last pre-BCRA presidential election, and in the years prior to post-BCRA presidential elections.

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State Health Insurance Regulations And The Price Of High-Deductible Policies, Mark H. Showalter, Amanda E. Kowalski, William J. Congdon Jan 2008

State Health Insurance Regulations And The Price Of High-Deductible Policies, Mark H. Showalter, Amanda E. Kowalski, William J. Congdon

Faculty Publications

This study examines the impact of state health insurance regulations on the price of high-deductible family and individual polices in the nongroup market. We use a unique and rich data set on actual insurance policies sold through a large Internet health insurance distributor to examine the impact of various regulations on policy prices, controlling for policy characteristics, demographic characteristics of the purchasers, and state-level demographics. We also use data from a single major insurance firm that provided offer prices for a family policy from a set of randomly selected zip codes. Both datasets suggest a strong statistical relationship between regulation …

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User Fees In Local Finance: Performance And Potential In Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson Jan 2008

User Fees In Local Finance: Performance And Potential In Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

The Czech Republic and Slovakia, like other transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe, have given significant lip service to fiscal decentralization and engaged in public administration reforms. But the subnational governments of their public finance systems still lack relative autonomy, which could be addressed partly through developing independent revenue sources for their municipalities and regions. Currently, such independent revenue sources include the proceeds of a strictly nominal property tax as well as those of a small set of local user fees and taxes designed and approved by the central governments. Together they represent only about 5 percent of total …

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A Leontief Model Of Municipal Budgeting, Phillip J. Bryson Jan 2008

A Leontief Model Of Municipal Budgeting, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

Local budgeting in transition countries is an important process because it can reveal the extent to which fiscal decentralization has occurred. Because central planning regimes were highly centralized, adopting a market/democratic approach requires a devolution of power from the central government to regions and municipalities. A Leontief model is presented as a simple theoretical approach to local budgeting. Local revenues are considered as financial inputs and local expenditures as financial outputs. A method of measuring the degree of local autonomy as a part of the budgeting process is a part of this model.

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State Administration Vs. Self-Government In The Slovak And Czech Republics, Phillip J. Bryson Jan 2008

State Administration Vs. Self-Government In The Slovak And Czech Republics, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

In the transition experience, the Czech and Slovak Republics have made some effort to achieve fiscal decentralization. From independence to EU accession, the devolution of power designed to strengthen the autonomy of local governments according to the principles of subsidiarity have also included a reform of public administration. The nature of reform efforts and their implications for the fiscal decentralization are analyzed. The failure to achieve a robust autonomy for subnational governments is due to the ongoing adherence to the notion of the "state administration" as opposed to self-government in both republics.

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