Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Re-Examining Venture Capitalist Certification And Insider Selling Decisions During The 1990s., Nicholas S. Koshiw

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper addresses the validity of certification and insider selling hypotheses within the context of new issues. Comparisons of venture capital backed and non venture-backed issues with similar offering characteristics show that issuers with venture capital affiliation are more underpriced than non venture-backed IPOs and insider selling results in decreased underpricing. These results contradict the findings of previous venture capital certification studies {Barry (1990), Megginson and Weiss (1991), and Lin and Smith (1997)}, but are consistent with recent work that examines grandstanding {Lee and Wahal (2002)} and insider selling decisions during hot market periods {Ljungqvist and Wilhelm (2003)}.

Local Initiatives And Imf Policies In Quito, Ecuador, Dionissi Aliprantis

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

If we are to define development as an increase in the freedoms people enjoy, then we may move beyond structural adjustments and foreign investment as means to create wealth in Ecuador and Latin America. Although not conclusively documented one way or the other [13], microlending is a promising path towards development from this perspective. At the very least, microlending offers hope to a segment of the population that would otherwise be disenfranchised. In Quito, Ecuador, microlending programs are creating wealth and expanding freedoms in a manner consistent with capitalism, while a good deal of IMF policies extract wealth from the …

Housing Preferences Of Spanish-Speaking Migrants, Pueo Keffer

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

In this research I attempt to model and investigate the housing decisions of Spanish-speaking migrants. I use methods developed by Bajari and Kahn (2002) to obtain willingness to pay measurements for the migrant groups in samples drawn from three major California cities. I then apply these results to several hypotheses that attempt to describe current migration patterns of Hispanics into increasingly segregated communities characterized by high levels of crowding, low educational attainment, and high levels of Spanish speakers. This research finds that spoken language plays a significant role in a migrant’s decision process. Spanish-speaking migrants demonstrate a significant preference for …

United States Sugar Trade, Jeremy R. Meiners

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The best means to understand the effects of the tariff-rate quota system on production and consumption of sugar is by creating an economic model. By analyzing the most recent figures concerning consumption, importation, production, and tariff-rate quotas, an economic model of the sugar market of the United States can be produced. From this model, the effects of the removal of the tariff-rate quota system can be seen, as well as the effects on domestic consumers and producers. Through this model, an accurate picture of whom the tariff-rate quota affects and what these effects are is shown.

Assessing Environmental Externalities Of The Us Coal Base Load Electric Utility Industry Using Data Enveloping Analysis, Faisal Z. Ahmed

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper attempts to address two issues. First, is how to objectively measure carbon dioxide emissions from the generation of electricity that uses predominantly coal. Second, is how to incorporate these ‘environmental’ variables into an efficiency model. Using a technique called Data Enveloping Analysis (DEA) a non-parametric piecewise surface (or frontier) over the data is constructed, so as to be able to calculate technical efficiencies (which I call environmental efficiency) relative to this surface. These ‘environmental efficiency’ measures are analyzed. The technique utilized in this study may be extended to calculate each agent’s allocative and scale efficiencies in order to …

Customer Racial Discrimination In The Professional Sports Card Market: The Case Of League Majority Versus Minority, Tyler Forrest

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Previous research finds that customer racial discrimination decreases the price of a non-white baseball player’s card but does not decrease the price of a non-white basketball player’s card. This paper seeks to examine if racial minority or league minority affects the value of a trading card. Using disaggregated player performance data from 1977 we explore this question with baseball cards (in which non-white players are the league minority) and basketball cards (in which white non-players are the league majority). Using Tobit regressions, we find that customer discrimination exists against non-white players in both baseball and basketball leagues.

Reconsidering Gender And Investment In The Intrahousehold Decision-Making Process, Lin Johnson Iii

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

In the very recent past, the economics of the household and the economics of development appear to be edging toward a new convergence of concern around the nature and use of assets. However, these two literatures of economics continue to exist in separate spheres. I draw from both bodies of literature in order to examine gender differences in asset portfolios. I find systematic differences in the way that certain assets held by husbands versus wives influence household decision outcomes. A clear understanding of the nature and functions of various types of assets in hands of husbands and wives is necessary …

Pollution Abatement Costs: Hurting Or Helping Productivity?, Jacqueline M. Volkman

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper analyzes the effect that regulatory inputs or expenditures for labor, materials, and capital have on productivity for three industries (blast furnaces and steel mills, alkalies and chlorine, and petroleum refining). Data is examined from 1973 to 1994 and the growth rate of total factor productivity (TFP) is considered. The pattern of pollution abatement expenditures for three media, water, air, and solid wastes, is also examined graphically. In addition, the measurement for TFP is adjusted to net out regulatory inputs for labor, materials, and capital. A comparison between the original and adjusted measurement of TFP is made for each …

Investing In The Arts: Financial And Aesthetic Returns To Prints, Adam Finkelstein

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper will revisit the economic question “is buying art profitable?” facing any potential investor by focusing specifically on the market for prints. The answer will account for both pecuniary and aesthetic benefits. Previous inquiry into the returns of investments in art and their methodologies is first reviewed. Then a framework for measuring utility from prints from market-observed leasing prices is described. Various price indexes for returns to Picasso and Chagall prints are compiled for the years 1977 to 1997 using a market basket technique. The indexes are then combined with the utility framework. Real and nominal returns to prints, …

The Political Economy Of Wto Dispute Settlement: Toward A Synthesis Of International Regime Theories, Christopher L. Griffin

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper analyzes the explanatory power of mainstream international regime theories from the international political economy (IPE) literature—neoliberalism, realism, and cognitivism—through formal econometric techniques. I use a data set based on 162 dispute settlement cases since the inception of the World Trade Organization and find that the probability of a Dispute Settlement Panel (DSP) forming depends on the share of exports for a target country as a share of its total exports as well as relative gaps in military expenditures (as a share of GDP). These results are highly robust to different model specifications and control variable choice. Though the …

The Economic Impact Of Native American Gaming: Cost-Benefit Analysis Of The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Lisa Borromeo

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The purpose of this paper is to put the economic and social importance of Indian gambling on and off the reservation into perspective. Because the economic and social effects of Indian gaming are additive, one cannot form a coherent picture of the net impact of gaming without measuring both the economic and social effects (Cornell et al., 1998). Because gambling has impacts beyond reservation boundaries, studying the surrounding local economy is a necessary action. As both the number of tribes with gaming operations and the magnitude of the operations increase, so do their effects. This paper combines a general overview …

Prices, Legalisation And Marijuana Consumption, Mert Daryal

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The debate concerning the legalisation of marijuana is intensifying. As the price of marijuana would most likely decrease following legalisation, the law of demand implies that consumption would rise. But by how much? This paper analyses the effect of legalisation on consumption by using data from a specifically-conducted survey of first year students at The University of Western Australia. The results indicate that 53 percent of students have consumed marijuana with males exhibiting a higher intensity than females. The results also show that legalisation would cause consumption to increase by approximately 4 percent. Both legalisation and a 50 percent fall …

Cooperation Within Anarchy: A Case Study Of The Success Of Commercial Banking During The Lebanese Civil War, Mona Kalash

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper analyses the success of the Lebanese banking system during the Lebanese civil war, which lasted from 1975 until 1989. As the rest of the economy plunged into recession due to intense warfare and governmental collapse, the bankers and their clients continued to cooperate across battle lines in the loaning business. The argument of the paper is that the linkage of social and economic games and the importance of reputation in business created incentives for bankers and businessmen to cooperate in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game of lending and borrowing. I challenge the theoretical perspective that cooperation is not possible …

Discrimination Against Canadian Colours, Veevek Thankey

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Canada is a nation of immigrants. Decades of open and compassionate immigration policies have earned Canada a solid reputation abroad in this regard. However, as long as there has been immigration in this country, concerns have existed over the impact of immigration on the labour market and, more importantly, the role that discrimination plays regarding income differentials. This paper will analyze the earning differentials of immigrants, which shall be defined as ethnic minorities.

The World Grain Economy To 2050: A Dynamic General Equilibrium, Two Sector Approach To Long-Term World-Level Macroeconomic Forecasting, Benn Eifert, Carlos Galvez, Naureen Kabir, Avinash Kaza, Jack Moore, Christine Pham

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Though fifty years is a tremendous time horizon for the forecasting of any trend involving the complex interactions of billions of people and billions of hectares of intricate planetary ecosystems, the analytic methodology of economics is the most capable toolbox available for such forecasting. At the center of such a forecast are two complex functions, supply and demand, coevolving over time and codetermining prices, production, investment, labor flows, export patterns, and most other major variables.

Macroeconomic Reform And Policy: The Case Of Peru - Analyzing The Effects Of Some Major Economic, Political And Social Changes In The Peruvian Financial Market For The Period Between 1990 And 1992, Marco A. Hernandez

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper discusses the effects of the changes in economic policies and important events, between 1990 and 1992, on the values of an economic sector's equity in Peru. I use event studies to explain the differences in returns during the event window in the main economic sectors in Peru including mining, beer, banking and industrial sector. Four key events are analyzed: The Fujishock, the announcement of policy changes and changes in the legal system, Fujimori's announcement of the dissolution of Congress and the suspension of the Constitution, and the capture of the chief of the Shining Path guerrillas, Guzman. …

Intergenerational Problems Of Stability And Justice: Public Goods And Just Saving, Andrew Hayashi

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Rawls notes that the question of justice between generations “subjects any ethical theory to severe if not impossible tests.” (A Theory of Justice (TOJ), p. 251) and the difference principle Rawls argues for in A Theory of Justice is inapplicable to the problem of justice between generations. Specifically, the fact that there “is no way for later generations to help the least fortunate earlier generation…[means that] the difference principle does not hold for the question for justice between generations.” (TOJ p.254) Curiously, despite Rawls’ warning, there is vein of literature that endeavors to show that the difference principle …

Czech Voucher Privatization: A Case Of Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Katia Hristova

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

In my study, I plan to analyze voucher privatization in the Czech Republic. This process is best characterized as decision making under both risk and uncertainty, where the thousands of individuals who initially received vouchers were operating under near total uncertainty while larger institutional investors who later seized control of the vouchers were operating under conditions of risk. I will analyze the resulting patterns of ownership in comparison to the goals of the process. I will also discuss the role of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as institutions which affect the conditions under which voucher privatization was conducted. …

The Cellular Divide: A Comparative Analysis Of Mobile Phone Usage In Spain And The United States, Deborah J. Slezak

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The usage of mobile phones has dramatically increased in the past decade, narrowing the boundaries of size, space, and time. It is this “death of distance” that will be the single most important economic force shaping all of society over the next half century. The economic prosperity of the United States has contributed to the increase in this “luxury” telecommunication device, but how can the rapid increase in European countries with lower per capita incomes such as Spain be explained? The purpose of this paper is to examine mobile phone usage and penetration rates in the United States compared to …

The Relationship Between Economic Freedom And Socio - Economic Development, Anisha Madan

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This research study assumes that people will be better off if there is greater equality of income, if per capita income increases, and if they have better access to education and health care through which they can lead a more fulfilling life. The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Education is a basic need because it improves skills, improves productivity, and lowers reproductivity by improving the status of women. Education also contributes to meeting other basic needs. If the behavioral changes …

Are Art Students Nicer Than Economics Students? A Discussion Of How Economic Game Theory Predicts That Art And Economics Students Differ In Terms Of Reciprocity, Abigail Claiborne

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Neoclassical economic game theory predicts that a player’s goal is to maximize her income regardless of others. In playing the Ultimatum Game this means that Allocators will allocate the minimum amount and the Responders will accept that amount because something is better than nothing. Economics students behave differently because they self-select into that field already thinking as economists do and while studying economics they adapt their behaviors to economic theory. Therefore it is natural to assume that Economics students will act according to theory and that non-economics students will not. The Smith College study between Art students and Economics students …

Financial Intermediation And National Growth: Why India Needs To Further Develop Its Stock Markets, Deepika Gupta

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The aim of this paper is twofold: to show the positive growth effect on economies through steady stock market growth, and to analyze the performance of India’s stock markets over the last decade on national growth. I start out in Section I with economic analyses of the high correlation between stock market indicators and the development of all financial institutions. Studies conducted by other economists prove correlations between the stock market and other macroeconomic indicators such as liquidity, level of banking, volatility, consumption, income and stock prices. Section II is a detailed case analysis of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) …

English Language Proficiency And Wage Rates Of Mexican Immigrants, Jeremy Sandford

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper studies the effect of English language deficiency on the wage rates of Mexican immigrants. Using a sample of 81,059 labor market male Mexican Immigrants taken from Census PUMS data, I find that the direct effect of English language deficiency on earnings is virtually nonexistent for immigrants with low education and experience levels. The results show that only immigrants with at least a high school education or some US labor market experience will make less than their immigrant counterparts who speak English very well. The cost of language deficiency to those with some education or experience, however, is large. …

The Economics Of Dowry: Causes And Effects Of An Indian Tradition, Tonushree Jaggi

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

I argue that dowries exist because of a combination of two reasons. First, there is an excess supply of women in the Indian marriage market that results in the use of dowry as an equilibrating mechanism. Secondly, a differential in the patterns of human capital accumulation of men and women have led to a larger positive benefit from marriage for women than for men, the net difference of which is theoretically equivalent to the amount of the dowry. Both these explanations for the existence of dowry are fundamentally grounded in the powerful social and cultural ideologies of marriage held by …

The Effects Of Fiscal Decentralization On Health Care In China, Emily Yee

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

From my analysis, I conclude that decentralization has not been detrimental to health care when health care performance is measured by the number of doctors per 10,000 people, mortality rates, and local health care expenditure. However, the effects of decentralization on health care are inconclusive when health care performance is measured by the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people.

This paper is divided into five sections. The first section discusses theories of federalism. The second section presents an overview of China’s economic reforms since 1980. The third section discusses the current state of health care in China and its …

The Great Divide: A Comparison Of Kentucky And Ohio Counties Along The Ohio River (1840-1860), Jennie Berry

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper operates under an opposite assumption and, instead, argues that the Kentucky-Ohio border is an ideal test case for the null hypothesis that the institution of slavery per se had no significant economic effects. Kentucky and Ohio counties tracing the Ohio River are composed of the same soil and face similar weather conditions (Blanford, 2001; Barnhisel, 2001; Foster, 2001). Both regions likewise claim the same geographical access to outside markets.

Relationships Among Wine Prices, Ratings, Advertising, And Production: Examining A Giffen Good, Carol Miu

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

It has become increasingly popular for statistics to be used in the prediction of wine prices. In fact, the prices of mature wines produced in the Bordeaux region of France have been accurately predicted by vintage growing-season characteristics. This paper analyzes the relationships among wine prices, ratings, advertising, and production, using data obtained from a wine ratings magazine, Wine Spectator. It presents a model of wine price based on information about production quantity, vintage, country of origin, and wine type. This paper then examines the scoring method of Wine Spectator by evaluating the effects of wine price on wine rating. …

A Case Of The Philips Curve In The Formation Of A Monetary Union: A Glimpse At High Inflation Countries Of The European Monetary Union, Yuet Wen Wan

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper examines how disinflation in high inflation economies affects unemployment levels. According to Keynesian macroeconomic theories, a decrease in inflation will cause an increase in unemployment in the short run. Due to high inflation over the years among countries like Italy and Ireland, their expected inflation rate is significantly high. As a result, when the government starts a process of disinflation though restrictive fiscal and monetary policies, economic activity declines, and significant short run increase in unemployment follows.

The Role Of Human Capital In Wealth Accumulation, Thomas Scheiding

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

After an introduction to the fundamental elements of human capital theory, I will define the characteristics of general and specific human capital, and show who pays for and yields the benefits from investment in each component. I will then proceed to explain why understanding the magnitude of the rate of return in terms of wealth is imperative, both theoretically and practically. After I develop testable hypotheses, I will introduce the data set to be used, and present my model. Finally, I present the regression results, and provide a direction for future research in this area.

The Phillips Curve In The 1990s, Hayden Smith

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper will explore whether or not the Phillips curve relationship exists for the 1990s. I will attempt to estimate a Phillips curve for the past decade using data for the United States. In section two, I will explain the theory behind the Phillips curve and how the theory has evolved. In section three, I will present a literature review discussing previous research and results. Section four will present my empirical model and data. In section 5, I will present my results and discuss econometric problems such as serial correlation that may lead to biased estimates. In section six I …