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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Assessing Rice Consumers’ Preferences And Willingness To Pay In Haiti, Cleeford Pavilus Dec 2018

Assessing Rice Consumers’ Preferences And Willingness To Pay In Haiti, Cleeford Pavilus

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last 30 years, rice has become the number one food staple in Haiti, and rice imports have outpaced domestic production to supply the country’s increasing rice demand. Policy makers support the claim that increasing local rice supply will not only reduce the dependency on imported rice but also upheave the national economy. However, there is a lack of information on Haitian consumers’ preferences for rice to aid the development of the local rice supply chain. This research aims to bridge that gap by assessing Haitian consumer preferences and willingness to pay for selected rice quality characteristics. The results …


Three Essays On Corruption And Collusion, Arlo Redwine Dec 2018

Three Essays On Corruption And Collusion, Arlo Redwine

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies corruption and collusion with data derived from a laboratory experiment and household data. In Chapter 1 I study experimental procurement auctions with bribery and a public reserve to test for the tacitly collusive equilibrium described by Compte et al. (2005). Three sellers compete for 40 periods to sell a single item to a computerized buyer who accepts bribes and determines ties in bids and bribes randomly. In the closing periods, only 13.5% of auctions display the collusive equilibrium, but 58.7% of selling prices are noncompetitive. In comparison with simulated predictions for auctions that are corrupt but competitive, …


Risk And Return Comparisons Of Pre-Harvest Marketing Strategies, John Leander Turner V Dec 2018

Risk And Return Comparisons Of Pre-Harvest Marketing Strategies, John Leander Turner V

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes risk and returns associated with pre-harvest corn grain marketing strategies for the state of Arkansas. Farming is characterized by a volatile environment. Numerous risks are taken by producers in order to provide commodities that are bought and sold by various parties in the supply chain. Price, yield, and production costs vary daily and can have large variation between years. Risk and Return Comparisons of Pre-harvest Marketing Strategies examines the effectiveness of using pre-harvest marketing strategies to enhance returns and to mitigate inherent price risk in the Memphis cash corn market. Thirteen strategies are compared to the October …


Essays In Networks Of Finance And Experimental Finance: A Behavioral View, Weineng Xu Aug 2018

Essays In Networks Of Finance And Experimental Finance: A Behavioral View, Weineng Xu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral and managerial biases can occur among corporate executives that lead to suboptimal decision making and outcomes for the shareholders. In the first essay, I study how the personal networks of CEO affect the performance of the firm in the context of IPO. I find that CEOs at higher social hierarchical positions can allow managerial entrenchment and prevent dismissal. The findings show that influential CEOs are associated with higher IPO underpricing, lower likelihood of positive offer price revision, and lower likelihood of wealth creation for the pre-IPO shareholders. In the second essay, I explore how the social connections between bidder …


Essays In Leveraged Capital Markets, Kenneth D. Ford Aug 2018

Essays In Leveraged Capital Markets, Kenneth D. Ford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The debt capital markets for leveraged borrowers are ripe with information asymmetry, lender specialization, and borrower segmentation. In this dissertation, I explore how these factors manifest themselves and the economic consequences thereof. Essay 1 shows that adverse selection and moral hazard concerns are inherent in underwriting syndicates that differ in size and number of lead underwriters. Using a nested double selection probit model of syndicate choice, I examine the matching of issuers and underwriters and find that matches of issuer quality and underwriter reputation are positive assortative. Further, switching regressions show that yield spreads reflect uncertainty about the intrinsic values …


Three Essays On Macroeconomics And Laboratory Experiments, Justin Leblanc Aug 2018

Three Essays On Macroeconomics And Laboratory Experiments, Justin Leblanc

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines two prominent macroeconomic models and their behavioral underpinnings in a laboratory setting. The first is that of state-dependent pricing models (i.e., “menu cost” models). Comparisons were made between laboratory results and a computer- simulated optimal behavior, and results indicate that subjects update prices too frequently resulting in statistically suboptimal profits due to subjects’ inability to clearly ascertain the optimal threshold at which to update prices. Second, the consumption predictions made under rational inattention theory were examined via a laboratory experiment. Results indicate that subjects’ behavior aligns well with predictions in that they consume stochastically, yet adjust their …


Zona Libre: Conservatism, Urban Growth, And The Rise Of The New Economy In The San Diego Borderlands, Daniel Elkin Aug 2018

Zona Libre: Conservatism, Urban Growth, And The Rise Of The New Economy In The San Diego Borderlands, Daniel Elkin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both the rise of conservatism as well as the neoliberal turn of the twentieth century have received much scholarly attention in recent decades. Often, these two subjects are examined separately, with the former focusing on questions of party realignment in the United States and the latter on global economic shifts toward privatization, finance, and the segregation of labor types across international boundaries. As a result, efforts to trace the dual movement between questions of domestic politics and international economy are left underdeveloped. “Zona Libre: Conservatism, Urban Growth, and the Rise of the New Economy” remedies this gap by exploring the …


Abandoning The Dream Of Omnipotence: On Autonomy And Self-Binding, Charlie Coil Aug 2018

Abandoning The Dream Of Omnipotence: On Autonomy And Self-Binding, Charlie Coil

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I offer a prolegomenon to the philosophical study of a uniquely human activity—the self-binding act. This philosophical interest directly connects with the Enlightenment project of centralizing personal autonomy and individual freedom as primary values of personhood. Self-binding represents an easily referenced action that introduces a possible clash between autonomy and freedom on the one hand seen as in conflict with other ancient basic human values like self-control and avoiding akrasia. This dissertation investigates the inverted manner whereby an act of self-binding, which voluntarily and effectively limits a person’s options, can end up augmenting rather than interfering with personal autonomy. I …