Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

All-Pay Auctions With Ties, Alan Gelder, Dan Kovenock, Brian Roberson

ESI Working Papers

We study the two-player, complete information all-pay auction in which a tie ensues if neither player outbids the other by more than a given amount. In the event of a tie, each player receives an identical fraction of the winning prize. Thus players engage in two margins of competition: losing versus tying, and tying versus winning. Two pertinent parameters are the margin required for victory and the value of tying relative to winning. We fully characterize the set of Nash equilibria for the entire parameter space. For much of the parameter space, there is a unique Nash equilibrium which is …

A Solution To The Missing Globalization Puzzle By Non-Ces Preferences, Hakan Yilmazkuday

Economics Research Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Central Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report - Third Quarter 2016, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Central Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

The Central Minnesota planning area is expected to experience a slowing of economic growth over the next several months according to predictions of the Central Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). The leading index fell by 2.90 points in the most recent period, with three components producing negative readings. Weakness in a general measure of statewide business conditions along with slowing residential building permits in the St. Cloud area helped tip the index down this quarter. An increase in initial jobless claims in Central Minnesota also had a negative impact on the LEI in the third quarter. An uptick …

Northeast Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report - Third Quarter 2016, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Northeast Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

A deceleration of economic growth in Northeast Minnesota is expected over the next several months according to the predictions of the Northeast Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). Two of the five components of the LEI increased as the overall index fell by 1.36 points in the third quarter. An increase in new filings of incorporation in the Northeast Minnesota planning area and lower initial jobless claims had a positive impact on the LEI, while recent weakness in a general measure of statewide business conditions and a fall in a supply managers’ survey helped drive the index lower. A …

Northwest Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report - Third Quarter 2016, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Northwest Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

The Northwest Minnesota planning area economy is expected to continue to grow at a pace that is somewhat below normal over the next several months according to the predictions of the St. Cloud State University (SCSU) Northwest Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). Two of the five components of the leading index were lower in the third quarter, as the LEI fell by 0.81 points. A declining Rural Mainstreet Index (which signals a more challenging macroeconomic environment for rural America) and weaker consumer sentiment helped drive the index lower. Lower initial jobless claims and rising new filings for incorporation …

Southeast Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report - Third Quarter 2016, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Southeast Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Acceleration of economic growth in Southeast Minnesota is expected over the next several months according to the most recent prediction of the Southeast Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). After a quarter in which the LEI experienced a 3.18 point decline, the Southeast Minnesota leading index reversed course by rising 2.34 points in the third quarter of 2016. The increased LEI was led by a rise in the number of residential building permits in Rochester as well as higher new filings of incorporation and LLC in the Southeast Minnesota planning area. Three components of the LEI had negative readings …

Twin Cities Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report - Third Quarter 2016, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Twin Cities Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

A slower pace of economic growth is expected over the next several months in the Twin Cities according to the prediction of the St. Cloud State University Twin Cities Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). The Twin Cities LEI fell 5.70 points in the third quarter after a nearly neutral reading in the previous quarter. Four of the five index components decreased in the third quarter. Lower initial claims for unemployment insurance were the only index component that had a positive impact on this quarter’s LEI. Weakness in two general measures of statewide business conditions had a negative effect on …

Southwest Minnesota Economic And Business Conditions Report - Third Quarter 2016, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

Southwest Minnesota Economic and Business Conditions Report

Normal economic growth in Southwest Minnesota is expected over the next several months according to the predictions of the St. Cloud State University (SCSU) Southwest Minnesota Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI). Two of four LEI components were positive in the third quarter. An increase in new filings of incorporation and LLC and a jump in Mankato residential building permits made favorable contributions to the LEI this quarter. An increase in initial jobless claims and weakness in the rural outlook weighed on the index. After rising 1.27 points in the second quarter, the Southwest Minnesota LEI was essentially flat in …

The Challenge Of Regulatory Excellence, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Regulation is a high-stakes enterprise marked by tremendous challenges and relentless public pressure. Regulators are expected to protect the public from harms associated with economic activity and technological change without unduly impeding economic growth or efficiency. Regulators today also face new demands, such as adapting to rapidly changing and complex financial instruments, the emergence of the sharing economy, and the potential hazards of synthetic biology and other innovations. Faced with these challenges, regulators need a lodestar for what constitutes high-quality regulation and guidance on how to improve their organizations’ performance. In the book Achieving Regulatory Excellence, leading regulatory experts …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: December 16, 2016, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) 1 fell by 0.32% during November of 2016. The decline in the LEI-N, which predicts economic activity six months in the future, suggests that economic growth will be modest in Nebraska during the first half of 2017. Four of six components of the LEI-N were negative during November. Airline passenger counts and manufacturing hours both declined during the month. There also was another increase in the value of the U.S. dollar during November, a negative for export-oriented businesses in Nebraska. Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose during the month. Two components of the indicator …

The Ethics Behind Efficiency, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

The normative elements underlying efficiency are more complex than generally portrayed, and rely upon ethical frameworks that are generally absent from classroom discussions. Most textbooks, for example, ignore the ethical differences between Pareto efficiency (based on voluntary win-win outcomes) and the modern Kaldor-Hicks efficiency used in public policy assessments (in which winners gain more than losers lose). For the latter to be ethically palatable, society must have in place basic institutions of justice, transparency, and accountability. Normative economics thus requires a pluralist approach that includes considerations of virtue and duty, closer to Adam Smith’s Enlightenment conceptions. This surprising finding should …

Burden Of Disease Associated With Lower Levels Of Income Among Us Adults Aged 65 And Older, Erica I. Lubetkin, Haomia Jia

Publications and Research

Background: Persons aged 65 years and older represent a heterogeneous group whose prevalence in the USA is expected to markedly increase. Few investigations have examined the total burden of disease attributable to lower levels of income in a single number that accounts for morbidity and mortality.

Methods: We ascertained respondents’ health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores and mortality status from the 2003 to 2004, 2005 to 2006, 2007 to 2008 and 2009 to 2010 cohorts of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with mortality follow-up through 31 December 2011. A mapping algorithm based on respondents’ age and answers …

A Perspective On Electronic Alternatives To Traditional Currencies, Gabriele Camera

ESI Working Papers

The institution of money is rapidly evolving thanks to developments in computer-based cryptography. Technological advances have made possible the creation of cost-effective electronic alternatives to banknotes and coins, which are the traditional physical currencies. This document aims to describe — based on scientific literature — the use and characteristics of money, some of the problems associated with issuing a new currency or a new payment instrument, and the possible comparative advantages of a central bank in leading the way relative to private issuers.

Modeling Negotiations Over Water And Ecosystem Management: Uncertainty And Political Viability, Rachael E. Goodhue, Susan Stratton Sayre, Leo K. Simon

Economics: Faculty Publications

We present a modeling approach for generating robust predictions about how changes in institutional, economic, and political considerations will influence the outcome of political negotiations over complex water-ecosystem policy debates. Evaluating the political viability of proposed policies is challenging for researchers in these complex natural and political environments; there is limited information with which to map policies to outcomes to utilities or to represent the political process adequately. Our analysis evaluates the viability of policy options using a probabilistic political viability criterion that explicitly recognizes the existence of modeling uncertainty. The approach is used to conduct a detailed case study …

Wage Shocks And The Technological Substitution Of Low-Wage Jobs, Daniel Aaronson, Brian Phelan

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We extend the task-based empirical framework used in the job polarization literature to analyze the susceptibility of low-wage employment to technological substitution. We find that increases in the cost of low-wage labor, via minimum wage hikes, lead to relative employment declines at cognitively routine occupations but not manually-routine or non-routine low-wage occupations. This suggests that low-wage routine cognitive tasks are susceptible to technological substitution. While the short-run employment consequence of this reshuffling on individual workers is economically small, due to concurrent employment growth in other low-wage jobs, workers previously employed in cognitively routine jobs experience relative wage losses.

St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report, Vol. 18, No. 4, King Banaian, Richard A. Macdonald

St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report

After a quarter in which local firms’ future outlook weakened considerably, the area economy appears to have rebounded in recent months.

Despite some anecdotal evidence of recent regional layoffs, quantitative and qualitative indicators of local economic performance point to improved future conditions in the St. Cloud area. Even though the St. Cloud area labor force was reported to have declined over the past 12 months, area payroll employment (this is obtained from a different source of data than the labor force measure) grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate.

Construction, retail trade and educational and health sectors once again led …

Financial Health And The Intensive Margin Of Trade, Deniz Baglan, Hakan Yilmazkuday

Economics Research Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Asymmetric Social Norms, Gabriele Camera, Alessandro Gioffré

ESI Working Papers

Studies of cooperation in infinitely repeated matching games focus on homogeneous economies, where full cooperation is efficient and any defection is collectively sanctioned. Here we study heterogeneous economies where occasional defections are part of efficient play, and show how to support those outcomes through contagious punishments.

Achieving And Maintaining Food Security In The Prc: The Impact On Foreign Policy, Paul D. Rittenhouse

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the People’s Republic of China has used domestic and foreign policy to achieve and maintain food security. This is a formidable task for the PRC given that it has 20% of the world’s population and only 7% of its arable land. It has been made more formidable by domestic policy errors and its changing position within the international system.

The PRC has evolved from a Marxist revisionist state to one that mixes state capitalism and free enterprise and has become a combination of revisionist and status quo. Such changes lend …

Do Credit Ratings Matter? An Examination Of The Relationship Between Sovereign Ratings And Capital Flows Pre And Post Financial Crisis, Greg Violante

Economics Department Student Scholarship

This paper examines the relationship between sovereign credit ratings and international capital flows to emerging market economies (EMEs). More specifically, it analyzes how ratings impact capital flows (FDI and portfolio investment) before and after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This study breaks the data into two samples, pre-crisis (1995-2006), and the post crisis (2007-2015). After using a System GMM method for 20 EMEs, the paper compares the pre- and post- financial crisis credit rating coefficients. The results indicate that the ratings have become more impactful overtime, for both FDI and portfolio investment, although the coefficients are not statistically different. Interestingly however, …

From Land Grab To Agrarian Transition? Hybrid Trajectories Of Accumulation And Environmental Change On The Cambodia–Vietnam Border, Timothy Gorman, Alice Beban

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In recent years, thousands of Vietnamese migrant farmers have crossed the border into Cambodia and leased land for export-oriented rice and shrimp production. Based on case studies in two Cambodian border provinces, we argue that these land transfers represent an intersection of broader processes of agrarian change that is re-shaping the Cambodian borderlands into a hybrid socio-ecological zone. Cambodian landlords and intermediaries use unequal access to politico-legal authority and the exclusionary power of the border to leverage control over their migrant tenants, thereby capturing a significant portion of the surplus from the migrants’ high-value commodity production systems and potentially creating …

The Fih And The Paradox Of Debt: A Microeconometric Approach For Latin America, Alejandro GonzáLez, Esteban Perez-Caldentey

PERI Working Papers

Hyman Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis (FIH) argues that as part of the normal functioning of capitalist economies robust financial structures tend to evolve into highly leveraged fragile financial structures. The paradox of debt challenges the very foundation of Minsky’s FIH as it sustains that upward and downward phases of the business cycles need not be characterized by processes of respective leveraging and deleveraging. Using a panel of firm-level data and seemingly unrelated regressions we analyze the relationship between debt and investment for twelve Latin American countries for the years 2005 (expansion) and 2009 (contraction). We reject the Paradox of Debt …

Reinvestigating The Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis 1900-2015, Shouvik Chakraborty

PERI Working Papers

This paper analyses the empirical validity of Prebisch-Singer hypothesis using the time series Grilli-Yang Commodity Price Index data spanning from 1900 to 2015. The methodology employed is encapsulated in a three fold approach: a) endogenous detection of structural breaks; b) estimation of trend through piecewise linear regression; and c) validation of the statistical significance of the trends applying the Mann-Kendall test. The four structural breaks endogenously determined, primarily, coincides with four important historical/economic events over the last century: (a) World War I (1914 to 1918) and, thereafter, the Great Depression (1929 to 1939), (b) World War II (1939-1945) and immediate …

Economic Growth And Child Undernutrition, Stephen A. O'Connell, C. Smith

Economics Faculty Works

Sebastian Vollmer and colleagues (April, 2014)1 conclude that “the contribution of economic growth to the reduction in early childhood undernutrition in developing countries is very small, if it exists at all”. Progress will therefore require a shift from “the so-called trickle-down approach of a growth-mediated strategy” to “direct investments in health and nutrition”.1

Data Profiles-Rhode Island-Burriville, John C. Brown, Richard A. Ramsawak, James R. Gomes

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

We continue support the Federal Bank of Boston “Working Cities” challenge which aims to support social and economic recovery of underperforming small and mid-sized cities in the New England region. We continue to extend our data profiles of these cities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and now Connecticut. It is our hope that these data ‘rich” profiles which includes key indicators on health, population and demographic changes, industrial growth, and educational performance can not only support policy development in these targeted areas, but also help in monitoring the progress these cities make over time.

Data Profiles-Rhode Island-Central Falls, John C. Brown, Richard A. Ramsawak, James R. Gomes

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

We continue support the Federal Bank of Boston “Working Cities” challenge which aims to support social and economic recovery of underperforming small and mid-sized cities in the New England region. We continue to extend our data profiles of these cities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and now Connecticut. It is our hope that these data ‘rich” profiles which includes key indicators on health, population and demographic changes, industrial growth, and educational performance can not only support policy development in these targeted areas, but also help in monitoring the progress these cities make over time.

Data Profiles-Rhode Island-North Providence, John C. Brown, Richard A. Ramsawak, James R. Gomes

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

We continue support the Federal Bank of Boston “Working Cities” challenge which aims to support social and economic recovery of underperforming small and mid-sized cities in the New England region. We continue to extend our data profiles of these cities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and now Connecticut. It is our hope that these data ‘rich” profiles which includes key indicators on health, population and demographic changes, industrial growth, and educational performance can not only support policy development in these targeted areas, but also help in monitoring the progress these cities make over time.

Data Profiles-Rhode Island-Cranston, John C. Brown, Richard A. Ramsawak, James R. Gomes

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

We continue support the Federal Bank of Boston “Working Cities” challenge which aims to support social and economic recovery of underperforming small and mid-sized cities in the New England region. We continue to extend our data profiles of these cities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and now Connecticut. It is our hope that these data ‘rich” profiles which includes key indicators on health, population and demographic changes, industrial growth, and educational performance can not only support policy development in these targeted areas, but also help in monitoring the progress these cities make over time.

Data Profiles-Rhode Island-Johnston, John C. Brown, Richard A. Ramsawak, James R. Gomes

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

We continue support the Federal Bank of Boston “Working Cities” challenge which aims to support social and economic recovery of underperforming small and mid-sized cities in the New England region. We continue to extend our data profiles of these cities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and now Connecticut. It is our hope that these data ‘rich” profiles which includes key indicators on health, population and demographic changes, industrial growth, and educational performance can not only support policy development in these targeted areas, but also help in monitoring the progress these cities make over time.

Data Profiles-Rhode Island-East Providence, John C. Brown, Richard A. Ramsawak, James R. Gomes

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

We continue support the Federal Bank of Boston “Working Cities” challenge which aims to support social and economic recovery of underperforming small and mid-sized cities in the New England region. We continue to extend our data profiles of these cities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and now Connecticut. It is our hope that these data ‘rich” profiles which includes key indicators on health, population and demographic changes, industrial growth, and educational performance can not only support policy development in these targeted areas, but also help in monitoring the progress these cities make over time.