Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Opportunity Cost Of Student Loan Debt Forgiveness: Testing The Impact Of Four Policy Options On United States’ Economy, Emelia Akhlaghi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Nearly 45 million Americans are trapped in a student loan debt. In total they owe more than $1.75 trillion. Research shows that such a high amount of debt harms the U.S. economy in several ways, preventing anything from small business development to new house purchases, and even weddings and procreation. It is an issue that stakeholders have tried to address by offering different relief measures ranging from re-financing to debt cancellation. Debt cancellation has remained high on the agenda of the Democrat political leadership. This is the reason that student loan debt cancellation was on the agenda of each democrat …

On The Estimation Of Heston-Nandi Garch Using Returns And/Or Options: A Simulation-Based Approach, Xize Ye

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, the Heston-Nandi GARCH(1,1) (henceforth, HN-GARCH) option pricing model is fitted via 4 maximum likelihood-based estimation and calibration approaches using simulated returns and/or options. The purpose is to examine the benefits of the joint estimation using both returns and options over the fundamental returns-only estimation on GARCH models. From our empirical studies, with the additional option sample, we can improve the efficiency of the estimates for HN-GARCH parameters. Nonetheless, the improvements for the risk premium factor, both from empirical standard errors, and sample RMSEs, are insignificant. In addition, option prices are simulated with a pre-defined noise structure and …

Small Business Risk In The Context Of A Pandemic: A Simulation, Ashlyn Sperry

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this thesis, I consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses, as they are acutely at risk due to the lack of implicit government insurance that would be available to larger corporations. I will discuss insurance's characteristics using the basic theory of insurance, analyze pandemic insurance's viability in the private market, and critique alternative solutions. While the theory suggests that pandemics are not insurable in the private market, I will perform specific analysis to determine if this is the case or not. Using a simulation of the economic landscape firms face, business owners with varying levels of …

Opportunities And Obstacles In The Transition To A Distributed Network Of Rooftop Solar: A Multi-Method Approach, Steve M. Hall

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates the feasibility and viability of providing power to Ada County, Idaho, using a distributed network of rooftop solar photovoltaic panels. Using a multi-disciplinary and multi-method modeling approach, a detailed simulation is performed where existing structures are retro-fitted with grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems using currently available technology. Feasibility is determined using simulated supply and demand per building, while viability is determined through standard financial metrics used in the energy sector. A major critique of solar energy comes from the vast amounts of space required to efficiently capture solar power, along with the inefficiencies created by transmission loss and …

Three Essays On Defending Common-Pool Resources, Lawrence Geest

Doctoral Dissertations

% !TEX root = ../degeest2017dissertation.tex Environmental protection often relies on cooperation between individuals in uncoordinated groups. In cases such as the management of common-pool resources, individuals must not only monitor and enforce behavior within their group to prevent over-exploitation. They must also contend with external threats on the resource like poaching. This dissertation studies how individuals cooperate to manage shared resources and deter shared threats. The first chapter, "Deterring poaching of a common-pool resource", considers the problem of deterring a threat that cannot be perfectly observed. I present results from common pool resource experiments designed to examine the ability of …

Modeling Economic Impacts Of The Inland Waterway Transportation System, Furkan Oztanriseven

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The inland waterway transportation system of the United States (U.S.) handles 11.7 billion tons of freight annually and connects the heartland of the U.S. with the rest of the world by providing a fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. This dissertation aims to create decision support tools for maritime stakeholders to measure the economic impacts of the inland waterway transportation systems under real world scenarios including disruptions, demand changes, port expansion decisions, and channel deepening investments. Monte Carlo simulation, system dynamics, discrete-event simulation, agent-based modeling, and multiregional input-output modeling techniques are utilized to analyze the complex relationships between inland …

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Protein Concentrate Produced By Flash Hydrolysis Of Microalgae, Alexander Nana Yaw Asiedu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Process simulation and techno-economic analysis of 95wt.% protein concentrate from microalgae has been performed using SuperPro Designer v. 9.0. This work, first of its kind, is focused on the economic analysis of protein concentrate that includes processes such as microalgae cultivation, harvesting, protein extraction and drying steps. A baseline capacity of 160 MT/day protein concentrate production on commercial basis has been analyzed. This throughput requires 336 MT/day dry algae (54 wt.% protein). The amount of carbon dioxide required to grow this quantum of algae is estimated to be 648 MT/day, which is produced from an in situ 21 MW power …

The Expected Value Of An Advantage Blackjack Player, Kamron Jensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The following paper takes an in-depth look at the gambling game Blackjack, also known as Twenty-One, and asks the question: If the game is beatable, how much can one expect to win playing Blackjack? This paper starts by explaining how the game is played and continues by telling of how Thorpe (1962) discovered that the game can be beaten. It then goes into detail of how the game has changed over the past 50 years and what it takes to beat the game today. To find the expected value of a winning strategy, I create a computer program to run …

Whole Farm Modeling Of Precision Agriculture Technologies, Jordan Murphy Shockley

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigated farm management concerns faced by grain producers due to the acquisition of various precision agriculture technologies. The technologies evaluated in the three manuscripts included 1) auto-steer navigation, 2) automatic section control, and 3) autonomous machinery. Each manuscript utilized a multifaceted economic model in a whole-farm decision-making framework to determine the impact of precision agriculture technology on machinery management, production management, and risk management. This approach allowed for a thorough investigation into various precision agriculture technologies which helped address the relative dearth of economic studies of precision agriculture and farm management. Moreover, the research conducted on the above …

Modeling And Simulation Of Value -At -Risk In The Financial Market Area, Xiangyin Zheng

Doctoral Dissertations

Value-at-Risk (VaR) is a statistical approach to measure market risk. It is widely used by banks, securities firms, commodity and energy merchants, and other trading organizations. The main focus of this research is measuring and analyzing market risk by modeling and simulation of Value-at-Risk for portfolios in the financial market area. The objectives are (1) predicting possible future loss for a financial portfolio from VaR measurement, and (2) identifying how the distributions of the risk factors affect the distribution of the portfolio. Results from (1) and (2) provide valuable information for portfolio optimization and risk management.

The model systems chosen …

External Debt And Growth Dynamics, Si Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Based on an extended growth model, this thesis further explores the joint dynamics between external debt and growth. The model explicitly expresses this growth dynamic mechanism incorporating external debt as an important explanatory variable with risk premium and other related structural factors. The interactions between external debt and growth are interpreted as directly and mainly through the channel of capital accumulation and indirectly through technology change. These constitute the functional form foundation to solve the main concern on the effect of external debt upon growth adjustment path. The numerical simulations of the model indicate that when external debt is assumed …

A Simulation Games Approach To Suppliment The Teaching Of Basic Economics Concepts In Elementary School, David L. Spies

All Graduate Projects

A year-long simulation game was created to facilitate the teaching of basic economics in a sixth and seventh grade middle school. The game could be adapted to implementation at lower grade levels. The students built two, table-top cities. They established a money system and were paid for positive behavior and effort. With their earned income and with loans from a bank, they purchased land, built homes, invested in business franchises, engaged in trade, and worked collectively to finance and build government projects and services. Discussion questions and evaluation tests were devloped, based upon the curriculum guidelines established by the Joint …

Digital All-Computer Simulation In Managerial Problems, Ahmed Soliman Zaki

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Management problems are becoming more and more complex. True scientific management demands the exact consideration of all the factors that are significant to the problem under study. In dealing with practical problems, one cannot tease out separate psychological, economic, or technological aspects as the problem mostly always involves working with a total integrated organizational unit. Due to the abundancy and interrelation of these factors, it made it more difficult if not impossible in many cases to reach a solution by the analytical methods. Thus, many managerial problems if they are to be accurately identified and quantifiably solved, should be simulated. …